JCC Offical Computer Help Thread V2.0

Like on the 360, Smarglass enables you to control your Xbox from a smartphone or windows PC. With the X1, Smartglass essentially gives your PC and smartphone the added ability to control your TV. The X1 was a Christmas gift.

 

Whenever my PC shuts down, all of my passwords are reset. It's been doing that since September, so I don't shut it down anymore. Seems to work for the most part despite the fact that it'll freeze up every now and then and sometimes even shut down at random moments. It's not too much of a hassle, but does anyone know what could this be?

 

Another possible issue: KB 2858725

Most of the issues seemed to have occurred in Nov/Dec, but I saw a complaint of a crash on the Microsoft forums from Feb. Mostly affecting Win 7 with some Vista systems being affected.

 

More Microsoft update fail:

Apparently Kb2957689 stops IE 11 and related functions from working. No word yet on if there are issues with other versions with IE with this update.

KB2957503 apparently causes explorer.exe to fault on reboot and subsequently crash windows.

 

I too am having a problem with my Windows 8 PC. While playing streaming video content via YouTube, Facebook, The Escapist, etc, the video clips stutter. This is especially unfortunate if I'm playing an entire playlist on YouTube, as every video/music track stutters/halts. I have Googled the issue and read that I should delete all temporary internet files, which I've done. That helped the problem immediately after I did this, but within a couple hours video/media content was back to halting.

I checked my Internet to see if Internet speed might be an issue, but no problems there, as my Xbox One and smartphone have no problems at all streaming Internet media. Any other suggestions?

 

I don't have Windows 8, but have you updated Flash Player recently?

 

I have the most recent version.

 

What browser are you using, and have you tried a different one to see if it makes a difference?

 

I'm using Chrome and no, I haven't even considered using a different browser. I suppose I should get on that

 

Okay, just tried Firefox to view the gameplay trailer for Mortal Kombat X from E3 and the video took forever buffering and when it finally loaded, it played with more halting than in Chrome.

 

Ouch. Well, scratch that thought. How old a machine is this? One suggestion I saw online was to update video drivers, etc.

 

I think another issue might be whichever anti-virus/firewall software you might be using. If it is actively scanning/running while streaming, that might cause the lag/stutter. I know I get that issue that issue with avast on an older PC at home.

 

The PC is only a year old. And I suppose it could indeed be my firewall, as I'm using ZoneAlarm and it gives me problems with other programs too.

Any suggestions about other free firewalls?

 

Try disabling your firewall first and see if the issue continues or not, you don't want to change things like that only to find out that the problem still exists.

 

I've downloaded the Star Wars Timeline Gold several times before and never had a problem with it. This last time, however, when I saved the file, it saved in my downloads with an Adobe Reader icon in place of the usual compressed folder icon that contains the files and with a .zip extension instead of no extension. When I tried to open it in Reader, it wouldn't open. The problem is not on Nathan Butler's end, as I downloaded the Timeline just a few weeks ago and had no problem. The issue is somewhere on my end, but I'm scratching my head trying to figure it out. The only thing I can think of is that I installed updates just a few days ago since I was prompted to before shutting the computer down, but why would that screw up a download like that? I left a message for him, but even he's not sure what's going on.

Oh, and my issues from a few weeks ago have cropped up again. The System Restore didn't work for very long; my laptop abruptly started freezing and shut down with no warning again last night. I'm almost to the point of throwing it out the window.

 

Your HD maybe fried. You may either have to shell out to replace the HD or get a new computer altogether.

 

Probably what I'll have to end up doing. My computer techie uncle suggested I get an external hard drive, but I'd really rather just buy a new laptop.

 

If your HD is dying, be sure to back your files up before it goes altogether. You might want an external HD for that.

 

Sorry it took so long to get back (work, family, life, etc). At any rate, I turned off my firewall and tried to stream a Game of Thrones clip on YouTube...only to experience the same intermittent stalling.

Google hasn't been very helpful (at least not in the first page or so of search results). So I guess we can rule the Firewall out of the Problems List.

 

So my laptop (Toshiba, Windows 8) decided yesterday that it was all of a sudden going to start working very, very slowly. It freezes up frequently, anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or more. Heck, sometimes when I open up a new webpage, I have to get up and find something else to do because it'll freeze up for several minutes waiting on the new page to load. It's not just my internet either--it seems to be affecting my whole computer.

Now when I had my 7-year-old laptop earlier this year, it was acting the same way, but that made sense--it was old. I needed to get a new one. So I did. But now this laptop, which I've only had for a few months, is already acting like it's super old. It was working fine last week up through Saturday. But then all of a sudden on Sunday, it's just gotten unbearably slow. (This despite the fact I didn't download anything over the weekend.) I've had this happen to this laptop a couple times in the several months that I've owned it, and each time it was because something was trying to update in the background. So it was just a matter of shutting down and letting it install updates. This time, however... there are no updates (that I can find), and restarting accomplished nothing. It's just slow, for no discernible reason.

Whenever I bring up Task Manager, it says the computer is operating at 96% memory (or somewhere thereabout). I try to look for what it is that's guzzling all the memory, and it points squarely at Google Chrome. This is odd because Chrome hasn't slowed down this computer that much before, so why now, out of nowhere? I could try Firefox or IE, but the reason I changed to Chrome to begin with was because the other two tended to slow down my system. So it's like a catch-22.

Does anyone have any idea why my computer is going so slow on me all of a sudden? It's very frustrating, given how new it is.

 

You've probably already done this, but have you tried running a virus scan on your computer? Some viruses don't make themselves known right away.

 

It might be worth trying Firefox. If your PC works faster then it might be something peculiar to Chrome. I agree with the virus scan - if you haven't done one you should. See if it finds anything.

Did Chrome maybe do an update on Saturday? Or were you on any sites you normally don't visit? Also, are you on Win 8 or Win 8.1?

Also, if you have any extensions installed on Chrome (such as an ad-blocker) you could try disabling them to see if that helps. If it does then enable them one at a time til you find the offender.

 

Uh... ****. My antivirus program (Webroot) isn't scanning. O_O

Like, I'll tell it to scan my computer, and it just sits there at 0%. I've tried twice now, waiting about 10 minutes or so each time. It never moves beyond 0% or indicates it's doing a damn thing at all. It looks like this problem is a lot worse than I thought.

As for the other questions, I have Win 8.1 (I think?). Chrome didn't do any updates Saturday or Sunday that I'm aware of. I don't have any special extensions (ad-blocker or otherwise). I have Shockwave, which I tried turning off last night, but it came back on just as soon as I'd go to another webpage. I don't know if that's the problem, though, as I didn't notice much improvement even during the brief time it was turned off.

 

Yeah... if your virus scanner isn't running like it's should (and I have Webroot myself), then it's likely a virus.

 

Or an improper antivirus installation. Is there any chance you had a different antivirus installed that you installed on top of?