Hi!
I'm really quite new to all this so please be gentle

My ASUS F5 laptop has been playing up for a while now and I've no idea what's wrong with it. I'm running windows Vista Home Premium with service pack 1.

Couple of months ago my laptop decided to stop switching off. I tried using the power button, changing the settings for the little off button thing on the start menu and all sorts of other random things. The dratted thing just keeps restarting, occasionally it might turn off from the buttons on the login page, more often than not I'd have to hold the power button in until it went off (not good I think).

This was a minor inconvenience.

More recently my internet hasnt been working right, I connect using a huwei E585 or E586 wifi dongle. I found that my internet connection was randomly switching to local only (and then back to normal) despite my dongle still being connected to the internet. Everything is slooooooow, programs take an age to start up and then freeze up randomly.

The last week or 2 firefox has started randomly crashing or freezing up, task manager says my physical memory is 100%. Then today my wireless connection has stopped working altogether, I got a message saying Windows Host stopped working. Now my mouse icon is flicking between an arrow and the little egg timer thing constantly.

I dont know where to start!?! help?Welcome

Just out of curiosity have you done any scans with programs like Malewarebytes? IF your CPU is hitting 100% that sounds like a program / software might have (what can be considered) a memory leak or you may have a bug / virus.

If the laptop is not shutting down by the power button there is an option in the power settings that can set to "shut down" or "sleep" or do "nothing" etc. I would look at those settings to see if that helps you. 

Now If the laptop is shutting off on it's own it may be getting too hot. You can try shutting down the laptop and use a can of air to blow out the dust from the vents / heatsink. If this doesn't make since this is what I mean.

Shut down the laptop, and look for the vent section (where the hot air comes out) and put the straw in the canned air and blow the air into the vents and you may see a bunch of dust / dirt come out. The laptop may have an issue breathing.

Now for your issue with the Huwei (I believe they are a MiFi unit) If you got this from your ISP I think you may want to contact them maybe they have a firmware update or will replace the unit for you. 

Now for Firefox a lot of times a add-on or extension will cause issue in the browser. Depending on what version of FF you are using go into the add-on's and disable all of them if FF runs normal then re-enable them one at a time until the issue starts again. If you find that a Add-on is the issue just update that plug-in / add-on. Hope this helps on that issue.

As far as windows host issue I would try starting with scanning the PC first to see if there is a bug hanging in back ground causing some of your issues.

If you want please try the above and let us know how you make out.

Good luckHi hartbeatmr, thanks for your reply

I scan the laptop every day with AVG. It hasn't picked anything up in a while, when the internet started going screwy I downloaded SpybotSD and hijack this. Neither of those found anything either :S

I tried shutting down using the power settings thing, didn't make any difference at all, it seems to just work when it feels like it, I did get a warning message once saying that CCC was causing a restart and that my drivers needed updating, which I did, it didn't fix anything. It doesn't shut off by itself but it often freezes up and I get a busy icon on the mouse pointer.

I've been in touch with my ISP (since about November last year!) they've run all sorts of checks on my line and the dongle and couldnt find any faults, they finally replaced the hardware last week, that hasn't made any difference either.

I followed all the instructions on the Firefox website for problems with freezing, crashing, using too much memory, scripts being busy (or not finishing or whatever) Again, that seemed to help very briefly but a day later I'm back to square one.

I had a chat with some guys on the chat help here last night, they suggested resetting the whole computer. I backed everything up (took bleedin' hours, I'm asking Santa for an external hard drive for Christmas!) reset back to the beginning and have spent the day reloading my important stuff. I'll add my less important stuff one thing at a time just in case there's something in there that's screwing it up.

So far *fingers crossed* all seems to be working ok It's definitely much faster than it was and nothing has randomly shut down or frozen. Firefox is working great! CPU usage is back down to under 10% and the Physical memory is sitting at between 20 and 50% (mind you I have a few things running)
Hopefully this will sort it. If not I'll be back Good Morning wickedpixie

I so happy for you that you are back and running.

Sometimes with PC's issues it is just faster and easier to back your stuff up and do a clean install

I know you know but just make sure you update MS and Office etc thru MS update, then get your AV suite up to date and then put your personal files etc back. 

That is great news, Mike

  Hello again

Well it was running better, then the windows updates started and now it's back to slow slow slow I dont know what I'm doing wrong. Could there be an issue with one of the updates?

And firefox is now *censored* near ususable, it's freezing up constantly, I'm getting a timer and fuzzies and firefox has stopped responding all the time. I havent even put all three of my addons back yet :/ I can't stand IE it's vile. Any suggestions?There are many issues that can be a the root of your issue (many have already been mentioned). The fact that your AVG is NOT indicating a virus is not necessarily conclusive. This issue can be related to either a hardware and/or a software issue. I suspect you may ultimately be best served by posting your issue on the CH virus/malware forum. However if you are prepared to try a few other items first. Provided you still have internet access download/install/run a malwarebytes scan on the computer (free). Download and install another browser Firefox is known to be currently causing issues. My personal recommendation in the browser field would be Opera. I would also recommend trying another free antivirus program to see if it makes a difference. Here my recommendation would be Avast (free) or Microsoft security. If you do install another virus definition program either disable or uninstall AVG. Never run 2 antivirus programs at the same time. I would 1st do the vent inspection as has been suggested then do each of the items i am suggesting starting with the malwarebytes then one at a time the others. The process over at the virus forum will be lengthy but they are very good at what they do over there and only they NOT other members are permitted to assist. So you will bein capable hands.Please keep us informed as to your progress.truenorth Thanks Truenorth
I did try installing Google Chrome last night, once again it worked fine for an hour or so then my computer crashed completely twice in 15 minutes. I'll give opera a try.

