HELP! Any Windoze experts in the house?

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[MaximumRD]

Heh yes this one surprised me with my Windows laptops and Desktop but fortunately this one is easy peesy to take care of. 

 

Simply right Click on your task bar anywhere and you will see a menu, from there go up to NEWS AND INTEREST and in the submenu slide off and click on OFF.

You are done and that eye sore is disabled permanently. Here is a screenshot for example: 

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18 minutes ago, MaximumRD said:

Heh yes this one surprised me with my Windows laptops and Desktop but fortunately this one is easy peesy to take care of. 

Simply right Click on your task bar anywhere and you will see a menu, from there go up to NEWS AND INTEREST and in the submenu slide off and click on OFF.

You are done and that eye sore is disabled permanently. Here is a screenshot for example: 

 

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH!  I tried everything I could think of.  BTW, since I have you here, did you know Microshaft Edge will not uninstall.

[RickR]

1 minute ago, - Ω - said:

did you know Microshaft Edge will not uninstall

That's a feature.  How else can you download Firefox or Chrome? 

 

 

[HDN]

I haven’t experienced any problems with my Windows PC. Mostly because I’m still running Windows Vista in 2021 and I’m proud of it! I refuse to switch over to 10 because I’m a stubborn person.

[RickR]

1 minute ago, HDN said:

I haven’t experienced any problems with my Windows PC. Mostly because I’m still running Windows Vista in 2021 and I’m proud of it! I refuse to switch over to 10 because I’m a stubborn person.

No argument here.  If it ain't broke...don't fix it.  However, as someone that works in cybersecurity, I hope you're keeping all your applications patched and up-to-date.  There's a really good freeware program called "patchmypc" that makes this really easy. 

 

 

[MaximumRD]

Well, I prefer the latest version of Windows, but then I always been into tech, built my desktop etc, I prefer not to sacrifice or risk not have the latest for security and also work related reasons but I am and always have been one who likes to tinker, understand my mentality is simply fix, disable or work around any Windows related issues, I know it pretty well inside and out and not only this I am very stubborn myself but I prefer to bend Windows to my will, I always image my OS so I can restore it easily. I do a lot of optimizing and disabling background tasks and removing or disabling "features" that it always seems whenever I use anyone else's machine, well, I guess I can see what annoys them 😆 I am happy to get back to anyone of my machines. Seriously, I have used machines with much higher spec hardware then my own and yet none of them seem to run as smooth or effortlessly as my setups 😉 

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Yeah I try to optimize things too, but the dang thing takes 44 seconds to boot up.  I could have sworn it only took 25 seconds when it was new.  It's not new, but it's no antique either...

 

[MaximumRD]

3 hours ago, - Ω - said:

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH!  I tried everything I could think of.  BTW, since I have you here, did you know Microshaft Edge will not uninstall.

Edge much like Internet Explorer before it is pretty embedded into the OS, I suspect you like many worry probably too much about the default MS offerings, simply use what you like and don't worry about it. You CAN set up things like your default choice of web browser, it's just a case of knowing how to do so 😉 so that if you click on a link or anything that attempts to open a web browser it will default to something of YOUR CHOICE. As for completely removing Edge or even other things that seem to be overkill like Cortana etc, there all all kinds of tweaks one can do either manually or with the assistance of many good free programs that cater to such needs. I can only assume since you had the had the more recent News and Interest in your toolbar that you probably have the latest version of EDGE which honestly is not that bad because it is now based on CHROMIUM, ie: the same source that GOOGLE CHROME is based, it can even use Chrome store apps and themes if enabled in options. However, if you are absolutely dead set on removing the browser there are a couple options, instead of me going over what some have already worked out I will simply link you to the info.

https://www.techradar.com/how-to/how-to-remove-microsoft-edge-from-windows-10

Honestly, I would just right click on the Edge icon on your task bar (if it's there) and your start menu (if it's there) choose UNPIN and have it out of sight and out of mind, go into your Windows settings > apps > Default apps and click on Email and Web Browser and choose your own default options (You MAY get a prompt pleading you to try and stick with EDGE 😆 just ignore it and select from your own favorite installed browser) 

3 minutes ago, - Ω - said:

Yeah I try to optimize things too, but the dang thing takes 44 seconds to boot up.  I could have sworn it only took 25 seconds when it was new.  It's not new, but it's no antique either...

