Anyone still running Windows 7?

Larry Ortiz5 · 2013-12-19T19:27:00+00:00

You haven't given me quite enough to go on here. It could be anything—just some dust buildup inside the case, a malware infection, who knows? First off, could …

Harold Price4 Newcomer

2 messages
joined Apr 2016

#821 · Apr 25, 2016

Hey guys... first post here and I'm already running into trouble

So, basically... for about a month and a half now, my PC has been shutting itself off randomly...

Everything seems fine otherwise—it only happens while I'm gaming. I've got Titan Quest and Fifu 2015 installed... up until about two weeks ago, it wasn't happening that often, but lately... maybe 30 or 40 times?

I had no clue what was causing it... just couldn't figure it out until I checked the Event Manager...

It shows a critical error... specifically Kernel Power... event id 41... task category 63... I'm no expert, but could this be the power supply or maybe the graphics card? Maybe...

For context... I'm running Windows 7... 3 cores... AMD Radeon HD 6530... AMD A6-3500

Thanks in advance... maybe someone else has dealt with this before... thanks for the help

Larry Ortiz5 RegularOP

710 messages
joined May 2020

#822 · Apr 25, 2016

Harold Price4 said:Hey guys... first post here and I'm already running into trouble.

So, basically... for about a month and a half now, my PC has just been shutting itself off randomly...

Everything seems to run fine otherwise... it only shuts down while I'm gaming... I have Titan Quest and Fifu 2015 installed... up until about two weeks ago, it wasn't happening too often, but lately... it's happened maybe 30 or 40 times.

I had no idea what was causing it... it was pretty confusing until I checked the Event Manager and saw something.

A critical error... specifically Kernel Power... the event ID is 41... and the task category is 63... I'm no expert, but could this be the power supply or maybe the graphics card? Maybe.

For context... I'm running Windows 7... it's a 3-core system... AMD Radeon HD 6530... AMD A6-3500.

Thanks in advance... maybe someone else has dealt with this before? Thanks for any help.

When was the last time you actually cleaned the dust out of your computer or swapped the thermal paste on the CPU? If it's only cutting out during games, I'd guess that's your culprit—usually, when things hit a certain temperature limit, the system just shuts down to prevent the processor and other parts from getting fried. Why not check your temperatures using HWMonitor?

Harold Price4 Newcomer

2 messages
joined Apr 2016

#823 · Apr 25, 2016

I haven't cleaned out the dust in a while... maybe I'm just being a bit slow here—what exactly is thermal paste?😵

goldenviper13 Active Member

53 messages
joined Feb 2016

#824 · Apr 25, 2016

Harold Price4 said:Hey guys... first post here and I'm already running into issues.

So, basically... for about a month and a half now, my PC has been shutting itself down randomly...

Everything runs fine normally... it only shuts down while I'm gaming... I have Titan Quest and Fifu 2015 installed... up until about 15 days ago it wasn't happening that often, but lately... it's happened maybe 30 or 40 times.

I had no clue what was causing it... couldn't figure out the deal... until I checked the Event Manager.

Critical error... specifically Kernel Power... event ID 41... task category 63... I'm no expert... but I'm thinking it might be the power supply or the graphics card? Maybe.

Anyway... running Windows 7... 3 cores... AMD Radeon HD 6530... AMD A6-3500.

Thanks in advance... maybe someone else has dealt with this before... thanks for the help.

Get this to a repair shop immediately; you're basically living on borrowed time here. If you keep waiting, there's a very real chance you'll fry your GPU or your motherboard. The system is likely shutting down because it can't cool the processor, and it's triggering an emergency shutdown to protect itself. While you're cleaning out the fans and dust, you should definitely replace the thermal paste used to pull excess heat away from the CPU.

Larry Ortiz5 RegularOP

710 messages
joined May 2020

#825 · Apr 25, 2016

Harold Price4 said:I haven't cleaned out the dust in a while... and maybe I'm just being silly here—but what exactly is thermal paste?😵

wiredcyclist82 Member

17 messages
joined Jul 2015

#826 · May 19, 2016

Listen up, anyone looking to get Windows 7 up and running: Microsoft dropped a Convenience Rollup Package. It’s basically every single update since SP1 packed into one file. Makes life easier, right?
Check this page here: just make sure you're using Internet Explorer 6 or anything newer, otherwise don't come crying to me when it breaks.

