My computer is crap - it crashes 1-3 times a day

[sniffa]

It's almost always when I'm on youtube but also the rare time I'm on Myspace. These sites make my computer run at 100% until it shuts down. A coworker suggested that my computer is infested with spy/malware and that's what's causing it to do this. Could that be the problem?

Normally when it crashes I just have to wait 30 minutes before restarting but tonight I had to wait 2 hours. :eyes:

[Dappleganger]

1. Have you maxed out memory?

When's the last time you de-crapified it?

[sniffa]

3. I don't even know how to do that

I basically have either DS1 or Two_Stabs (a shy DUer) come over and fix it.

[csziggy]

21. Next time one of them is inside the computer, tell them to look at the capacitors

One of my computers kept getting flakey. I updated the drivers, checked for trojans and viruses, made sure the fans were working and not clogged with dust, reloaded the entire operating system, etc. One day when I was messing around inside the box, I realized the capacitors were swollen and leaking orange stuff:



Since I was due for an upgrade, I made a deal with a local computer shop for a new motherboard, CPU and memory. Along the way we realized the power supply was bad, also. For a while, Chinese capacitor manufacturers were releasing bad capacitors - as Wiki calls it the Capacitor Plague. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

[TrogL]

37. That's what happens without proper ventilation - you cook the capacitors

I've seen lots of motherboards like that. The vents are there for a reason - don't block them or push your computer up against the wall, blocking the rear vent.

[skygazer]

2. Get a mac

Hey, somebody had to say it. :P

[Dappleganger]

19. +1

That's what I would say too, hehe.
It's a nice relief to not have to do constant maintenance on Macs.

[mwooldri]

25. If you can't afford a Mac, try this:ubuntu.com

[NJmaverick]

4. Down load and run these 2 programs

http://majorgeeks.com/Malwarebytes_Anti-Malware_d5756.html

http://majorgeeks.com/Advanced_SystemCare_3_d5927.html

with this one run Maintain Windows and Diagnose System

[Midlodemocrat]

12. I tried both of those when I had the trojan from Hell, nada.

Kaspersky's is the only thing that touched it. It was pure evil.

[NJmaverick]

26. Does Kaspersky offer a free version, by any chance?

[Midlodemocrat]

30. DS1 said yes, but the trojan was so bad, I couldn't get it to download.

But, it's there on the site. I ended up buying it, which is fine. It's a great product. And, I downloaded it and they sent me the CD in the mail, which is great because I replaced the first computer with a new one.

Great product. DS1 knows his stuff.

[bigwillq]

5. Stop downloading porn!

:P ;)

[Drunken Irishman]

6. My computer is dying a slow and painful death.

First, my clock is off. I update it so it's on the same time as my digital cable box, but then it slowly starts falling 20, 30 and 60 seconds behind. Over time, it'll fall to two or three minutes behind.

Second, a ton of websites take a year to load. Thankfully, the ones I use the most aren't that bad. But Myspace, especially pages with a ton of photos and shit, won't load fast and I can't even surf other websites because if that site is loading, I guess every other site won't load until Myspace has finally loaded.

Third, at random times the updates thing will kick my ass and slow the computer down for like 20 minutes.

Fourth, it takes forever to boot up.

Fifth, it just sucks.

[sniffa]

7. I hate this shit

I don't really download anything ever but I think shit must be getting on my computer anyhow.

Even Facebook is giving me problems. :eyes:

[Drunken Irishman]

9. I'm gonna try and buy one this summer.

Mine doesn't seem to be as bad as yours, since it doesn't just shut down. But I can't run IE or other browsers outside of Google because they all take too much memory and they're painfully slow. See, even right now I'm typing and it's not even showing on the screen...oh there is, finally. Ugh!

[sniffa]

13. I have that problem - typing but taking a hell of a long time to show up on my screen

Grrrrrr. :grr:

[Drunken Irishman]

15. Yup, it's f'n annoying.

Especially when I'm trying to update my blog and I'm on a deadline. :(

[hobbit709]

24. What all is in your startup manager.

Too much crap wants to put itself into the startup. Every goddamn printer(especially HP) wants to put all its stuff into startup, many other apps want to start up with your system even if they don't need to.

[DeepBlueC]

33. that's true

why the fuck do they do that?

[Midlodemocrat]

11. If you are interested in a reconditioned or even new Dell

I can help you. I have a friend who buys off lease Dells and new computers and restores them.

I just bought a laptop for my 12yo for $400 and a computer for me, (can't remember what it is, but it is a mini-tower with 3gig) for $280.

He wipes them clean, installs whatever programs you want and you're good to do.

Seriously. PM me. This guy is good.

[Drunken Irishman]

16. I'll keep you in mind when I'm at that point. I'm hoping by August!

[hobbit709]

23. Sounds like your CMOS battery needs to be replaced.

Standard CR2032 battery. That silver round thing on your motherboard.

[DarkTirade]

8. Actually, it could be something as simple as overheating problems.

Open it up, blow the dust out. Especially around the processor and fan. See if that improves anything.

If not, then its probably malware.

[Midlodemocrat]

10. I had the trojan from Hell, but DS1 talked me down.

Told me to get Kaspersky's and walked me through the download, et al.

It was the only thing that worked. Malware bytes, spybot, adaware didn't touch this sucker.

Talk to him. There's a free download apparently, but I couldn't access it because the computer was so infected, so I had to buy the product. I'm glad I did.

[MrPerson]

14. My DU page used to crash when I clicked on your posts.

I just assumed you hated my guts.

