Computer Hope
Hardware => Hardware => Topic started by: kinghollio on August 06, 2011, 07:50:34 PM
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Hi to all,
I am having a problem on my Dell Latitude D820. It was running perfectly up until about 2 weeks ago. Suddenly it started to freeze and become really slow. The processor utilization was constantly at 100% so I began all the troubleshooting steps. So after extensive scans and reseating ram etc, the same problem continues to persist.
I bought a new HDD as I believed it to be a bad hard disk and installed it along with a completely new installation of Win7 Ultimate. To my amazement the problem immediately surfaced again. It seems to happen when I connect to the internet so I now believe it to be my Wi-Fi card. Maybe someone has come across this same issue before so wanted to throw it out there to see your response, if any.
Thanks in advance.
Chris.
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Try booting in safemode with networking. What protection softwares are you running? Make sure you are running just one Antivirus.
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Hi,
Thanks for the reply. I have currently NO antivirus software installed. I reseated the WI fi card and the issue is still occurring. I hard wired in and the internet seems to be working ok now so I am assuming it is the WI fi card that has kicked the bucket....
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While malware may not be the cause of your current problem(s), it is strongly recommended that you do not run a system without a good AV installed and resident.
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Since when you have been using the internet w/out an antivirus installed? You should download one now, try Free Avira (http://www.avira.com/en/avira-free-antivirus) . After successfully installed, it will scan your PC for infections. Then try running Safemode with networking. Hit F8 on first booting your computer and choose that option.
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To add to the urging of the use of an anti virus program i totally concur with that. However re the specifics of jason2074 re Avira. While it is a popular and oft used software they have recently changed their offering of it. Now with the latest edition in order to have the "web protection" component of it (rather essential in my opinion) you MUST allow the installation of another search engine (Bing i believe). That may or may not be to your liking. In my case it was NOT so as a result i have uninstalled Avira and have gone to Avast instead. There are others that are free and apparently will do a good job. But NONE should NOT be an option for your own security. truenorth
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Well, Bing doesn't get installed - it's just a search engine like Google. Here's what I did find though: http://www.ghacks.net/2011/06/29/beware-avira-partners-with-ask-and-uniblue/
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Yes Allan that is it; it being "Ask" and not "Bing". I did say i believed. Wait until you get to my age and you will undoubtedly be qualifying a lot of your statements (those based on memory ;) ). You CANNOT use Avira "web Guard" (that which provides on-line searching/processes) WITHOUT the allowance for the Ask toolbar. truenorth
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Wait until you get to my age and you will undoubtedly be qualifying a lot of your statements (those based on memory ;)
Why do you assume I'm NOT your age - or older?
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I would be willing to wager that i am probably the oldest member on the Ch forums (provided we ALL tell the truth). Could be wrong but i doubt it. truenorth
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Well in that case, no bet :)
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I remember where I was when I heard that JFK had been shot. (I was in front of the TV at home) I was aged 11 years and 7 months.
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I was a LOT older than that as i am sure Allan can now attest to. ;D truenorth
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As enjoyable as this side conversation is (or not :) ), we're hijacking the thread. If you guys think you want to continue, I'd appreciate it if you start a thread off topic. Thanks.
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Hi all,
I completely agree that an anti virus should always be installed and I always do! (i use AVG)
For troubleshooting purposes, I did not install one to see if it was in fact my wifi card causing the problem.
To recap, I bought a new HDD and installed a fresh Win7 Ultimate on it. To my amazement, the problem continues. I had thought it was my Wi-Fi card but after hard wiring in and running a few programs, the issue is occuring again.
It seems as the motherboad might be goosed then it may be something simplier. Anyone any good TroubleShooting techniques that i can use to narrow down where the problem might be?
Thanks again in advance.
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Dell Latitude D820 (http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&ServiceTag=&SystemID=LATITUDE%20D820&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=&impid=)
If it's full of dust & overheating, that will cause it to freeze & be slow.
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Maybe so. I did open it up and reseat the RAM and Wireless card and there is not much dust in there but if all else fails, i will take the laptop apart and give it a good cleaning.
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I don't understand why you have not checked which process is using up the cpu. chances are one process is using the majority of the cpu and making your computer slower. just look at task manager.
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Thats the first thing that i looked at. The CPU utilization. After it freezes I open task manager and with no programs running it has 98% utilization and all being used by task manager. I initially thought it was AVG and stopped all services but this did not fix. I suspect a hardware problem or needs a good cleaning as already suggested...
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Not Applications Tab, Processes Tab. Sort by CPU.
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Given this earlier comment from you "I hard wired in and the internet seems to be working ok now so I am assuming it is the WI fi card that has kicked the bucket....". Sometimes one can get a great improvement in internet speed and access performance by cable connecting to the ISP rather than wireless.That does not necessarily mean that the wireless card is faulty. However given that you suspected that your issue may have a connection to a faulty wireless card and that by cable connecting you state that the performance is ok. So what is the status of your issue if you do NOT use wireless? If the issue is resolved and you believe the wireless card is at fault then it would seem to me that you may have solved your own cause of the problem. So unless the problem originally stated still exists when cable connected you should either continue with that or change the wireless card.Am i missing something?truenorth
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It's a notebook, so changing a wireless card can be expensive. I would try reinstalling the driver. Gotta get the right one for your particular laptop, I see more than one kind of WiFi.
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I was not necessarily implying that the replacement needed to be an internal. I use an external replacement connected by USB port on my laptop. It is used not for the reason of the O/P (which may be a faulty one) i did so to obtain greater range of reception of wi=fi signal. It has achieved that function. If indeed the issue as suspected by the O/P is in fact the issue an external may solve the hardware issue and give the added benefit of better reception.truenorth
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Truenorth, with wi-fi disabled i have the ethernet cable plugged in and while it was working fine for a few minutes the initial problem came back again. I bought a new HDD and installed Win7 on it and all drives are updated and still the issue shows.
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Understood==and given CC's suggestion of post # 19 how does that fare? truenorth
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Mot ready to rule out hardware, at this point, but it's sure looking like malware.
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i meant, in applications tab there were no applications running and then in the 'processes' tab it showed a 98-100% utilization with task manager using all of it. So there is no process hogging all the CPU cycles as far as i can tell.
Thanks for all the replies and i do hope i get to the root of the problem.
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Task Mgr at 98-100% utilization, mine is at 00-01. Do you mean the CPU Usage is at 100%?
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yes CPU usage at 100% and i watched what service was hogging it and it was taskmgr. Very strange that it was using so much but it is obviously something else.
I have now reinstalled Win7, disabled wi-fi and am currently hard wired to the internet and i have experienced no freezes in the past 15minutes so fingers crossed that all is well. I probably jinxed it now, lol
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It sounds like malware. When you are wireless, are you sure you are connected to your modem/router & not a nearby one?
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C'mon CompCommando! ;D I am 100% positive I am connected to my router. My router uses my last name as the SSID. I specifed the passphrase in the router and when connecting to my wireless, so i am sure!
As an update, since i reinstalled Win7 last night and downloaded AVG '11, all seems to be working fine. I have completely disabled wi-fi in the BIOS so this could have been the fix also.
anyway, thanks for all the assistance in TS'ing my problem.
All the best. Chris.