Larry Ortiz5 RegularOP

710 messages
joined May 2020

#827 · May 22, 2016

That website is being a bit of a pain—I'm running Windows 10 with IE 11.306, but it just won't let me in. I keep getting the same error over and over. Even when I try opening it in Edge, it tells me I have to use IE instead. 🤔

EDIT: It works! Turns out you just have to clear out your history, the cache, and all that other junk. 🙂

Hannah Campbell63 Member

12 messages
joined Dec 2018

#828 · May 25, 2016

I’ve been running into this persistent "unsupported partition table" error while trying to run the loader for activation, and honestly, it’s becoming a bit of a headache. It seems to happen quite frequently on my laptops that are running UEFI BIOS; every single time I attempt to go through that route, the error pops right up. If I try to bypass it using the standard option instead, I just get hit with a "no bootable device" message or something similar. I even tried switching things up by downloading the Ultimate version, and then I gave the Professional version a shot as well, but the result was exactly the same. Right now, I have the activation running via the MS Toolkit, and I’ve just been sitting here watching it for about 10 to 15 minutes now, with nothing but a "Processing..." message on the screen.

ironcyclist58 Regular

863 messages
joined Feb 2020

#829 · May 25, 2016

You've got GPT partitions when they really need to be MBR. You're gonna have to repartition the whole drive back to MBR...

Hannah Campbell63 Member

12 messages
joined Dec 2018

#830 · May 25, 2016

I know the feeling, honestly; I’ve actually run into this myself a few times where I tried converting everything over to MBR only to have it all go sideways again. It was such a headache. In the end, though, I managed to get this PRO version activated without any issues. Still, I can't help but worry that I'll eventually run into a situation where the loader flags an unsupported partition table anyway.

Megan Moore60 Member

10 messages
joined Nov 2011

#831 · May 26, 2016

Hey everyone, I’m running into a bit of a headache here. So, I just did a fresh reinstall of Windows 7 64, which is exactly what I had running before, but for some reason, things just aren't clicking this time around. It feels like half my software is throwing a tantrum; for instance, that little utility from my AMD drivers just refuses to launch, and TeamSpeak wouldn't budge at all until I gave up and grabbed the x32 version, which finally started working. On top of that, I couldn't even get certain games to kick off until I went through the tedious process of reinstalling the exact same drivers three separate times. My main goal is to get everything updated by installing the service pack, specifically the Windows 7 Ultimate sp1, but I'm hitting a brick wall. I tried running it through Windows Update, but it just spits back an error. Then I thought, okay, I'll just download the standalone installer directly from the official site, but even that fails—it gets halfway through and then just freezes completely. I even tried booting from the USB drive I used to install the OS in the first place to run an upgrade, but instead of helping, I got hit with a compatibility error that basically says:

You can’t upgrade 64-bit Windows to a 32-bit version of Windows. To upgrade, obtain a 64-bit version of the installation disc, or go online to see how to install Windows 7 and keep your files and settings.

It also threw out a similar message saying the opposite thing, about how I couldn't go from 32-bit to 64-bit, and so on.

To recap: I am definitely running the 64-bit version—I've double-checked that more times than I care to admit—yet certain small programs simply won't open, and I'm frequently dealing with the whole system lagging out and crawling along. I really need some guidance here, because if I don't get this sorted out soon, I might actually chuck this computer right out the window.

quietbison86 Active Member

81 messages
joined May 2024

#832 · May 26, 2016

Ever since I got the option to upgrade to 10, I’ve been dealing with nothing but constant blue screens—I actually just had it crash twice in a row

Is this happening because the system is forcing the move to 10, or am I looking at something else entirely?

Larry Ortiz5 RegularOP

710 messages
joined May 2020

#833 · May 27, 2016

Christian Miller48 said:Hey guys, I'm running into some trouble—I just finished reinstalling Windows 7 64, which is what I had before, but this time everything feels... off. Certain programs just refuse to launch? Like, the AMD driver utility won't start, and TeamSpeak was being stubborn too—I actually had to download the x32 version just to get it working. On top of that, I couldn't even get certain games to run until I tried reinstalling the exact same drivers three different times. I've been trying to update my system by installing SP1, but it's just not happening. I tried through Windows Update and got an error, then I grabbed the Windows 7 Ultimate sp1 installer directly from their site, but it just freezes halfway through. I even tried booting from the USB drive I used for the initial install to run an upgrade, but I kept getting a compatibility error that said:

You can’t upgrade 64-bit Windows to a 32-bit version of Windows. To upgrade, obtain a 64-bit version of the installation disc, or go online to see how to install Windows 7 and keep your files and settings.

It also showed something similar but reversed—saying I couldn't go from 32-bit to 64-bit, etc.

So, to reiterate: I definitely have the 64-bit version installed—I've double-checked multiple times—but some apps won't open at all, and my whole system keeps lagging or just slowing down significantly... any advice? If I don't get this sorted soon, I might just toss this computer out the window.

