Laptop, windows 7, or Hardware/driver issues?

[Therow]

So. The girlfriend was totally hating on windows vista. I can see where that hatred stems from. But when we upgraded to windows 7 a lot of things started to happen more frequently, or started happening for the first time ever.

__List__

1)The computer seems to shut down out of the blue more often. This i know can be due to over heating issues. We do run a cooling pad under the laptop. It seems to be shutting down more since the change to windows 7 though.

2)It seems that the computer goes into (not --edit-- responding) mode a lot when we are on firefox. It goes away after a while though (generally less than a minute).

3)Her touch pad doesn't use the scroll option on the side or bottom anymore. It used to use it in windows vista. Now i know that it could be a software or drivers issue but in the device mangier there are no yellow <?> or <!>.

__Suggestions__

Do you think i need to post her laptop build to further help in the discovery of this issue? If so what file would i need to post from her computer? Or how would i look up and see what hardware she has on it. I know there is free-ware out there to do this but a large portion of it wont let you save the info and what have you.

Any ways, thanks Tech-Forums!

 

[joelm3103]

From what you said, some possible solutions to try for the state are:

1. This can be generally over heating as you mentioned, cooling pad helps yes but it may also gain heat as dust and other stuff blocks the vents from letting air pass out. You can use the compressed air that you can buy and blow the vents. Some of the dust may how ever go further in and at some point in time it (the laptop) will needed to be opened to be totally cleaned.

2. "Not running" mode...can you emphasize more on this point? Does it freeze or shuts down/standby?

3. Touch pad may not be of full functionality (as the scrolls not working) due to an driver issue. You can check the manufacture's website to see if you get updated drivers for Windows 7.

That's all I can think about at this moment, you may want to paste the Brand/Build of your laptop (e.g. my laptop is a Toshiba/Satellite, version A215-S7444).

Edit: Is this laptop still under warranty?

 

[Therow]

From what you said, some possible solutions to try for the state are:

2. "Not running" mode...can you emphasize more on this point? Does it freeze or shuts down/standby?

3. Touch pad may not be of full functionality (as the scrolls not working) due to an driver issue. You can check the manufacture's website to see if you get updated drivers for Windows 7.

That's all I can think about at this moment, you may want to paste the Brand/Build of your laptop (e.g. my laptop is a Toshiba/Satellite, version A215-S7444).

Edit: Is this laptop still under warranty?

Well i meant "Not Responding." When the program in question stops working temporarily. I'm sure you have had an instance where you ctrl alt delt and under applications see the program in question under the status of Not Responding. That's what i meant.

I'll update the drivers. Not a bad idea to clear that one up (should have thought about it my self)

And no its not on warranty, which expired a long time ago

Thanks, and ill look into the solutions you mentioned!

 

[joelm3103]

The not responding part, could be because of a lot of tabs opened on Firefox. If you can get and post the brand/built as I asked before or use Speccy and list down the summary of what the laptop has. Do you freeze on any other software? If it's just Firefox, it can also mean some of you addons/plugins may be clashing.

 

[KSoD]

The main thing here is this. If the laptop was experiencing issues before the upgrade, the upgrade only compounded them. You need a completely perfect operating OS to get a completely perfect upgrade.

So if there was something wrong before the upgrade didnt fix it. Cause that is not what an upgrade does. It only upgrades the OS. It doesnt fix the OS.

So the mouse thing is a driver issue. While Vista is close to Win7, you still need Win7 drivers. That will be available on the manufacturer's website. While you may not see the conflict, that doesnt mean it doesnt exist. Incorrect drivers will remove the conflict from the Device Manager but not allow the device to work as expected. This is exactly what your getting.

As for the not responding aspect, this is the same for the whole shut down aspect. Thigns only get compounded when you upgrade an already buggy install of Windows. The only real way to fix it is to back up the data, go back to the beginning. Reinstall Vista fresh and right away upgrade to Win7. After that start to install all your programs and drivers.

It is for this reason that i hate upgrades. As there is no way to fix a bad upgrade. It is more harmful to try and roll back from it, if you even have the proper files to do so.

 

[Therow]

Well the ting was, that there was never a "Not responding" issue in windows vista. We did a clean install of windows 7 too. Does windows 7 require more ram or something to operate efficiently? Are there maybe any process clean up's so to speak for windows 7? Something that i can look at and disable the stuff i don't need?

Thanks! (Haven't had the laptop with me to try the driver thing yet or /cleaning it out)

 

[KSoD]

Windows 7 64 Bit requires 2GB of RAM. But other than that there is no more requirements put on Win7 than there was for Vista. You stated you upgraded. So since you say you did a fresh install i can build on that. Please oh please tell me you didnt use the format built into the Win7 DVD to format the drive before the install. Cause if you did, that explains so much.

 

[Therow]

Windows 7 64 Bit requires 2GB of RAM. But other than that there is no more requirements put on Win7 than there was for Vista. You stated you upgraded. So since you say you did a fresh install i can build on that. Please oh please tell me you didnt use the format built into the Win7 DVD to format the drive before the install. Cause if you did, that explains so much.

You know what, I'm way off base. Its been a long time since we did this and well we have procrastinated about seeking help. So what we did wasn't exactly a clean install.

We used the GF's laptop backup software stuff that came with a copy of windows vista. We used that CD to reformat and clean-install windows vista. Then we used what we had of windows 7 to do an upgrade. For some reason the burnt copy of windows 7 that we had wasn't working. So we had to use the one on my back up external that i carry my windows 7 OS on.

I hope that kind of helps a bit more. Clearly stating what we did

Procrastination, does it effects short term memories?

I like cookie pies. /joke

 

[MindoverMaster]

Burnt copy? Do I smell the old "got it from a friend"?

 

[TheOtis]

For some reason the burnt copy of windows 7 that we had wasn't working. So we had to use the one on my back up external that i carry my windows 7 OS on.

Haha, burnt copies of W7? Does giving help to someone using a burnt copy of Windows go against any forums rules? I'd say using an .iso you grabbed from the interwebz might be the problem, could be lots of reasons why it's not working properly.