Laptop instability issues. (Not a virus)?

Question

It was a refurb I bought 2 years ago from Newegg. Little did i know the seller was a 3rd party. The computer has had the same problem since the day I bought it. I returned it 6-7 times and the same problem happens over & over. They usually do a factory reset but it does not solve anything and their tech guys never communicate. The warranty has long passed and they refused a refund every time.

I use the latest windows operating system for regular people. I use Chrome mostly but had used Edge in the past and feel confident the problem is not browser related.

My laptop runs Webroot 24/7 and I run the free version of malwarebytes about once a week and neither has caught a virus. Webroot does warn of dangerous sites on occasion which I avoid.

I am confident the problem is NOT a virus but a stability issue of some kind. Please answer as if its not a virus because I am 99.9 percent sure its not. It's difficult for me to describe what it does. Unstable is the best word. The problem is not always but often. I can be in the middle of an email or message board post and the computer will become unstable as if the page starts not being stable and I can tell I will lose my page, my email or the font will change, the innards of the page will become really large.

I had a TON more written but YAs limitations refused most.
Acer Laptop R5-471T-51UN

Answer 1

Vertical lines and garbled display is usually caused by:

1) a damaged video card.

2) a video card that isn't properly connected - check connections of the video cable and the video card, too.

3) an overheating video card. Make sure that your computer fans and the fans attached to the video card (if any) are working properly and are clean. Dirty fans will prevent efficient cooling which can lead to overheating components.



You may have a defective video card or display.

Answer 2

Go to the laptop manufactures' website and ensure that all firmware and BIOS is up to date - they have the downloads and instruction on how to do it. Start with the BIOS.

Answer 3

Peter Gore Seer,

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Answer 4

Keyboard is sending erroneous commands? That does jive. Though hard to diagnose when Ctrl key is involved.

Answer 5

Whoever you are taking your machine to now...is an idiot. You can call yourself a PC repair tech & NOT KNOW A DAMN THING.

It is not a virus. I know that myself however you may have a clash between programs( as one tries to cripple the other.(Just a guess. Or too many apps are running at start up. More than your machine can handle.



The refurb.is not the problem either. Mine is over 20 years old and the hdd failed after 15 years which cooked that puppy. So I put in another refurbished hdd. And start new.



(You know when the hdd is toast as the platters are spinning at 15000RPM and all of a sudden it sounds like a metal hubcap popped off the wheel while you are cruising down the highway...a lot of noise as the hdd self destructs.)



As you have internet access try installing a program called Crap Cleaner. Use the free version. That is good enough. Allow it to scan your computer and it will suggest you be not browsing on the web. while the scan of your machine is taking place.

Allow it to remove whatever it finds to be a problem as it will present you with a list of junk files. Just agree to delete it.

Maybe that will help you some.



Also go into this PC in the search bar at the bottom of the windows page and look at the bar that is the C drive. It is either blue (with stuff) or grey without stuff. The more room you have the better it is. I mean I have 826GB free space out of 907GB total space.

, Just saying I don't have any problems . I have been using this PC since Windows 8.0 and now at Win 10 .



While Crap Cleaner does not get rid of useless apps. that are running, it just gets rid of other dead end links, so creates more space.

. If you cannot download CC into your computer off the net, then you are going to have to decide what stuff you can lose.



Written stuff takes up very little space. Songs take up more, pictures take up about the same, downloaded movies take up a lot.

(I have had a computer where the C drive was almost full after defragmentation and "condensing"(wrong word...but same action) the files I was almost out of room.)



. If you EVER HAVE WORKED IN A WAREHOUSE SETTING DRIVING A FORKLIFT, you need empty floor space to drive around while you move the pallets of goods to its specific part of the warehouse. If the floor is full you can't move.



A computer is the same way. It needs space to put stuff away otherwise it is stuck and cannot move through the information trying to get it on the shelves and into other cubby holes that contain the same stuff on the shelves.



Which is why you take out the stuff you do not need. You cannot store 100 movies on your computer because they need space to operate them. Or any other program. They all need room.



