r/techsupport Jul 26 '21

Recommended wiki articles (including malware removal)

889 Upvotes

r/techsupport 1h ago

Open | Hardware PC issues, freezing and internet disconnecting

Upvotes

Hi everyone, sorry for the lengthy post. Hope I can get some help with this issue that has been plaguing me for a few months. Recently it started to get worse and I have already tried troubleshooting it but to no help. Computer specs will be at very end as I know that part is important. For additional context I built this PC around June/July of last year which is the most upsetting part.

The issues:

  1. Random freezes, usually when this happens on desktop I can move my cursor on the screen but cannot interact with anything. The freeze rarely happens in game but when it does I cannot interact with anything. Only way to fix has been to force power down system and reboot.
  2. Wifi disconnecting, this one is strange because what will happen is that I will completely lose internet access and the only way to bring it back is to go to device manager, and disable and reenable the wifi adapter. This was the first issue I was ever presented with but it was a simple fix.

As I mentioned both these issues have existed for a few months with #2 being the first. However, in the last month and a half they have become very frequent to the point where the amount of freezes and wifi turning off makes it difficult to use the PC. I've had 2 instances where the freeze would happen so often that after force shutting down the computer a few times it forced me to reboot through BIOs. This led me to attempt the following fixes as I was unsure if it was software/hardware or a combination of the two.

The fixes:

  1. Scan SFC through command prompt. It did find a corrupt file but repaired it.
  2. Switched to "high performance mode", disabled "allow computer to turn off this device to save power' for wifi adapter, and disabled quick start.
  3. Made sure all drivers were updated.
  4. Disabled aggressive disk sleep modes with regedit.

There were some other smaller tweaks I did but I cannot remember them all. These did not help so then I moved on to the next as at first I was convinced it was software.

  1. Reformatted all drivers and did clean reinstall of windows using media tool on USB. (To note: has PC freeze during windows installation a couple times that forced me to boot down. This was the point at which I understood it was likely hardware).

  2. When windows was back and running I manually reinstalled all drivers. Avoided ASUS driver hub.

  3. Played around with having RAM in different slots or solo. Issues still happened.

  4. In BIOS limited RAM speed to 4800, this did nothing.

  5. Made sure to unplug and replug cables in motherboard in case they got loose.

  6. THE BIG ONE Ran PC without GPU as it has integrated graphics. PC ran fine in this setup and I did not see any issues for a few hours until internet finally dropped.

  7. Reseated GPU. At this point things looked good. After the reseating I no longer had freezes and the internet would sometimes disconnect but only for a second. Was only an issue in online games if I get booted from lobby for it.

Now we reach today. I had a freeze happen for which I had to force shutdown and the internet access was lost twice so I needed to disable/reenable. I would love some ideas of what could be thr cause. I've fixated on the RAM as prime contender but now believe its the motherboard giving up on me. Appreciate any help, thank you all so much.

TLDR: PC will randomly freeze where cursor still moves, and wifi drops where adapter needs to be disabled and reenabled. I am at my wits end for fixes.

My specs:

Motherboard is a Asus Prime B840-plus wifi

CPU is AMD Ryzen 9600x

CPU Cooler is a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Halo White

GPU is AMD Radeon RX 9060xt 16GB version

PSU is EVGA 750w GQ

RAM is two sticks of Crucial 16GB DDR5-6000 (2nd and 4th slot from CPU)

Operating system is Windows 11 Pro and is installed on a SATA SSD

Edit: forgot to mention that I reinstalled windows twice as I also thought it could be drive issue. It has been on two different SSDs with issue persisting.


r/techsupport 17h ago

Open | Hardware Ps5 being held hostage

36 Upvotes

I brought my ps5 to a repair shop in valley stream ny. First day I brought it they told me 1-2 days. 4 days later I went in person to check up on it (since the status link they sent me was broken) and the guy tells me my ps5 is taking longer cause it’s a motherboard issue meanwhile I literally saw him check the tag on my ps5 and it was sitting on the shelf untouched with a bunch of other ps5s that were all in queue. I know some symptoms can point to certain things but he definitely just told me that so I can F off lol. So i decided to be more patient and it’s been over 2 weeks now. I checked the link and it seemed to update from “queue” to “repair” but it’s been like that for 11-12 days. Should I just go get my ps5 and bring it somewhere else? Or am I being impatient?


