[RKinner]

You have:

Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (HKLM\...\{409CB30E-E457-4008-9B1A-ED1B9EA21140}) (Version: 17.5.0.1017 - Intel Corporation)

installed.  I think if you search for

device manager

and hit Enter then click the arrow in front of IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers you should see the Intel driver or just a generic SATA controller.

 

Errors don't look too bad. 

Log: 'System' Date/Time: 26/04/2020 11:56:33 AM

Type: Warning Category: 7

Event: 37 Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Processor-Power

The speed of processor 7 in group 0 is being limited by system firmware. The processor has been in this reduced performance state for 71 seconds since the last report.

 

 

I see this on a lot of intel systems.  They have some options in the BIOS for things like power saving or low noise or speed-step that are on by default.  These slow the CPU down when there is not much going on.  Doesn't really hurt anything but can be turned off if you think it is slowing things down.

 

Log: 'Application' Date/Time: 26/04/2020 11:58:39 AM

Type: Warning Category: 0

Event: 8233 Source: Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP

The rules engine reported a failed VL activation attempt. Reason:0xC004F074 AppId = 0ff1ce15-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663, SkuId = d450596f-894d-49e0-966a-fd39ed4c4c64 Trigger=UserLogon(1)

 

 

 

Not sure what is going on with your Office.  Acts like it might not be authorizing.  Has your license expired?

 

How is it running now.  Any more problems?

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Hello. Thank you for your help. I have no clue about the three things you discussed. It says SATA for the Controller but what does that mean in terms of me needing to change anything? You wrote: 'can be turned off if you think it's slowing things down.' You magnanimously attribute understanding to me which I simply do not possess. Whilst flattered, the fact is that I have no inkling re the Office licensing or how to find out. Sorry. It seems to running well at present, though I hesitate to admit as much because I don't want to tempt providence. I appreciate you and your outstanding support and help. Thank you. Stay safe.

[daba]

Hello. Thank you for your help. I have no clue about the three things you discussed. It says SATA for the Controller but what does that mean in terms of me needing to change anything? You wrote: 'can be turned off if you think it's slowing things down.' You magnanimously attribute understanding to me which I simply do not possess. Whilst flattered, the fact is that I have no inkling re the Office licensing or how to find out. Sorry. It seems to running well at present, though I hesitate to admit as much because I don't want to tempt providence. I appreciate you and your outstanding support and help. Thank you. Stay safe.

[RKinner]

I think if it says SATA, Windows has decided that you don't need the intel driver so no amount of updating is going to do any good. 

 

If the PC doesn't seem slow then don't bother playing with the BIOS to get rid of Speed Step or whatever they call it.

 

    Open any Office application (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc)
    Go to File > Account.
    The program's activation status is visible right under Product Information heading. If it says Product Activated, it means that you have a validly licensed copy of Microsoft Office.

 

There is a task

Task: {85493095-4007-4EB6-9694-D88CFAE7F7AE} - System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Office\Office 15 Subscription Heartbeat => C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Office16\OLicenseHeartbeat.exe [316632 2015-07-31] (Microsoft Corporation -> Microsoft Corporation)

I presume it has to call home periodically to make sure the license is good.  Perhaps it is having problems?  Maybe the internet was down for a while or the server at Microsoft was off-line?

Not much we can do about it other than try a repair  on Microsoft Office in Control Panel,  Programs & Features if it gives you a problem when you run office.

https://docs.microso...ice-application

[daba]

Hello. Apologies for the delay. I have an unlicensed Office. This may all go back to me having purchased this Dell Laptop in China. Normally, if you're a Chinese national they would supply a Chinese version of Windows but if you're not, and you need an English version: they give you a knockoff. At some point last year, Windows appeared to decide to authorise my Windows but I guess that doesn't extend to the Office Suite. At least that explains that. Thank you very much.

[RKinner]

OK.  There are two free office-like programs you can use if Office stops working:

 

Open Office: https://www.openoffice.org/download/
or
LibreOffice: https://www.libreoffice.org/

[daba]

Thank you for your help. Hello again. It's still working, at least Word is, haven't tried the others. Thank you for the links. I'll keep them for future reference. However, I have a new teaser for you. This morning I woke up to du.centennial toasthandler. Maybe you've seen it before, I hadn't but I found something online which is a bit confusing since it seems to say it's connected to Photo Shop which I don't even have. I took a screenshot. There's always something! Thank you very much.

[RKinner]

No.  DU is Dell Update so probably caused by

one or both of these:

Dell SupportAssist for Home PCs -> C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\DellInc.DellSupportAssistforPCs_3.5.4.0_x64__htrsf667h5kn2 [2020-04-10] (Dell Inc)

Dell Update -> C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\DellInc.DellUpdate_3.1.90.0_x64__htrsf667h5kn2 [2020-03-23] (Dell Inc)

 

I would uninstall both

(settings, apps & features, click on each and Uninstall) and reboot.  That should stop the error.  You can always get new copies of both from Dell Support.

