Computer gurus?

[Gregor 4,838]

I have an ASUS laptop. I bought it in 2012. It is, and always has been a very nice, reliable computer, until recently. I am using Winows 10 OS, and Firefox. I keep getting this message, several times a day recently.

 

"Your computer has encountered a problem, and will restart..........yad yada yada........." 

 

Then BOOM, It shuts down. Anything I was doing or working on at the time,  is suddenly gone, and gone forever. Getting it fired back up again, seems to be getting increasingly more difficult. Any suggestions, or is it time for an upgrade?

 

Thanks  Greg

[WHX?? 46,797]

Chiming in here Greg to see what a guru has to say.

Kinda the same thing here with a older laptop but that I know is out of date. Still runs windows 7 and can't be or not worth updating. Also the same problem with a Samsung tablet that runs Android and I know is a POS. 

Trouble is I know just about as less about computers as I do horses so not sure what I should be looking for in a new one. 

[Skwerl58 634]

My 8 year old desktop did the same thing about 18 months ago and it was a corrupt hard drive(crash). I had a local shop replace and upgrade the hard drive for about 25% of the cost of a new system. It is a lot faster and hopefully last for a few more years.

[Gregor 4,838]

14 minutes ago, WHX?? said:

Trouble is I know just about as less about computers

I know nuttin' !

[Alex175 784]

53 minutes ago, Gregor said:

or is it time for an upgrade?

 

While for a short while the speed at which computer tech was advancing plateaued, it has sped up a little again.  9 years, especially on a laptop is a long time depending on what you are using it for.  My main thought with your computer would be with the RAM.  Considering the age of your machine, depending on how much you have and the fact that you are running Windows 10 that could be a bottleneck that leads to the crashes.  The hard drive is also a strong possibility as was mentioned earlier.  If it is a hard drive and you want to fix it, make sure you get a Solid State Hard Drive, they are much faster and much more reliable. But even as much as I like tech and computers I myself and still fairly much a novice.

 

If you right click on the Windows logo in the bottom left, and hit System, what does it say you have for a Processor, and for your Installed RAM?  These two pieces of info will be a good place to start for someone offering a recommendation on if to upgrade or not.
 

[Gregor 4,838]

Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2430M CPU @ 2.40GHz   2.40 GHz
Installed RAM    4.00 GB
System type    64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch    No pen or touch input is available for this display

 

Edition    Windows 10 Home
Version    21H1
Installed on    ‎9/‎19/‎2020
OS build    19043.1237
Experience    Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.3530.0

 

[RandyLittrell 3,827]

1 hour ago, Gregor said:

I have an ASUS laptop. I bought it in 2012. It is, and always has been a very nice, reliable computer, until recently. I am using Winows 10 OS, and Firefox. I keep getting this message, several times a day recently.

 

"Your computer has encountered a problem, and will restart..........yad yada yada........." 

 

Then BOOM, It shuts down. Anything I was doing or working on at the time,  is suddenly gone, and gone forever. Getting it fired back up again, seems to be getting increasingly more difficult. Any suggestions, or is it time for an upgrade?

 

Thanks  Greg

 

 

I have taken a couple of old laptops and updated for less than 50 bucks and they run amazing. Pull your old drive and put a new SSD harddrive in, then download a fresh copy of windows 10 from microsoft and install. You will need a thumbdrive with 32 gigs of space if I remember right. You will download it on the thumbdrive then install it on the new ssd. Microsoft's site will walk you through doing it. If I can do it, anyone can! 

 

You can put your old harddrive in an enclosure to access all your old files or wipe it and use it to store stuff on. That's what I have done and you will be surprised at how much faster it run with the ssd and fresh download. 

 

It's a free download if you had windows on the old computer. 

 

 

 

 

Randy

 

 

 

Randy

[RandyLittrell 3,827]

@Gregor  I said that in the wrong order, if you do not have another computer on which to download the fresh copy, download it and put in on the thumbdrive first. Then you can pull your old drive and replace it, then install the fresh copy. 

 

 

 

Randy

[Alex175 784]

41 minutes ago, Gregor said:

Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2430M CPU @ 2.40GHz   2.40 GHz
Installed RAM    4.00 GB

 

These aren't terrible specs.  If you are only using the computer for basic work like internet browsing, word documents etc, it should still be fine.  If there are no other issues with the computer then an upgrade to a Solid State Hard Drive (SSD) just as Randy and I mentioned would be a great place to start. I personally like Samsung EVO SSD's, a 250 gigabyte one will cost around $65, but there are cheaper options out there from other brands as well.

