ANY COMPUTER GURUS OUT THERE?

[formariz 11,849]

I am having some difficulties, I wonder if there are any experts out there.

[WNYPCRepair 1,875]

What is going on?

[formariz 11,849]

Here we go, a bit of a long story. Been running a Dell unit for many years with WindowsXP. Since its no longer supported it was actually cheaper to get a new one which i did. Started off bad with new one . It came with Windows8.1 and I immediately updated it to Windows10. What a nightmare, this thing was absolutely possessed. Countless hours on phone with Dell tecks in India. Not easy. I gave up after a couple of weeks and reverted the whole thing back to Windows 8.1. Finally it works nicely and stable. Been running the two computers side by side in a network moving files as i get used to new one.

Last week since Verizon was constantly nagging me to change the router encryption to WEP instead of WPA and I did. What happened now was that every few hours both computers would not see the printer. Restart everything and OK again. A couple of hours the same thing.Removed printer software from both, reinstalled everything again and OK. For a couple hours only again. On top of that i noticed that new computer would not go into screen saver mode. The little circle (hour glass) is always flickering once every couple seconds like something is active. Restart it and its OK for a while and same thing happens. I shut printer off and it works fine, a while longer but eventually it starts again. It seems to me that printer and new computer are not accepting new encryption well? I was already online with HP support and they themselves reset everything and yet problem persists.

Edited January 19, 2016 by formariz

[nylyon-(Admin) 7,114]

I hope that is reversed, you went for WEP, to WPA, if not put it back to WPA, it's more secure. Is your printer wireless or wired? Are the computers desktops or laptops? Do you have other wireless devices like iPads, cell phones etc...?

[formariz 11,849]

Yes I reversed it. its on WPA. Printer is wireless they are desktops and 6 other wireless devices. They all lose connection to printer at same time.

[nylyon-(Admin) 7,114]

Do you know if the printer has a hard coded IP address? I suspect that when you changed the encryption, it removed the dhcp settings and the hard coded printer ip is shared with another wireless device.

[formariz 11,849]

It does have a hard coded IP address. I just checked all devices on router again and its not shared with any other.

[WNYPCRepair 1,875]

Is the printer near the router, and if so, can you hook it up with an ethernet cable? I hate wireless printers, they always seem to cause trouble, but even if you just do it temporarily, it may help diagnose the issue. 

[formariz 11,849]

6 minutes ago, WNYPCRepair said:

Is the printer near the router, and if so, can you hook it up with an ethernet cable? I hate wireless printers, they always seem to cause trouble, but even if you just do it temporarily, it may help diagnose the issue. 

That was going to be my next step. What puzzles me is that everything was working fine before I changed the encryption key. Just looked at the settings in the router again and it has the new PC as a wireless device. It is connected to router with a cable. Could that be a problem?

[nylyon-(Admin) 7,114]

I'd still bet that is the case, one fix is to set the dhcp starting address one above the highest static address. Second is to set the printer address very high such as 192.168.1.250 or what ever your address scheme is. Third, if your router supports it, log the printer address in the static list of the router so it doesn't assign it.  I would bet that some device(s) is taking that address causing a conflict, but even if that is not the case here, still suspect it is though, one of the above is good practice anyway.

[DennisThornton 4,769]

Brian, I'm glad I'm not the only guy not impressed with WiFi printers!  Even with static IPs some have been undependable!  Much happier with hardwired network printers!  Good advice I think for formariz.

[cafoose 3,135]

14 hours ago, formariz said:

That was going to be my next step. What puzzles me is that everything was working fine before I changed the encryption key. Just looked at the settings in the router again and it has the new PC as a wireless device. It is connected to router with a cable. Could that be a problem?

If the new PC is is connected with a cable, try to disable the WIFI connection on the PC. Go to network and sharing center, select change adapter settings on the right side, right click on your wireless connection, click disable. That should resolve any conflicts between your PC wireless and wired connections.

[WNYPCRepair 1,875]

11 hours ago, DennisThornton said:

Brian, I'm glad I'm not the only guy not impressed with WiFi printers!  Even with static IPs some have been undependable!  Much happier with hardwired network printers!  Good advice I think for formariz.

