# [SOLVED] What is Wrong With Windows 8?



## riffdex (Mar 13, 2010)

My mother and I recently bought W8 laptops (had W7 before) and we have had trouble from day one. Constant memory issues, freezes, crashes, not responding. We have ample ram and specs on our machines, and at this point I am thoroughly convinced it is the Windows 8 operating system that has serious flaws handling memory usage.

Hers:
Dell XPS 15 Inch (2013 model - im trying to get her specs and post them but I know she got like the best specs possible)

Mine:
Dell Inspiron 14z
Intel Core i3 1.9 Ghz 6GB RAM 500 GB HDD 32GB SSD Integrated Intel HD Graphics

It is pathetic how crappy mine is running, compared to the fact that my previous comp (Dell XPS M1210) was 7 years old, had a slower 1.66Ghz Core Duo processor, had only 3GB of RAM, and running W7, it gave me no problems whatsoever. (The reason I decided to upgrade is my HDD crashed and I figured it was time - did not imagine a considerably newer and higher spec machine would run worse.) 

Keep in mind I am doing basic stuff on this machine (browsing, word docs, streaming videos, etc) and having these problems. I am not really multitasking or having an obscene number of windows open. Nothing that should cause any problems.

I decided to post here because I figured maybe we're doing something wrong. Maybe these comps arent supposed to work properly out of the box. Maybe we are supposed to tweak them to get them to run even halfway decent. I do not know, but I am open to suggestions. Can anyone please offer some advice? Anyone else experiencing memory issues in W8?


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## djaburg (May 15, 2008)

*Re: What is Wrong With Windows 8?*

Were both of these machines purchased from Dell with Windows 8 pre-installed? If so, I'd get on the phone with Dell and would use the tech support you've paid for with your purchase. If windows 8 didn't come pre-installed, I'd make sure you've got all driver and operating system updates installed. I've got Windows 8 running on an old Acer laptop that's running a mobile celeron dual core and 1.5GB of RAM and don't really have any issues other than the expected issues with going between applications having such little RAM. Sounds a bit odd to me that both machines are exhibiting the same symptoms.


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## riffdex (Mar 13, 2010)

djaburg said:


> Were both of these machines purchased from Dell with Windows 8 pre-installed? If so, I'd get on the phone with Dell and would use the tech support you've paid for with your purchase. If windows 8 didn't come pre-installed, I'd make sure you've got all driver and operating system updates installed. I've got Windows 8 running on an old Acer laptop that's running a mobile celeron dual core and 1.5GB of RAM and don't really have any issues other than the expected issues with going between applications having such little RAM. Sounds a bit odd to me that both machines are exhibiting the same symptoms.


Hers was purchased from Dell new, a few months ago. She was about to send it back but the 30 days policy lapsed. She has been on tech support but Dell has been no help. She hates it and has never been able to get it to work like her old W7 Dell laptop. 

Mine was purchased online new monday and shipped from OfficeDepot. I got it because it was on sale. 

I cannot possibly imagine this is a hardware issue. Both laptops are having the same issues that we never had on W7. Im talking like from the second you boot the computer up fresh, it has low memory and programs are crashing, not loading, etc. I have been getting prompts from Windows saying there is not enough memory. This is minutes after a fresh reboot. The computers are essentially stock. I assumed hers had some virus or malware causing memory issues but never could find any and mine is having the same problems. Sometimes her laptop audio will stop working (I believe this is due to a memory shortfall), requiring a reboot.

I am at my wit's end and to be honest, I am about to the point im willing to switch to Mac because MS has made it so hard to find a modern laptop w W7. I never considered using a Mac before but the problems are very frustrating. 

But I am hoping the problems can be fixed I just have no idea what to do at this point. I am so sick of troubleshooting a device that didnt work out of the box.

Any help is much appreciated.


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## Old Rich (May 31, 2007)

*Re: What is Wrong With Windows 8?*

What antivirus and other realtime protection is running?


