Posts by wiredcanyon94

silentwolf53 said:Well, looks like I don't have much of a choice then... I'll mess around with it tomorrow—can't get to it today. Thanks for the link 🙂

My routine is always the same—Windows, drivers, Chrome, antivirus, MBAM, CCleaner, Microsoft Office, updates, and then everything else after that. Honestly, I do this stuff on autopilot now 😁 it's just muscle memory at this point.

Regarding the Windows serial, when I bought my Dell Inspiron, it came with a Premium version. There’s a sticker on the bottom with the key and everything—can I actually use that? It's not like there's any massive difference between Ultimate and Premium anyway.

Also, once you start reinstalling stuff, get into the habit of making a restore point before you install any software or run an update.
That way, you don't have to wipe everything and start from scratch; you can just roll back to the previous step.

Based on everything being said here, it sounds like one of your updates just completely trashed something.

casualcyclist18 said:Thanks for the reply. Could you clarify what kind of wire we're talking about here? Is it a Verizon cable? Also, do you happen to know how to actually configure everything in the router and the computer settings?

Yeah, just a standard Verizon cable.
I know my way around the setup.
But honestly, I'm not sure if I could even walk you through it. If you're asking which specific wire connects them, I'm guessing networking isn't really your thing.
My bad.

casualcyclist18 said:Hey everyone, I’ve got this wireless USB dongle for mobile data, and I basically just swap between an AT&T and a Cricket SIM card depending on what I need. My goal is to spread that signal throughout my apartment so I can get my laptop, tablet, and a few other gadgets online at once.
I'm looking for the best way to set this up without spending more than $33.
I was wondering if I could make use of some old gear I have lying around—specifically a desktop PC that doesn't have a Wi-Fi card, plus two routers, a Linksys E-series router and a Cisco Integrated Services Router (which actually has a USB port on the back, though I have no clue what it's actually for).
Alternatively, maybe there's just a simple plug-and-play adapter that puts out a decent signal without being a massive headache to install? I'd love to hear any recommendations you guys might have. Thanks in advance.

It could work. Just plug the modem into that PC. Since you don't have wireless on the desktop, you'd run an Ethernet cable from the computer to a router, and then let that router broadcast the signal throughout your place.

No worries at all!

Taylor Nelson5 said:It feels like it's probably the hard drive since everything else seems to be working okay.
ps. it took me forever to figure out how to get out of Safe Mode.

Look, it could be anything. Literally.
You can't really call it from a distance like this. Usually, it’s just a massive pile of digital junk that needs cleaning up, but sometimes a hardware hiccup is actually what's slowing things down.

For instance, I once had an old laptop I was trying to revive, and the hard drive was basically dying. It wasn't totally dead, but the symptoms made it feel like it was choked with garbage. Everything dragged. Even after a full reinstall of Windows (which took way longer than it should have), nothing changed.
As soon as I swapped in a new drive and installed Windows, the thing finally took off.

So, it's pretty hard for anyone here to give you a specific "do this and that" solution. You're mostly just going to get general advice at this point.

shadowlynx102 said:It’s pretty obvious that the connection is going to drop when the signal gets weak, and honestly, you can't expect much strength on an upper floor if the router is tucked away in the basement.

He’s claiming the signal strength is great, yet the connection keeps dropping. He also mentioned everything worked perfectly with his old router and these issues only started once this new one showed up.

Which pretty much implies it isn't a signal strength issue.

Taylor Nelson5 said:So, here’s the deal... you wonderful people who (thank God) seem to know everything, please give me one good reason why I shouldn't just smash this laptop into pieces right now. 😵
The issue is that my computer runs perfectly fine for maybe two or three days, and then, out of nowhere, it just hits a wall and crawls along at a snail's pace; once it finally manages to open CCleaner and I run a cleanup, things go back to normal for another couple of days. When I’m running CCleaner, most of the errors I see are related to Internet Explorer, which I don't even bother using. I’m not doing anything fancy on there—just Facebook, Skype, Google, YouTube... that’s about it. By the way, I'm stuck using Windows 8, and honestly, I can barely figure out how to navigate it...
It is just absolutely miserable... please, someone help me before I actually break this thing while it's still in one piece. 🙏🙏🙏
THANKS

Look, if you actually paid for it—there’s your reason not to smash it. If you didn't? Smash away. Dad can just buy you a new one.

