Joined: Mar '09
Location: Canada
Age: 36 (M)
Posts: 3207
alright some of u may remember my last computor help thread. some may not, anyways having MASSIVE issues with my toshiba laptop still. for example 95% of the time when loading internet and even just clicking a new thread on bankrollmob my computor will freeze and i have to hit ctrl/alt del, to back out to task manager and go back to web and everythings fine again. well have been dealing with this now for atleast a year or 2 and a 10minute task online takes me 30-40minutes now im finally fed up.
my question is, i have found 2 cds for my computor called "system recovery discs" which state after using them my computor will be set back to origonal factory use. is that the same as wiping my comp? i dont mind losing everything i can redownload but will all my "favourites" in my internet browser be gone too? curious to if i should write it all down. am i gonna go through this lose everything and still have a useless piece of s**t computor? its only 3-4 years old i do believe. thanks for any help it is muchly appriciated and i appologize for this really off topic post but have no one else to ask and know there are some really smart ppl here. joe
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Croatia
Age: 43 (M)
Posts: 1738
U said it all. using those disks will in fact format ur hard disk which means everything, including favorites etc will be permanently lost, however, i think u wont have to format ur pc to solve ur web browser problem m8 (if it only crashes when ur surving the net and nothing else) . what brorwser do u use btw? internet explorer? try to use a different one like google chrome for instance. my pc is very old and it takes ages to open IE so i changed to chrome and never went back lol. hope i helped. cheers
Joined: May '09
Location: India
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 4873
if u use system recovery disc, your laptop hard disk will be wiped clean. factory settings mean it will be like when you bought the laptop. ( not the performance but data )
first backup all data you have on external hard disk/other computer and then use the recovery disks.
and check if your laptop is having heating problems and it has sufficient space to cool down.
and regarding your favorites - every data /settings you have on your computer will be gone. depending on the browser you can export the bookmarks/ favorites into a html file. then store it on some portable media/ mail to your email account. and laters import all the favorites back from that file.
frm my experience 3 years is the optimal life of computers depending on the use though, mine is on almost 24 hours and are screwed up by 2 years. the softwares you are using are a bit heavy for 3-4 year old computers but when u restore there will be improvement for sure. ............................................
windows recovery disc fixes bugs etc but laptop recovery disc they give with laptops wipes everything clean.
the problem with formatting the hard disk and then installing OS is that he'll have to find the drivers of sound/video/ethernet/ and maybe other things too. apart from being time consuming can be hard finding the manufacturer in some cases.
and if u dont wanna do the recovery there are few things you can do before to see it improves-
get a good antivirus and anti-malware and scan the system. open control panel and uninstall all softwares you dont need. disable all softwares you dont need to run at startup from 'msconfig' command make sure your page file is about min 10% of your windows hard disk space / 4 gb whichever is smaller. if your windows partition is full, clear space in it. download CCleaner and clear all temp files/ cache and fix registry issues. defrag your hard disk.
Joined: Mar '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 6714
Chances are you have eiter a bug/ had a bug or the likes of AVG etc is killing CPU (I am no comuputer pro) Heres what I would do, get a USB and take of what ever you want, that being pics doucument vids.....most important HHs, then just put that disk in and start over, it will format for you, well mine did anyway. You can run the recovery, but i would advise a full format and have it all like new. Take a not of programs you use so you can re-download(use c-net to DL) You could try crtl-ald-del to see what is eating CPU and try turn it off,, but a fresh install is best. Take a not of your favourites as the will be gone.
A system recovery discs should just fix problems in the OS(not lose programs, files or favourites, if you have th OS just format, it will guide you as you go.
Err Suppernoob says recovery will wipe, I was under the impression it would just fix...like I said I am no comuputer pro
Guess its woth mentioning that you may need your code for the OS, otherwise put ubuntu on a pen drive so you can install that.
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Canada
Age: 36 (M)
Posts: 3207
alright i read thro all this and still not quite sure if i should try this..my laptop is on almost 24/7 and if its sitting on my lap itll get really hot within minutes too. last time i did download a antivirus ect. and am scanning almost daily but still having issues
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Canada
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 1490
Posted by arsenej1: alright i read thro all this and still not quite sure if i should try this..my laptop is on almost 24/7 and if its sitting on my lap itll get really hot within minutes too. last time i did download a antivirus ect. and am scanning almost daily but still having issues
You might want to consider getting one of those cooling trays that sit underneath your laptop. It sounds very much like this could be a cooling issue. Laptops are very densely packed, and they are hard to keep cool. They also tend to vent a lot of their heat down the bottom. Those cooling trays usually run around $10-30 and they will prolong the life of the machine. A cool pc is a happy pc
As for data, if you're worried about losing your porn bookmarks, just backup your favorites directory. It'll be under "My documents".
