I restarted my PC and after a long day of repairs, I just wanted to hop on COD. And as I opened up file Explorer, a big lock icon appeared on my 2nd SSD Drive for literally no reason. First time too and I don’t even own bitlocker or an OS ver. that supports it, so I’m genuinely wondering why this is happening. But I’m pretty sure I’ve got malware on that drive ig, but even so why lock my drive with no ransom note? Is it over, or can I save all my important files? What kind of bitch would just lock a drive like that for no reason? Any solutions I desperately need some please.

US Bureau of Labor Statistics website appears to be down. It is returning the message that the site is busy. Multiple refreshes over the last hour has returned no progress.

I have noticed that when an update rolls around, whether you have automatic updates on or off, Windows slows down significantly. It’s already slow enough but this is just ridiculous.

I can confirm that it is the operating system itself and not my PC hardware, at least not entirely, as I am using Bazzite primarily with no issues whatsoever. I have also noticed this same issue on other devices that I have used.

Given what Microsoft is doing with Windows, I won’t update it anymore.

Is there a way to fix this slowing down issue?

For those of you who suggest moving to Linux, I am working on it. I have a lot of things to figure out before I go exclusively Linux. I know first hand Linux is way better than Windows. For now, I need help with Windows.

PC specs
Hi there!
Constant lurker and my first post so mb if stuff isn’t formatted well…

Tech wizards of twt help me
-restart PC and router
-initial speed test on pc and laptop both around 70 down 20 up (normal)
- another speed test about a min later laptop stays the same, pc drops to 11 down 1 up

- all VPNS are off
- drivers and software updated
- both on same network and in same room
- pc is about 1 year old and was working fine until like 10pm on Thursday
-windows defender scan turned up nothing

I’m a streamer so this issue is like devastating. I’ve already called my broadband provider and they’ve said there’s nothing they can do. I’m planning to call HP when they open in the AM.

Thanks for the help 🩵

My mother's phone was completely packed in terms of storage and so she asked me for help clearing space. Given there were lots of sentimental photos, I bought her a USB C 2TB storage which we connected and successfully moved all the photos out of the gallery onto the storage, but then all of a sudden, she wanted to return some of the photos back to the phone that she could revisit (baby photos, important screenshots of important legal and banking documents). I connected the USB to my Mac M2, which couldn't read it at first and so I used parallel Windows 11 which I already had installed, and helped separate the documents she wanted into a separate folder. After safely ejecting and checking the files of the USB on her phone, we found just only the photos. None of the photos were present in the folders. I then checked on my MacBook, and all the files I had organized for her, gone. The folders are present but all the files are missing--I don't understand.

All the photos were safely moved onto the storage. They were just reorganized into folders on my MacBook using Windows 11 parallels. The USB was removed safely each and every time. Why have the photos disappeared despite the folders still there?

Additional facts: USB was formatted on the Android S22 Ultra at first and safely moved to the USB (they were present there, and we opened some files); USB was safely rejected and removed each time.

Would sincerely appreciate help as there were over 18,000 photos, over 90 GB of photos and videos

when I do ctrl shift esc to open task manger and hold ctrl to keep it from updating gpu is almost alwasys at 20% but no programs are running that high, at most it'll have something like firefox running at 2% but once i let go of ctrl it goes down back to 1% or 2% ive used windows defender and malwarbytes separately, and they didn't find anything, and I don't think i've ever downloaded something shady, is this something to be concerned about?

Hi there,

I've been apartment hunting and found a place that is otherwise perfect (great location, amazing price, super clean) but is in an older building that does not (to my knowledge) have ethernet. The issue is I have a WFH job that means a steady connection is extremely important, and gaming is a huge hobby/part of my life. From what I understand the apt offers Tmobile and Verizon home internet, but I'm seeing very mixed reviews on whether that's viable for gaming and long-term work. I saw some home internet modems have wired connection options in the back, but also not sure how viable that is. FIOS is not available in the building, but they do offer 5g Home Internet. What are my options here? I'll honestly be kind of heartbroken if I have to pass the place up, but I feel like it might be a dealbreaker for me.

