computer unstable, clicks don't work or slow response

[dandl]

I'm not tech savvy. After power outage, it cooked the cpu, motherboard, and power supply. The computer shop replaced them. It all seemed to work at the shop. After getting it home, it would work great at times, lightning fast. Then it would not respond to mouse clicks or keyboard, even though I could see the mouse pointer move. Sometimes it would take several seconds to recognize a click. Other times a few minutes. Other times, not at all. It seems to have gotten worse. Now, when it does work, some things will and others won't. I would bring up a pdf file and it would disappear after a few seconds. I could open a picture file okay, but then a document file would not fully load.
When the computer would respond, I did a WD extended diagnostic on the hard drive, passed. Check disk, file check, passed. Troubleshooting in Windows for each thing said could not find the problem. Yesterday, I did a troubleshooter report, I think it was called. It had a graph and showed a lot of red x's, but nothing about the source of the problem. Another diagnostic, can't remember what, showed that a lot of programs failed to open, which makes sense. I could not find anything on the net about this or what to do. I'm not a tech, so jargon does not help. Any ideas.

 

[dorsetknob]

4 gig of memory is not enough these days it makes the pc slow and unresponsive
you need to add /upgrade your memory

 

[eidairaman1]

Swapping could be happening.

Run disk clean up and defragment the drive. Get malwarebytes anti malware and scan the system.

 

[storm-chaser]

The files your are opening, are they on the local hard drive or is this some type of network share?
What are the specs on your system? IE What operating system, CPU, memory, hard drive, etc...

 

[eidairaman1]

The files your are opening, are they on the local hard drive or is this some type of network share?
What are the specs on your system? IE What operating system, CPU, memory, hard drive, etc...

I doubt this person has a network drive bro

 

[dandl]

My system specs are filled in

I read somewhere about the Ryzen needing more memory. This same computer with identical motherboard had a different cpu in it before it got fried. The computer shop recommended this Ryzen for better performance. Maybe I should have replaced the cpu with one like the other.

I updated the bios with mflash so that the motherboard has the latest update. It didn't make any difference. Also, updated chipsets.

4 gig of memory is not enough these days it makes the pc slow and unresponsive
you need to add /upgrade your memory[/

I wonder if I could use one more stick of memory like the one I already have. I've also read that Ryzens are fussy about what kind of memory.

If the memory was insufficient, wouldn't there have been an error code or something? I haven't gotten any error codes at all.

 

[flmatter]

As mentioned before get more ram, get up to at least 8. 16 would be ideal. Reason is you have windows 10 and using the integrated gpu on your cpu. So whatever ram you have currently have is sharing with OS and gpu. Disk clean up and defrag would not hurt either but definitely get more ram. You can go up to 2400 or even 2666 ram and be fine.

 

[kastriot]

1st step: Buy 128/256GB ssd and install OS there.
2nd step:Buy 4GB RAM.
3rd=Profit+Speed

 

[NdMk2o1o]

How much memory is allocated to your IGP? So as well as only having 4gb total you can't even use all of it, likely the IGP will be using at least 1gb leaving you with 3gb<< which is not enough you need another 4gb stick.

Run Windows defender and malwarebytes.
Run a cmd prompt as admin and run sfc /scannow
Stop programs from starting up that aren't required using the startup tab on task mgr
Defrag your hdd.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

I'd definitely try another 4gb of memory first.

 

[John Naylor]

1. First thing I would do if you are not using a subscription base AV / Malware program is download the 30 day free trial for Kaspersky Total Security or the equivalent from BitDefender and do a complete scan of your system.

https://usa.kaspersky.com/downloads/thank-you/total-security-free-trial
https://www.bitdefender.com/solutions/total-security.html

2. If that doesn't cut it, bring it back to the shop and have them intall a new pair of DDR-4 sticks, 4 GB is woefully short for Windows 10. Do not mix RAM sticks that did not come in the same package .... I would not use less than a pair of 2 x 8GB DDR4-2666. Sell the 4 GB sing;le stick and replace with a matched pair in the same package. When you use sticks from differenmt packages, you have no warranty of them working together.

3. An SSD is not going to solve the problems you described and it only affects the OS, not PDFs and other things that will still be instaled on the WD. Here's boot times on our test box.

Boot Time w/ 7200 rpm HD = 21.6 seconds
Boot Time w/ 7200 rpm SSHD = 16.5 seconds
Boot Time w/ SSD = 15.6 seconds

 

[dandl]

Thanks. I already did the sfc /scannow. Windows Defender is already running automatically and says no problems. I ran Malewarebytes a while back with no problems found. The startup is minimal. Is there are site where I can make sure I get RAM that is compatible with the Ryzen 3 2200G?