I'll also try a different virus scanner again.

Will let you know how I get on

Quick question ~ Can I run the malwarebytes while Avast is working of do I only have one active at a time?You can run Malwarebytes with your anti virus program active. It occurred to me after my post that this could be related to something else other than presently mentioned. What is the used and available (empty) components of your "C" partition of your hard drive? If you don't know how to check that just ask.truenorth
P.S. Have you tried to run the computer in safe mode to see if it makes a difference?I ran it in safe mode for a while and it was still super slow, it's taking minutes an age for anything to open. I can go make a coffee and have a quick cig while I'm waiting for a browser :/

Have run malware and it didn't find anything. I've just loaded avast, took me 20 minutes to register it, and I'm just waiting for it to update before I scan again.

I've got 2 hard disk drives showing when I go to 'my computer': DATA (D:) 106GB free of 106GB, and VistaOS (C:) 76.3GB free of 116GB.

The laptop's quite old, and probably quite icky inside, I'm too scared to unscrew anything to try and clean it :/Well my concern that you might be low on hard drive RESOURCES has been laid to rest. Both your partitions have tons of free space.I believe that there are certain (limited) things that you can do regarding checking for possible dust inside the computer causing circulation issues (like excessive heat for example). When your computer is running do you notice that the fans seem to be running more noisily than before this happened/ I would suggest that you open all the easily accessible covers on the computer. Those where access is to ram chips and any others that are easily removable so you can examine the interior for dirt.Just make sure that the battery and the charger (in other words all power) are disconnected or removed first. Something else you can try is run a check from Crucial on what RAM is showing in the computer. The reason i suggest this is to compare against what the computer came with installed in case a RAM module has failed.Once you have done the remaining (from previous posts) and what is suggested in this one it may be time to post on the virus CH forum. But endeavor to do ALL the items thus far suggested.truenorthGood afternoon wickedpixie

   I am sorry to hear all is not well after doing a fresh install.

   I do see that you have 2 HD's and from what you typed on free space that may not be the issue. To have an issue so fast there has to be a reason. I agree with truenorth about using Avast and malwarebytes both are good Utilities and are free. I know you SCANNED and nothing was found.
#1... I see that you were thinking of opening up your laptop to clean it, if you have never done any laptop repairs DON'T DO IT but if you want to get some of the dust out (this is a great idea) here is a quick way not to mention will save you about 2 hrs in time vs R&R the laptop.
when you are looking at this image the fan / heatsink is in the back left of the laptop base just use a can of air with the straw and point the straw so you are blowing from the bottom of the laptop out the vents and also thru the vents into the fan. Here is a pic showing it Another thing if you have a toothpick just put it in the bottom of the laptop to hold the fan still while blowing air in if it can be avoided the fan should NOT be able to spin freely the reason i am saying this is if the fan is allowed to free spin at high speeds for to long of a period (like when using air / compressed air) the fan can be damaged. If the toothpick will not fit in the bottom of the laptop fan slots / grid you can use something else like a paperclip so just insert them just far enough (about 3/8" to 1/2") in most cases to hold the fan still. The toothpick or paperclip is going to be in-between the fan blades.

Now I am not trying to be a wiseguy but you are running just 1 AV (besides MWB) so if you are using Avast your old AV was removed and something that you may not be aware of almost all major AV companies also have a separate removal tools / UT. So for instance after the fresh install say the PC came with Norton AV and then you used the windows UN-install and rebooted in my opinion would run the tool that they offer and if at all possible only get the tool / UT from the COMPANY that made the software like for norton it is here https://www-secure.symantec.com/norton-support/jsp/help-solutions.jsp?docid=kb20080710133834EN_EndUserProfile_en_us&product=home&pvid=f-home&version=1&lg=english&ct=us

Thru your ISP do you know what your speeds should be like down here by me RR the normal speeds are 15mb down and about 1.5 to 5mb out. Also in your "device Manager" is there any yellow ! or an item disabled? Something else when you have the device manager open look up top of that box and click on "view" then pick show "hidden devices" is there anything now in the list with a yellow ! or disabled item?

Besides the laptop being really slow (since fresh install) have you got any errors
     
 
Your laptop normally came with 1gig of ram which in my opinion is not that much because vista but still should be running with out to much of an issue and have you run any memory test tools? to see maybe if one of the memory sticks is your issue. 

Hopefully this will help you, Mike     Hi Guys

Having no luck at all at the moment. I'm trying to uninstal AVG so I can run Avast and it's crashed 3 times :/ Then it wouldnt switch back on. Managed to get it up again after a tea and calm-down-before-you-lob-it-out-the-window break.

Yes, my fan is super noisy. Where can I get one of those squirty cans from?

And yes, norton was on here, some trial version, I uninstalled it and as far as I could see all the files were gone but I'll definitely run the removal tool just to make sure.

How can I find out how much RAM is on here?
The laptop was a christmas pressie off my mum and she said the guy had put loads of EXTRAS in here so I could use it for my artwork. I'm guessing that was extra memory and whatnot. Quote from: wickedpixie on July 23, 2012, 11:50:58 AM

How can I find out how much RAM is on here?

I had a chat with some guys on the chat help here last night, they suggested resetting the whole computer. I backed everything up (took bleedin' hours, I'm asking Santa for an external hard drive for Christmas!) reset back to the beginning and have spent the day reloading my important stuff.