If you have, or can afford one, get a cheap external USB drive, hook it up and run windows "Backup utility". It'll copy all your settings to a file that you can reload into your restored copy of windows. As for the files themselves, you'll need to copy those manually.
I generally recommend people put a fresh copy of windows on their PC roughly every year, less if you've got people who love to install those stupid Toolbars. Over time your windows registry gets congested with entries, and you'll also end up with malware/spyware that slows it down. Overtime your machine will slow to a crawl with all that crap on it, and be almost unuseable. A fresh copy of windows will do wonders for the performance of your pc.
Edited by retribution (29 August 2011 @ 21:47 GMT)
Joined: Aug '11
Location: Bolivia, Plurinational State of
Age: 50 (M)
Posts: 10
All u got to do is re-install windows system or the one you are using (everything will be erased) but you'll have a clean start backup your bookmarks and install an antivirus!
Joined: May '08
Location: Germany
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 6787
A reinstall will wipe out the "favourites". But if you only have problems with the inet connection, try to upgrade your browser or use another browser first.
you can easily backup your favorites if your planning to do a complete system recovery
I've been having a similar problem while using firefox lately computer freezes and firefox seems to hoarding all of my computer resources. I think the main problem might be adobe flash player seems after installing it been having these problems.
It could be overheating always lay your laptop on a solid surface so there's a little space between your laptop and surface its laid on.
I don't think you need to format anything as you might get the same problem even after doing so.
Don't bother trying to defragment as laptops used SSD's and not normal platter harddrives so no need to.
Try downloading a software called speedfan and looking at the temperature of your cpu before the freeze occurs it might be overheating and causing windows to lock.
When it freezes try going to task manager and checking out the performance tab and Processes tab I am guessing you got at least 2GB of RAM on that laptop you got so check out processes tab and see which process is using huge amounts of RAM that shouldn't be needed.
When my computer freezes while surfing I usually check task manager and noticed that my IE is using double or even triple the amount of memory it should be using normally.
Try downloading google chrome and see what happens if you suspect its an IE problem.
I might also be due to malware, adware or spyware download a great program called spybot search and destroy, google free anti-malware program...etc there are some good free programs don't rely only on your Anti-virus, an anti-spyware,malware and adware program should be used also they usally are all included in one program.
Do full system scan with these programs and also with your Anti-virus make sure they are all up-to-date with the latest definitions.
Hope this helps been studying for the comptia +a certificate exam so gaining some experience from real life situations :
Joined: May '09
Location: India
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 4873
Posted by arsenej1: alright i read thro all this and still not quite sure if i should try this..my laptop is on almost 24/7 and if its sitting on my lap itll get really hot within minutes too.
maybe thermal paste on your laptop's heatsink needs to be changed if it's heating so soon.
and dont use your laptop on your lap, its a very common mistake many people are unaware of. not only are you blocking the vents on your laptop but also exposing your testis to excess of heat. they require about 2 °C lower than core body temperature. prolonged exposure to heat can lead to lower sperm count and sterility.
i think best thing is backup all your data, reset it to factory settings using recovery discs. there should be improvement definitely but if it still lags beyond normal use then time to get a new one.
Joined: Oct '09
Location: Spain
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 2851
Did this for a living for some years (Network Administrator), so here is my advice:
Windows will collect so much garbage over time, using "cleaners", "anti-virus programs", "spyware hunters" etc, will only do so much, and at the point you are at, will NOT help. Additionally, Internet Explorer has "garbage data collection" as a major issue, and always will have.
I abuse my PC in the worst possible way, by doing stuff you shouldn´t, so I re-install at least once a year. There are ways to do this easily and quickly (I make images of the "clean" and fully installed PC), but that is too complicated to explain here properly.
As far as I can tell, you have 2 problems: 1. software issues (Int. Expl. and other stuff) 2. "Maybe" hardware issues
The software could also be so cluttered and running Trojans and stuff, that it just heats up for that reason only. You will NOT be aware of this unless you know what you are doing.
Advice: Re-install using the disks. You probably use Vista if your system is 3-4 years old. You can just "copy" your favourites folder on to a USB stick or external hard drive. Location Vista: C:UsersusernameFavorites Just copy the whole folder, and copy/paste it back in the same location on your new system. Also copy the "my documents" folder completely if you´ve been saving pictures, files, other stuff in the regular places Windows puts your files. Location Vista: C:UsersusernameMy documents
Your e-mail files, if you use a "local" program (on your PC in stead of "online" like Hotmail, Gmail, Live etc) can be backed up depending on the program. Same goes for your adress book. Just Google it "backing up Mail and adresbook" followed by the name of your mail program.
