I’ve finally solved a computer issue that had been a major thorn in my side for about 6 months. It was a problem that caused me to reinstall Windows, start using Windows 7, consider ditching Windows all together and using Linux, updating and deleting drivers and reading a ton of forums.
It all started when I went to physically clean the inside of my computer. By that I mean I just take off the side of the casing and use a wet-vac to blow the dust out. Well, the last time I did this, which was about six months ago my computer started having issues.
Before I go further I would say that hindsight is 20/20. But isn’t that the case for many problems?
Windows would start to load and then get stuck. Strange I thought, perhaps I didn’t plug in all the various USB plugs in and the computer doesn’t like it? Well, I tried and tried but windows would always get stuck. So I tried all the various Windows auto fixes and of course none of them could detect the problem. So I went to safe mode and it worked fine. I looked at drivers, I ran registry cleans, I did every singe thing one does to try and find the error. It would start fine in safe mode but would never load in normal mode!
So I had to reinstall and not having a backup windows drive that actually worked I went back to my Windows 7 CD and reinstalled. Then I would upgrade from there to Windows 10. But same problem.
So I reinstalled again and actually used Windows 7 for a few months and it worked fine, until it didn’t.
Reinstall again and look at the drivers, find a few that don’t work right and deleted them. My computer works well for a month and then starts getting stuck again.
So finally, I decide I’ll try to do some surgery or am installing Linux. I’m fine with using Linux but the one thing that always held me back is my Microsoft Access Database which only runs in Windows. I need my Access Database. Yes, I could convert to LibreOffice but I also use a database for work which runs Windows so I really cannot ditch Access and be comfortable switching back and forth all the time.
I forgot to mention one other “solution.” I have two drives, one for Windows and one for data and taking the data drive out and using an external for a while seemed to do the trick. But as I was doing “surgery” I decided I really wanted to use an internal data drive so plugged it back in. I checked all the connections and pushed them all in.
Well, guess what? That was the problem. There was simply a loose connection somewhere and although I cannot be sure believe it was with the hard drive. My computer has worked flawlessly now and in hindsight, seeing that my computer wasn’t working after a former cleaning it should have been obvious there was a loose connection somewhere. I didn’t figure that out earlier because Windows would load using Windows 7 for so long. I guess Windows 10 just requires a bit more power to run and didn’t like the loose connection.
I really cannot believe it runs so well now and how I was actually considering getting a new computer or installing Linux when this computer and Windows 10 install is perfectly fine. It took me over 6 months to figure this all out.
And that’s the end of my story on that.
In other news the internet has changed. Now it is all about Instagram “influencers,” YouTube stars and monetizing. But that is a topic for another post.
