Hi leader2,
It looks like you have had a bad time with this machine, lots of hard work and effort and still suffering problems....
It seems pretty clear that your machine has major problems and the refresh that you completed usually does the trick to correct Windows errors etc...... but in this case it doesn't seem to have helped...
1 did you remember to uninstall your present anti virus ....Norton??, reboot your computer then run the Norton uninstall tool (or the specific uninstall tool for the AV product concerned) and then reboot again BEFORE installing your latest Anti virus product?
Note failing to reboot after the uninstall can cause a whole host of problems...
2 Have your tried setting up via Control Panel a new user account (with admin privileges) and running from this new account to see if the problems persist?
3 Have you tried booting into safemode with network support ? be careful when doing this as your protections, AV etc., will not be providing full protection in safe mode, only visit trusted sites...www.bbc.co.uk for example and stay onsite, you can give your machine a good workout to see if it's better of worse or the same!... post back with your findings.
4 As to creating an image of your system this is an excellent thing to have (but you need to make sure your image is "good"....) if you have faults on your system when the image is made then the same faults will be replicated when you reimage.... So always take images when your system is running well, fast and smooth, free from virus and malicious code, junk files removed, defragged (unless using an SSD) and in your desired "perfect state"
5 It goes without saying that you should have all peripherals disconnected whilst testing things.....no flash drives present, or DVD's in the tray, or cameras or phones etc connected...... have a minimal set up if you can..... mouse, keyboard ( wired ) VDU and power....not even Ethernet cable.... then start testing....... watching for blue screens....(use this application to check on origins for blue screens)
Who Crashed v 5.01 free home version from here:
http://www.resplendence.com/downloads If all Ok then plug in your Ethernet cable and start further testing..... keep records of what you are doing... when.... and the results, screen dumps or digital photos are useful....
To determine if we are faced with a hardware issue or a WIndows/software issue we need to try and eliminate some things so we can focus our attention on the correct area..... so here's some more thoughts
6 Is your computer under guarantee/warranty/service agreement? or are you protected by consumer protection legislation in your location/jurisdiction that would give you rights to a repair from the vendor of your equipment? if so... this should be your first step...
7 To continue testing download an .iso of a live distribution of Linux (Linux Puppy is good) and available here:
http://puppylinux.or...est Release.htmYou will need to burn the CD as an image (a copy wont work)
You can then boot from the Puppy CD and it will run happily in RAM and will not write anything to your hard drive(unless you ask it to)..... obviously Linux is different from Windows, but you will soon get the hang of it and it will allow you to give your machine's hardware a good workout.
8 If the problems persist when using Puppy or Ubuntu or any other of the Live distros of Linux, then it's pointing towards a hardware issue.....
If it's better and runs with no problems (remember running solely from RAM its likely to be less responsive than your Windows set up...) then you are going to be looking at a full format reinstall etc.... so make sure your back ups are perfect, 100%, accurate, comprehensive, reproducible and with at least one extra copy kept safe offsite on removable media....
Post back and let us know how you get on
Regards
paws
Edited by paws, 25 April 2014 - 06:05 AM.
typo