So getting rid of CRAP is no lose to you. Getting rid of games that you downloaded but no longer use helps by uninstalling them. The more crowded the floor, the longer it takes to move around and get rid of stuff.



If you understand the concept of your computer having a little guy inside there moving files around then you know filling the hard drive with photos of a million people requires a lot of memory. Maybe 1TB is not big enough. I don't know. I have only gotten into the situation ONCE and it took a long time to clear it (Windows XP days without losing MY STUFF that was important to me.)



If I refreshed Windows it tended to hang onto everything and reinstall a fresh O.S. on it which just added to the problem.



If I reformatted the drive then I lost everything. Faq that!



I am guessing that is what is wrong.

In the sear bar at the bottom of the desktop screen(the tray) type in This PC and have a look at how full is the HD. My PC has 1 TB and I have 3 USB sticks with information stored on them instead of in my computer's C drive.



I am not PC repairperson but I know when the drive is full it can't do a damn thing.

Answer 6

Downgrade to windows 7. If that is not an option, update all of your drivers and then fully update windows 10 and hope for the best.

This is a common windows 10 problem. If you press ctrl, shift, escape I bet you sill see either high disk or memory usage.

The best solution is windows 7.

Answer 7

Does this only happen when you are online? Have you tried using other browsers?

Answer 8

try to take off anysoftware yu do n ot use anymore it ill help you computer out.

you may want to save your money up and just get a new computer.

Answer 9

it is cheaper to replace the memory than it is to take it to a technician. try that. if it fails, decide whether to east the repairman's diagnostic cost or simply to junk it

Answer 10

get a new copy of the operating system

save anything important to a separate hard drive

reformat the hard drive in the laptop then instal the operating system

Answer 11

Back up data, restore laptop, update Windows, install good antivirus, put data back on.

Answer 12

Possible causes are bad ram, of a failed cooling system in the laptop. Some older laptops will have the cooling fan fail. Or, the cooling vents are all clogged up inside which need to be cleaned out (usually with computer grade compressed air). Finally, some laptops had poor heatsink compound on them, and it dries up. This allows the CPU to heat up faster than normal.

Most laptop shutdowns at random intervals is due to heat build up. They do this to protect the CPU from damaging itself.

Answer 13

Could This Be An Overheating issue? are the fans working? Does The Laptop feel Hot ?

Answer 14

Laurence I answered your question Laptop instability issues. (Not a virus)?

firstly the software you have installed should be ignored. you should boot a clean OS ie a CDrom or USB created with a bootable OS on it. that way you know you have no virus's and its not guess work. The chances are from what you say is its likely to be a keypad or a keyboard issue. A Lot of gestured keypads allow for expanding text or ZOOMing and such like within a browser and thats what it sounds like to me. A virus or malware simply wouldnt bother with such a trivial thing. Keypads are notorius for having poor sensitivity or too much sensitivity where your hand just gets close and without touching it gets activated. you should as a matter of importance, update your bios as many keypads have a reliance on some code within the bios, you should also use the laptop with and without psu connected as a psu bad earthing can cuase keypads and keyboards to act up. you should never use extension leads if at all possible. If you have a bad battery then remove it as charging circuit stress contributes heat inside the computer which can also cause issues. Lastly if your pc relies on the intel ATK you should make sure its the latest possible version. Often third party people install a non pc maker version of the OS and dont visit the pc makers website for specific drivers. whilst w10 is supposed to get it right and do the driver bits itself, many pc makers still provide THEIR OWN driver versions eg for gpu/keypad etc because the setup of the chips they use can be ALTERED to meet their specific needs with some features disabled etc. so check your pc makers site and apply THEIR drivers especially to ATK or Keypad/mouse devices and the latest BIOS. Make sure you use a wrist rest to raise your hands away from the keypad area when typing. As an additional simple test you can start most browser with ALL add-ons disabled. you should also try that as many add-ons capture and fiddle with keypresses and may not be suitable for all pc's especially if you have more than one installed where under some circumstances they fail to co-operate correctly.