“Nondestructive reinstall of Windows 10”

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My son’s computer has slowed down a lot. He has reformatted  and reinstalled Win 10, a couple of times, but still has problems. Maybe he’s not doing something quite right! I recall Fred giving instructions many years ago, how to do a reinstall, but I haven’t found it. Possibly more than once, if I recall correctly. Has updated the drivers, no change. He says there are also “visual glitches” especially on Steam. Very laggy on games that used to be fine. It’s also taking forever to boot up.  Specs of the machine below.

Any thoughts?

System Information report written at: 01/06/22 11:46:46
System Name: DESKTOP-OSLOKLF
[System Summary]

Item Value
OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Home
Version 10.0.19043 Build 19043
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name DESKTOP-OSLOKLF
System Type x64-based PC
Processor AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Six-Core Processor, 3400 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. P3.30, 10/05/2019
SMBIOS Version 3.2
Embedded Controller Version 255.255
BIOS Mode UEFI
BaseBoard Manufacturer ASRock
BaseBoard Product B450M Pro4
BaseBoard Version
Platform Role Desktop
Secure Boot State Off
PCR7 Configuration Binding Not Possible
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = “10.0.19041.1151”
Time Zone New Zealand Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 16.0 GB
Total Physical Memory 15.9 GB
Available Physical Memory 8.86 GB
Total Virtual Memory 29.4 GB
Available Virtual Memory 18.7 GB
Page File Space 13.5 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
Kernel DMA Protection Off
Hyper-V – VM Monitor Mode Extensions Yes
Hyper-V – Second Level Address Translation Extensions Yes
Hyper-V – Virtualization Enabled in Firmware Yes
Hyper-V – Data Execution Protection Yes

 

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Assuming you don’t have Malware and your drive isn’t completely full, I’d do a reset or one of the methods in the link below and then use Disk Cleanup.  You could also delete any temporary files.  You should save and backup any important files before doing any of the following.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/how-to-refresh-reset-or-restore-your-pc-51391d9a-eb0a-84a7-69e4-c2c1fbceb8dd

https://www.ferris.edu/it/howto/diskcleanup.htm

https://www.howtogeek.com/266337/what-should-i-remove-in-disk-cleanup-on-windows/

https://www.howtogeek.com/743633/how-to-delete-temporary-files-on-windows-10/

 

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Hardware wise.  That Page File @ 13GB seems high.  Does this machine have an SSD drive?  How much space is left on the drive?

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“Hardware wise. That Page File @ 13GB seems high. Does this machine have an SSD drive? How much space is left on the drive?”

“If Windows is running on a hard disk it is time to add/replace a SSD.”

Hi mike and Alex 5723.  He has said:

The pc’s drive is an SSD, and has 361 GB free of 445 GB.  It’s used as a gaming PC, and was working well until it slowed down, still using the same games, hence the reformat.

It was originally bought July 2019. It was given to him for his birthday at beginning of November 2019.

Cheers.

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I have the same 16GB RAM and my page file is 2.4GB.

cheers, Paul

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I too have 16GB of RAM.

Pagefile – 2.5GB
Hiber file – 6.8GB.

If Windows is running on a hard disk it is time to add/replace a SSD. Preferably adding a M2.SSD and using the hard disk as drive D for data, or, adding a SATA III SSD for Windows OS.
You just need to create a full image of the current system to external USB HDD and restore the C partition to the new SSD.

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I’m guessing, but “Secure Boot State Off” indicated the machine is in compatibility mode, not UEFI, and thus the default file system may be MBR rather than GPT (which wouldn’t be a “by design” state for hardware that new..) or at minimum the drivers supporting the setup process are going to be the generic Windows ones rather than UEFI ones (supplied via the firmware) so that could be the problem as simetimes Windows decides to keep the generic driver in preference to the design driver as the latter may not reflect recent signing changes if the BIOS is out of date. Unfortunately I couldn’t find an obvious BIOS version lineage breakdown on the site.