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## riffdex (Mar 13, 2010)

CenturyLink AntiVirus and Online Security. It comes bundled with our internet service and is updated frequently.


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## Old Rich (May 31, 2007)

*Re: What is Wrong With Windows 8?*

I would start with uninstalling that and see how the performance is affected


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## riffdex (Mar 13, 2010)

I will definitely try it. Can you recommend another Antivirus to put in the meantime?


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## djaburg (May 15, 2008)

*Re: What is Wrong With Windows 8?*

Try Microsoft Security Essentials as a minimum so you're protected. Make sure you DON'T have more than one AV program installed.


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## riffdex (Mar 13, 2010)

*Re: What is Wrong With Windows 8?*

I uninstalled my Antivirus completely and I am having the issues still.


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## Old Rich (May 31, 2007)

*Re: What is Wrong With Windows 8?*

Let's see what else is running . . download and run HJT and post the report here . . do *not* make any changes with HJT!

Download HijackThis 2.0.4 - FileHippo.com


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## riffdex (Mar 13, 2010)

*Re: What is Wrong With Windows 8?*

Ran that program, clicked "AnalyzeThis" (I assume this is what I'm supposed to click. It then said "No Internet Connection Available". This is wrong I am clearly connected ): What to do now?


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## riffdex (Mar 13, 2010)

*Re: What is Wrong With Windows 8?*

Does this help at all? Uploaded hijackthis.log file (changed extension to txt so I could upload here as an attachment) and a pic of my task manager.


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## Old Rich (May 31, 2007)

*Re: What is Wrong With Windows 8?*

It looks like you might have an infection . . We do not help with that in this forum, Please follow our pre-posting process outlined here:

NEW INSTRUCTIONS - Read This Before Posting For Malware Removal Help - Tech Support Forum

After running through *all *the steps, please post the requested logs in the Virus/Trojan/Spyware Help  forum, *not here.*

If you have trouble with one of the steps, simply move on to the next one, and make note of it in your reply.

Please note that the Virus/Trojan/Spyware Help forum is extremely busy, and it may take a while to receive a reply.


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## riffdex (Mar 13, 2010)

*Re: What is Wrong With Windows 8?*



Old Rich said:


> It looks like you might have an infection . . We do not help with that in this forum, Please follow our pre-posting process outlined here:
> 
> NEW INSTRUCTIONS - Read This Before Posting For Malware Removal Help - Tech Support Forum
> 
> ...


I posted there thank you. And I understand it might take a few days to get a response. I might need to call OfficeDepot and tell them I've been having problems and to expect a return if I can't figure it out. 

Not to doubt you, but I can't see how this brand new laptop has an infection unless it came preinstalled by Dell. This computer has been trouble since day one. ):


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## Old Rich (May 31, 2007)

*Re: What is Wrong With Windows 8?*

A pc can be infected in as little as 10 seconds if the operator is unwise. I'm not positive it is infected, but the wizards in the forum can tell you quickly.

It had a lot of issues that would not have come from Dell . .


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## Darkhelmet95 (Dec 1, 2010)

*Re: What is Wrong With Windows 8?*

Dell has quite a few lemons in the past year. My school bought 150 optiplex 310 SFF. more than half of them were lemons and had to be sent back.
My opinion, dells aren't the PC's they used to be.
I had by Dell Inspiron 2600 for 11 years before she gave up. 
*
*


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## riffdex (Mar 13, 2010)

*Re: What is Wrong With Windows 8?*



Old Rich said:


> A pc can be infected in as little as 10 seconds if the operator is unwise. I'm not positive it is infected, but the wizards in the forum can tell you quickly.
> 
> It had a lot of issues that would not have come from Dell . .


Well thank you for the help and advice. I hope they can figure out my problem in my new thread under Virus help.

Not trying to bump this thread any more than I have to, but this computer came with a trial antivirus preinstalled (never has been unprotected) and I literally NEVER visit questionable sites. Countless times I have installed fresh Windows 7 on a laptop and gone weeks without having an antivirus installed right away and I have been fine. I always make sure to get an antivirus soon as I can.