Yeah, you can't perform an upgrade between x32 and x64 versions—not one way or the other. You're going to have to format the drive and do a fresh installation. If I were you, I'd just find a Windows 7 Ultimate sp1 ISO that includes all the recent updates from this year. That way, once you install it, you won't waste forever fighting with Windows updates; you can just jump straight to your drivers and software. Honestly, if you still keep hitting errors after a clean install, you might want to look into whether there's an actual hardware issue with your PC.

Megan Moore60 Member

10 messages
joined Nov 2011

#834 · May 27, 2016

Larry Ortiz5 said:Yeah, there’s just no way to jump from x32 Windows to x64 or vice versa; you’re going to have to wipe everything and start fresh with a clean install. If I were in your shoes, I’d grab a version of Windows 7 Ultimate sp1 from a torrent site that’s already been patched with all the updates through this month. That way, once you get it running, you won't be stuck staring at a progress bar for hours waiting on system updates—you can just dive straight into installing your drivers and software. If you still run into errors after that, then we might actually be looking at a hardware issue.

I totally get that it isn't possible, but the thing is, I'm not even attempting an upgrade; I'm getting error codes just by trying to work with what I've got. Honestly, I doubt it's my hardware, because I currently have The Witcher 3 installed and it runs perfectly smooth at a steady 60fps. It really feels like these buggy versions of Windows are the culprit here. Thanks for the advice regardless, though; I think I'll try installing a different version of Windows. (I could go on about that, since I actually have some original Windows 8 files ready to go, but the download is acting up right now...) Anyway, I won't be able to get to it for a few days, but if anyone else has some insight or suggestions, I'm all ears.

Mark Torres4 Newcomer

2 messages
joined Jul 2008

#835 · May 31, 2016

Can anyone help? I'm having some major internet issues following the latest update. It keeps showing "limited access" and I can't get online at all. On top of that, my laptop is running incredibly hot, almost like I have dozens of programs running at once. It looks like that last Defender update tried to install several times but now shows as "failed" on my list.

goldenviper13 Active Member

53 messages
joined Feb 2016

#836 · May 31, 2016

Sophia Ortiz56 said:Can anyone help? My internet connection has been acting up ever since the last update. It keeps showing "limited access" and I can't get online at all. On top of that, my laptop is running incredibly hot, almost like I have dozens of heavy programs running simultaneously. That recent Defender update tried to install several times, but now I see it listed as "failed."

Try running a System Recovery to a point before that last update went down. As for the overheating issue, you likely have some process hogging resources in the background. You might also want to look into cleaning out the dust or swapping out the thermal paste...

Andrew Nelson6 Newcomer

9 messages
joined Nov 2019

#837 · Aug 8, 2016

So, I just had my system completely overhauled—fresh start and all that—but then last night, in the middle of the night when I was finally ready to call it a day, I tried to shut down my laptop and it just... refused. It insisted on running updates instead. I ended up sitting there for an hour and a half just waiting for it to finish! And now, get this: today, as soon as I go to turn it off, the exact same message pops up again. I know somewhere in the Control Panel there’s a Recovery option, but honestly, I have absolutely no clue what that does or how to actually stop this from happening—it can't possibly be normal that it has to do this every single time, right?
Windows 7
(Sorry if this isn't quite the right spot for this question, but I saw some people asking similar things elsewhere, so I figured this might be the place to post 🙂)

Drew Allen77 Active Member

82 messages
joined May 2017

#838 · Aug 8, 2016

Why not just let it finish its update? If you cut it off halfway through, you might end up with some corrupted files, and then you'll be stuck needing a full reinstall anyway...

Andrew Nelson6 Newcomer

9 messages
joined Nov 2019

#839 · Aug 8, 2016

So, I finally let it run, and boy, did it work—it churned through 99 updates! Then this afternoon, it decided it needed a few more, and it feels like every single time I try to shut down my computer, there’s something else running in the background. I mean, look, I don't mind letting it do its thing, but honestly, it's a bit baffling—back when I was using Windows 7, I never dealt with this kind of constant back-and-forth. I’m just not sure how long this cycle is going to last or if this is some mandatory requirement for Windows 7 users.

goldenviper13 Active Member

53 messages
joined Feb 2016

#840 · Aug 8, 2016

Nicole Newman15 said:I finally let it run, and it churned through 99 updates. This afternoon, it started another couple, and every single time I shut down my computer, it’s still working on something. I mean, fine, I'll let it finish, but I don't get it. I used Windows 7 before and never dealt with this. I have no idea how long this is going to last or if this constant activity is just mandatory for Windows 7.

The initial wave of updates right after a fresh installation usually takes forever—though that depends entirely on your hardware specs—so you really just have to let it finish its business. Alternatively, you could download all the updates offline to cut down the waiting time.

Anyone still running Windows 7?

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