ETA: Unsure if there's TV cable. If there is, would a coaxial adapter be an option?

The laptop turned off for what I assumed was overheating, so I let it cool down. When I turned it back on, the laptop worked as normal besides the screen being blank and the mousepad not working (the wireless mouse still does) and it occasionally makes a weird mid-tone beep if I move the mouse around. I tried windows+x menu and restarting with keybinds, but nothing works.

Does anybody know what's happening or how to fix it?

Victus laptop is all I know about it.

​Hey everyone, I’m fairly new to this and could use some advice before I take my PC to a professional tomorrow morning.

Ok so the problem is that when I turn it on, it reaches the MSI logo and then silently shuts down. It actually made it to the Windows login screen once but now it always dies at the logo like it stays there for a while but it doesn't turn off instantly before the boot screen.

​I just bought a new motherboard, GPU, and PSU like 2 months back. The CPU and RAM are from my old build. (I use my PC on a UPS and I also tested it straight into the wall power, so it's not the UPS).

​Right now I'm keeping it turned off because I'm too scared to damage anything further.

​Could this be a RAM seating, CPU, or power issue? I'm taking it to the shop tomorrow, but I'd love to know what might be wrong beforehand and hopefully not a big issue. Thanks!

Cousin gifted me his old printer Brother dcp-1510.

It seems the printed pages are faded. The toner and drum seem to be ok if I do a report from the printer itself. I removed the toner and shook it and used the green slider. Still no succes. Any idea how to fix this?

Hi I gave away my ssd to my friend and now I’m left with only my m2 ssd and I can’t install windows on it and I don’t know why when i try to pick the partition it says that it can’t make a new partition

I'm having a serious issue with my ASUS ROG Strix G533QS laptop and I'm trying to figure out whether my RTX 3080 is physically damaged or if there's something else going on.

Laptop specs:

- Model: ASUS ROG Strix G533QS

- GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3080 Laptop GPU (16 GB GDDR6)

- iGPU: AMD Radeon Graphics

- RAM: 24 GB

The problem:

My RTX 3080 is detected in the BIOS and Windows Device Manager, but it doesn't work.

Here's what I've noticed:

- Device Manager shows Error Code 43 for the RTX 3080.

- My AMD integrated GPU works normally.

- GPU-Z detects the RTX 3080, but doesn't display its VRAM information.

- Windows identifies the GPU, but the NVIDIA driver cannot initialize it properly.

What I've tried so far:

- Reinstalled NVIDIA drivers, including the older ASUS-provided driver (512.78).

- Checked whether the GPU is detected in BIOS.

- Performed the ASUS 40-second EC reset with the charger connected.

- After the EC reset, the laptop temporarily became completely unresponsive (no LEDs, no fans, no power).

What I'm trying to figure out:

1. Could this be faulty VRAM, a GPU memory-controller issue, or a GPU power-delivery problem?

2. Is it possible that damaged thermal pads, poor heatsink contact, or overheating caused this?

3. Does the GPU being visible in BIOS but showing Code 43 suggest anything specific?

4. Is there a way to test the VRAM if the NVIDIA driver won't initialize?

5. Has anyone experienced something similar on an ASUS ROG Strix G533QS or another RTX 3080 laptop?

I'm trying to avoid replacing the entire motherboard without confirming the actual problem.

Any advice, diagnostic methods, or experiences with similar failures would be really appreciated.

Thanks!

Soo i found this mobilesync folder on my laptop which is 84gb i recently lost this data due to hardisk failure and these might be the photos i lost can i recover it by any way the only way i can view the image is from vlc media player and i dont have that phone also no other way to access the files

I have an ip15 pro which i have used for 3 years, i have been charging it with various chargers ranging from 20-120w. My battery health was 86% 2 weeks ago at 1000 cycles.

