WIndows 10 Strange problem - almost nothing will run

Dimitri

Member
This happened while I was just browsing Firefox. Suddenly, Firefox would not load any new pages. I also couldn't run any audio files in VLC or open Paint or almost anything. I could open pictures and browse through them in Irfan View, though.

I tried opening Brave browser instead, while FFox was unresponsive, but that wouldn't open either.

So I force close FFox and do a restart. Now, when I get into Windows, it normally takes my PC about 10-15 minutes to stabilize and become responsive. I get like 10-15 mins of the HDD juts grinding and grinding before it settles. This time, however, the boot was done instantly and I noticed of all the programs I have set to run at startup (Viber, Avast, Flux...) the only ones that started up were Malwarebytes and an nVidia thing.

So I try running things - same thing. Firefox won't run, Brave won't run, Winamp won't, but it does open pictures in Irfan View and it does open PDFs. Also, interestingly, VLC will open audio files, but not video files.

I try going into Settings to run update, but update won't load updates, it just keeps loading perpetually.

This may be due to the fact that my internet connection doesn't seem to work, either. There's that weather widget that you have in your taskbar in Win10, which when you click on it gives you some news stories. I clicked on it and it told me it was unable to load my feed because I might be offline.

I tried restarting again, same thing.

Any idea about what might be going on?

I have no idea what brought this about, I was just browsing the web in FFox, not doing anything out of the ordinary.

EDIT: I ran Windows in safe mode and there everything runs fine. I can run any program fine in safe mode.
 
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johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
The fact that it takes your pc 10-15 minutes to finish booting and stabilize is a red flag to begin with. I would be looking at doing a diagnostic on the hard drive.

What are the specs of your system like what cpu, how much ram, what hard drive.
 

Dimitri

Member
The long boot thing, it's been that way for ages, so if it is a problem it's not related to whatever's happened now. But I don't actually think it's indicative of a problem, I think it's just because I have an old computer, so it's slow to boot.

The specs are:
Athlon II X2 250 3Ghz
8GB DDR3
Western Digital 640 GB
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
I would run Western Digital Disk diagnostics on that drive. Also maybe remove 1 stick of ram if you are running 2 sticks to see what happens. Also run Malwarebytes.
 

Dimitri

Member
I would run Western Digital Disk diagnostics on that drive. Also maybe remove 1 stick of ram if you are running 2 sticks to see what happens. Also run Malwarebytes.
I just started Win in safe mode and there everything ran fine. Whatever program I opened it ran. So it doesn't seem to be a hardware problem.

I ran Malwarebytes and it found nothing.
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Then try stopping unnecessary programs from running at bootup. What antivirus program are you running? Did a windows update just get installed?
 
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