If I can hardwire the printer, I never configure the wireless part. 

Wireless printers seem to always have issues, and can be a real headache, especially if they have no LCD display to help troubleshoot. 

And by the way, HP printers are the worst. They include so much BS software, they will slow older PCs to a crawl.  I like Brother printers. Cheap and reliable. I have had a cheap $100 Brother laser printer in a car dealer service department since about 2005, and it is still printing just fine, even though it is completely black with brake dust, soot and grease. Never done anything to it except replace consumables.

[formariz 11,849]

Half way there.

1- Gave up and hardwired printer. No problem with that now . Always there and working properly.

2- Disabled wireless connection from new PC so now its on Ethernet.

3- Only problem remaining is the flickering of "wheel" at pointer. Flicks every couple seconds and will not allow PC to go into screensaver mode. Goes away on restart but eventually it happens again, although it is taking much longer for it to happen than it did before.

Edited January 21, 2016 by formariz

[WNYPCRepair 1,875]

You mean the blue spinning cursor?

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/junkware-removal-tool/
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

Just for the heck of it, run these two programs, in the order of the links. adwcleaner will force a reboot so close all your programs before running them, and save your documents.

The first is Junkware Removal Tool, The second ADWCleaner. Two quick little scanners to check for malware. I use them both, all the time. If you have some junkware on your PC, it can slow the PC down, giving you the blue "busy" cursor when you are working.

 

Edited January 21, 2016 by WNYPCRepair

[cafoose 3,135]

Normally when the mouse pointer flickers that's an indication of not enough RAM for the processes that are running. The PC is not going into screensaver mode or slowly going into screensaver mode because it does not have enough RAM left to allow screensaver mode to work as it should. If you right click on the taskbar and click "start task manager" then click performance tab and that will show you if your RAM is maxed out at 100%. You can also go to control panel and click "system" and that will show how much RAM is installed in the system. If it is 2 or 3 GB or less it's not enough to seamlessly run your system, It can normally be increased by simply installing and/or adding larger memory chips on the motherboard. If you do a search on the internet and put in your computer manufacturer and operating system you can see exactly how to do it.

[WNYPCRepair 1,875]

2 minutes ago, cafoose said:

Normally when the mouse pointer flickers that's an indication of not enough RAM for the processes that are running. The PC is not going into screensaver mode or slowly going into screensaver mode because it does not have enough RAM left to allow screensaver mode to work as it should. If you right click on the taskbar and click "start task manager" then click performance tab and that will show you if your RAM is maxed out at 100%. You can also go to control panel and click "system" and that will show how much RAM is installed in the system. If it is 2 or 3 GB or less it's not enough to seamlessly run your system, It can normally be increased by simply installing and/or adding larger memory chips on the motherboard. If you do a search on the internet and put in your computer manufacturer and operating system you can see exactly how to do it.

Also look at CPU usage, see if it is maxed out. You can sort highest to lowest by clicking on the headers to see what is using the most resources

 

Ccleaner from Piriform is a nice utility to clean up your PC, give it a little clean up. Clean your temp files, registry, and turn off startup items you don't need. The three of them will do a fairly good little clean up usually with noticeable performance increase

 

 

On January 19, 2016 at 6:34 PM, formariz said:

Countless hours on phone with Dell tecks in India.

 

 

 

Whoa, I just went back and noticed this. 

Did they take control of your PC?

Did they ask you for a credit card, or try to sell you a maintenance contract or repair of any type?

[formariz 11,849]

I have 4GB installed and usage is only at 30%. I scan it regularly with Malware-bites and there is nothing it. Also have System Mechanic installed.

The blue spinning cursor only flickers every couple seconds when it wont go into screen saver. That happens even if there are no processes running.

 

Yeah they tried to sell me all kinds of stuff but i did not take it. PC still under warranty so the had to help me. They did take control of it.