 

Well those specs are certainly fine, damn I've only got 16gb RAM but at any given time just sitting on desktop with nothing else running I am usually under 1GB of memory in use. I do have to wonder what has changed since you fist got your machine that might account for the increase in boot time. There are so many programs and background related tasks that attempt to run at boot, some related to other programs you may have installed. You should check your TASK MANAGER (Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open the Task Manager with a keyboard shortcut or right-click the Windows taskbar and select “Task Manager.” ) in Task Manager clcik the START UP tab and see what is listed, if you look at the next image this is all I have listed and of those 5 items listed two are DISABLED because they do not need to be running at start up, with the amount of RAM you have and that CPU you can click and load up anything very quickly and do not need anything except the bare minimum running at startup. I would suggest if you see anything else listed ESPECIALLY anything that looks suspect OR by a 3rd party that you hover your cursor over the entry, right click and choose DISABLE, close tasks manager, reboot and see if that helps your boot speed. If you STILL suspect things are not running optimally or you think "something'' is dragging down your response time I would personally download the FREE VERSIONS of ADWcleaner , run it and see it it reports anything suspect. It will quickly scan and report anything suspect and give you the choice to remove them after which you reboot and repeat, it likely will NOT detect them again, it will also present you with the option to do a BASIC REPAIR, you do not have to do this, you can choose to SKIP the option but IF anything has unknowingly fiddled with your Winsock or some other default Windows OS values it will reset them. If you want to try I will provide a good link form BLEEPING COMPUTER as they do not bundle adware or other crap with any of their linked programs (I mean that would defeat the purpose right?) plus they are just a great overall resource for learning about and getting crap of a Windows machine 😎

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

 

Lastly, more in the realm of just making Windows look and behave the way YOU prefer consider this program, I literally have it on every Windows machine to quickly and easily bend and customize Windows to my will. Another free and great program. THIS IS A DIRECT LINK TO THE PROGRAM, it's in a .zip file, unzip and install it, worth keeping imho. 

https://winaero.com/downloads/winaerotweaker.zip

That's it from me, I like to point people in the right direction and hopefully they gain some value but like anything you will only get out of it what you put into it, good luck. 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks, you've given me a lot to consider.  I ran that program you suggested and came up clean except for a couple of redundant pre-installed programs from DELL.

 

I'm running out of time now (gotta get ready for work), but I'll get back to what your message this evening.  Thanks again.

[RickR]

One more suggestion is to do an "optimize" on your SSD.  For a normal drive, that optimize function does a defrag, but on an SSD it does the "trim" command.  It totally speeds things up if you haven't done that in a while. 

 

 

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Did that too, thanks.  According to my PC it had not been done for 39 days.  Speaking of 39, I got my boot time down to that number in seconds.  I usually run System Mechanic once a month and have McAfee running 24/7 so I keep a fairly smooth running PC.

[CrossBow]

My main issue with my PC these days (I only just built it about a year and half ago...) is that about a month ago, I noticed sudden slowdowns that cause literally pauses in the entire system. As an example, I will be watching a YT vid, and it just freezes for a few seconds but the audio is unaffected. Then it will suddenly show the video in super fast playback until it is suddenly caught up and in sync? Happens several times in most vids I watch. It also does this on videos on FB and even videos I've made myself? 

It will also affect games I might be playing as suddenly everything becomes sluggish as all get out and sometimes causes a hard lock on the games? Or, I have to force close them and restart them.