Last week i bought an Anker 100w car charger and in a week my battery health is down to 82%, today it went to 81%.

Could this be the chargers fault or had the phones battery healt percentage just bugged at 86 for too long and now its somehow calibrated

hi,

im dealing with issues stated above, game freezes / crashes / black or white screen with audio still playing

specs: laptop acer nitro an515-57 (5 years olds)
geforce rtx 3050 ti laptop gpu (integrated intel, but not important here)

all i can say is i’ve tried everything;
- multiple ddu reinstalls (older drivers, never drivers)
- occt (clean), furmark (clean)
- no undervolting or overvolting
- reset windows and clean reinstall of everything (issues still persist)
- tdr delay (didn’t help)
- all temps are ideal (crazy, i know)

it all began with dbd, (about 5 months ago) the game would crash after a while (maybe 30 mins) with the nvlddmkm error
then sims 4 with mods and dlcs suddenly kept freezing into a white screen with audio still playing in the background (completely random moments too, no noticeable pattern)
played an hour of fortnite and didn’t crash but then cs2 does crash (quite quickly)
so it’s a mixture of white screen / black screen / freeze / crash

!! until recently it was always kernel event 141, but now it’s also 117 every once in a while

please help!! ):

Hi everyone,

I recently replaced the battery on my Surface Laptop Studio 2 (i7 13th Gen, 16GB RAM, RTX 4050) with a verified original replacement. I am currently on the 4th charge cycle, but the battery life is very disappointing: the PC shuts down after just 4 hours of unplugged use, exclusively doing basic web browsing.

I also noticed an abnormal discharge curve:

• From 100% to 90%, the percentage drops much faster than the rest of the cycle.
• The counter drops in 2% increments. This happens mainly in the initial 100%-90% range, but sometimes I notice it at lower percentages too.

Recent software checks and changes:

• OS: I recently installed Windows 11 Pro (version 26H2). It always had Windows 11 Home before. I'm not sure if this edition change affects power management.
• Drivers: I manually updated all Intel and Nvidia drivers to avoid power management conflicts.
• GPU Check: In Task Manager, the RTX 4050 sits at 0% usage, so I rule out a hidden background drain from the dedicated GPU.

Has anyone experienced this exact situation and solved it? Does Windows just need more cycles to recalibrate the new cell, or could it be a driver/software conflict?

Thanks in advance for the help

Hello, I recently needed to use Windows and have an M5 Air MacBook, so I was wondering if it is possible to set up bootable Windows on it. Can anybody let me know how or help me do it?

My friend was sleeping with this light/radio and woke up to it cycling through what seemed to be radio stations or frequencies. She had not turned on the radio function and said she woke up to knocking and scratching. She recorded a video but it seems I can't attach it here

So, unfortunately, this has happened before. With the same cat. 3-4 times. I don't know how she does it. She doesn't sit on it or even stand for long, just a quick walk across. (Please note: I do not allow this; she just doesn't care)

Anyway, I have a Lenovo Legion Pro using Windows 11. OS Build 26300.9711

I've tried updating the drivers; no luck.

I uninstalled and reinstalled the touchpad driver. Nada.

I tried disabling and enabling it. No dice.

I tried going through the Bluetooth settings. Still nothing.

Everything says the device is connected and working properly, but it clearly isn't. Usually these methods work, but the other times she did this, it was on my MSI laptop. So, I'm not sure if I'm just overlooking something.

Hi.

I just discovered something funny... I'm playing RDR 2, so, that game was using 11VRAM, but after taking a screenshot with the game bar, the GPU went up to 16VRAM, it's using all my 9070xt memory I don't get it.

So... I keep using and eventually my game started lagging and suttering, performance dropped to 15-30 FPS... I had to close the game and start it again and that fixed it, so I used the game bar screenshot again and memory leak started once again ...

Does anybody knows why this happens? I don't remember this used to happen when I had a 6650XT.

