T
Tech03238
Hello,
I'm a tech consultant in a major big-box retailer. A customer came in with a laptop they had purchased from another retailer and was complaining about the overall sluggish performance of the machine. Its running an AMD A6 with 4GB of RAM and a 5400rpm HDD, so its pretty low end. I recommended upgrading to a SSD to improve day-to-day performance, which he opted to do. I transferred all of his information over to the new drive using USB/SATA cables and got his computer up and running. I didn't erase his old drive so it contains everything that was on the laptop prior to me upgrading it.
Unfortunately, I didn't transfer his settings or his printer drivers over, which meant that he's been unable to connect to his printer for the past few days. He was also missing some files and was complaining about mouse lag which didn't exist before. We eventually decided that given the litany of issues he was experiencing with the SSD it was probably best to put everything back to the way it was and reinstall the old HDD.
After successfully reconnecting the drive, I am now experiencing a whole host of issues:
1) I am constantly getting a CTFmon.exe error dialog box. It appears at the Windows login screen, and closing it only causes it to reappear after a few seconds. The box states "Unknown Hard Error"
2) The start menu and task bar are inaccessible. I can mouse over the elements and the GUI responds as normal, but nothing actually launches when I click on them.
3) The settings and device manager are also inaccessible. I've been attempting to launch them using Win + R and CMD.exe, but I've gotten errors both times. I saw a post on another forum that suggested checking for driver updates, but I'm unable to do this without having access to these utilities.
4) I've attempted to boot into safe mode, but this results in a critical stop error that forces me to boot into Windows normally.
5) Windows performed an automatic disk inspection on the second boot up and found no issues. I've tried running chkdisk myself manually, but this results in the computer locking up.
6) Explorer is usable, so I'm still able to navigate the file system without much issue. I should mention I did receive an Explorer.exe error stating the class was not registered, but this has thus far only happened once.
7) HDD activity has tended to stay in the 15-20% range, according to task manager.
As far as I know the customer is running 1909 on the HDD. Performing a reset is not an option since doing so would wipe out his printer drivers/settings and thus put us back in the same situation we were in with the SSD.
I consider myself a technically minded person, but the vast majority of my knowledge is self-taught. I've researched this online but I've yet to find anything that matches this situation. Normally I would spend several hours pouring through every online resource I can find, but I feel like I've already wasted enough of this customer's time already and thought posting here would result in the fastest possible solution.
I would appreciate any feedback or insight anyone can provide on this issue.
Continue reading...
I'm a tech consultant in a major big-box retailer. A customer came in with a laptop they had purchased from another retailer and was complaining about the overall sluggish performance of the machine. Its running an AMD A6 with 4GB of RAM and a 5400rpm HDD, so its pretty low end. I recommended upgrading to a SSD to improve day-to-day performance, which he opted to do. I transferred all of his information over to the new drive using USB/SATA cables and got his computer up and running. I didn't erase his old drive so it contains everything that was on the laptop prior to me upgrading it.
Unfortunately, I didn't transfer his settings or his printer drivers over, which meant that he's been unable to connect to his printer for the past few days. He was also missing some files and was complaining about mouse lag which didn't exist before. We eventually decided that given the litany of issues he was experiencing with the SSD it was probably best to put everything back to the way it was and reinstall the old HDD.
After successfully reconnecting the drive, I am now experiencing a whole host of issues:
1) I am constantly getting a CTFmon.exe error dialog box. It appears at the Windows login screen, and closing it only causes it to reappear after a few seconds. The box states "Unknown Hard Error"
2) The start menu and task bar are inaccessible. I can mouse over the elements and the GUI responds as normal, but nothing actually launches when I click on them.
3) The settings and device manager are also inaccessible. I've been attempting to launch them using Win + R and CMD.exe, but I've gotten errors both times. I saw a post on another forum that suggested checking for driver updates, but I'm unable to do this without having access to these utilities.
4) I've attempted to boot into safe mode, but this results in a critical stop error that forces me to boot into Windows normally.
5) Windows performed an automatic disk inspection on the second boot up and found no issues. I've tried running chkdisk myself manually, but this results in the computer locking up.
6) Explorer is usable, so I'm still able to navigate the file system without much issue. I should mention I did receive an Explorer.exe error stating the class was not registered, but this has thus far only happened once.
7) HDD activity has tended to stay in the 15-20% range, according to task manager.
As far as I know the customer is running 1909 on the HDD. Performing a reset is not an option since doing so would wipe out his printer drivers/settings and thus put us back in the same situation we were in with the SSD.
I consider myself a technically minded person, but the vast majority of my knowledge is self-taught. I've researched this online but I've yet to find anything that matches this situation. Normally I would spend several hours pouring through every online resource I can find, but I feel like I've already wasted enough of this customer's time already and thought posting here would result in the fastest possible solution.
I would appreciate any feedback or insight anyone can provide on this issue.
Continue reading...