Support Troubleshooting and Tech Support

[Pat]

It happened to me yesterday. I wanted to do what you said but something happened and I went to sleep after that. I was planning to do just that this morning but it didn't reoccur so I guess you did something?

No, I haven't done anything yet, I'm waiting for your response.

 

[M3J]

Anyone who has had a Chromebook for over a year: does your Chromebook ever shut down randomly or restart randomly? I'd understand if too much memory was being used or if it was being strained or worked too hard or was too hot, but this seems to be random, and it's annoying. It also makes me nervous because I feel the laptop could stop working at any moment.

 

[Charlie]

Anyone who has had a Chromebook for over a year: does your Chromebook ever shut down randomly or restart randomly? I'd understand if too much memory was being used or if it was being strained or worked too hard or was too hot, but this seems to be random, and it's annoying. It also makes me nervous because I feel the laptop could stop working at any moment.

Not too familiar with the chrome-book but I say if the problem still occurs. Back up all your data and do a clean install and see if these random reboot's occur. It could be an app running in the background causing an issue.

 

[kkck]

Question, is windows defender sufficient anti virus protection? I have searched online about this but the response is mixed (though leaning towards it falling short).

 

[Charlie]

Question, is windows defender sufficient anti virus protection? I have searched online about this but the response is mixed (though leaning towards it falling short).

I'd say opt for a standalone antivirus program (or one that has the fire-wall and anitvirus as well).

Windows defender might be an "adequate program" for those just browsing the web for YouTube and the local newspaper.
Its not bad and I'd say its fairly "decent". For those with curious behavior however, lets say, its not adequate enough.

 

[xi0]

Question, is windows defender sufficient anti virus protection? I have searched online about this but the response is mixed (though leaning towards it falling short).

Probably depends on what you do on your PC, and how savvy you are at avoiding dangerous stuff online. I prefer only using Windows Defender for real-time protection over additional programs because a lot of them can really hamstring performance.

 

[Pat]

Probably depends on what you do on your PC, and how savvy you are at avoiding dangerous stuff online. I prefer only using Windows Defender for real-time protection over additional programs because a lot of them can really hamstring performance.

Yup, no antivirus, no Windows Defender here for years and I haven't been infected yet, and even if I do, I can restore my system to last good backup (by Macrium) which IMHO is the best way to get rid of infections and it has no impact at all on system performance. Just my two cents.

 

[xi0]

Yup, no antivirus, no Windows Defender here for years and I haven't been infected yet, and even if I do, I can restore my system to last good backup (by Macrium) which IMHO is the best way to get rid of infections and it has no impact at all on system performance. Just my two cents.

Even though I don't really practice what I preach, reformatting isn't a bad thing either. Just have to make sure the stuff on your hard drive that is important to you is backed up elsewhere.

 

[Pat]

Even though I don't really practice what I preach, reformatting isn't a bad thing either. Just have to make sure the stuff on your hard drive that is important to you is backed up elsewhere.

Even if I back up my personal files beforehand, reinstalling Windows from scratch takes lots of my time, installing all these drivers and applications, configuring them properly, tweaking Windows settings, etc. Restoring from a backup on the other hand takes 10 mins and requires no user interaction.

 

[xi0]

Even if I back up my personal files beforehand, reinstalling Windows from scratch takes lots of my time, installing all these drivers and applications, configuring them properly, tweaking Windows settings, etc. Restoring from a backup on the other hand takes 10 mins and requires no user interaction.

That would depend on how big your personal files are as well as your internet connection, no?

Of course your solution works too, but a fresh start every once and awhile isn't bad either.

 

[Charlie]

^
Yep all the posts/ statements above are correct depending ones situation, naturally.
Recently was forced to do a full wipe / restore due to some microphone issues.
After which they worked. Initially thought the sound card had failed but I'm digressing here.

Took about 2 hours to restore most if not all the personal files / granted its in the big tb territory with several redundant backups which should be sorted and deleted at this point lol.

Well it was an internal transfer to an local external server.

 

[Pat]

That would depend on how big your personal files are as well as your internet connection, no?

