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is this malware or hardware issue

4K views 72 replies 6 participants last post by  Rich-M 
#1 ·
Hi here is my system info

Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.4
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Service Pack 1, 64 bit
Processor: Celeron(R) Dual-Core CPU T3500 @ 2.10GHz, Intel64 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10
Processor Count: 2
RAM: 4025 Mb
Graphics Card: Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family, 1820 Mb
Hard Drives: C: 219 GB (15 GB Free);
Motherboard: Packard Bell, SJV52_MV
Antivirus: None

I have been having differing issues with my laptop for some time now. It started at the same time my battery gave up the ghost. The issue to start with was my laptop would not boot up and i wasleft with a small flashing horizontal l ine in the top left hand corner.Latest issues include laptop just switching itself off randomly and also unable to boot up frequentley, it just pleases itself really. Ive also just noticed that in the sysinfo it states no antivirus installed but i do have avast installed although ive been getting messages pop up to tell me there is no antivirus detected. Ive ran sfc check but nothing came up.

Please help!!
 
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#3 ·
Hi nabby,
The main issue here may be that you have allowed the Hard Drive to become so full Windows doesn't function.
You need at least 32GB of free space on that machine for Windows to function properly.
Right now you have 15Gb free.
Open Windows when you can, right click the Recycle bin and choose "Empty recycle Bin".
After that, Delete or Uninstall everything that is not CRITICAL for you.
Empty Recycle Bin again.
----------------------------------------------
Download and Run Temp File Cleaner (TFC.exe)
Download Temp File Cleaner and save it to your desktop.
You might want to Save any unsaved work. TFC will close ALL open programs... including your browser!
Right click the TFC icon and choose Run as administrator.
If you have a lot of junk files to remove, it could take a while, so please be patient and let it finish.
When it's done, it will report the total size of files removed. If it asks to Reboot, choose to do so. This will remove files that could not be removed while Windows was running.
After Restart, log back in to your usual account.
You can keep TFC on your desktop and run it every week or two to clean out excessive temporary files. It does usually require a restart.

Keep track of C drive Free space by clicking Start > Computer
Let me know how it goes so far.
askey127
 
#4 ·
Hi Askey127 thanks for all your help so far.

I deleted all the files and programmes i could. I then ran left TFC to run. After about 20 mins i returned to my laptop and my mouse had locked up but i did notice TFC had deleted lots of temporary files. I had to do a forced restart which my laptop struggled to do as it did not want to boot up at all. The only way i got it to boot up was to remove the hard drive and put it back in. After it restarted i thought i would try to run TFC but when i did i got the BSOD. So im not sure what the issue is? Whilst ive tried responding to your advice my laptop has frozen twice and shutdown once. Typing slower seems to help??
 
#5 ·
It certainly seems to be struggling.
Next time you can boot it do this to check the hard drive.

Go to Start, and type cmd, Then in the popup menu, Right click cmd.exe and choose "run as administrator"
In the black command window at the cursor, type
chkdsk c:
(there's a space after chkdsk)
Wait for it and note whatever it tells you. If it finishes, note whether it reports any bad sectors.
If it doesn't finish, tell me what message it shows.
 
#6 ·
Hi askey127

I ran chkdsk and it did not report any problems with my hard drive.
I'm having to reply to you via my mobile phone as when I was going to use my laptop to reply to you the second I pressed my keyboard my laptop shut itself down


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#7 ·
Don't know whether we will be able to fix this online.
Looks very much like a hardware issue.
See if you can get this to work:
------------------------------------------------------------
Click on Start and type "memory" into the box (no quotes).
In the popup you will see "Windows Memory Diagnostic". Click on it.
In the window that comes up, choose "Restart now and check for problems".
 
#8 ·
ok thanks
i will try what you suggest soon.
ive tried a few things myself. I uninstalled Avast with their uninstaller. I then tried to installing MSE. As i was installing MSE my laptop locked up. I then tried to carry on with the install but it threw up an error. So i then did a system restore, to an earlier date, about two hours ago which reinstalled Avast. Ive been on my laptop for about 2 hrs now and it seems to have settled down but im not convinced! i will perform the tests you suggest now and post back soon.
Thanks again
 
#9 ·
ok ive done a memory test and no errors were found. Do you still think its a hardware issue? If so, could it be graphics as a couple of times yesterday when i was having issues the screen just became unreadable, like somebody had messed up all the graphics. Or could it be malware?
 
#11 ·
nabby,
It could very well be a graphics problem.
I do think this is a hardware issue, and I don't think it has anything to do with malware.
Unfortunately, I think you will need to take the machine to a shop which can diagnose the issue directly.
Be sure you backup your most important files first, if you can.
askey127
 
#17 ·
Based on the info in post #1 I'm guessing your laptop is a Packard Bell Easynote TK36 but please post the full model name, including any extra characters if any. It should be on a label underneath. Then we can be sure we're looking at the correct laptop hardware.
 
#20 ·
Can't find much about that model online. It could be getting too hot and that can cause sudden shutdowns. I was going to say disassemble it and clean the fan and it's heatsink that way but I can't find a guide for doing that online, in fact there's very little about that model.

So I would start by getting a can of compressed air and blowing it into the fan outlet vent to blow out any dust etc. It's a good idea to stop the fan spinning by putting something like a cocktail stick between the blades through the gaps in the bottom, if possible, but if you can't do that blow it out any way.

Let me know how that goes and if it's still misbehaving we can try some other things.
 
#21 · (Edited)
Thanks so far for all your help.
I decided to do a fresh install from the Packard Bell Recovery tool which basically wipes your hard drive and pre loads drivers for the hardware I think. I just wanted to completely discount any software issues.
At the moment the laptop boots up ok but shuts down after about 10mins. Also sometimes it freezes and other times, as mentioned previous, the screen goes all garbled and unreadable.
I found this guide here for possibly cleaning the fan
http://www.laptopinventory.com/LaptopInventory.php/Packard Bell/EasyNote/TK37/Fan
Do you think the issues I am having are anything to do with the battery not working and being removed? Just a thought.
 
#22 ·
Ok here’s an update
I have taken apart the laptop. When I was taking it apart I noticed that the cable going from the power button to the motherboard was very loose. I reconnected that then put laptop together again. Laptop ran a bit better but still shutdown particularly when I had plugged a hard drive into a usb socket. Anyway I have no completely disassembled it again and taken the motherboard out for inspection. Should I have a look at the cpu? Any help please
 
#24 · (Edited)
Hi sorry for late reply, I was offline for a couple of days waiting for new ISP to activate my Internet connection.

It's common for dust etc to block the path from the fan to it's grill shaped heatsink, often you can't see this until you split them apart as show in the picture :-



So I would check that.

If you have some thermal paste then looking at the Cpu will do no harm but remove the existing paste and apply new before screwing the heatsink back on.
The link shows how to do it :- http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Clean-Laptop-Fan-and-Apply-Thermal-Paste-on/
 
#25 ·
Thanks for the advice. I did have a close look at the heatsink and fan and gave them a clean. They didn’t seem to be that dirty. I have put the laptop back together and it ran ok for an hour. I’ve downloaded a couple of utilities to monitor the heat of my cpu which gets to about 50 to 60 Celsius. Is there anyway I can check if the motherboard is faulty?
 
#26 ·
You can't really test the motherboard itself but by a process of elimination if nothing else is faulty it must be the culprit. To do that you would have to swap the cpu, ram etc so unless you have spares available that's not possible.

Did you split the fan and the grill heatsink apart ? The blockage (if any) won't be visible unless you do that, as in the picture.
 
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