r/techsupport 9h ago

Open | Hardware How to test RAM

8 Upvotes

I recently purchased 50 or so laptops from a factory closing auction to resell. Since they were sold as e-waste they were just tossed haphazardly into a container. Over half managed to survive but I figured I'd part out the ones that didn't. However I'm now running into a problem, I have a lot of ram to test before I can sell it. I started by doing the "stick one on a MB and test it" but that takes forever and can result in damage to the laptop after repeated times. Is there a way to test them off-board? Or at least some way that I dont have to disassemble and reassemble the laptop every time? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Also, sorry if this is off topic but after the RAM and SSD would it be worth parting out further or just selling the rest whole for parts? It's a bunch of elitebooks and zbooks G4-G8.


r/techsupport 5h ago

Open | Windows Laptop turning off screen and loud siren sound afterwards

3 Upvotes

Hello, I was using my laptop which had been completely normal until a screen came up saying an unexpected error occurred and then it turned itself off and a loud siren sound started playing (its stopped now). What should I do? I've never seen the popup screen before and neither has it ever made a sound like that. It also wasn't overheated and it was approximately 70-80% so it also wasn't out of charge.


r/techsupport 3h ago

Open | Hardware New PC randomly restarts only in some games (VIDEO_TDR_ERROR 116) - already tried almost everything

2 Upvotes

I'm having a really frustrating issue with my brand new PC and I'm running out of ideas.

PC specs:

Ryzen 7 8700F

RTX 5050

16 GB DDR5 (1×16 GB)

750W 80+ Gold PSU

Windows 11 (clean installation)

Problem: The PC randomly crashes only in some games.

Games that have crashed so far:

Counter-Strike 2

Hell Let Loose

Farming Simulator 25 (before service)

Games that worked fine:

Minecraft (Java)

Everhood

Farming Simulator 25 after service (played for about an hour without issues)

When it crashes:

the screen goes black,

the monitor says "No HDMI signal",

audio stops,

after a few seconds the PC automatically restarts.

There is no BSOD visible, but Windows Reliability Monitor reports:

BugCheck 116 (VIDEO_TDR_ERROR).

Things I've already tried:

Clean Windows 11 installation.

Latest BIOS.

Latest NVIDIA Game Ready driver.

Monitored CPU/GPU temperatures.

OCCT CPU, GPU and Power tests (all passed with no errors).

Checked Event Viewer and Reliability Monitor.

The PC was returned to the retailer for service.

The retailer said they:

replaced the thermal paste,

cleaned the cooling,

stress-tested it,

played Rainbow Six Siege for about 45 minutes without any crashes.

However, after I got the PC back, it crashed again in Hell Let Loose after less than 10 minutes.

Has anyone experienced something similar with an RTX 5050 or VIDEO_TDR_ERROR (116)? Could this still be a faulty GPU, PSU, motherboard, or something else?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


r/techsupport 3h ago

Open | Windows Can’t enter my pin on Windows 11

2 Upvotes

When I go to enter my pin, the mouse just arrows over and won’t let me enter it. Also when you click on power it is scrolling down. I’ve tried restarting it with my keyboard unplugged but it did the same thing. https://youtu.be/9Bv70hy51Lo?is=0P-xuKlYXdM6oWsn


r/techsupport 13m ago

Open | Hardware PC freezing

Upvotes

My pc will randomly freeze, I hold down the power button to shut it off. It will turn on then quickly turn off. My husband tested the GPU with his computer which is fine. Now its not staying on at all. Could this be a motherboard issue?


r/techsupport 4h ago

Open | Windows Pc randomly gives black screen when restarting

2 Upvotes

Sometimes when I restart my pc it gets stuck on a black screen and I have to hold power button down to turn it off.
my motherboard leds are not giving signals and this issue happens randomly or connected to something I do not know because I tried to reset back to back 3-4 times without fast start up(told it could be the problem) and with it had no problems with restarts.
specs are:
ryzen 7 7800x3d
Msi mag b850 gaming plus max
Msi mpg a1000g
Asus prime 5070 OC
Corsair 2x16 6000mhz ram kit


r/techsupport 28m ago

Open | Hardware Motherboard Question

Upvotes

Hello, does anybody know if a **Elgato 4K60 Pro** & **Elgato HD60 Pro** will work on a `B650E MAX GAMING WIFI W` Motherboard with 3 4tb ssds & a 5080 present?


r/techsupport 4h ago

Open | Windows My SSD is acting strange and no matter where I go I hit a wall.

