Laptop suddenly boots up slowly

[Saajuk]

My laptop runs windows 7. Before this started I ran ccleaner to clean out my junk registries (normal routine) and cleaned out the dust inside using pressured air. The next time I started it up it froze on the windows start up screen. I waited for 5-10 minutes then held the power button to restart the computer. Same thing happens but eventually it goes to a system repair screen trying to resolve the issue. It recommended that I restore my computer to a earlier time. I did to the day prior. Now it still takes around 5 minutes to boot up but it actually gets to the login screen now and everything else is good. What could cause this?
Also I downloaded a free program from cnet about 3 weeks ago and it contained a virus called “delta search” (my malwarebytes scan didn’t pick up) which replaces your default search bar to there’s and redirects you to unrelated sites potentially containing other harmful viruses and spyware. I got rid of it with the help of some HOW TO sites which had me go into the registry and delete a few things, no problems and the situation was fixed but I read that it could cause other problems, one of those being slowing down your computer, so I don’t think I got rid of it at its roots and I didn’t delve any further cause my search bar was back to normal and everything performed the way it had been prior to the download, until now.
So I was wondering if the cause could be one of the 3 reasons above. Maybe ccleaner deleted a registry that I needed by mistake and it caused my pc to boot up slowly or maybe it’s the virus fault or the canned air?
Need help!

 

[mikeymikec]

How's the anti-virus and is your computer's clock correct?

Malware could definitely be a possibility.

It might be worth checking the event log for errors.

 

[denis280]

Malware could definitely be a possibility.

yes i would start with this.

 

[taq8ojh]

I would start with http://www.eset.com/us/online-scanner/
Followed by a check of stuff that's loading automatically, preferrably with the help of http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx.

 

[Drsignguy]

I would rule out ccleaner. As said by others, malware is most likely the culprit. You can try hitting f8 at boot up and try resetting your config to last know that worked.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I would rule out ccleaner. As said by others, malware is most likely the culprit. You can try hitting f8 at boot up and try resetting your config to last know that worked.

My grandsons laptop was not booting and we finally got it to boot to last known working configuration and it worked fine. Not sure exactly it worked, because using system restore did not work.

I would also expect malware is the problem, but I would also be concerned that the hard drive might be failing. If you don't have a backup of your important files, it would be a good idea make one.

Your best solution might be to reformat in you have restore disks or the windows CD.

 

[Saajuk]

@ Frozentundra123456: I would reformat but I dont have the disk with me and im 8,000 miles from home.
About the hard drive, when im playing a game, sometimes my harddrive/video card or w/e it is fails, screen goes black for a few seconds and then recovers which shuts down the game and then boots it back up to where i left off. How do I fix this problem?

@mike: what does my computer clock settings have to do with this? and what would I do if I do find a error in the even log of my malware scan.


Update: so my computer doesnt boot up slowly anymore as of today. I tested it several times. I have a feeling though its not ganna last for long.
All my scans dont pick up any malware,spyware,virus...etc

 

[mikeymikec]

I've seen a computer act very oddly because the clock was wrong. In that case I think MSE was the anti-virus scanner and it was causing the delay because it was trying to update and obviously things didn't make sense.

I didn't say check the event log of the malware scan, I meant the Windows event log.

Start > Run > eventvwr
or Start > search > eventvwr (Vista/7)

Look in the system log, though the app log is worth checking as well.

 

[Drsignguy]

I've seen a computer act very oddly because the clock was wrong. In that case I think MSE was the anti-virus scanner and it was causing the delay because it was trying to update and obviously things didn't make sense.

I agree. I have seen all kinds of problems if the clock is not set correctly or set to the wrong date. Especially with demos that are time stamped and anti-virus. I also found problems when the battery show signs of its demise, it starts screwing up the bios, starting with the clock.

 

[Matt1970]

Leave your registry alone in the future. I have yet to see it improve performance on a single PC and I have seen it cause quite a few to slow down.

 

[mikeymikec]

Leave your registry alone in the future. I have yet to see it improve performance on a single PC and I have seen it cause quite a few to slow down.

Furthermore, avoid installing crap in the first place. If for some reason you have a burning desire to try out random pieces of software without recommendations, use a VM.

 

[frozentundra123456]

@ Frozentundra123456: I would reformat but I dont have the disk with me and im 8,000 miles from home.
About the hard drive, when im playing a game, sometimes my harddrive/video card or w/e it is fails, screen goes black for a few seconds and then recovers which shuts down the game and then boots it back up to where i left off. How do I fix this problem?

@mike: what does my computer clock settings have to do with this? and what would I do if I do find a error in the even log of my malware scan.


Update: so my computer doesnt boot up slowly anymore as of today. I tested it several times. I have a feeling though its not ganna last for long.
All my scans dont pick up any malware,spyware,virus...etc

Understand about reformatting. Can you give a few more details about the laptop, like how old it is, what is the cpu, how much ram, does it have a discrete video card?

The going black and rebooting sound more like an overheating problem, especially since it happens during a game when the machine is under heaviest load. I dont really know what to tell you. My grandson (he is 16 and plays a lot of games and downloads who knows what) keeps having problems with his older Asus gaming laptop, then suddenly it starts working well again for a few months. Maybe you will be lucky and the problem will not resurface for a while. It is inconvenient, but my grandson pretty much keeps his laptop going by blowing a small fan (the conventional AC powered like you would put on a desk, not a laptop cooler) directly onto the unit. You might try that to see if the problems are lessened. If so, that would be a good indication that you have overheating problems.

 

[Saajuk]

Furthermore, avoid installing crap in the first place. If for some reason you have a burning desire to try out random pieces of software without recommendations, use a VM.