If your PC is overheating due to "background" programs overloading your processor etc. , you will destroy your hardware at some point in time, so stop it now. Do what I suggest and re-install.
If, after re-installing, your Windows runs well again but your PC is still overheating, you have a "Hardware" problem, and someone who knows what they are doing will have to look at it.
Good Luck!
PS: If all this solves your problems, you can just transfer €50 to one of my Poker accounts. €50/hour is the going rate for PC support. (just kidding, of course)
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 2387
I agree with IslandJack. I also have a Toshiba laptop about 4 years old, and six months ago my wife accidentally downloaded a virus. We hadn't installed an antivirus as we didn't use it much, and when I tried to download one the virus would prevent the download! Tried and tried and finally saved everything important onto a USB stick, and reinstalled the OS (XP). Installed all of the updates and Avast antivirus and now the computer runs really nice.
I have also noticed that when we have been using it for a while, especially on our lap while sitting down, the computer gets hot and starts to freeze. GL!
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Canada
Age: 36 (M)
Posts: 3207
wow reading through all of this i have learnt alot thanks agin for all the help i have decided to have a small poker session today as its been quite sometime since i have played. after that im gonna reread all the info in post and give this a go. thanks again for all the help and will keep yaz posted on the results. joe
------------ had a look and on my "c"drive ive got 220gb free outta 281 and on the "local disc d: i have 7.09 gb free outta 7,15gb...i dont exactly know what this means lol but looks like im not too crammed up? or maybe i am, im kinda computor stupid
------------ alright im scared here i go hopefully will be back after i try this
------------ blahh i was just about to start and realize i dont have a clue what my passowrd is for my wireless internet..any idea how to find it?
------------ WOW REALLY NEED HELP NOW PLEASE!!!
using my wifes computor for this as mine no longer works?. i put the cds in ran them and there was an error after a little while. now my computer dont work. a screen comes up saying "bootmgr" is missing hit ctrl+alt+del to restart. that is it rest of the screen is black...someone help me please lol i knew fucking with this was gonna be bad
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 2387
Try at least one more time. The first time I tried the reinstall on my Toshiba it didn't go to completion, and then on the second time it worked. If not, try Toshiba help line. It should work. GL
Joined: May '09
Location: India
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 4873
Posted by arsenej1: WOW REALLY NEED HELP NOW PLEASE!!!
using my wifes computor for this as mine no longer works?. i put the cds in ran them and there was an error after a little while. now my computer dont work. a screen comes up saying "bootmgr" is missing hit ctrl+alt+del to restart. that is it rest of the screen is black...someone help me please lol i knew fucking with this was gonna be bad
the cds u used might have scratches or ur cd drive wont read it. wud be hard getting fresh copy of the recovery disc. now best option is take a windows cd , format your hard disk and reinstall windows. .............................. try their helpline first as mahdrof said and what error did u get?
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Canada
Age: 36 (M)
Posts: 3207
ive put the cds back in and keeps sayin bootmgr missing ...ill call toshiba and hope for the best. if u see on the news "man strapped with bomb, blew up himself and all 1600 toshiba plant workers in attempt to fix laptop". yeah it was me
Joined: May '09
Location: India
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 4873
Posted by arsenej1: ive put the cds back in and keeps sayin bootmgr missing ...ill call toshiba and hope for the best. if u see on the news "man strapped with bomb, blew up himself and all 1600 toshiba plant workers in attempt to fix laptop". yeah it was me
make sure u have selected boot from cd/dvd in bios settings and insert the bootable cd they have.
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Canada
Age: 36 (M)
Posts: 3207
yup have done that 3times now lol..i managed to get the first cd to work agin aftera few trys now hopefully after first one is done the second one wont screw up agin
------------ im using my wifes old acer laptop..things gotta be 4-7 years old now. think ill take this and tell her she can have mine now lol
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Canada
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 1490
Posted by arsenej1: yup have done that 3times now lol..i managed to get the first cd to work agin aftera few trys now hopefully after first one is done the second one wont screw up agin
------------ im using my wifes old acer laptop..things gotta be 4-7 years old now. think ill take this and tell her she can have mine now lol
Another option is, you can get an ISO of a windows cd and throw it on a cd or flash drive. You'll have to make it bootable, but there are easy to follow guides online. Just make sure the ISO you download is legit *wink wink*.
As for your wifi password, if you right click on your wireless connection, you should be able to bring up a properties menu. In that menu, there'll be an option for password, and in there will be a little check box saying "mask password" or w/e. If u uncheck the box, it'll show the PW.
but looks like im not too crammed up? or maybe i am, im kinda computor stupid
here i go hopefully will be back after i try this 
...ill call toshiba and hope for the best. if u see on the 