The ONLY thing I've found that is happening around this time, is the damn System Interrupts taking up more CPU cycles than it should be. Usually around 20%. But it will quickly drop to near nothing when I open Task Manager. But then it will kick back in again even with TM open and just watching it. I've removed all old applications, done driver cleanups and even tweaked some bios settings and NOTHING has gotten rid of this. I don't recall when it started exactly but it might have been not long after some Windows update and Creative Labs updates to my older Zxr soundcard. I've since uninstalled the Creative Labs drivers (They didn't work as well as the older ones did anyway) and that hasn't resolved it either.

About the ONLY option I have left is a complete reformat of my M.2 nvme drive and re-install Win10 from scratch. But then I have all the updates to reapply and my base software applications to reinstall again and some of them aren't so easy to install these days. 

 

[RickR]

Hmmm, that's a weird one, Crossbow.  Does it do this with all browsers for YouTube? 

I'd make sure to run the "SuperAntispyware" app and see if that finds anything nefarious on your system.  There's also a app I like called "Driver Booster" that does a really good job of finding the newest drivers for everything.

 

 

[RickR]

I inherited an old junker of a laptop this weekend.  It was purchased for my son probably 9 years ago when he started college.  He replaced it a few years ago when the power jack stopped working.  He brought it back home while visiting. 

I fixed the power jack and put in an old SSD I had in my junk box.  BOOM!  It works perfectly fine.  It's got a Core i5-4200 and 4GB of RAM.  I like it because it's pretty compact and light. 

[CrossBow]

20 hours ago, RickR said:

Hmmm, that's a weird one, Crossbow.  Does it do this with all browsers for YouTube? 

I'd make sure to run the "SuperAntispyware" app and see if that finds anything nefarious on your system.  There's also a app I like called "Driver Booster" that does a really good job of finding the newest drivers for everything.

 

 

Yes, and like I said it does it during games, and even when watching video directly on my PC outside of a browser. The Vid card shows minimal activity on it at the time while watching. Also, I own Malware bytes pro and have scanned multiple times and in safe mode. Nothing is ever found. Now, one odd thing I can tell you is that around the same time I first discovered this happening, it was a few days after it first started that my PC wouldn't boot at all. Ended up being a faulty ram module. I have all 4 slots populated in my machine. It was Corsair so it was under warranty and they replaced not just that stick of ram, but the other one it came with as I originally purchased them as a set of two modules. They required all ram that came in the set and not just the one that was bad. 

Anyway, after replacing them out, the PC has booted up fine but I still have the issue with the Service interrupt just suddenly taking up about 20% CPU time for about 5 or 10 seconds intermittently. When this happens, it doesn't just cause a pause in videos, it will frequently cause the entire system to be non responsive for a few seconds and then it all comes back like nothing ever happened. I can't tell if some windows update was when it started, or what the heck is going on. 

Watching a video seems to kick start the process though and then it will happen periodically the rest of the time the PC is on. My wife and I shut off our PCs when not in use as I disabled all the power management crap and disable Hibernation mode etc. 

I have noticed that my M.2 nvme drive is getting very warm though. Problem is, I can't use the slot on my motherboard that includes the heatsink for the nvme because using that slot disables SATA ports 5 and 6 on my motherboard. Even states this in the motherboard manual that using nvme 2 (Which has the nice heatsink built in), will disable those two SATA ports. But I actually need nearly all of my SATA ports because I still have and use a DVD burner, 2 WD black 7200rpm spinners in RAID 0, and a pair of SSDs also in a RAID 0 stripe. Those RAID 0s are my game drives and do not typically contain anything important other than the games installed onto them. Point here is that I need 5 of my 6 SATA ports and using nvme 1 on the motherboard only disables SATA port 1 leaving 2 - 6 available.

My PC specs by the way I've stated before elsewhere but here we go:

CPU = i7 - 97000k @ 4.9ghz locked - Speedstepping is disabled so CPU stays at 4.9ghz

RAM = 32GB Corsair 3600mhz (4x 8GB RAM modules used)

Vid card = GTX 2070super

OS Drive = Samsung 970plus 256GB nvme (Uses SATA 1 controller)

Game drive 1 = 2x WD black 7200rpm HDDs (Sata 3 and 4)

Game drive 2 = 2x Samsung 860evo 1TB SSDs (Sata 5 and 6)

Optical Drive = HP 24x DVD burner (Sata 2)

PSU = Seasonic 750W Platnium

Corsair H100i AIO used for cooling the CPU

I've decent Internet speeds also with upto 350Mb down and 30Mb up.

