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Sporadic CPU Spike Issues and Screen Static


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#16
Macboatmaster

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There are quite a number of matters that require attention.
to identifiy just three,
1.Far too much apace is allocated to system restore
2. Far too little space is free on C drive.
3. The drive is in need of defrag

However far more importantly - have a look at Software tab, and then processes.

I cannot assist you further you need to go to this link
http://www.geekstogo...cleaning-guide/

Follow CAREFULLY the advice and please post in that forum.
Please provide a link to this thread, so that the expert in the Malware forum can see what has been done and then when you have a clean bill of health, you can come back here if necessary.
Good luck with it.
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#17
Tokay

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Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it. I will head over to the directed link and try to sort out these issues.

Thanks again.
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#18
Tokay

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Hey there-

So I spent some time with a volunteer over on the Malware forums, and worked with him to get rid of my virus issue, and thus am all clean! And the other day I took apart my computer to find that the heatsink was literally coated with dust, and by removing it, I solved the problem of the freezing screen and static when running larger programs. It was indeed an overheating issue. So, I am ready to move on. That said, one of the last things mentioned by Macboatmaster was that too much space was allocated for system restore on my drives. I am curious- what is the recommended percent to set it to?

Many thanks.
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#19
Macboatmaster

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Windows allocates 12%
You have 75Gb allocated to system restore
Drive C is 152625Mb
Drive F is 476937Mb

You will know if you need to have system restore running on the freeagent drive - external?
Reduce System Restore Capacity Performance 75547 MBClcik the link for directions to reduce to about 3 to 5%

I do not know if you have defragged the drive on the Malware thread. To save me reading it if you have NOT you certainly need to.
C:\ 152625 MB 26% 11%That is from your result 26% data fragmentation and 11% file fragmentation
You will be there all night using Windows defrag.
Use this.
Download Auslogics defrag and run that. DO NOT PLEASE use any other offered program from Auslogics.
Auslogics Defrag in my opinion is better because:
It does a more comprehensive job at Defragging
It will actually show you what it is doing
At the end of working it will show you how much speed you picked up
You can view a online log of the files that Auslogics defraggedPlease do not run any other Auslogics programs other then this one as they may cause unwanted results.

http://auslogics.com...defrag/download

Edited by Macboatmaster, 30 May 2011 - 03:57 PM.

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#20
Macboatmaster

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I have just read through the whole of the Malware thread and you certainly did an excellent job with that laptop and the cleaning of the CPU cooling fins.

After you have completed the above which is really just a little tidying and you will know that Malware expert, agreed that system restore does not need to run on the external drive and if you have backups on that external DO NOT run defrag on the backup files.
There is really nothing else left to do.

I would repeat the warning re the C drive and I would ensure you have a complete image backup on the Freeagent.

I would run the chkdsk on a weekly basis with the chkdsk /r. which includes a check for bad sectors and attmepted reovery of data from those sectors, which is then rewritten to good sectors. It is a common misbelief that chkdsk can repair bad sectors. That is NOT the case.

If those bad sectors increase by just one - it is time to replace the drive before you risk a complete crash.

The chkdsk results are of course recorded in Event Viewer, application, winlogon. If you open winlogon entry and then click the double page symbol below the up and down arrow. you can then open wordpad or whatever and right click paste to produce the results.
You can then keep that record for comparison purposes.

Edited by Macboatmaster, 30 May 2011 - 01:15 PM.

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#21
Tokay

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So I have reduced the system restore on C to about 2gb (as per advice from pcpitstop). I have run the Auslogics Disk Defragmenter a few times, but there's quite a bit it cannot defrag.

I have actually noticed that the bad sectors have gone down since i checked at the beginning of my troubleshooting, so that's good news.

My only question is about how to do a complete image backup to my external harddrive.
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#22
Macboatmaster

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Go to the auslogics and instead of runing the defrag click the analyse, what is the percentage of fragmentation now.

Do you know the make of the hard drive in the computer.
- C drive. open system properties, hardware, device manager and disk drives - is there an identifier for the C drive.

Either way the external drive is a Seagate and as such you can create a complete image of the C drive using the free Seagate disk wizard
http://www.seagate.c...000dd04090aRCRD

Edited by Macboatmaster, 30 May 2011 - 03:55 PM.

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#23
Tokay

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Auslogics is still running so I will let you know when it is through.

It seems that it doesn't show the make of the hard drive. I looked and found ST9160824AS, which shows online as Seagate manufactured hardware.
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#24
Macboatmaster

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That was all I needed
The internal drive is this:

Seagate Momentus 5400 FDE.2 ST9160824AS - hard drive - 160 GB - SATA-

So I suggest you use the tool in my post 22

Edited by Macboatmaster, 30 May 2011 - 03:59 PM.

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#25
Tokay

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Thanks- I'm getting it now :)
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#26
Tokay

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Fragmentation is now at 4 percent, after a defrag and optimize.
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#27
Macboatmaster

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That is acceptable.
Even if it was zero after Auslogics, it would be 1-3% immediately you used it.

Please do not run any other Auslogics programs other then this one as they may cause unwanted results.

You are best not running the optimizer.


I may have misled you regarding the bad sectors.
When chkdsk recovers data from bad sectors and rewrites it to good sectors.
If on following chkdsks, bad sectors are found again, the disc is failing.
Once Chkdsk has "found" what "it thinks is a bad sector" it makes NO ATTEMPT to verify this, it simply marks that sector bad and reallocates use to the set aside sectors that are allocated for use when bad sectors are "detected". So once detected, You in fact should never ever see this sector re-detected as bad. Because as far as the drive is concerned / and your OS are concerned that sector is dead to them.

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#28
Tokay

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Just to be clear- I ran the optimizer because it's the same program. There are two options for a quicker defragmentation, and a more thorough one (said best to run once a week) called Defrag and Optimize. So I didn't run any other programs.

Yeah, I will keep running my chkdsk and keeping note of what I find there. I have a feeling that my hard disc is NOT dying, but it's only a feeling.
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