New Computer stress

[bucolic_frolic]

i've had a new pc for 6 days and it has done little except update for all but 7 or 8 hours.

It's just about totally locked up. Can browse lightly, meaning delays in everything. Not pauses. Delays.
It doesn't tell you what it's updating, only after the fact did I learn the first night was about Win10 updates.
Everytime I get a half hour going good, it starts all over again. I think it's mcafee. I am just furious at it. Everytime
I backspace a few letters because I mistyped, I have to wait 3 seconds.

I'm thinking of repairing my old Vista machine with parts, mouse, drive and battery, and installing Linux. That ran well
from 4 megs of RAM and a DVD boot - no hard drive! Ok it locked up every 4 hours from the memory cache being
filled, but still, it allowed me some sanity.

ALso seriously considering ditching Verizon in favor of wifi public library access. THis is not worth the aggravation and cost.

[pangaia]

1. What in the world did you get?

[bucolic_frolic]

4. lol

hp 15-ba009dx. it's mint, guy said he hardly used it and it looks it. came with orig packaging and all manuals and a new restore of Win10. noisy fan. I know my internet access is slow at times, but this is ridiculous. I even have to wait to load programs on the desktop. or to switch between tabs.

[mn9driver]

5. A used system restored computer typically has a ton of updates to do.

I just system restored a 2011 laptop and it had well over 200 updates in queue.

That took literally several days. I just let it do its thing and checked on it occasionally. It works good now. At least it does considering its age and the fact that it wasn't a hot model originally.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. This is a 2016 model and seems factory set for Mcaffee to scan every day

that is what's been running since 10am. it's now 3 pm. I cancelled daily updates, and
stopped installing updates, but now I have to find a way to stop the in progress updates.

AVG never failed me. Been using it since about 2004. This bloatware grabbing 95% of system resources fpr days on end is crazy, updates or not.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

2. McAfee is the worst. Disable the realtime scans if you can.

If you MUST use a virus scanner, try to find something with a smaller footprint. We use Avast at work (because it's easier to put a virus scanner on the system than it is to train a bunch of troglodytes not to click on spam links), it doesn't slow down the system too much.

You can also disable automatic updates from Windows if need be (but I'd suggest getting your Windows installation completely up to date). I usually turn off automatic, and have it let me know when there are new updates so I can install manually on my own time.

[CurtEastPoint]

6. Agree. McAfee is horrid. Get rid of it and install AVG.

[SamKnause]

3. I bought a new computer in January with Windows 10.

I am sorry you are having such a horrible time.

I didn't run into any problems.

I hope you get things sorted out.

[earthshine]

8. Please uninstall Macafee and report back to us.

You don't need Mac or AVG with Win 10. It comes with Windows Defender built in. It's good enough for most users.

Mac will totally slow you down during it's unneeded scans.

It makes sense that the computer is trying to update your Win 10, but perhaps is being interrupted during this long process. It will repeat the process from scratch until it gets a solid complete.

Make sure it has a good web connection, at least for the duration of the update.

Windows 10 ... I grieve with thee.

[bucolic_frolic]

9. I deactivated active scanning and checked Task Manager

Firefox is using 15%CPU and 100% hard disk.

So I uninstalled Firefox and rebooted.

It's still acting the same. Very slow . constant rapid flicker on the WLAN light.

Yesterday I installed XMarks in Firefox but it would never let me login.

My exit strategy is to uninstall everything, wipe the free space, and sell it off. Can't be putting up with this week after week.

I'm on my 2009 former Vista PC, no hard drive, booted with DVD, Linux Mint Serena.

[bucolic_frolic]

10. Removing Firefox helped speed up Edge Browswer a bit

so it is functional, but the hard drive continues to chatter and write even when nothing is happening.

WIndows 10 warns FF is slower than Edge ... is this a browser war I'm caught in?

[bucolic_frolic]

11. Ran Malwarebytes which found a bunch of PUP slimware

then reinstalled Firefox. It's just as bad as ever. Slow. Constantly hung browser and links. Failures to load pages, or half-loaded pages.

Edge remains about normal speed. So Firefox is being slowed down.

[earthshine]

12. Try uninstalling the Firefox extensions.

Typically, it will attempt to reinstall your add-ons when FF is reinstalled.

At this point your entire Windows installation is krufty, so you should consider the total reinstall.

Good luck.

[ucrdem]

13. You can get a "health report" from Windows Defender

that includes an option to "refresh" meaning wipe all the crapware off your drive and reinstall Windows. It's easy to get to through the icon in the system tray. I just noticed last night; apparently they've rejiggered Defender and it has some new features, more here:

Health report. Tells you if there are any issues impacting the device health, such as storage capacity, devices, battery, or ability to update to the most recent version of Windows. It also provides recommendations about steps you can take to resolve these issues.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4012986/windows-defender-track-your-device-performance-health

p.s. refresh is now called Fresh Start:

Device performance & health also includes Fresh Start, which is a feature that helps you refresh your device by reinstalling and updating Windows—for example, if your device has performance issues or you have too many unnecessary apps.

[bucolic_frolic]

14. ultimately i gave up on it

shipped it back. installing a new hard drive on the old system and installing Linux which has been very good despite no hard drive. It's probably a temporary solution to my computer needs because it won't run Java which i need for etrade pro. I doubt it would run well in spme sort of app box in Linux. May even ditch home internet access as that runs off 1950s copper wire phone lines on the phone poles, all of which are dodgy the technician told me.

Yes, here in the US, we have the latest technology!

[ucrdem]

15. Good idea.

You probably would have had to replace the HD in it anyway. About the Java problem, one suggestion might be to carve out a partition on the new drive and install your favorite Windows flavor, then the program you need. Then set up a dual-boot menu and choose your OS at start up. Windows will make one for you if you start with windows, probably Linux will too, not sure tho.

About the DSL problem, I went through something similar last spring when Frontier took over Verizon's landline business and it went to hell. I had Earthlink DSL and started getting outages that went on for days. Sometimes it was the weather, or the lines, but the last one lasted more than a week and no one could figure it out. Then a surly Frontier guy came out to the house, poked around, and drove off. Huh? I called Frontier and they said he'd gone to throw a local switch. Sure enough, my DSL came back. Then it went away. That's when I gave up and had Time Warner run an internet cable to the house. So now I have cable internet for about the same cost as DSL (50 / mo).