Computer may be dying -- some ???s

Depending on how old the desktop is, if it's the original hard drive that could be the source of your woes. I would have a thumb drive handy for the next time it decides to start up in order to copy whatever critical files you think need to be preserved. If within your budget, new desktops and laptops can be had for a couple of hundred bucks. Good luck.

 

The external confusion engine strikes again! I feel your pain Kris, happened to me to many times now. Thanks M$!

 

Sounds like it might be hard drive related, is the slow down felt beyond just the boot up process.

You might check whether or not 'automatic system updates' is active, which could also slow the boot up process.

Backing up often is always a good approach.

 

Hardware issues can be T/S easily. If all is well there, just reformat the HD.

 

Backing up files often and dispersedly. That being not a word but clear in meaning.

 

I am guessing you are using a mechanical hard drive. I would have installed a SSD (solid state drive) and upgrade your RAM.

What was your old operating system?

 

How close to the minimum specs for Win10 are the memory & processor? At the low end (minimum requirement) the experience can be as rewarding as watching paint dry.

Have diagnostics been run on the drive? A weak sector or file fragmentation can cause problems. Do you have access to another computer for troubleshooting?

An alternative or supplement to copying files out to a thumb drive is to sign up for OneDrive and Dropbox accounts and store on the cloud.

If you have access to another computer for testing but don't want to (or can't) transfer the drive a StarTech USB to IDE or SATA adapter cable (or other brand) can be used to turn the suspect drive into a USB drive.

 

UPS is a good thing to have for power interruption.

UPS Power Supply, Battery Backup - Newegg.com

 

Any suggestions as to which brand/model/cost for those interested?

 

I'd pull the hard drive and plug it into the laptop then run Western Digital's Data Lifeguard program to look and mark bad sectors and defrag the drive.

Why not use the old computers keyboard with the laptop?

Your old equipment is better than what I'm using.

While the old drive is still in the old computer run C Cleaner and let it delete the junk it finds in the registry and on the drive.

 

Cost is going to depend on how much uptime you're going to need. That should be the first thing you think about.

Also, how reliable is your power? Does it go out for a few seconds many times a month, or does it fail catastrophically during heavy weather?

I'm not sure if these brands are available in the UK, but I've used APC, Best Power, and Tripp-Lite with good results.

In any case, plug expensive electronics (TV, microwave, rice cooker, refrigerator, et al.) into good surge suppressors so they don't get taken out by lightning. An ounce of prevention is worth £££ worth of cure.

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Thanks, but I was not seeking for myself. Just thinking for the wider American readership in general and the OP in particular.

 

"going to invest in a UPS". Sounds good. There are some very tech readers here who could say (better than I) how a built-to-a price computer does little to protect against power variations. Hardening the power supply might cost few dollars, but those would be lost from profit column and...there you go.

 

Replacing the "power pack" (power supply, aka PSU) is unlikely to be the problem. You have a refurbished computer with a spinny platter 2TB crap drive. Every time the power goes out and everytime you hard-reset the machine the disk heads smash into the platters spinning at 5400rpm or 7200rpm gouging the surface. Spinny platters don't like to have their power interrupted. High end machine (and some high end drives) even have accelerometers and super capacitors built in. When the power goes down, it has just enough juice to move the heads out of the way and decelerate the platters nicely. If a shock is coming via the accelerometers measuring a fall like in a laptop, it can also park the heads and brace for impact. You have none of that.

A PSU in a low end machine like you have doesn't do much. It takes the offline supply and makes various 3.3v, 5v, and 12v power supplies. The only thing I can think of that would correlate a bad PSU and a bad bootup on a low end machine with no power hungry peripherals is that the 12v or 5v rail is so weak it can't spin up the platters properly. But that's a stretch and you'd have a host of other errors. You can get away with terribly sloppy specs on an ATX PSU and the system will work just fine.

When the computer comes back from "repair" go buy an SSD HD and swap it in. A UPS is also a must for a machine like yours with frequent power failures.

 

I hope it all works regardless of the naysayers, Kris. Sometimes since reading your posts I think you should write a book.

 

We have generally had good experiences with the APC brand of UPS. Some also do power conditioning to maintain the voltage during brownouts.
I agree that the hard drive is likely on its way out due if run a lot when power outages start. It is best to backup everything in preparation for its demise.

 

UPS is good for sure. Had a lot of problems caused by windows 10 that I traced back to a 32 bit antivirus software I had forever that was doing more harm than good and causing system crashes as well as a very old video card (GTS 250) that the drivers didn’t care for the latest windows 10 update. Changing out both of those makes the computer now run flawlessly even though it is like 8 years old.