Ive downloaded the same program before on multiple computers and no problems. I dont download random things just to download them.

@frozen:
From the top of my head

UPDATE:
Samsung laptop: had it since 2009
Intell(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU M450 @2.40 GHz
4 Gig Ram
NVIDIA Geforce 310M

I play wow on lowest settings to avoid over heating issues aswell as have a cooling pad beneath it and a air vent blowing cold air 24/7 above it. There shouldnt be overheating issues.


@ mikey: I went into the eventvwr and saw alot of things I dont understand. Ill post a snippit here when I get off work so you can possibly help me understand it.

 

[mikeymikec]

Saajuk, sorry, I wasn't trying to accuse you in particular, I appended my comment onto what I considered to be generally good advice and it seemed in the same vein.

Right-click on the system log and filter it for 'critical' and 'error'.

 

[Saajuk]

Leave your registry alone in the future. I have yet to see it improve performance on a single PC and I have seen it cause quite a few to slow down.

I was trying to get rid of delta search, not improve my pc performance.



Ok so I got home today and experience multiple problems. It seems to be getting worse overtime. Here are the issues I saw:

Booted up my computer and it again took quite awhile to start. Around 2 minutes. It then went black for 1 minute, mouse icon poped up first and 30 seconds later login screen.
I logged in, slowly booted up my desktop and icons. Started up world of warcraft, minimized screen and opened up my web browser which took forever while the loading swirlies on the tabs froze and then unfroze then froze ( I opened up about 3-4 tabs) then everything stops. I wait a few minutes then I CTRL + ALT + DELETE and it didnt work ( you know your fuked when that is unresponsive) so I just waited for things to unfreeze which took roughly 5-10 minutes. I then get a black screen with this in the middle:

"Failure to display security and shut down options. The logon process was unable to display security and logon options when CTRL+ALT+DELETE was pressed. If the operating system does not respond, press ESC or restart the computer by using the power switch."



I clicked ok and everything went back to normal. I then went back into WoW and I get a black screen after 5-10 seconds with this message after everything restored:




that then went on to happen 4-5 more times within a 15 minute time frame ( just web browsing)

this is what I found in the eventvwr under errors




So in short everything went to hell, freezing up and just being lathargic like.

btw internet over here is really bad but its good enough to stream videos and surf the web at certain times in the day. I also have an RGB cable attached to a 19 inch tv and all my usb ports are filled, if this is anything worth telling.

 

[mikeymikec]

What anti-virus program have you got? I've seen dodgy AV cause the 'failure to display security and shut-down options", though I think it's more likely that all of your problems have a single source.

Is that the latest nvidia driver? If so I wonder whether it's work falling back to an older version.

 

[Ketchup]

Hello Saajuk, sorry to hear about your issues. Can you post a copy of your Processes tab on the Windows Task manager?

Also, did you get a chance to confirm the date and time are correct?

I see a few errors in your event view related to the registry. This could just be a result of the restore, or left behind entries from the Malware you were having issues with.

Normally I would recommend running ccleaner, but there is too much hate for it in this thread. I personally have never had a problem with it.

 

[mikeymikec]

the iastor ones are a bit worrying, that tends to suggest problems accessing your HDD. Chasing those up and checking the error information would be useful.

I'm curious about 'kernel-eventTrap' as well, but that might well be the display driver borking out.

 

[Saajuk]

@Mikey: I use Malwarebytes and I have the latest driver. How can I go back to an older version if I need to later?

@ketchup here processes:


ya the date and time are correct when i look at it (currently in Afghanistan) though it still says its set to central time (US & Canada). Is that an issue?

 

[Ketchup]

ya the date and time are correct when i look at it (currently in Afghanistan) though it still says its set to central time (US & Canada). Is that an issue?

Good, that should be fine. I will look at your services in a few minutes.

Edit: I see malwarebytes and Microsoft Security Client, good.

 

[Ketchup]

I don't see anything dangerous running in the background. I see Nvxdsync.exe, which can be stopped in services. It's just a user experience program from Nvidia.

And I don't know what Digido is. Apparently there are several apps that use that name.

I see Firefox was using a lot of memory. If you have a lot of tabs open when capturing the screenshot, no problem. If it wasn't running at the time, possible bingo.

 

[Saajuk]

I don't see anything dangerous running in the background. I see Nvxdsync.exe, which can be stopped in services. It's just a user experience program from Nvidia.

And I don't know what Digido is. Apparently there are several apps that use that name.

I see Firefox was using a lot of memory. If you have a lot of tabs open when capturing the screenshot, no problem. If it wasn't running at the time, possible bingo.

ya i had more than a few open =p
So are you saying its safe to rule out a virus? and just hardware failure?

 

[Ketchup]

To chase what mikeymikec posted, you may want to get some software that can monitor the temp of your hard drive and check it for errors. There are several out there (free). Let us know if you don't have any /need recommendations.

 

[Saajuk]

To chase what mikeymikec posted, you may want to get some software that can monitor the temp of your hard drive and check it for errors. There are several out there (free). Let us know if you don't have any /need recommendations.

eh, last time i downloaded something free I got the virus. If you could recommend something that you would feel safe downloading id appreciate it.

 

[Ketchup]

eh, last time i downloaded something free I got the virus. If you could recommend something that you would feel safe downloading id appreciate it.

True, I gotcha. I like CPUID HWMonitor for temps.

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

And for software that will scan the hard drive (not just the file system) I have always done well with Seatools. Just burn the ISO to a CD and boot the laptop off of that disc:

http://www.seagate.com/support/inte...-electronics/ld25-series/seatools-dos-master/