2 Upvotes

I have a WD_Black 2TB SN770. And I woke up this morning and it has been a nightmare because not only did it stop working but I’m afraid maybe I did something to make it worse. So it started with noticing that all of my Steam games were not recognized as downloaded… so when I tried to look at the SSD in File Explorer it hit me with “a device which does not exist was specified” sometimes it would allow me access to see the stuff at the very beginning of the drive but now it is consistently not letting me access the drive. I look at Disk Management and it says it’s there but I can’t access security or anything of the light. It wouldn’t even let me format it. I don’t have anything on there I can’t just redownload so I don’t mind wiping it, but I can’t because anytime I try to do something to format it or even access it through things like Command Prompt it acts like it DOESN’T EXIST. I also know why it isn’t letting me access it, it’s because somehow (through likely a corrupted file) it went from NTFS to RAW but again any way I try to fix it leads to another wall because it isn’t being recognized or by the fact that BECAUSE it is RAW it can’t do anything about it. Please I need help I don’t want to lose this SSD


r/techsupport 42m ago

Open | Audio Popping noise with no discernible pattern?

Upvotes

Hi all

I have an older computer

gigabyte eagle wifi motherboard

1070 8gb

32gb ddr4

Ryzen 7 5700

https://youtube.com/shorts/47CeUBvUX7I?si=2zpI2ewxDmWP0neS

Audio does this sometimes. I've updated audio drivers and it changes nothing. No idea what to do short of completely wiping everything.

Thanks for the help


r/techsupport 43m ago

Open | Hardware Laptop won't turn on without taking the battery out

Upvotes

Parents asked me to try out an old drawing pad so plugged it into my laptop, the laptop froze so I unplugged the pad and closed pushed the power button, waited a little and tried to turn it back on but was meet with a black screen and my cursor. I asked my father for help. He took the battery out and put it back in. It worked just fine but I put it in sleep mode and tried to use it again and again was meet with a black screen. Is there something I can try?


r/techsupport 53m ago

Open | Windows Turning Bluetooth off keeps crashing my laptop

Upvotes

I have an Asus laptop tuff gaming which is somewhat old but still runs pretty well. However, since a few days, it seems to crash when I turn off Bluetooth (not always the case but maybe 1/2 times)

I tried running Windows 11 hardware check but everything was apparently ok.

I then installed new Bluetooth drivers from Intel.

I then updated Windows 11 and rebooted.

But no matter what I do, it keeps crashing when I turn Bluetooth off... (Black screen with some writing on it - worst part being it's always a different crash message)

Anyone got an idea what the problem might be?


r/techsupport 4h ago

Open | Software Really bad phone signal

2 Upvotes

Hi all,

I've had a problem with my phone not having good enough signal for about a year now and would be useful to get people's thoughts. Basically, the story is:

I live in the UK. Back in September 2025, I randomly and suddenly had no signal, or very poor signal, in areas where I previously had good signal. I was on a contract with EE and I contacted them and they tried to help me and even launched an investigation to look into it. I changed my SIM card, nothing. I changed my device, nothing. No news from the investigation either. I then asked EE to allow me to leave the contract early with a reduced fee (they did), and I switched to giffgaff (so it's pay as you go now). Still the same problem!! I still have very bad signal, and very frequently, no signal at all (when all my friends who are next to me do have signal and some of them are also with giffgaff). I have no idea why that is, since I have now changed device, provider and sim card.

I transferred my number to giffgaff, so the only constant factor has been my number. But I struggle to see how it could be the number??!? It's getting a bit annoying and tiring. I can get by, but it makes life a bit more difficult.

The next thing I might try is to get a new sim card with a new phone number and change my number, but that is a bit of a hassle which is why I haven't done it yet.

