Tech/Computer advice from me

Question for the computer experts that will probably reveal how clueless I am when it comes to computers:

I just bought a new HP laptop. I bought windows office at office depot, but for some reason I can't load it. I just kinda keep going in circles putting in the product key, logging into windows, ect. Any tips? Thanks!!

You wasted your money purchasing Office when there are many free alternatives out there.

What I suggest you do is go to www.ninite.com, tick the box next to what you want, then download the installer to your desktop. You then click on the installer, sit back and let the magic happen. Ninite will install all the programs you want, and automatically says 'NO' to any and all add-ons that come with programs.

An example of what you'd want is Open Office. Tick the box. A browser other than the generic one? I use Firefox, so tick the box. If you intend on playing music, MusicBee is what you need, so tick. Watch a lot of downloaded movies? I use K-Lite Codecs. As this is the full program, you won't need any other codec package. Anything else is up to you. Once ninite has finished, all programs are ready to use. No restarts as you install each program, no unwanted fillers, all you have to do is make the program appear how you want it, and to do what you want it to do.

Need some help for someone else I was trying to help.
Someone with even less computer knowledge than me, asked me to help, because their laptop was acting weird.
I ended up doing the Reset PC in Windows 10, but it was a Partial Reset, that lets you keep your files.
Previously I had done a FULL Reset in Windows 10 on my laptop, several times, and each time, it took about 3 hours.
But this PARTIAL Reset, was still processing after leaving it overnight, and taking it over 15 hours.
What was more disturbing than the amount of time, was the fact that there was no longer a "Progress Bar" showing the percentage completed. It was just a circle going round and round, and that's it.
So, after 15 hours, we turned it off, figuring something was seriously wrong. Even searching the net, I didn't see any records of people having it take longer than about 6 hours.

But after turning it off and then back on, it would "Undo Changes" and appear to try the Reset again, only to go back to that agonizingly long wait. However, after a few attempts of turning off and on (which I now realize was a mistake), it no longer attempts to re-start the Reset. But it goes to a menu, that includes "Troubleshoot, Reset, Use Different Version of Windows, Re-start from a USB, Turn Off, etc."

I have tried all the options and none work. There is one option in Troubleshoot that attempts a System Repair, but it fails.
Then, even when trying the option to do the Reset (again), it fails. So, we cannot even try to re-start the Reset like before.
There seems to be no options left that work. So the laptop is in this limbo mode, with no OS, and no way to repair or reinstall it, and there is nothing on CD or USB to boot from.

What can be done ?

Fear The Spear said:

Need some help for someone else I was trying to help.
Someone with even less computer knowledge than me, asked me to help, because their laptop was acting weird.
I ended up doing the Reset PC in Windows 10, but it was a Partial Reset, that lets you keep your files.
Previously I had done a FULL Reset in Windows 10 on my laptop, several times, and each time, it took about 3 hours.
But this PARTIAL Reset, was still processing after leaving it overnight, and taking it over 15 hours.
What was more disturbing than the amount of time, was the fact that there was no longer a "Progress Bar" showing the percentage completed. It was just a circle going round and round, and that's it.
So, after 15 hours, we turned it off, figuring something was seriously wrong. Even searching the net, I didn't see any records of people having it take longer than about 6 hours.

But after turning it off and then back on, it would "Undo Changes" and appear to try the Reset again, only to go back to that agonizingly long wait. However, after a few attempts of turning off and on (which I now realize was a mistake), it no longer attempts to re-start the Reset. But it goes to a menu, that includes "Troubleshoot, Reset, Use Different Version of Windows, Re-start from a USB, Turn Off, etc."

I have tried all the options and none work. There is one option in Troubleshoot that attempts a System Repair, but it fails.
Then, even when trying the option to do the Reset (again), it fails. So, we cannot even try to re-start the Reset like before.
There seems to be no options left that work. So the laptop is in this limbo mode, with no OS, and no way to repair or reinstall it, and there is nothing on CD or USB to boot from.

What can be done ?

Click to expand...

Professional opinion? Reinstall the OS from base installation media. That sounds like a corrupted OS, and you will never get the reset to finish that way. I would get the data off to external or cloud storage, and wipe it. Hopefully there are backups already

You can get the Windows 10 installer to a flash drive from the directions at: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10/

Thanks Shi !
I really appreciate that link

Skinned Aussie, or anyone familiar with Ubuntu, I am in a dire and helpless situation.
I have both searched and posted multiple threads on the Ubuntu help forum, and while they have made very friendly attempts to assist, I just cannot seem to get this resolved there.

Currently I am posting from my "crappy backup emergency PC", and my "good PC" is the one that's basically shut down.

Something in that Ubuntu system is eating up large chunks of disc space, and at a faster and faster rate, as time goes on.
I've eliminated the possibility that it's anything I'm doing, such as downloading files or installing programs.

This happened once before, and I was down to about 1% disc space left and barely able to run the PC, so I was able to get it running again, and freed up 1 Gig, and it then ran okay. But I kept a watch on it, to see if the issue repeated itself. The disc space remained normal each time I checked it, every few days. Then one day, all of a sudden it goes from 1 Gig to only 27 Kbs of space. During that period, I did not download or install anything that was large at all.

So I suspected maybe it was System Updates that ate up the space. So, I started deleting files again, and got up to 99 Megs available, and the system was running a little better. So I decided to free up a larger chunk to get it running good enough to troubleshoot and hopefully repair the issue easier. So I uninstalled Firefox, which theoretically should have freed up a nice chunk of space. But after removing it, instead of being more space, there was much less space.