I will look for the Super anti spyware app and see if it finds anything, but Malware not finding anything even in safe mode and with rootkit protection enabled seems like the system is pretty clean in that regard. I really think there is some drive contention taking place or again, some windows update hosed up something because watching a 1080p and even sometimes a 720p video on YT or through FB should NOT stutter and pause and act like it has to buffer for any reason much less cause the entire system to freeze up for a few seconds like it is trying to figure something out.

 

[RickR]

Hmmm.  And if you take out the two new sticks of RAM, does the problem persist? 

Sounds like maybe something is hogging the system via hard drive access.  You might try bringing up task manager and ordering by disk usage to see if you can spot the culprit.  I've had issues before with the windows update service hogging the system for no reason, and the only cure was to stop/start the service manually. 

One other suggestion:  Try an app like "CoreTemp" to see if you have CPU usage spikes.  This app monitors the CPU usage and temperatures.  It is possible the heatsink on your CPU has dried out thermal paste or is no longer sitting quite flat.  That would make the CPU go over it's thermal threshold and switch down to an ultra-low speed mode until the temp drops.  I've had a system do this in the past. 

 

Edited June 14, 2021 by RickR

[CrossBow]

Yes the problem did persist even during the week long wait it took for the replacement modules to arrive. I've never liked having all of my ram on one 2 two sticks so I like to fill the slots and fall back to half memory if needed just in case. Like what happened when one of the modules went totally south. I still don't know what happened to that module other than the PC wouldn't even POST or get beyond a power light indication on the mainboard when that module was installed.

 The CPU itself never really seems to have any spikes. In fact when it has done it and I have Task Manager open to watch it happen, the CPU rarely gets above 20%. Maybe 30% on occasion when this happens. Then again, when it does the complete system pause bit for a few seconds, TM isn't updating either and doesn't seem to indicate anything happened after the system responds again. Very odd.

The CPU freq is always between 4.83 - 4.95Ghz speed. Again, I disabled speedstep on the CPU in the BIOS to ensure it runs at full speed at all times and doesn't change its core clock speed. I've always done this with my CPUs. My last one... i5 - 2450k I believe it was ran at 3.8Ghz at all times for about 8 years before I replaced everything out. 

Highest recorded temps on the CPU package (HWINFO64) on average is 79C. Below the throttle limit requirements. The AIO pump is always showing an RPM of about 4300 as well so I know that is operating properly. Again, it has been running fine for over a year and only started recently doing this back in early May now I guess it has been. But I only really noticed it about a month or so ago.

 

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Crunching videos on my machine ALWAYS turns the fan on and up...

 

[CrossBow]

Well, I don't know for sure on this, but I 'might' have finally found what the cause is.

It is the video card... Specifically, the video card changing its operating clock speed all the time. Last night it was doing the freeze up thing a bunch to the point that anytime I had a video playing or even just browsing the web, that every few seconds it would just pause for a few and then work...pause...work...pause. 

I happen to notice that PrecisionX1 seemed to be more active than usual via Task Manager so I pulled it up and saw that the issues seem to occur as the vid core clock speeds would fluctuate. This is normal as the video cards just like most processors, will only use what they need to operate the task at hand. So they usually don't kick into full clock speed until you are doing some very graphically intensive like playing a high end game or rendering videos etc. Well, as soon as I enabled the Boost lock on the Precision X1, the issues immediately went away and it was stable the rest of the time I was doing anything with it. So it would seem that the constantly changing clock speed of the GPU is causing the entire system to freak out. My only issue with keeping boost lock on, is the fact that the PC as a whole will now be using quite a bit more power than normal to do mundane things and naturally the vid card runs a little hotter than it would normally but it still never gets above 80C that I've seen on the GPU.

And yes, because I know it will be asked...