As for the actual issue, someone else already posted some ideas earlier. Hopefully, one of those works. Though, since you mentioned you aren't exactly a tech wizard when it comes to Windows, I can't promise much. Generally speaking, if it's just acting sluggish every now and then, you probably just need to clear out some digital junk. (Not the physical dust, obviously.)

Good luck!

ambergardener15 said:Maybe I can help you out. Personally, I run Windows 8 and it works fine for me.
1) Maybe your PC is just overheating and freezing up because it can't handle something.
2) You might have some app or service hogging all your CPU. Check the Task Manager (CTRL + ALT + DEL) and see what's eating your processor.
3) Could be a virus. Try booting into Safe Mode (I think you hold SHIFT while starting up), which only loads the basics without all the extra junk. Then run some scans with Malwarebytes, Avast Antivirus, or whatever else you've got.
4) Check your browser extensions—just strip out anything you don't actually need.
5) Honestly, it might just be a dying hard drive.

Anyway, let me know if that does anything.🙂

She mentioned she isn't exactly a pro when it comes to the version of Windows she's using, so I suspect these instructions might fly right over her head.

shadowlynx102 said:I honestly think you’re just dealing with some intermittent connection drops, nothing more complicated than that. That said, if you want to troubleshoot it further, you could try manually assigning a static IP address through your network adapter settings, or see if your router allows you to force the wireless mode to strictly b/g instead of using the higher standards.

It’s hard to pinpoint the exact cause without more info. He mentions things cutting out "upstairs," but everything works fine "downstairs." If that's the case, the signal isn't dropping for everyone in the house.
From what I gather, he's got multiple devices both upstairs and downstairs. If everyone upstairs is losing connection while everyone downstairs stays online, we need to figure out what those upstairs devices have in common.

wiredcanyon94, how's it going? Did you ever get that computer situation sorted out?

Ashley Fisher52 said:Look, the signal isn't even the issue here—the bars are full and I'm technically "connected," but it's all useless! It either says "limited access" or nothing at all, but I can't load a single damn webpage; the connection basically doesn't exist. If it were just one gadget acting up, I'd figure it was just my laptop or phone being glitchy, but since this is happening on three different laptops and three different phones simultaneously, the problem is clearly with the internet service itself, not my gear.

Who's your ISP? Or where are you even located? You mentioned paying in Euros—are you living in Germany?
Some providers actually cap the number of devices that can connect to their wireless router at once.
Or maybe someone in the house is throttling it. (Like a son who needs all the bandwidth for torrenting or whatever).

It’s going to be hard for anyone to diagnose this blindly if even the official techs from the company you're paying aren't able to fix it.

And seriously, how does a provider you pay come out "countless times," take $50 from you, and leave without fixing a damn thing? I wish I could get paid to do absolutely nothing. 🙂

Scott Adams said:Hey everyone.

So, look... my laptop has been acting up. Like, seriously, insane levels of glitching here.

Basically, the screen just refuses to turn on unless the wireless light is lit up. And I mean, even when I have the physical wireless switch on the side set to OFF, it still won't show anything.

The only time it actually works—like, showing everything it’s supposed to and letting me actually get stuff done—is when that light is off.

But then, during the last boot-up, things went totally sideways. All the lights just popped on at once—Bluetooth, wireless, power indicator, all of 'em.
I shut it down immediately, obviously, but after that? Nothing. Dead. No signs of life at all. Someone told me to pull the battery straight off the motherboard, so I did that and swapped in a new one. That got it running again, but now it's being super weird. The CPU fan is spinning fine and I can hear the hard drive clicking away, but it's like... it keeps trying to restart itself over and over again. It's stuck in this endless loop...

😠

Thanks for any help.