Of course your solution works too, but a fresh start every once and awhile isn't bad either.

I guess you mean backing up to cloud. I back up by Windows partition to a separate internal hard disk (which I copy to an external hard disk regularly), so the restore process is really quick. I don't keep lots of personal data (pictures, videos, etc.) on the Windows drive to keep the size of backups smaller.

Whenever I install Windows for a friend or relative, I take a backup after installing drivers and essential applications in case they want to make a fresh start as you suggested. I don't have lots of applications installed on my PC, so I don't need to start over often but things may be different for others. I suppose if their computers get bloated with lots of useless applications, a fresh start may be the best way to go for them, in this case not only it isn't bad, it's almost imperative.

 

[xi0]

I guess you mean backing up to cloud. I back up by Windows partition to a separate internal hard disk (which I copy to an external hard disk regularly), so the restore process is really quick. I don't keep lots of personal data (pictures, videos, etc.) on the Windows drive to keep the size of backups smaller.

Whenever I install Windows for a friend or relative, I take a backup after installing drivers and essential applications in case they want to make a fresh start as you suggested. I don't have lots of applications installed on my PC, so I don't need to start over often but things may be different for others. I suppose if their computers get bloated with lots of useless applications, a fresh start may be the best way to go for them, in this case not only it isn't bad, it's almost imperative.

No, I meant backups of any form. A good connection is referring to downloading whatever programs and such.

 

[Pat]

No, I meant backups of any form. A good connection is referring to downloading whatever programs and such.

Oh, I see.

I keep the installers of the programs I use around, I didn't think of it this way.

 

[M3J]

Not too familiar with the chrome-book but I say if the problem still occurs. Back up all your data and do a clean install and see if these random reboot's occur. It could be an app running in the background causing an issue.

Possible, but it''s not happening as much as it used to. feels like it could be due to RAM/memory issues?

Question, is windows defender sufficient anti virus protection? I have searched online about this but the response is mixed (though leaning towards it falling short).

Depends, but ultimately no as I assume you read manga and do other stuff.

 

[Charlie]

Yep that could be an issue as well.
Have you done a software / system memory clean?

 

[M3J]

No, don't wanna start over and risk forgetting what I had before software/memory clean.

 

[kkck]

Anyone has any malware removal program recommendations? I got malware that redirects my browser... Tried the anti malware programs I knew, deleting cookies, cache, searched for unwanted programs in my control panel....

 

[Charlie]

Anyone has any malware removal program recommendations? I got malware that redirects my browser... Tried the anti malware programs I knew, deleting cookies, cache, searched for unwanted programs in my control panel....

I use a program called spybot search n destroy.
see if it helps.

 

[kkck]

Ok, yet another inconvenience but not so minor this time around: My space bar, enter, backslash and bakcspace keys are not working properly for some reason. What happens in this: When I start my computer they are basically unresponsive. After pressing them for a while they start working normally although if I stop using them for a bit they become unresponsive again. I have tried basically every suggestion in the first page in google regarding the issue but none have provided a permanent solution so far. These include:

1.- Updating the keyboard's firmware
2.- Uninstalling the keyboard 's firmware and restarting the computer.
3.- Turning off hotkeys and whatnot (from holding shift 8 seconds).

Any ideas of something else I can try? It doesn't look like it is a hardware issue considering there are times it works pretty much perfectly. Such as when writing this post.

--- Double Post Merged, Nov 6, 2018, Original Post Date: Sep 22, 2018 ---

Ok, here is another one:

Say I have a column with a few hundred rows with numbers like '09837567363001. I have changed the cell's format to text. I use the find and replace function to get rid of the apostrophe. And then in spite of the cell having a text format the number appears as a scientific number. As in 1.1111 E^10 or something.

Now here is what I need (why I need it this way is not important, it just has to be that way): I need to get rid of the apostrophe while keeping that 0 to the left and the number must not be shown in scientific format. I also can't use excel's format option. I tried setting a custom format as "000000000000" so that a zero would be shown to the left but that is only a cosmetic change hence it doesn't work. Any ideas?