[blogslut]

17. Could be you need more RAM

Just the same, try this program and see if it helps:

http://www.ccleaner.com/download

[pokerfan]

34. +1 wrt CCleaner

CCleaner 2.0 Decrapifies Your PC

One of our favorite PC cleansers CCleaner (which stands for "Crap Cleaner") saw an upgrade this week. Since the last time we mentioned CCleaner several new versions have come out; this week's added support for the Firefox 3 beta plus performance improvements and bug fixes. CCleaner scans your PC for unnecessary temporary and log files, cookies, memory dumps, and more and wipes them out at the press of the "Run Cleaner" button. You might be surprised at how much disk space it can recover—in fact, it managed to clear out 1.6GB of crap from my PC. See screenshot evidence after the jump.

http://lifehacker.com/384990/ccleaner-20-decrapifies-your-pc

I've used this program and it works wonders.

And you can never have to much memory. Not enough memory and the OS thrashes the hard disk all day which is never a good thing.

Dust is also an enemy:

Geek to Live: Evacuate PC dust bunnies

If your PC's been humming along under your desk for more than a year or two, I've got news for you: chances are inside that case, half a dozen dust bunnies are dancing around your hard drive, leeching onto your CPU fan and fluttering about your motherboard having a grand old time.

This is not good.

Today we'll go over how to clean out the guts of your computer, tighten, tune and oil things up to make your PC happier, healthier and more likely to stick around longer.

http://lifehacker.com/software/geek-to-live/geek-to-live-evacuate-pc-dust-bunnies-153409.php

[Solon]

18. Give me your specs, what web browser you use, plus what version it is...

and also what version of Flash you use.

[elshiva]

20. You are a genius. Thank you.

:hug:

[Uben]

29. Here's what I do........

First, I jigglate anything that is loose or could get loose. Then I try slapping the outside of the CPU on each side at different locations multiple times. If that doesn't work, I usually shut down and start up a half dozen times or so.

If, at this point, your puter still isn't working, go ahead and bite the bullet and call the wife, girlfriend or significant other to see if they know of anything to do. If not, try to think if there's anyone in your family who could help.....like maybe a long lost cousin who was kinda geeky growin up and all.

Okay, if you've made it this far, it's time to either call a tech to fix, buy a new computer (probably outta the question), or just keep it the way it is and live with it. I changed the gears in my clock on the wall so it would keep time 50% slow, that way it would appear you are loading 50% faster. Perception is everything, you know!







Disclaimer: Don't do this at home. All opinions are from uneducated amateur computer operator with short temper and severe anger management problems towards all computers and electronics in general.

[sniffa]

22. Firefox

confused on the other 2. How do I find those out?

Thanks in advance.

[Solon]

27. To figure out basic specs for your computer...

Go to the my computer icon and right click it and choose the menu item "Properties". That should bring up the system properties window, and it should already be on the "General" Tab.

This tab shows some basic information, what version of Windows you are using, what Service Pack is installed, if any(hopefully SP3, but we'll get around to that), and near the bottom, it gives you some basic hardware information, usually CPU and RAM, those are the specs I'm interested in, those are what I'm asking for.

As far as Flash, well, go to this link and it will tell you what version you have, if it causes a crash of your browser, that's important information as well.

http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_15507

[ikri]

28. Something that may help

There are a few sites, like MySpace & Youtube that rely heavily on javascript to work. It shouldn't be an issue but there are enough sites out there that will thrash your cpu even though they're doing nothing.

Try the NoScript Addon for Firefox (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722), it allows you to enable javascript on selected sites (like DU) whilst disabling it elsewhere.

If you find that those sites aren't crashing your PC with javascript disabled then you can usually cure it by throwing more RAM at the problem.

Also, check your startup items (Start->Run->msconfig.exe), have a look to see what's starting up in the services & startup tabs. If you're unsure of any of the programs in the list, google them & you'll generally find a description of what's what, you may even spot some of the more obvious viruses.

[madrchsod]

31. try cleaning the dust off the components in the box

the side panel on most cases slide off. i use a small vacuum cleaner to blow the dust off the fans ,motherboard,and especially the heat sink. a heat sink covered in dust and other crap will do what is happening to your computer.

[DeepBlueC]

32. It does sound as though you are short of memory

Can you add memory? Do you regularly clean out temporary files and defragment?
(Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Disk Cleanup then Disk Defragment)

[Wetzelbill]

35. that sounds exactly like what's happening to mine.

[qwertyMike]

36. It's overheating n/t

[astral]

38. I see no mention yet of firewalls and antivirus programs

If you're not running both, that is as likely as not your problem. You can get lots of unwanted creepy-crud oozing into your computer without downloading anything. Surfing without protection is kinda like walking down the street without your clothes on.

I have a new used computer since my last one crashed. I got it from computer warehouse dot com. it was pretty cheap and works fine except the dvd drawer got beat up in the mail.

I would suggest having system restore points set up when you have it up and running smooth again. For me, most of the time when my computers got screwey, or suddenly real bad overnight, I would just go back a day or two and it would work fine again. That kept me limping along for a long time, anyway!

PS -- use Firefox rather than Internet Explorer for surfing!

[trof]

39. Add 10 knots to your airspeed on final approach.

:-)

[SKKY]

40. When was the last time you cleaned it???

It could be that it's over heating, and is being shut down by the bios as a preventative measure to keep your processor from frying. Take a can of condensed air and spray out the inside, paying extra attention to the heat sink on the processor and the power supply. It could be ram, but a can of condensed air costs a lot less than new ram.