[WNYPCRepair 1,875]

4 minutes ago, formariz said:

I have 4GB installed and usage is only at 30%. I scan it regularly with Malware-bites and there is nothing it. Also have System Mechanic installed.

The blue spinning cursor only flickers every couple seconds when it wont go into screen saver. That happens even if there are no processes running.

 

Yeah they tried to sell me all kinds of stuff but i did not take it. PC still under warranty so the had to help me. They did take control of it.

I believe you have been scammed. 

Companies advertise on Google, etc as being Dell, HP, Microsoft etc support. Their ad shows above the search result, so most people see it and think it is the best match, and legitimate. 

In reality, they are scammers, and sabotage your PC, basically, then try to sell you cleaning and/or maintenance services. The real site would be something like support.dell.com, while the fakes will be something like DellSupport.xyzcompany.com. The last two words are the key, and what company you are actually calling, or clicking

 

Definitely run those programs, and frankly, I don't trust System Mechanic. It is from Iolo, a company that many feel are selling malware disguised as cleanup programs. 

 

 

Here is an example. 


In this case Dell actually is on top, but the second one is actually a company called guruaid.com, and the way the ad is stuck in between the real Dell ads, it looks legit.



This is the same search with AdBlock Plus (free) installed




Nothing but Dell

 

[formariz 11,849]

I am giving those two a try. I am sure I dealt with Dell. I contacted them with the address in the paperwork that came with PC and the address is correct as you described it. On top of that they always sent me mailed correspondence after regarding the warranty support.

[formariz 11,849]

Just ran those two. They are quick! Both found nothing.

[cafoose 3,135]

1 hour ago, formariz said:

The blue spinning cursor only flickers every couple seconds when it wont go into screen saver. That happens even if there are no processes running.

What screensaver are you running? If you didn't get it from a trustworthy site or program that may give you a problem.

[formariz 11,849]

Screen savers that came with unit. They work perfectly as long as cursor is not flickering. If it is screen saver will not go on since something is really working in background.

[WNYPCRepair 1,875]

6 hours ago, formariz said:

I am giving those two a try. I am sure I dealt with Dell. I contacted them with the address in the paperwork that came with PC and the address is correct as you described it. On top of that they always sent me mailed correspondence after regarding the warranty support.

Good. You wouldn't believe how many people fall for the fakes. Best to go to Dell.com, HP.com, etc and from there find support, or just be sure to check the entire address to see the actual domain name is indeed the correct company.

If you keep task manager open, and sort by CPU usage, watch it when the cursor starts flickering and see if any particular process starts using up CPU time.

 

[formariz 11,849]

90% of times I type the actual web address rather than just clicking on a link. I also have a Dell account that I log back into and I can check all previous activity related to the warranty support that verifies that I was indeed on the correct site. Although they are always gracious , cooperative and do resolve the problems eventually the issue that I have is that is very hard to understand these nice people from India. I also speak with an accent , but I have a real hard time understanding some of them. They all have been extremely polite and helpful and some always remind me to not hesitate to repeat my questions if i cannot understand them or they speak too fast. I have no issue with them, they are trying to help me and make a living. Its with companies like Dell that I have the issue with that cannot keep those jobs here . It certainly would be nice to hear an accent from the South or Mid West.

 

I have watched the task manager and there are always several things flickering very briefly.Its hard to pinpoint because one thing will flicker once or twice never to do it again. Something else will start. That however is the same when  the cursor condition does not exist such as after restarting unit.I have to say though, that it takes much much longer for that to happen now that I hardwired the printer. This unit has many puzzling things to me. I am running the old unit with XP next to it until I am used to this one and trust it and it behaves totally different. When not being used almost nothing ever flickers when looking at task manager . That thing is rock solid and totally reliable. Unfortunately since it is no longer supported many financial institutions I deal with have locked me out because of security issues pertaining to that. I have no choice but to change.

 

I am thinking that it may have something to do with router and me changing the encryption key. This never happened before that. That was the only thing it was changed. I basically do not have transferred any files or programs that i use on old unit to this unit yet. Its basically running with what it came with the exception of protection programs. Again, all was fine prior to the change in router.