[Handy Don 10,609]

1 hour ago, Alex175 said:

 

These aren't terrible specs.  If you are only using the computer for basic work like internet browsing, word documents etc, it should still be fine.  If there are no other issues with the computer then an upgrade to a Solid State Hard Drive (SSD) just as Randy and I mentioned would be a great place to start. I personally like Samsung EVO SSD's, a 250 gigabyte one will cost around $65, but there are cheaper options out there from other brands as well.

  mostly...

The 4gb of RAM is in the "bare minimum" category for Windows 10 and you'll notice it will be slow at times--especially with the 9 year old hard drive technology in a low-end laptop. If your hard drive is starting to fail (and after 9 years this is a definite possibility) switching to a much faster Solid State storage device will end those failures and somewhat improve your overall speed for not a lot of cash.

Frankly, though, I generally recommend to my friends and family with devices of that age to bite the bullet and start fresh and go with a new laptop (or even a tablet like an iPad with a keyboard).

Edited September 27, 2021 by Handy Don

[rmaynard 14,898]

Disclaimer - I am not a guru, but I have 4 computers. All but one run Windows 7. The other is Windows 10. I HATE Windows 10. My suggestion would be to determine when the problem began. Then look at your history of updates. Uninstall the update just prior to the problem's onset. See if the problem goes away.

Edited September 27, 2021 by rmaynard

[Gregor 4,838]

1 hour ago, Handy Don said:

I generally recommend to my friends and family with devices of that age to bite the bullet and start fresh and go with a new laptop

I think so too. Proving difficult to find a laptop that will read and write CD's. Don't know that I need that, but I have it now, and would like to keep it.

[Handy Don 10,609]

1 hour ago, Gregor said:

I think so too. Proving difficult to find a laptop that will read and write CD's. Don't know that I need that, but I have it now, and would like to keep it.

Yeah, I hear you on this!

 

My desktop machine is has a CD/DVD drive and I've been reluctant to give it up. Still, I haven't used in in probably two years or more. And now that I have a high-bandwidth internet connection and an in-home networked storage server that all our computers can use, I have trouble seeing that I ever will again!

 

CD drives in laptops are not cost effective for makers--WAY too little need/useage. Downloading is faster and cheaper and more timely for software delivery (the latest Windows 10 full install would require a stack of CDs to deliver)! Burning CD-ROMs for backup makes little sense when you can have cheap/free and secure cloud storage. And with so much music and video downloaded and "digital rights managed" now, "playlist" CDs or DVDs are tougher to create.

 

Read/write drives are still pretty readily available as external devices via USB-B or USB-C or even Lightning ports (make sure your laptop has the right spec port before buying!)

[8ntruck 6,376]

We have a HP laptop that is 5 or 6 years old.  It was taking a long time to boot, and was getting flakey in operation.  Took it into the local computer mechanic and had a solid state drive installed, the ram increased to 8 gigs, and a fresh install of Windows done. 

 

Runs like a new machine now.  Much cheaper than a new computer, too. 

[Handy Don 10,609]

7 minutes ago, 8ntruck said:

We have a HP laptop that is 5 or 6 years old.  It was taking a long time to boot, and was getting flakey in operation.  Took it into the local computer mechanic and had a solid state drive installed, the ram increased to 8 gigs, and a fresh install of Windows done. 

 

Runs like a new machine now.  Much cheaper than a new computer, too. 

For a machine able to be upgraded and only 5-6 years old, I fully agree that you can extend it's life at moderate cost.

[WHX?? 46,797]

Unlike Maynard I like Windows 10 now that I am used to it.  Trouble is old Mr. Gates needs a new yacht so putting 10 on an older laptop was not really an option. More than half the price of a new one. I'll have to check the specs on the machine and have the gurus tell me if it could even be done. 

[JoeM 7,636]

Might be coincidence, maybe not, I had all kinds of issues, (internet), some file exceptions, I run Windows 7 cause I did not care for 10, I changed my browser to Chrome and a lot of the problems are gone.  This dell is 10 years old and is fine, at least for now. 

[bc.gold 3,399]

ASUS STRIX came loaded Windows 10 gave is a try and did not like it and decided to load Ubuntu from a thumb drive soon learned this ain't going to happen. New laptops do not come with a built in DVD/CD drive.