[daba]

Thank you. SupportAssist was listed and is now no more. But Dell Update wasn't. Thank you.

[daba]

Don't hate me: the du thing is still there. Could it be because I was only able to get rid of SupportAssist and not Dell Update? Thank you.

[RKinner]

See if you can remove Dell Update with Powershell:

 

https://redmondmag.c...pplication.aspx

[daba]

Hi. Thank you. I'm afraid that that was way over my head so I searched a bit and removed it with Revo Uninstaller. At least, I think I removed it. Didn't see the du thing today. 

[RKinner]

Sorry for the delay.  My daughter drafted me to work on a win 10 problem where she works.

 

Revo is a good program so if it you don't see du any more then it worked fine.

[daba]

Sir, please do not apologise to me: after all, you are volunteering your time and expertise at no charge. Absolutely nothing to apologise for. I'm glad Revo gets your approval: I'll keep it. Alas, today more weirdness. I'd noticed over the last two or three days that when I typed my PIN at boot that there was latency and missed keys, I had to go back and slowly input the PIN and then today - the horror! The keyboard wouldn't work at all, except bizarrely, after a reboot, you could type in the PIN. After that no typing anywhere - browser, word, nothing. Dead. I panicked a bit and repaired Avast - no change.Uninstalled and reinstalled Brave Browser, stupidly losing all my bookmarks in the process. I ran Eset (thankfully it was still in my downloads file, ditto CCleaner, adwCleaner). I know I'll need to get rid of CCleaner but someone on a link had said running the Registry Scan fixed his dead keyboard, no joy for me. Nothing helped. I found - via my phone - a link which said to get in the BIOS by hitting esc or whatever key it said to hit at the bottom of the page. There was nothing at the bottom of the page and esc didn't get me in either. So then I tried Reinstall Driver in Device Manager/Keyboard but it said the latest was already installed and there was no option, unlike in the link's description, to uninstall driver, just to  uninstall keyboard and I didn't dare do that. Yet, weirdly and miraculously, by merely trying and failing to reinstall those, the keyboard's working again. I don't get why or how. Nor do I need to I suppose, I'm just grateful. But now I'm paranoid it's going to do it again. I would value your thoughts and anything you might suggest I could do to prevent a repeat. Have you ever heard anything similar to this in the past? Thank you for any input.

[RKinner]

Actually uninstalling the keyboard would have been the first thing I'd do.  After a reboot it will detect it and reinstall.  Often that fixes weird stuff.

Since it works until you sign in that usually means the problem is going to be limited to your login.  Would not hurt to create a second login with admin power that you could use if the original one has more troubles.

 

Otherwise I would do something like DISM & SFC to see if that helps or just VEW to see if there are any obvious problems being reported:

 

Open an elevated command prompt:

http://www.howtogeek...-in-windows-10/
http://www.eightforu...indows-8-a.html

(If you open an elevated Command Prompt properly it will say Administrator: Command Prompt in the margin at the top of the window)


Once you have an elevated command prompt:

Type:

 DISM  /Online  /Cleanup-Image  /RestoreHealth

 (I use two spaces so you can be sure to see where one space goes.)
Hit Enter.  This will take a while (10-20 minutes) to complete.  Once the prompt returns:

Reboot.  Open an elevated Command Prompt again and type (with an Enter after the line):

sfc  /scannow



This will also take a few minutes.  

When it finishes it will say one of the following:

Windows did not find any integrity violations (a good thing)
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and repaired them (a good thing)
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some (or all) of them (not a good thing)

If you get the last result then type:
findstr  /c:"[SR]"  \windows\logs\cbs\cbs.log  >  %UserProfile%\desktop\junk.txt


Hit Enter.  Then type::


notepad %UserProfile%\desktop\junk.txt

Hit Enter.

 Copy the text from notepad and paste it into a reply.


After you finish SFC, regardless of the result:



1. Please download the Event Viewer Tool by Vino Rosso
http://images.malwar...om/vino/VEW.exe
and save it to your Desktop:
2. Right-click VEW.exe and Run AS Administrator
3. Under 'Select log to query', select:

* System
4. Under 'Select type to list', select:
* Error
* Warning


Then use the 'Number of events' as follows:


1. Click the radio button for 'Number of events'
Type 20 in the 1 to 20 box
Then click the Run button.
Notepad will open with the output log.


Please post the Output log in your next reply then repeat but select Application.  (Each time you run VEW it overwrites the log so copy the first one to a Reply or rename it before running it a second time.)


 

[daba]

Just a quick note before I work through your instructions (thank you). It just happened again. I rebooted and - for the moment - am able to type. But just to correct something. You wrote: 'since it works until you sign in.' No, that's not it. After I sign in, it doesn't work. I can only sign in. Then it died. Yet look now, after merely a reboot, it is - for the moment - working. I'll uninstall the keyboard first. Then, assuming I can style type, will work through the steps. Hope to get back to you with the logs asap.Thanks.