I have updated the vid card drivers. I was using MSI afterburner for a while but still had the same issues with it as well. I stopped using it for the same reason I originally stopped using PrecisionX. Basically, eventually the software seems to stop what it is supposed to do in regards to the fans never ramping up when they should and the like. So I flip flop back and forth between the two apps installing the latest version of the other when the current fails. But I've been doing that since I had my older GTX 1070 SC before I put the GTX 2070 Super I have in this PC now.

Anyway, will just have to wait and see what happens but I do think my original guess that there is some underlying driver issue causing all of this is still a thing because the system shouldn't pause for a second or two each time the GPU decides to change its active running clock speed.

 

[RickR]

Boy that is weird.  I can't say I've ever heard of that. 

You mentioned earlier you have Speedstep disabled for your CPU?  I wonder if you enable speedstep if the video card issue will go away.  Or at least you'd save some power during idle times. 

 

[CrossBow]

Speedstep is disabled because the CPU will only hit the 4.9ghz mark for a few seconds when it boosts. Otherwise it would run at the default 3.6ghz most of the time. 

In my mind it is hard for me to live with it running at mostly 3.6ghz most of the time when the previous 2nd gen i5 it replaced was running at 3.8ghz all the time. Anyway, the speedstep has been disabled on the CPU since I first built it as I did the same on my i5 before it. This issue only started to happen about a month and half ago now? And disabling the speedstep wouldn't have any bearing on the GPU since I have the IGP disabled in the BIOS as well and only run with the PCIE card installed.

 

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I've not had issues with my video locking up.  I'm running an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 with 6GB onboard, and I've NEVER updated the software.  My motto is, "If it ain't broke, dont fix it.

Now I do have an issue with communications locking up shortly after boot, sometimes for up to a full minute.  I believe it has something to do with NordVPN, but it's just a hunch.

[MaximumRD]

7 hours ago, - Ω - said:

I've not had issues with my video locking up.  I'm running an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 with 6GB onboard, and I've NEVER updated the software.  My motto is, "If it ain't broke, dont fix it.

Now I do have an issue with communications locking up shortly after boot, sometimes for up to a full minute.  I believe it has something to do with NordVPN, but it's just a hunch.

That is not a good policy, it might be good for an appliance, your washer or refrigerator and maybe even the plumbing in your house but for an operating system? Especially the Windows platform, this type of thinking leads to way more problems and issues than it avoids. Updates often provide bug fixes, compatibility fixes let alone fixing security leaks and patching flaws and holes. As for Graphics drivers, I am not saying there has never been an update that caused a problem but for the most part it's a good idea and feedback will let them know when there is a serious issue and they tend to be pretty quick to correct it so at the very least if you insist on mot being up to the latest and greatest driver you should at least be no more than one release behind. 

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7 hours ago, MaximumRD said:

That is not a good policy, it might be good for an appliance, your washer or refrigerator and maybe even the plumbing in your house but for an operating system? Especially the Windows platform, this type of thinking leads to way more problems and issues than it avoids. Updates often provide bug fixes, compatibility fixes let alone fixing security leaks and patching flaws and holes. As for Graphics drivers, I am not saying there has never been an update that caused a problem but for the most part it's a good idea and feedback will let them know when there is a serious issue and they tend to be pretty quick to correct it so at the very least if you insist on mot being up to the latest and greatest driver you should at least be no more than one release behind. 

 

Yeah, well anything related to Windows gets updated regularly, because we all know how buggy Windoze can be and how many vulnerabilities have been exploited over the years.  This is just the video card, and I've read stories about video card having major issues with certain software after updates. 

It's the same thing with my BlackVue DR900S-2CH dashcam, many people updated the software and then developed overheating problems.  I've never had a single issue in nearly three years... and I intend to keep it that way.

I'm also reminded of the guy that did a firmware update on his printer, which promptly made the printer stop working with non-brand toner.

So, I really appreciate the advice and the spirit in which it was given, but I'm gonna gamble that I'm right on this one, even if it puts an annoying reminder on the screen every once in a while.