Technology0 min ago
Whirling Blue Ring Thing
13 Answers
Everytime I turn the laptop on and then connect to the internet, after a couple of minutes I get the whirling blue ring onstead of the arrow and the screen freezes, nothing will click. I am using firefox, with windows vista home premium, i formatted the laptop just over a week ago and it was fine for most of last week but now it's got this issue. I have downloaded AVG free thingy and all the windows security is also working except the defender isn't on, I didn;t want to turn it on incase it caused probs. I have used the AVG scan and nothing showed up. what should i be looking at to fix it please?
Answers
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Sounds like there is something running that is causing your laptop to freeze. How long have you left it whilst in that state?
Can you recall installing anything recently? My first action would probably be to open msconfig and stop everything from loading on startup (Start menu > run > and type 'msconfig' without the ' 's)
Go to the startup tab and untick everything. Occasionally on certain machines a driver for networking or sound is in this startup. Don't worry if you deactivate anything that is required in the startup tab, you can always tick the box again.
It may not be the best method of ascertaining your problem but I don't have enough information to go on at this moment in time.
Can you recall installing anything recently? My first action would probably be to open msconfig and stop everything from loading on startup (Start menu > run > and type 'msconfig' without the ' 's)
Go to the startup tab and untick everything. Occasionally on certain machines a driver for networking or sound is in this startup. Don't worry if you deactivate anything that is required in the startup tab, you can always tick the box again.
It may not be the best method of ascertaining your problem but I don't have enough information to go on at this moment in time.
Hi diz, thanks for your reply. I've walked away and ignored it for a good while and when I return the whirling thing is still whirling, when i move it to any part of the screen it stiil whirls but i can't even close the window or get the start button to open. anyway, i'll reboot and try your suggestion. thanks.
Something is hogging all of your laptop's resources.
Start it up and, before the problems arises, right-click on the Taskbar (at the bottom of your screen) and select 'Task Manager'. Click on 'Processes'. If the window doesn't open to fill the screen, click the button at the top right that maximises it. Ensuring that the laptop is connected to the internet, simply wait a few minutes (until a time when you'd expect the problem to appear) and keep an eye on the 'CPU' column. Also watch the 'Mem Usage' column.
The only figure in the CPU column that should be into double digits should be 'System Idle Process'. Note the name of anything else that suddenly gets very big. Also note down the name of any process where the 'mem usage' figure is either very big or frequently changing (even if those changing figures are actually quite small).
Then post here again, telling us about anything unusual that you've spotted. We should then (hopefully) be able to work out what's causing the problem and (again, hopefully) tell you what to do about it.
Start it up and, before the problems arises, right-click on the Taskbar (at the bottom of your screen) and select 'Task Manager'. Click on 'Processes'. If the window doesn't open to fill the screen, click the button at the top right that maximises it. Ensuring that the laptop is connected to the internet, simply wait a few minutes (until a time when you'd expect the problem to appear) and keep an eye on the 'CPU' column. Also watch the 'Mem Usage' column.
The only figure in the CPU column that should be into double digits should be 'System Idle Process'. Note the name of anything else that suddenly gets very big. Also note down the name of any process where the 'mem usage' figure is either very big or frequently changing (even if those changing figures are actually quite small).
Then post here again, telling us about anything unusual that you've spotted. We should then (hopefully) be able to work out what's causing the problem and (again, hopefully) tell you what to do about it.
-- answer removed --
>>>the free figure is now at zero
So something's hogging all of the memory.
Take another look at the 'mem usage' column. If you're certain that the only unusual behaviour is from Firefox, try resetting Firefox.
To do so, first go to Tools > Add-ons > Extensions and note down the names of any extensions that you want to keep (because you'll need to reinstall them).
Then go to Help > Troubleshooting Information and click 'Reset Firefox'. Click the button that asks you to confirm you choice.
Then (before reinstalling the extensions) see if the problem has gone away.
However, remember that it's not only a high 'mem usage' figure that can point to a problem. If a figure keeps going up and down (even though it's never actually very high) that could also indicate a problem. As an example, people who use Microsoft Security Essentials often find that 'MsMpEng.exe' (which is the program's updater) can exhibit such behaviour. (But you shouldn't even have that program at all if you're using AVG!)
Having written that, it occurs to me that AVG might actually be the cause of the problem anyway (if it's constantly trying to update but can't do so). Try temporarily disabling it to see if it makes any difference:
http://
So something's hogging all of the memory.
Take another look at the 'mem usage' column. If you're certain that the only unusual behaviour is from Firefox, try resetting Firefox.
To do so, first go to Tools > Add-ons > Extensions and note down the names of any extensions that you want to keep (because you'll need to reinstall them).
Then go to Help > Troubleshooting Information and click 'Reset Firefox'. Click the button that asks you to confirm you choice.
Then (before reinstalling the extensions) see if the problem has gone away.
However, remember that it's not only a high 'mem usage' figure that can point to a problem. If a figure keeps going up and down (even though it's never actually very high) that could also indicate a problem. As an example, people who use Microsoft Security Essentials often find that 'MsMpEng.exe' (which is the program's updater) can exhibit such behaviour. (But you shouldn't even have that program at all if you're using AVG!)
Having written that, it occurs to me that AVG might actually be the cause of the problem anyway (if it's constantly trying to update but can't do so). Try temporarily disabling it to see if it makes any difference:
http://
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