From the time right before I removed Firefox, until the time right after, it went from 99 Megs to literally zero. Removing Firefox should have actually given me much more space.
But apparently, whatever is eating up the space is doing it at an extremely rapid rate - by the minute, or by the second even - without me doing anything that would take up more space, but in fact, while I'm removing files and programs, it is eating up space.

I cannot even get enough space available to open my Ubuntu's Anti-Virus, to scan and see if a virus is doing this.

So, what could possibly be taking such large chunks of disc space at such a rapid rate, like some sort of software Pac-Man ?

Is everything you have installed since the initial kernel from the official Ubuntu repositories? Third party software could cause this to happen.

It looks like you have done a fair bit in an attempt to find what is causing your problem, but the only thing I can suggest it to do what I do. All my important data is backed up on an external HDD, so all I have to do is update when I need to. That is the first thing. Secondly, make a note of what programs you have installed. Thirdly, ensure the kernel you are using is available for download. Once all this is done, reformat the HDD of the computer, then reinstall your version of Ubuntu. As time went on, I found this method a lot easier mentally (although it takes some time) as you're not trying this, trying that, doing this, doing that, spending 4 - 5- 6 days, weeks trying to rectify. Go back to a clean slate and start again.

SkinnedAussie said:

Is everything you have installed since the initial kernel from the official Ubuntu repositories? Third party software could cause this to happen.

Click to expand...

Yes, I only download from the Ubuntu Software Center. Although there are times I use the Terminal Interface to download things, but only to correct issues, and only based on specific instructions from the people on the Ubuntu Help Forum. I'm not positive, but I assume they would not instruct me to download anything that's not "official".
Also, someone there did mention briefly that using BleachBit could be the culprit, and I use that, but I'm not sure how that could have causes this.

Thanks for the suggestions to avoid this in the future. Sounds like a good plan, that's simple, user-friendly, and basically guaranteed to work.

I wouldn't suggest downloading anything that isn't from the official repositories. Even third party software I'm cautious about.

Need some serious help, to save this Toshiba laptop that was given to me.
It was in very good condition, and working fine all along, when all of a sudden out of nowhere, the entire keyboard and touchpad stopped working.
The laptop itself operates just fine, and a wireless mouse will work, but literally none of the keys on the keyboard or touchpad render a response.

This looked like a common problem, after doing some searching.
I tried this site.
Toshiba Satellite keyboard and touchpad don't work [Solved] - Laptops - Laptop Tech Support

but their suggestions didn't work. But I could have been doing them wrong, because some aspects of the instructions I found to be very vague.
But overall, out of all my searches, they all seemed to indicate that it was some glitch in the software and the settings, as opposed to a hardware problem. So, I figured the simplest thing would be to do a Reset on the OS. I figured whatever was wrong in the settings or software, would fix itself in a Reset.
But when I nearly get to the end of the OS Reinstall, I get to a point where it requires a keyboard entry, where it asks to give a name on the account.
However, at this point, the keyboard STILL is not working. And it will not allow me to skip past this step.
So, now I am literally stuck in the middle of the Reinstall.

Help

Have you check in Device Manager to see if there are any conflicts? It actually sounds like you have turned the keyboard and touchpad off. Find an online user manual and see if it shows how to turn keyboard/touchpad off.

SkinnedAussie said:

Have you check in Device Manager to see if there are any conflicts? It actually sounds like you have turned the keyboard and touchpad off. Find an online user manual and see if it shows how to turn keyboard/touchpad off.

Click to expand...

I checked a few things, and can't remember if that was one of them. But the problem now is, I don't know if or how I can double-check it, in the position I'm in now. It's in the middle of a Reset/Re-install, and it doesn't seem to want to allow me to "escape" from this step. Can I ?
Also, if I inadvertently turned it off, wouldn't the Reset turn it back on ?

If you have already turned it off during the reset procedure, turning it off again won't do any further damage. A reset/re-install usually asks for the source (original) disc sometime during the process, so if you don't have, a reset isn't going to help.

Have you tried installing a different operating system? Once Windows glitches, unless you know the exact reason you'll be forever chasing your tail.

SkinnedAussie said:

Have you tried installing a different operating system? Once Windows glitches, unless you know the exact reason you'll be forever chasing your tail.

Click to expand...

I tried installing Ubuntu on it, but Windows 10 doesn't seem to like the particular EXE file I use. I may just need a newer Ubuntu file to install from.

Got an I'm a dumbass question here. Our internet up here is slower than a sloth on ambien & our wifi in the house is worse than what a taliban caveman would get. So I basically bought a wifi range extender for the house. I'm STILL getting kicked off the internet at times even tho the damn thing is our bedroom.

My questions are these "channels" to choose from to get better connectivity, & anything else I could try to have a more secure contact?

Bueller?

Win4us said:

Bueller?

Click to expand...

Hang on just a bit longer, brother. Help is on the way. I would expect Skinned Aussie or Chris to re-visit relatively soon.

Win- one is 3G, one is 5G. Try the 5G first and see if that improves performance.

Sorry for the delay but I didn't realise your post existed.

A range extender does just that, extend the range. What you need is more like a signal amplifier; something that increases your signal.

With what I have, I found that by going into the home page of the modem, then changing channels gave me a better signal. The default was channel 1 (I think) and have changed it to Channel 11. Not many realise that changing channels can make a huge improvement because most stay with the default because it works.

Appreciate it Aussie, will definitely look into it.