 

The only way to load Ubuntu was by using an external drive, its been six months now running on the new OS without any complaints from the laptop or me. For those not familiar with Ubuntu the interface is very similar to XP.

[Gregor 4,838]

26 minutes ago, bc.gold said:

New laptops do not come with a built in DVD/CD drive.

 

Can an external DVD/CD drive be connected through a USB port. It seems a lot of technical manuals are now available on in a digital format.

 

Maybe I don't need a CD burner if I can do pretty much the same thing with a thumb drive.

Like I said. I know nothing about computers.

Edited September 28, 2021 by Gregor

[Gregor 4,838]

The 2 main things I want are a 17" screen,(or larger)  and a numbers key pad. I have had these for a long time, and that's what I am use to.

I am leaning towards this one.

computer

 

What bothers me is,

 

"Seal is opened for upgrade ONLY, from Base Model with Specs 8GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB HDD. 1-years warranty on Upgraded RAM/SSD from BROAGE, and original 1-Year Manufacture warranty on remaining components."

 

Will the manufacturer warranty ANYTHING, if the seal is broken?

I take it a DVD writer is not the same as a CD player?

It's hard being stupid.

[bc.gold 3,399]

7 hours ago, Gregor said:

Can an external DVD/CD drive be connected through a USB port. It seems a lot of technical manuals are now available on in a digital format.

 

Maybe I don't need a CD burner if I can do pretty much the same thing with a thumb drive.

Like I said. I know nothing about computers.

 

You missed this part of my comment, The only way to load Ubuntu was by using an external drive,

[Handy Don 10,609]

7 hours ago, Gregor said:

Can an external DVD/CD drive be connected through a USB port

Yes, there are optical drives that connect via USB-B and USB-C that range from simple readers all the way up to read/write DVDs.

Keep in mind, though, that a CD can store up to about 680mb--a DVD about 3.5gb. An $8 USB flash/thumb drive can store 32gb (about 75 CDs or 10 DVDs). You can buy a lot of flash drives for the cost of a CD/DVD drive plus discs.

 

6 hours ago, Gregor said:

Will the manufacturer warranty ANYTHING, if the seal is broken?

I take it a DVD writer is not the same as a CD player?

It's hard being stupid.

Amazon is adding non-HP memory to raise the memory above the "base" 8gb and putting their own seal on the upgraded machine. If they do this, then the memory vendor (Broage) gives 1 year on the added memory and HP warrants the rest for a year. 

If YOU break the Amazon or HP seal, all warranties are void.

 

A DVD writer will read/write CDs/CD-ROMs as well as DVDs

 

Processor - iCore 3 is an good processor unless gaming, video editing, or 3-D modeling (iCore 5 or 7 are upgrades)

RAM - 8 is adequate; 16 is good; 32 if video editing, playing heavy photo-realistic games, or 3-D modeling only

Storage - 256gb is a base; 512gb if you have a lot of photos (i.e. 0,000's) and or big music collection (i.e. 000's of hours); 1 or 2tb if you have an large video collection

Storage mode - SSD is "Solid State Device" -- sorta like a really big thumb drive. Faster than a "hard drive" that has spinning platters. In normal use, they will last about the same number of years. In intense use (see above), the platter drive will likely last a little longer .

 

 

Edited September 28, 2021 by Handy Don

[bc.gold 3,399]

7 minutes ago, bc.gold said:

 

You missed this part of my comment, The only way to load Ubuntu was by using an external drive,

The CMOS wont allow a thumb drive install of Ubuntu, the machine is tied to Windows. Thw only way to by-pass this nonsense was by using an external DVD/CD drive.

Edited September 28, 2021 by bc.gold

[Gregor 4,838]

I don't do any gaming, video editing, or 3-D modeling. I do make a Youtube video occasionally. No music collection. I do have a lot of photos, but not 0,000's I don't think.

[Handy Don 10,609]

3 minutes ago, bc.gold said:

The CMOS wont allow a thumb drive install of Ubuntu, the machine is tied to Windows.

Yes, if your goal in getting a new laptop is to REPLACE the already-installed operating system (Window, MacOS, or whatever) with Ubuntu or Linux (or whatever) you must pay attention to the hardware limitations.

As @bc.gold points out, the CMOS (think of it as built-in programming) in many machines is set automatically install and maintain a specific operating system. For the vast majority of users, this is an excellent idea since it reduces the risk of making the machine unusable.

For those who WANT to take full control of their machine, operating system-specific CMOS can be an obstacle.