George Sanders37 said:There aren't really that many reasons why this wouldn't work. If your boot order is set correctly and you're hitting F8 fast enough, but it still refuses to boot from that disc, then the disc itself is the culprit. Try grabbing something else that’s bootable—maybe a live Linux distro like Knoppix or Ubuntu, or even a utility disc like Hiren's. If those work, you've found your problem.

He claims he's installed Windows a hundred times. He didn't specify if he used this exact same "CD" every single time, but I'm assuming he's used it plenty of times before. He didn't mention that this is some brand-new media he's never touched. So, safe to assume it's worked for him in the past.
That would imply the media is fine.

I'm dying to know what the actual issue is here.

Nathan Allen said:Look, I've done this installation a hundred times and I have never run into this specific issue before.

If you've actually tried everything suggested in this thread and it’s still failing, do me a favor: once you finally crack the case (and you will, one way or another), come back and post what the actual fix was. It would be great to have it documented here for the next person. I'm sure you aren't the first—or the last—to hit this wall.

Nathan Allen said:I know how

You actually know how to install Windows?

Thomas Diaz5 said:Seriously though, a little professionalism wouldn't kill anyone...
Unless it was some kind of joke—in which case, fine, but next time just throw in a smiley or something. 🤔

If you're looking for "professional," then your language settings or some weird coding pages are probably glitching out on you.
I'm not exactly sure what's happening, though. We'll have to dig into it. Not like the Holy Spirit is going to fix it for us.

Thomas Diaz5 said:This is driving me absolutely insane:

I open up a PDF in my browser (Chrome or IE):
http://files.ctctcdn.com/a681466b001...a636e5aa6c.pdf

Right at the bottom of the first page, there’s this line:
John 19:11 Jesus says: “They would have no power over me if it were not given to them from above.” Therefore, he who hands me over to you has the greater sin.”

But here's the kicker—as soon as I try to copy-paste that text, the word "greater" somehow turns into "greather"!!!

It happens in every single browser. Even if I save the file as a PDF and open it in Acrobat Reader... it still happens. And the weirdest part? In other spots in the exact same text, the spelling stays perfectly fine after pasting.

Judging by the content, I’d say we’re looking at nothing but pure devilry.

shadowlynx102 said:It’s not that your screen is dimmed, it’s that it’s "dimmed" with an extra N. I honestly don't know where this new trend came from, where people start swapping out standard spelling for something else entirely. What’s next, are we going to start calling a chimney a "smokey-stack" or something equally ridiculous?!

Dark—darkened,
dim—darkened.

Kenneth Brown5 said:Thanks so much for all the help and the effort everyone put in.
Honestly though, I’m still kind of stuck on what my next move should be.

There's just no way I can manually copy everything over; we're talking way too many gigabytes for that.

All my passwords, work docs, family photos... it's all there, and I really need to clear the drive out first.

The thing is, it’s running incredibly hot, and the fan is basically screaming at me constantly.

Nobody really touched on whether cleaning out the dust would actually fix the overheating issue (even if it wasn't the main point).

And how long does that whole process usually take? Maybe I could hang out while it happens.

I’ve also been sitting here wondering what happens if I just shut it down and drop it off at the repair shop without prepping anything... maybe I'm being a bit paranoid, but I really don't want some stranger poking around my bookmarks, let alone my private files.

Just tell us what kind of answer you're looking for, and we'll give it to you.

Lawrence Cooper15 said:I fixed the language settings, but my keyboard and mouse are still acting possessed... This isn't normal. I try to hop into a 3D modeling program or Photoshop—since I pick up some side gigs here and there—and it’s a total disaster. My mouse just goes haywire on its own. And don't even get me started on the keyboard. Typing is basically impossible. If I tried to play anything that uses WASD for movement, forget about it. It just stutters—starts, stops, starts, stops—until the end of time. The only way it works is if I reboot the PC, but even then, it usually acts up again within twenty minutes.

And you're telling me nobody spilled anything on it? No Coke, no beer, nothing?
Did this just start out of nowhere, or has it been a constant headache?