But to think that I have had so much time on a Windows 7 machine being unprotected and it has been fine, while both the W8 Dell computers I have EVER encountered have started having the same serious memory issues immediately after purchasing, makes me think that Windows 8 is a security nightmare. (This is, of course, assuming the problem ends up being malware).

Otherwise, there are some serious problems with these computers. Whether it be OS, Brand, Software, Hardware. I have no idea what to do at this point but wait and hope you all can help me analyze whats going on. Thanks again for all the help.


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## i MaRk i (Dec 29, 2009)

*Re: What is Wrong With Windows 8?*

Hi-

It is possible that an infection spread over your network, possibly from other computer on your home internet connection.

I will say that Windows 8 is many many times better with RAM usage than even Windows 7. I've test driven it with as little as 512MB of RAM, and it ran without issue. 

Also- I recently just bought the Dell XPS 12 running Windows 8, and it hasn't had a hiccup yet. Granted- I'm still not happy with Dell, they said it had USB 3.0 support, and every XPS 12 has issues with 3.0- While I do know why the issue is there, I am unable to fix the hardware...

Regards,

Mark


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## riffdex (Mar 13, 2010)

*Re: What is Wrong With Windows 8?*

If that's the case, how would I remove a virus from my network? I am considering returning this laptop (still under 14 day return policy) and trying another computer. I have been thinking about this because we have had so much trouble with the last 2 Dell W8 laptops we bought, and I am considering just trying a different brand for a change and seeing if I have the issues (this of course assumes all these problems are related to the Dell W8 setup and not a virus).

But buying a new comp will not do much good if I just connect a new one to the network and it becomes infected. This theory actually makes a lot of sense to me, but I am wondering what I can actually do if this is the case. I need a working laptop in my house. We have been dependent on our smartphones limited web browsing functionality for too long. And I'm sick of it... lol.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

*Re: What is Wrong With Windows 8?*

Hooking your computer up to your network does not infect your computer. It is when you try copy files over from an infected computer or install an infected program from an infected PC on your network that would infect the new computer.


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## riffdex (Mar 13, 2010)

*Re: What is Wrong With Windows 8?*



spunk.funk said:


> Hooking your computer up to your network does not infect your computer. It is when you try copy files over from an infected computer or install an infected program from an infected PC on your network that would infect the new computer.


Well if thats the case thats not the issue. I I havent copied/received any files from the other computer.


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## riffdex (Mar 13, 2010)

*Re: What is Wrong With Windows 8?*

Im starting to doubt the thought that these computers have viruses. They have very similar issues which they had since we got them. They are same brand/OS which we never used before. We used to have W7 with which we had ZERO problems.

I have a Windows 7 computer still in our house which is not having these issues (low memory prompt popping up, crashes, etc) and the only reason I cant use it is because it's HDD is slowly getting worse (in the process of crashing). I can hear how loud it is and it is having intermittent speed issues (completely different from what we are experiencing with the new laptops - and which are obviously attributed to the failing HDD).

If a W7 laptop can work just fine under our network setup (and has for the last 5 years - with the exception of the HDD getting old), why shouldn't the W8 computers work just as good?

I'd say it is a stretch to assume that both of these brand new Dell laptops have hardware defects, but maybe it is a possible explanation? I have run preloaded diagnostics on my machine and it said every component was working fine though?

I am suspicious this might be some sort of software issue (drivers?) that is common to both of the Dell computers or W8 but idk what to do at this point. Both computers have always had an antivirus installed from the start and scans do not find any viruses/malware. They have the same antivirus software provided by my internet provider that has kept my W7 computer running virus-free for the last 5 years without issue. (I will reiterate that I tried uninstalling this AV and tried an alternative AV program, but it did not help the issue). I am open to more ideas and brainstorm if you have ideas plz.


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## riffdex (Mar 13, 2010)

*Re: What is Wrong With Windows 8?*

I have returned this computer. Hopefully my next computer will work /: You can close this thread.


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