Finding out what's wrong and fixing Laptop

[AnguisNox]

Ok to start my friend game me their laptop so I can do a check up on it since last time I did was about 8 months ago. I know a bit more about computers than my friend does so this is something I do from time to time, I have 3 things installed in their laptop that I installed the first time I did a check up on it, they are programs I use normally on my laptop, CCleaner clean it up a bit, Avast Antivirus and Malwarebytes. Basically those are the 3 programs I use on their laptop. Today I ran into something I didn't know what to do.

This are the things I did before I noticed the issues. I ran the CCleaner and after it finished I began running Malwarebytes, It had been running for 4 hours when I decided to look at the progress when I noticed that the start menu didn't open, I minimized Malwarebytes and that's when the screen went black after it came back the window was minimized and everything normal but when I try to maximize the window again it went black screen again and when back Malwarebytes was closed. then the issues began as I was trying to figure out what was wrong, a message pop up about insufficient memory, but I checked and the Hard drive is 500GB and it only has been used about 100GB, after trying to open the start menu the screen went black again and I left it but after sometime it didn't came back to normal so I did a hard reboot, I turn it on again and it began an automatic operation of analyzing and fixing (C:).

Windows began again but still has some issues, all the programs take a long time to respond and so far I haven't had the black screen nor the  insufficient memory message but I want some help before I do anything else.

Edited December 2, 2017 by AnguisNox

[Porthos]

51 minutes ago, AnguisNox said:

I began running Malwarebytes, It had been running for 4 hours

Was this a threat scan or a custom scan?

 

52 minutes ago, AnguisNox said:

message pop up about insufficient memory, but I checked and the Hard drive is 500GB and it only has been used about 100GB,

Memory has nothing to do with hard drive space.

 

53 minutes ago, AnguisNox said:

so I did a hard reboot, I turn it on again and it began an automatic operation of analyzing and fixing (C:).

That happens when you sometimes when you do a hard boot.

Let's try and get some logs first so the team can review them and see if they can tell what may be causing your issues....

1. FIRST: Create and obtain Farbar Recovery Scan Tool (FRST) logs
2. Download FRST and save it to your desktop
   NOTE: You need to run the version compatible with your system. You can check here if you're not sure if your computer is 32-bit or 64-bit
3. Double-click to run FRST and when the tool opens click "Yes" to the disclaimer
4. Press the "Scan" button
5. This will product two files in the same location (directory) as FRST: FRST.txt and Addition.txt
   NOTE: These two files will be collected by the MB-Check Tool and added to the zip file for you
6. NEXT: Create and obtain an mb-check log
7. Download MB-Check and save to your desktop
8. Double-click to run MB-Check and within a few second the command window will open, then click "OK"
9. This will produce one log file on your desktop: mb-check-results.zip
10. Attach this file to your forum post by clicking on the "Drag files here to attach, or choose files..." or simply drag the file to the attachment area

[AnguisNox]

One thing I would like to note is that while looking for the type of operating system I did see that it said Installed RAM: 4.00GB (1.90GB usable)

 

mb-check-results.zip

Edited December 2, 2017 by AnguisNox

[Porthos]

Let's get the current version installed and run a THREAT scan.

Let us get a clean install of the current version. 3.3.1

 

We have another tool called MB-Clean which will automate the whole process for you.

 Tool can be found at https://downloads.malwarebytes.com/file/mb_clean

 

1. After downloading the tool run the tool.

2. The tool will automatically clean up the older possibly damaged installation and will ask you for a restart.

3. Restart your system and then the MB-Clean tool will prompt you to re-install the latest product .

4. Click on "Yes" to reinstall MB 3.×.

5. Now you will have the latest product installed. If it does not offer the new install after the reboot you can download and install from here. 

https://downloads.malwarebytes.org/file/mb3

[AnguisNox]

Did the installation and the scan and there were no threats found

mb-clean-results.txt

[Porthos]

14 minutes ago, AnguisNox said:

Did the installation and the scan and there were no threats found

How are things running? I would not expect a lot of performance from this computer.

Quote

Processor: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU N2820 @ 2.13GHz
Total physical RAM: 1944.59 MB

Most likely a 5400rpm drive.

 

 

[AnguisNox]

The issues I first had aren't happening anymore, the slow performance is the only issue now. Is there a way to fix it or just changing for a new memory RAM (DDR3 I think)

[Porthos]

5 minutes ago, AnguisNox said:

Is there a way to fix

From my experience from running my own repair shop for the last 15 years, the only thing barring a newer/better laptop is to get an SSD and add more ram. Minimum  4gigs or more.

If you don't have the skills for both it can get a little expensive depending on your location and who you get to do the work.

Edited December 2, 2017 by Porthos

[AnguisNox]

Ok thanks for the help, I'm still new to this, I'm in the process of learning maintenance to PC and laptops, can handle some issues, but only do them on my own laptops, still not confident enough to tinker with other people's computers, for now I can only try to fix issues I fixed myself on my own laptops.