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[Azerty]

Last news about my issue:

after observating, during the week I used the "Hibernation" mode isntead to shut down, I decided to test a reboot last Friday.

End result: the day after, the issue with the complete shutdown of the GUI system, along with the file system, went back and I had to do a system restore by the F8 mode, since which I am using back "Hibernation."

At last I know now the issue is linked with the booting process.

[Thief^]

Possibly something's broken in your system that causes everything to go bad when a Windows update is installed? Hibernate doesn't install updates, so wouldn't be affected. This also means that you're wide open to viruses, btw, as most Windows updates are security updates. Get your Windows install repaired, seriously.

[wierd]

Personally, I would test to see which update is hosing the system, then blacklisting that update in the advanced section of the windows update control pannel applet.

That way other updates will install, but not the system hosing one.

[Jack_Bread]

My laptop is suffering from issues. Right now, it's recommending me to make a backup and repairing or replacing my faulty hard disk.
I don't have any backups(Don't judge me! There're very few things on my computer I care about keeping in the first place!) and trying to run Window's backup thing gives me this error:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It's still running fine, but I'm naturally concerned about restarting it. I've already got everything important in a flashdrive.

I don't have much of what happened, as I mindlessly clicked through the first couple of errors without fully understanding them. It sounds like my shit's fucked, though. How can I get more details on this?

Here are couple of other issues I've been having for my computer for the past while that may be related:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

My downloads folder, the default windows one, has been inaccessible for the past year or so due to being corrupted. Nothing I found would work, so I gave up on restoring it and move to using a different folder for downloads. Occasionally annoys me and makes me seek answers again when I open up a program that defaults to using the default downloads folder, which causes it to yell at me for not having it.

For the past couple of months, my Windows has been complaining to me that my copy is not genuine. It admittedly isn't, but I had to pirate my Win7 because the backup CD that came with my computer refuse to work. No method of fixing this worked for me. I even got a "this action requires elevated privileges" on a CMD command despite being on an admin account on my computer AND running CMD as an admin.  I asked Reddit and they weren't helpful.

[wierd]

The restore DVD that comes with your computer is usually intended to be BOOTED on.   ---WARNING-- Using it will nuke all your data, and reinstall factory crapware.  You probably have a fresher, cleaner system using the pirate option.  Microsoft has their stupid money, they should stop complaining.  It is probably against forum policy to discuss anti-counterfeiting countermeasures and how to circumvent them, but in my experience, the best solution is to nuke the Windows Activation Technologies subsystem right after a fresh install before it can query windows update about ANYTHING, and then install a fake-signed false windows update that tricks windows update into thinking that WAT is installed still, and up to date.  After that, it will never deactivate the copy.  I wont tell you HOW to do that, or where to get the fake update. Just saying what I do (on a laptop, for similar reasons.)

The issue with the corrupted downloads folder can probably be resolved by forcing a chkdsk /f /x /r on the volume, and allowing it to run at next full reboot.

detailed step by step instructions on how to do that, if needed

The /x flag tells windows to unmount the volume first, if necessary, and the /r flag tells it to aggressively check every single sector for being defective before passing health check.  IT WILL TAKE FOREVER TO COMPLETE THE CHECKING.  Just a heads up on that.

The error message you received appears related to volume shadow copy service being turned off.  I don't consider it being turned off a bad thing.  Unless you have a bunch of users all manhandling your stuff, changing and deleting files all the time, keeping things mirrored on a flash disk is a perfectly good backup solution.  Volume shadow copy allows you to keep "Point in time" backups of frequently changed files.  Think "Office Politics" with people all manhandling the same spreadsheet all day.  It isn't really meant for system backups. 

[Jack_Bread]

Hehe, I should clarify, I was saying my windows is pirated because I had an issue before where my OS borked inexplicably and I had to pirate it because the restore CD wasn't working. Unrelated stuff, basically. Thanks for the advice for my downloads folder!

My main concern is that my hard disk is fucked, according to my computer. I'm concerned about turning it off, as it had told me to make a backup, repair or replace my hard disk, and restart the computer. I wanted to know if I could get more info from my computer about this.

[wierd]

It sounds like you may have bad sectors on your hard drive.

Basically, the metal platters inside the unit itself are beginning to wear. The areas with wear sufficient to cause  "unreliability" are not trustworthy, and such areas are starting to crop up.  Windows probably has noticed that it cant read certain disk structures reliably, because they are stored on affected sectors.

