Hey everyone, I'm hoping for some advice. My wife and I both have prebuilt gaming PCs, and we recently took her computer to a repair shop after our cat knocked over some ramen on it. They replaced the power button, which was funny because it's huge! At first, everything seemed fine. However, my older PC has started acting up after I replaced its power supply, which failed twice now. After taking it to the same repair shop, they claimed I had malware but didn't fix it—just sent it back to me. I ran some scans that came back clean, and I even tried a factory reset. But now, my PC keeps freezing during setup, and I'm worried that the reset did some damage.
To make things worse, my wife's computer, which has been dormant for a while, is also showing symptoms—it boots up but has a black screen and lags heavily when she tries to use it. We're both really careful with our devices. We use Windows Defender, avoid sketchy downloads, and even have Ethernet instead of Wi-Fi. We mainly think this problem might have originated at the repair shop, which makes us suspicious since these issues started after the visit.
What can we do? Is it time to just wipe and reinstall Windows on both machines? Also, I've been seriously considering switching to Windows 11 soon, but I want to ensure we're making the right move. Any suggestions?
2 Answers
Wow, it sounds like you’ve got a handful with both PCs! First off, I'd steer clear of Norton 360 and go for something like Malwarebytes alongside Windows Defender. They’re just way more effective at catching malware. As for the shop, I doubt they intentionally infected your computers. It's probably a case of bad luck. If your PCs can handle Windows 11, I’d suggest upgrading—you’ll find it more stable now than when it first launched. But before you do that, I highly recommend getting clean installs going on both systems. That means wiping the drives first to get a fresh start and checking that all your hardware is fully functional. If it had liquid damage, more might be wrong besides just the power button. Good luck!
You've definitely got some complicated issues here! A full drive wipe and fresh Windows install seems like the way to go for both computers. It sounds like there could be corrupted files from power issues and the factory reset, so starting fresh is your best bet. As for your wife's PC being slow after sitting idle, try running an SFC scan to check for and repair corrupted files. Just go to CMD as an administrator and run the command 'sfc /scannow.' If that helps, great! If not, a fresh install might be your only option. And remember, if they're still using HDDs, it’s time to upgrade to SSDs; they'll significantly improve boot times and overall speed.
The SFC scan worked wonders for her—she found tons of corrupted data, and now the setup time is way faster! Thanks for that tip!