 

[dorsetknob]

Your motherboard Vendor will have a QVL (Qualified Vendor List ) of suitable RAM on their website

 

[NdMk2o1o]

Thanks. I already did the sfc /scannow. Windows Defender is already running automatically and says no problems. I ran Malewarebytes a while back with no problems found. The startup is minimal. Is there are site where I can make sure I get RAM that is compatible with the Ryzen 3 2200G?

Can you download gpuz and see how much ram your IGP is using

 

[dorsetknob]

If the memory was insufficient, wouldn't there have been an error code or something?

No it would attempt to use your pagefile ( hard disk used as tempory Ram space) This is SLOW compared to keeping it in normal Ram

 

[flmatter]

Here is the list for memory

 

[IceScreamer]

Before you start replacing and/or adding stuff, I gotta ask. Is this a fresh Windows install, are you actually running out of usable RAM, as in what is the RAM usage in Task Manager? Don't get me wrong, having more RAM is ideal but things should not be chugging that hard even with 4GB.
You said they replaced the motherboard, is the computer on the same Windows installation as before the motherboard replacement? Also, is this the same RAM that was used in the fried computer?
To me this looks like it could be solved with a fresh Windows reinstall (if it was not already reinstalled that is).

 

[dandl]

The motherboard replacement is identical with the one that went bad. The memory is the same. The hard drive was not affected. It is not a fresh install of Windows 10. A fresh install would lose all my other programs too. I'll try to check the RAM usage in Task Manager, if I can figure out how to do that and the computer will let me get to it. I'll try to let you know.

 

[eidairaman1]

My system specs are filled in

I read somewhere about the Ryzen needing more memory. This same computer with identical motherboard had a different cpu in it before it got fried. The computer shop recommended this Ryzen for better performance. Maybe I should have replaced the cpu with one like the other.

I updated the bios with mflash so that the motherboard has the latest update. It didn't make any difference. Also, updated chipsets.


I wonder if I could use one more stick of memory like the one I already have. I've also read that Ryzens are fussy about what kind of memory.

If the memory was insufficient, wouldn't there have been an error code or something? I haven't gotten any error codes at all.

Its not ryzen needing more memory, it's the fact of 64bit Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8/8.1, 10) needing a minimum of 4G just to run but 6G+ allows it to run smoothly, ontop your system software is unoptimized and Win 10 for some reason has a bad habbit of hanging up on HDDs

Id say its ram and hdd, buy a SSD, put the hdd alongside it and transfer necessary data.

 

[Vayra86]

Not much too add except for the fact that 8GB is sufficient. 16GB for normal use is tremendous overkill even with the IGPU in use.

Another thing is that Windows 10 after a fresh install will use idle time to perform background tasks (indexing and other stuff) that is heavy on HDD use. This will go away after some time but on a slow system it will be noticeable and you will be fighting for disk access a lot. You can get past this easily by keeping the PC on at night after a fresh install, for one night.

 

[eidairaman1]

Not much too add except for the fact that 8GB is sufficient. 16GB for normal use is tremendous overkill even with the IGPU in use.

Average users on 64bit os should have 6GB.

4GB is really pushing it.

 

[IceScreamer]

The motherboard replacement is identical with the one that went bad. The memory is the same. The hard drive was not affected. It is not a fresh install of Windows 10. A fresh install would lose all my other programs too. I'll try to check the RAM usage in Task Manager, if I can figure out how to do that and the computer will let me get to it. I'll try to let you know.

Good to know. Tho, even if the motherboard model is the same I believe it could still cause issues if Windows is not reinstalled, I could be wrong about that.
Task manager is opened by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ESC, after you open it read the percentage on the top row in the fourth column from the left, or whichever is called Memory. If the percentage is too high, say over 70-80% with not many programs opened then yes, you are running out of memory. If the RAM usage is lower then the problem lies elsewhere.

 

[Vayra86]

Average users on 64bit os should have 6GB.

4GB is really pushing it.

Sure, but 6GB Is a bit of an odd number for a recent setup.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

1st step: Buy 128/256GB ssd and install OS there.
2nd step:Buy 4GB RAM.
3rd=Profit+Speed

exactly 120Gb solid state drives are around £20 and a stick of ram will be £20-40 but those should make the pc a pleasure to use, and Op, your better off on Ryzen, whatever you had Was older and less secure and probably not as fast.

 

[eidairaman1]

Sure, but 6GB Is a bit of an odd number for a recent setup.

I said that as an absolute minimum.