Having a corrupted folder is a strong indicator of having a serious underlying problem. (NTFS is a journaled filesystem. Random acts of filesystem corruption that used to happen in the windows 98 era, simply dont happen now. There's a safety blanket baked into the filesystem to prevent that from happening. When it happens now, it';s because "Yo, Some REAL SHIT is going down!" with the insides of the hard disk. (Either you dropped it on the ground while it was running, it's just getting old, or there was a major power interruption while it was doing something important, etc...)

If chkdsk reports any bad sectors after the aggressive scan I suggested, it means your HDD is genuinely on its way off this mortal coil. Getting the unreliable sectors marked BAD by the filesystem will keep windows from using them again, and is a stopgap measure. More sectors will go bad pretty soon, and the drive's integrity will continue to degrade.  Replacement is the best solution in that case.  It could just be general filesystem corruption and not physical HDD deterioration though.  Pay attention to the results of the scan.

[Thief^]

If your restore disk doesn't work, you can generally find OEM (e.g. Dell) versions of a windows disk on pirate sites, and then use the windows license key from the sticker on the PC (sometimes under the battery), which results in a genuine install.

If you do replace the hard disk I'd highly recommend reinstalling windows on the new disk rather than trying to clone the failing disk. You can use the above to possibly get a genuine install again!

[Jack_Bread]

Thanks for the info!
I'm concerned about turning it off, still, but it looks like I will have to if I want to run a chkdsk. Ah well. I'm not particularly rough with my computer, but I still do move it about a bit and I've rarely dropped it. Likely getting old. Also, this is a good reason for me to finally upgrade to an SSD for this thing, too.

PS I've never noticed that license key, there. That's nice to know!

Edit: Hm... just followed the instructions on that site to do the chkdsk and restarted my computer and it restarted without doing anything special. I think this was happening when I was trying to work out my corrupted downloads folder.

[wierd]

So it didnt do the chkdsk blue screen on boot?


another way to get it to run without windows running (so it can actually fix things) is to boot on your pirate install cd.

Use the first part of this tutorial to get to the command prompt THEN run chkdsk /f /x /r from there.

[ShadowHammer]

I have once again returned. I have a few problems now, but one of them is a bit more pressing than the others: my laptop will not recognize any wifi networks, and thus it's a lot harder to look up solutions to the other problems.

Details:
It says that no networks are available, when there are actually several.
The troubleshooter encounters an error when I try to launch it.
The physical wifi switch is on.
The iPad that I am using to make this post is having no difficulty connecting to the wifi.

I have tried:
-restarting the computer
-manually adding a network
-running the troubleshooter
-turning the physical switch off and back on

I know that this is a pretty general problem, but does anyone have any ideas on how to fix it?

[Wolfkit]

Check the drivers for the wifi card?

[ShadowHammer]

My apologies for computer illiteracy, but what exactly do you mean by this^?
I googled it, and, guessing at it, checked the device manager > network adapters. It claims that my Wireless Network Adapter is working properly but the Teredo Tunneling Adapter is not. After much google-fu, I failed to solve the Teredo problem. The error with it is code 10: device cannot start.
I attempted to follow to advice on the third post of this page, but:
I cannot do step 1 - when I type "netsh" into CMD, it gives me the "netsh is not recognized as..." message, and nothing happens.
I'm uncertain about doing step 2 - if I uninstall and delete the network adapter, will I be able to reinstall it without internet?

[Insanegame27]

I have an ACER ASPIRE 5742 with an i5-480M core. It's a few years old and works a charm for most no-gaming tings (i can get 100fps on DF with 40 wasps (see sig) in MW). Except one thing, I've actually got to have it in my LAP because if I put it on the table it overheats really quickly. even with it on my lap it overheats rather quickly. I have a few questions regarding this

Who decided to put the fan underneath the laptop where it sits on the table? It's only other cooldown method is were the fan blows the air out, and that only gets hotter and hotter. I actually got a burn from touching it once, before I turned it off

second, linked to the first: why does it overheat so quickly? it used to be able to sit on the table and not overheat at all.

Third, how can I stop it overheating?

[gimlet]

Improvise some kind of stand that lets air circulate underneath it.  Depends how much effort you want to put into it, some ideas:

4 books, 1 under each corner leaving the center open
a window screen on top of some books
(the above are gonna be inconvenient 'cause it will slide around unless you nail or glue it all together.  You can make stuff slide less if you get some plastic or rubber sheets with some friction - like the "no slide" tablecloths or those rubber things you can put on top of your car dashboard to keep stuff from sliding around, etc)
4 rubber feet glued to a board so the rubber feet fit under the corners of the laptop
a box fan facing upwards (max cooling heh)