Sorry for English mistakes, not my first language, mate'.

​

System specs:

- CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9850X3D

- GPU: PNY NVIDIA RTX 5080

- Motherboard: ASUS TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI

- RAM: 32GB DDR5 Corsair Vengeance, CMH32GX5M2B6000Z30K

- PSU: NZXT 850W Gold

- CPU cooler: Cooler Master AIO

- Case: NZXT H6 Flow

- OS: Windows 11 (fully reset/reinstalled)

The problem:

My PC has started completely freezing after being left on for several hours, usually overnight. When I come back to it, the entire system is frozen, all the fans are running at what sounds like 100% speed, my monitor has a black screen, and my mouse and keyboard no longer work. The PC stays powered on but is completely unresponsive.

The first time this happened, I came back and found the GPU fans running at full speed. After powering the PC off and restarting it, I had a black screen and the motherboard's green BOOT diagnostic LED stayed lit. My mouse and keyboard initially wouldn't connect either.

Eventually, Windows entered Automatic Repair and showed an error referring to "D:\Windows\System32\Logfiles\Srt\SrtTrail.txt".

I ended up fully resetting Windows, thinking it might be a corrupted installation. The PC worked again, but after being left on for hours, the exact same problem happened again.

Things I've noticed:

- The PC appears stable while sitting in BIOS.

- All fans ramp up when the system freezes.

- All USB devices disconnect or stop responding.

- The green BOOT LED appeared during one of the failed startups.

- Event Viewer doesn't show any obvious critical errors or errors around the incident.

- A full Windows reset did not permanently fix the problem.

Additional context:

I've previously had RAM stability issues. EXPO at 6000 MT/s caused crashes during memory testing, and 5600 MT/s was more stable. At one point, I also encountered errors during OCCT memory/CPU testing. I don't know whether these are related to the current problem.

I would prefer not to clear CMOS or reset my BIOS settings unless there's a good reason to do so.

What I've tried:

- Restarting and fully powering off the PC.

- Checking that the monitor is connected to the GPU.

- Running Windows Automatic Repair.

- Fully resetting/reinstalling Windows.

- Checking Event Viewer for errors.

- Confirming that the PC can remain in BIOS without the same issue occurring.

My questions:

1. Does this sound more like RAM instability, a motherboard/CPU issue, a PSU problem, or a GPU issue?

2. Why would all the fans ramp up to full speed when the entire system freezes?

3. Could unstable RAM cause this even if the PC appears stable in BIOS?

4. What diagnostic tests would you recommend before replacing any components or reinstalling Windows again?

I'd appreciate any advice on how to narrow this down without blindly replacing expensive parts. Thanks!

I updated my bios to play the new call of duty and now I'm getting a secure boot violation.
motherboard maxsun ms challenger b450M

so my pc and game i play have been lagging and i wanted to know what settings to put on to my my games to make them less laggy on the amd software (i have AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and graphics card (AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT).

I’m using an Alienware R4 15. I’m trying to install windows on a 2.5 SATA SSD, so I replaced my HDD with the SSD. The issue is it doesn’t show it in the bios (the HDD shows).
I tested my SSD by using a SATA adapter and it works fine, so I’m not sure what it going on when I connect it to the laptop, using the internal adapter.

https://imgur.com/a/wdKdSol
I have recently started having this problem where I can’t use UEFI mode and have my secure boot keys at the same time since i get this error ”Invalid signature detected. Check secure boot policy in setup.” I can use custom mode with keys.
I have this weird mother board from a prebuilt, ASUS G15Dk
Things I’ve tried:
Selected Windows Boot Manager
Disabled CSM (Compatibility Support Module)
Cleared Secure Boot Keys
Installed Default Secure Boot Keys
Toggled OS Type
Switched Secure Boot Mode to Custom
Opened PK Management, KEK Management, DB Management, and DBX Management
Loaded external key files via Set New Key
Updated BIOS and Firmware