Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Aspire V5 122P Unresponsive

Options
  • 18-08-2016 9:28am
    #1
    Gadgetman496
    Registered Users Posts: 8,398 ✭✭✭


    My sister asked me to look at her Aspire V5 122P notebook as it was unresponsive (sticking as she put it) and taking ages to do anything. It has 4GB Ram, 500GB HDD & is running Windows 10 Pro.

    When I had a look at it I found it to be a tad slow but nothing more than that so, I wondered why she was banging on about not being able to use it. It had AVG antivirus & AVG Tuneup installed, so I removed both as I believe they have been bloatware ever since the company was sold some years back & enabled Windows Defender. I ran virus & mailware checks along with running CCleaner. I also performed all outstanding Windows updates.

    The notebook was absolutely flying it, a pleasure to use. I continued using it for two full days without issue until last night. All of a sudden it just became totally unresponsive, taking forever to open anything, even the mouse pointer & trackpad were pretty much unusable. I checked the fan which was very clean & running fine so there's no sign of overheating or anything like that.

    I managed to shut it down correctly and restart it a number of times albeit painfully slow, but it continues to be literally unusable.

    I have no ideas as to what is causing this seemingly intermittent problem & am hoping someone else might be able to offer any other steps I can take to track down the issue.

    "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."



Comments

  • Options
    #2
    Alanstrainor
    Registered Users Posts: 23,157 ✭✭✭✭Alanstrainor


    If there were no rogue processes killing the machine, I would look at hard drive health. Even before diagnosing further I would backup all documents, music, pictures etc and then look to run checks on the disk to check its health.


  • Options
    #3
    Gadgetman496
    Registered Users Posts: 8,398 ✭✭✭Gadgetman496


    Alanstrainor wrote: »
    If there were no rogue processes killing the machine, I would look at hard drive health. Even before diagnosing further I would backup all documents, music, pictures etc and then look to run checks on the disk to check its health.


    No rogue processes were detected by either of the scans with Defender & Malwarebytes.

    I've just started a chkdsk now using the follow string

    chkdsk c: /f /r /x

    I'll see what that has to report when it finishes.

    "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."



  • Options
    #4
    Gadgetman496
    Registered Users Posts: 8,398 ✭✭✭Gadgetman496


    That chkdsk scan completed with no problems reported....

    "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."



  • Options
    #5
    degsie
    Registered Users Posts: 8,748 ✭✭✭degsie


    Sounds like it could be a thermal issue all the same. Install a h/w monitor program and keep an eye on the CPU/GPU thermal temps.


  • Options
    #6
    Gadgetman496
    Registered Users Posts: 8,398 ✭✭✭Gadgetman496


    degsie wrote: »
    Sounds like it could be a thermal issue all the same. Install a h/w monitor program and keep an eye on the CPU/GPU thermal temps.

    Was thinking that too after the fact it was perfect for a couple of days and then just borked. I had left it shutdown for a day to see if it would perform ok after a cold start before it would bork again but it was goosed from startup straightaway. that lead me to think it wasn't a heat issue. I have that old gut feeling now, I won't identify the culprit in time to save me throwing it under a bus:D

    "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."



  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #7
    Gadgetman496
    Registered Users Posts: 8,398 ✭✭✭Gadgetman496


    Something else I just tried and that was to start it in safe mode. The method for Win 10 is different but when I followed the steps it restarted straight to the Desktop without giving me the option screen to choose safe mode. I tried it a few times but it's not giving me the option....

    "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."



  • Options
    #8
    unkel
    Registered Users Posts: 65,424 ✭✭✭✭unkel
    Chauffe, Marcel, chauffe!


    Hold on a second and lets look at far more likely culprits than heating issues or faulty hard disks!

    When it is slow and you run task manager (start it by holding ctrl and then shift and then esc), in the performance tab, what seems to be the bottle neck? Perhaps most of the 4GB RAM is in use? While still in task manager, have a look at the start up tab and see which processes start up with Windows. Disable any you don't need

    Then in control panel, uninstall any programs you don't need

    Then reboot, and let us know how you are getting on then

    My ads on adverts.ie

    https://www.adverts.ie/member/5856/ads



  • Options
    #9
    Gadgetman496
    Registered Users Posts: 8,398 ✭✭✭Gadgetman496


    Thanks for your input unkel, but I think I might have found the culprit (crosses fingers)

    Out of pure frustration, I was going through all the devices in the device manager at a crippling pace due to the issue, when I noticed the the date for the AMD Radeon HD 8210 driver was dated the day before I was given the machine. I rolled back the driver and restarted, now everything is flying it again & the machine is uuber responsive. I've restarted many times since & all appears to by hunky dory.

    It is also allowing me to start in safe mode which wasn't the case prior to rolling back the driver.

    Could a GPU driver issue cause the problems I've experienced?

    "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."



  • Options
    #10
    unkel
    Registered Users Posts: 65,424 ✭✭✭✭unkel
    Chauffe, Marcel, chauffe!


    Believe me, anything could cause the problems you've experienced :)

    Glad you seem to have fixed it!

    My ads on adverts.ie

    https://www.adverts.ie/member/5856/ads



  • Options
    #11
    FanadMan
    Registered Users Posts: 3,820 ✭✭✭FanadMan


    So it's yet another case of Windows 10 forcing driver updates :(


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #12
    curiousoranje
    Closed Accounts Posts: 111 ✭✭curiousoranje


    That's what happens when you volunteer to 'upgrade' to an OS you have no control over!


  • Options
    #13
    Alanstrainor
    Registered Users Posts: 23,157 ✭✭✭✭Alanstrainor


    unkel wrote: »
    Hold on a second and lets look at far more likely culprits than heating issues or faulty hard disks!

    My point was more about having backups before taking things further. I have seen many cases of immanent hard drive failure manifest itself as system slowness. Backup and diagnose; that's my mantra! :)


Advertisement