Look, I’m no doctor, but it might actually help if you just laid out exactly what’s going on with you...
Wait, hallucinations???
If you're hearing noises—like this constant ringing or buzzing in your ears—then you're probably dealing with Tinnitus. Basically, your ear thinks it's hearing something and starts playing this phantom buzzing loop in your head. I went through it myself once, though it didn't happen too often...
I wear hearing aids, and I used to visit the Mayo Clinic quite a bit for my hearing issues. They saw plenty of people there struggling with Tinnitus—people who deal with it constantly. One way they treat it is by playing back the exact same sound you're hearing. Eventually, the noise stops because your brain finally learns to tell the difference between the actual sound and the fake one.
You could probably just grab one of those USB hard drive docking stations. I’m not sure how old your PC actually is, though—if it’s ancient, you might be dealing with a PATA connection, and those adapters are getting pretty hard to track down these days... If it’s SATA, then yeah, you’re golden. 😉
Just to be clear, we aren't talking about booting up Microsoft Windows here; you're basically just pulling your files off like you would from a thumb drive. These docks usually handle both 2.5" and 3.5" SATA drives without any drama. https://www.amazon.com/docking-station/s?k=docking+station
Another way to do it—if you don't want to buy anything—is just to ask someone with a working computer if you can plug it in. Just hook the drive up to their machine and dump everything onto a USB stick.
The browser actually saves everything right inside the folder you’ve got sitting on your USB drive. It functions just like any standard browser you'd find on a regular PC—if you don't want it remembering your history or stuff like that, you just have to go into the settings and tell it not to...
The real beauty of doing it this way is that it’s basically your own little private setup. You can plug that drive into any Windows computer and all your settings and data are right there waiting for you, ready to go.
I’ve always known you could find certain apps in portable versions, but seeing Chrome available like that really caught my eye—especially when I saw how people were using them on USB sticks for things like Chase online banking. They basically strip out all the extra bloat and just leave the bare essentials needed to get your banking done. It’s honestly a much better setup, and way more secure too, since it makes those annoying phishing sites and fake landing pages a lot harder to pull off.
If you want to grab the portable version of Chrome, you can find the link right here https://mozilla-firefox-portable.en....ndows/download...just remember that the first time you run it, you'll need to unpack the folder, and then you can just toss that whole folder onto a thumb drive.
As for encrypting the drive, you can follow this guide http://www.ubergizmo.com/how-to/pass...tect-usb-disk/—I haven't actually tried this myself because I haven't really had a reason to yet, but there are plenty of other apps out there; you just have to dig around and see what features each one offers.
USB sticks aren't exactly breaking the bank these days. You can pick up those tiny ones that look just like keychains and just toss them on with your house keys so you don't lose them... 😁 http://www.gearbest.com/usb-key-drive-32gb-_gear/
Look, you’ve even got portable browsers available—Chrome comes in that format, so you could just toss it onto a USB stick and call it a day. I guess there might be a way to set it up so it launches automatically from the drive, but I’d have to dig into it a bit more to figure out how...
So, you’ve got that incognito mode in Chrome... when you fire it up, nothing gets saved. But honestly? If you’re browsing things you’re too chicken to show anyone, you might still give yourself away because your history isn't actually wiped from the system...
Since incognito doesn't save your passwords or usernames—say you registered on some random site like Netflix or whatever else—I’d suggest just using a password that's easy to remember but still a nightmare for hackers to crack.
Honestly, if I were you, I’d just wipe the slate clean and reinstall the OS. Here’s the link where you can grab Windows 8.1 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows8—you're going to need a USB flash drive, too. Since it'll install with all the latest updates already baked in, you should be able to run a repair once you boot from that USB flash drive. Just... do yourself a favor and back everything up first. If you happen to have some Linux distro lying around, boot into a live session and rescue whatever files aren't completely trashed...
He mentioned that Windows started running those updates—you know, the kind where it sits there during boot-up replacing system files... Since the whole thing didn't actually finish, he’s stuck with this weird hybrid of old and new files, and obviously, everything is just broken. I have no clue why it stalled out, but my guess is the process got cut short because someone hit reset or pulled the plug mid-update...
When you're booting up, you can try tapping F6 or F8—I can't recall exactly which one it was, my memory's shot—but that should bring up the Safe Mode option. My advice? Grab some Linux and use it to move all your important files onto a USB drive or an external hard drive that isn't running an OS. And while you're at it, head over to Microsoft's site and download the latest version of Windows 8.1; it'll have all the essential patches included so you aren't fighting constant updates later. Honestly, just reinstalling the OS from scratch is usually less of a headache anyway.
The reason it won't boot is probably because the boot data for your current OS is trashed. You could try http://www.thewindowsclub.com/repair...rd-mbr-windows to see if that fixes anything... might help, might not.
You really need to double-check everything—even the GPU So, what kind of graphics card are we talking about?? Is it a dedicated one?? Also, I was wondering if you’re running integrated graphics too? If you are, maybe try pulling the dedicated card out entirely just to see how things behave using only the integrated setup...
It probably wouldn't hurt to run a memtest, too—just to make sure the RAM isn't acting up. I'm actually in a bit of a rush right now, but I know there's a free tool out there for memtesting... just gotta track it down somewhere...
Hard to say, honestly—it’d feel pretty weird if they weren't using that core. You’ve gotta spread those processes out more evenly, right?
Give this tool a shot since you're running an Intel processor; they've got their own diagnostic thing for this kind of stuff https://downloadcenter.intel.com/dow...iagnostic-Tool
Just throw some screenshots up here so we can actually see what kind of errors are popping up.
Just out of curiosity, does that thing actually have a scan button on it? Like, if you hit it, would it actually trigger the scanning software or just sit there doing nothing?
I just used the web version—didn't bother downloading anything. It works fine... you just grab the image, drop it into the designated spot, and it uploads instantly.
If it’s not working for you, there's a chance your browser just isn't playing nice with the site's setup. You might want to try a different one... personally, I used Microsoft Edge and it worked without any drama.
Once the upload finishes, you have to hit the pixelize button. I've messed around with a few different shots, and honestly, it's hit or miss—sometimes it can't even tell where the eyes are, and I had one massive file that actually flipped the whole thing upside down, which just totally broke the process for me...