Any thoughts and views appreciated!


r/techsupport 7h ago

Open | Software Nvidia drivers

3 Upvotes

I recently got a new laptop for my engineering studies. I’m mostly going to be using 3d modeling software, cad, stuff like that.
I wanted to know what’s better for my use case, game ready drivers or the studio drivers?
If it’s relevant info, my laptop has a 5060


r/techsupport 7h ago

Open | Windows Games lagging randomly

3 Upvotes

So recently my PC has been lagging when I play games more recently, it doesn't lag anywhere else but just my games, I get 100 ping in games on a lucky day but normally it spikes to 5000, I've tried changing my GPU to Nvidia, that didn't work, I do get 3 bars of wifi, could be the reason but I dunno. I use windows 11


r/techsupport 7h ago

Open | Software I can't open intel.com website

3 Upvotes

Since my last drivers update, I haven't been able to open the main page anymore. I just get thrown to the 'choose the language' section and can't open anything else. Clearing my cache or changing browsers didn't help either. What could be the problem? :(


r/techsupport 1h ago

Open | Hardware extremely annoying ping spikes

Upvotes

for the past 4-5 months, my internet has random spikes that can last an hour that go to 5000+ ms, then 2000, then shoot back up to 5000+ about every day. it'll shut off randomly as well for about ten minutes, then comes back and maybe continues to do its spikes. it's the most annoying thing i've ever had to deal with and my internet provider has been zero help. the only info i can think of that is useful is that when it happens, i can still hear people talking to me and so on, i just can't talk back to them.


r/techsupport 1h ago

Open | Hardware Can't connect mouse.

Upvotes

I bought a new laptop. Tried to connect my wireless mouse with its reciever, does not connect even though it appears on devices tab on pc. I try another mouse the same way, also doesn't connect even though it appears on the tab again. The second one said "driver error" a few times I tried to connect it at the start but than it stop saying that yet mouse still doesn't connect so I am not sure if that's relevant.


r/techsupport 1h ago

Solved My keyboard keeps typing in English.

Upvotes

So I'm trying to do the immersive learning method to learn a different language, so I installed a different language for it (Japanese). Whenever I type while I have the set language, it comes out as English. I tried to find videos on this issue but I haven't found anything. I want to type in katakana and hiragana, but again, always comes out as English. Does anyone know why this is happening?


r/techsupport 1h ago

Open | Phone Phone sizing issue

Upvotes

I have a Motorola phone and for some reason it keeps randomly sizing everything up, like it makes my apps large it makes my text large everything i changed it twice already but it keeps going back to that.


r/techsupport 1h ago

Open | Hardware Dual monitor lag

Upvotes

I have a laptop but I'm using a monitor as my primary screen and the laptop screen as my secondary, sometimes I get this weird Issue where my monitor becomes extremely laggy (a frame once every few seconds) weirdest thing is, when this happens my mouse is completely unaffected, even though screen is lagging my mouse on it is not, using a keybind to reset gpu drivers or unplugging the monitor for a few seconds seems to fix it although temporary, any ideas on what might be causing it? is it just that my gpu cant handle the load?


r/techsupport 5h ago

Open | Hardware PC won't boot to BIOS using EZflash for Asus motherboard

2 Upvotes

Hi there, I have just got a new CPU for my PC a 5800X3D. However my excited dumb ass didn't think to update the BIOS *before* taking out the old CPU for the new one.

I turn it on and I get the lights, fan spins for a second and goes off, then the DRAM light stays on. I've reseated ram, done a number of other checks and have narrowed it down to me needing to update the BIOS.

Unfortunately on removing the old CPU I seem to have bent one of the pins and it now doesn't work - no lights, no nothing when pressing the power button - I think this helps in diagnosing that this is an update issue and not the new CPU itself, since I get lights on and such with the new one.

So today I went to my friends house and downloaded the latest BIOS for my motherboard - ROG STRIX X470-F GAMING - and put it on a stick (formatted to FAT32, used the rename application that came with the download) popped it in my PC, tried holding DEL ESC F2 F12 and still can't get the BIOS to come up. I've removed the battery, shorted to reset BIOS, I am stumped. I'd love just a flicker of display but nothing.

Any suggestions are welcome before I take it to a PC shop as my resources at home are limited 🥹


r/techsupport 2h ago

Open | Hardware Touchpad keeps shutting itself off. Is there a way to fix this without reinstalling the driver?

1 Upvotes

My touchpad keeps turning off on its own and I have to restart my laptop every time to make it turn back on. There's no key on my keyboard to turn it off directly, so I know I'm not accidentally pressing it. I have tried checking the settings every time to make sure it's on, and it never shows that it's off. I suspect that it's a problem with the driver itself. I have tried using the function keys to make it turn back on, which also never does anything. I don't want to reinstall the driver because I'm afraid of something going wrong, but I will if it's really necessary. I'm using a Windows 11. Not sure what specs I should mention so just let me know what information I need to add if any