AstroBoy Online Forums

W7, though no longer supported, at least worked as expected. Click a button, & something happens. W10, click a button, wait 6 or 7 seconds, then something happens. Why is it so sluggish?

My PC was W10 compliant, though W7 was installed. It had 8 GB; I added another 8. My gadget indicated RAM use, etc., which was not excessive with 7. 10, & the task manger indicates >80% RAM usage.

Why did they move things around or hide things?

Where are my screensaver controls?

If Microsoft made cars, they would have moved the steering wheel to the trunk!

I have a wireless keyboard; W7 used different sounds when switching to caps lock and from caps lock. 10 uses the same sound for both. Oh, there is no caps lock light on my keyboard. There is a very brief on-screen indicator, but that requires looking at the screen. When I type, I look at the keyboard.

I 'upgraded' to 10 about 2 weeks ago, & so far, am regretting it.

So, just yesterday, W10 offered an update that resolved the poor RAM management! Went from >80% used to <60%! Chrome does have very many tabs.

Still very slow response for some things, though. For instance, clicking [submit] on this editor, takes > 6 seconds to show any activity. I just re-opened it to edit.

Just recently, W10 had occasional total black outs on the screen. Nothing to do, but press the power button on the PC. Fortunately, it powered - down, as hoped.

A few times, though it went black for a few seconds, it did recover, though in a lesser pixel resolution. Normal is standard HD, 1920 by 1080. Might have been 800 by 600 or close to it after blackout.

Some facts:

1. still using OFFICE Xp.
2. still using POWER DVD 13

Since this PC was made for W10, I am guessing that these very old programs that I use often, might be causing the problems.

Opinions, are welcome!

This looks like a hardware problem to me, maybe as simple as a cable not well connected to the screen. If I had physical access to the computer, the first thing I would do is to check that cable on both sides (and unplug and replug even if everything looks fine, or change it if another one is readily available).

Hmm., that might be, as I had been turning the monitor about 25 degrees so I van see it from the kitchen. I will check the connections, next time it is off.

Thanks!

I agree with Fafner. I would try unplugging the video card cable and plug it back in, see if the picture comes back. Losing full resolution usually means the computer has lost contact with the screen. If the screen itself says it's lost signal, it's probably a cable/PC problem. If it doesn't, then it could also be a power issue with the screen (I've seen it that happen with leaking capacitors).

I had this problem a few months ago and after ruling out a cable/screen problem, I narrowed it down to the GPU or PSU. I replaced the PSU first because that was cheaper, and it fixed the problem. I assume the old PSU wasn't able to provide the voltage to the GPU it used to.

Anyway, your description of the problem was solid. The fact that the power button still worked means the CPU wasn't locked up.

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I agree with your complaints about Windows 10. I found Windows 11 slightly better, but still not great. Programmes in the taskbar are forcibly grouped, so if there's more than one open you can't minimise them by clicking the taskbar anymore. Switching windows now takes 2 clicks instead of 1. There's no fix for it. Scrollbars are super skinny now which just makes them harder to click on, although I can fix that with a registry change. So much of the interface is just worse now, like a fashion show where nothing has pockets anymore because someone decided form was more important than function.

So my primary PC is still running Windows 7. Yesterday I discovered I couldn't update Blender or Fusion360 anymore because they don't support Windows 7 now. Chrome dropped Windows 7 support months ago, in fact the browser engine itself doesn't support Windows 7 which covers pretty much every browser except Firefox. Steam is dropping Windows 7 support at the end of the year so that'll be all my gaming gone (it will explicitly stop running at all). I understand the need for operating systems to progress the underlying technology, I just wish they didn't make the interface objectively worse. Anyway that's my rant done.

So I un & re-plugged the HDMI & the display port cables. Now comes the waiting.

Thanks for the tips!

I just installed updated drivers, & wanted to back-up the system. Took forever to find the method familiar to me, creating a system image. It was found under W7 back-up. I am proceeding with it now.

Is there a better way? I should already know.

I've been using Macrium Reflect, but it looks like the free version is now limited to 30 days.

So I have just looked up emails regarding my PC, and I bought it almost 10 years ago!

Why I mention this, is because I was thinking about getting a new video card, hoping that might resolve the problem. But, at this time, would that be throwing good money after bad?

Would it make more sense to buy a new PC, especially given that this one is incompatible with W11? Not only that, but so many improvements have been made since 2014!