I would suggest a good backup session and consider a more destructive installation in lines with more modern methods.. bit I found the BIOS layout was not the best for easy instruction (https://download.asrock.com/Manual/B450M%20Pro4.pdf)

The presence of a download “Restart to UEFI ver:1.0.9” on the main board page (Windows 11 though..) kind of indicates some sort of latent configuration issue might need addressing.

you can check if the machine is in UEFI – it’s at the start of the device string (boot options, manual page 88) but EFI shell (as shown in the picture there) isn’t an external booting device..

perhaps consider a good backup, fit a SSD if it has an old drive, restore the backup to SSD and run a reset on that drive so you have the old one to go back to if it really goes wrong?

Sorry, must away, may rejoin later..

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Maybe the problem is not Windows. Visual glitches/lags are typically video driver problems. Before reinstalling the latest version from AMD or Nvidia, do a normal uninstall and then use a “complete” uninstall program, either 3rd party (Google “DDU uninstaller”) or from the manufacturer. AMD has the option during install to do a factory reset so I would choose that option as well. (Nvidia should have an equivalent option.)

It’s not clear if there is a secondary drive but if yes I would move the pagefile from C: to that drive, and just leave the size settings to automatic.

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Sorry – back in the room, have just revised and realised the machine is in UEFI mode so that’s a relief. Having secure boot on isn’t going to improve the speed.. but UEFI means the mass storage drivers are at least workable.

“Visual glitches” needs to be defined – are they pixel errors (memory issue?), incorrect areas (can be memory, faulty chip, overheating or driver related) or items being rendered out of sequence or not rendered at all (maybe what you would expect a visual stutter to look like..) which could be a problem with swap or processing speed as well as all the former.

Given the situation I would run crystaldiskinfo on the drive to be sure it’s not behind the problem, and maybe a memory test as well just to be sure. It could be overheating but the hardware monitor should flag that up so it might be worth checking that after the machine has run a while.

As to the page file, if that were an issue best to just clear it or better (as some programs can misbehave with a zero size, including AV) set the size manually to something sensible and return it to “automatic”(sysdm.cpl, performance, advanced tab, click on change under virtual memory)  and (leaving it at automatic) see if it grows as that could be a manifestation of a memory leak (as it’s basically where the “non current” code pages are stashed while a driver or program runs the active pages in physical memory on the motherboard, repeated internal failures in a process could result in orphan junk in the paging file and degraded machine performance which should show in perfmon – right click, add counter, add the memory page read and write and see if the counts are out of parity over an extended period, but I’m on 21H2 and now I try it to confirm, that seems not to work!! still just shows CPU… Hopefully you can work out what I did wrong..)

In terms of malware only a complete bare metal reinstall will remove Finfisher and other malware which hides in a boot area to avoid antivirus protection by being first to load so it can break it so if your AV is healthy that really leaves something running as the cause. It might be worth reviewing the legitimacy of the installed applications – maybe he’s installing and using something either of poor reputation, or installing a legitimate product from an installer he’s kept for use when reinstalling which is polluted with something unpleasant or presents a problem such as the log4J vulnerability until it updates – basically get new installers from legit sites once you’ve sorted Windows.

Finally, Just on a hunch, try unplugging the keyboard – I have had a freak spill in a keyboard stick a key row / column combo which wasn’t mapped to anything specific key wise, so nothing appeared in notepad etc to show the issue, but whatever code it sent continuously pretty jammed up Windows (especially start-up in this case) in a sort of local denial of service..

 

 

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“Visual glitches” needs to be defined

oldguy, join the club! Me too! Nearly 80.

Basically white box outlines around chat boxes where you reply to things from other users, also around replying typing field, and around the submit button. Also in Halo Master Chief edition, version Halo 1, some ammo casings are only part showing, leaving the words on the casing floating in mid air. Some websites, such as Youtube video download sites, that worked before the reformat, crashed all browsers. Firefox, Torch, Chrome, Opera, Edge, Internet Explorer. Those crashes stopped after updating drivers with CCleaner, but that’s when the visual glitches started.  First Speed Fan attachment shows temps etc. after computer was idle for about 20 minutes. Second one after computer was used for about an hour. A bit of heat there!

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From what you describe I would start over with all the display related drivers. DXDiag might illuminate a problem but the problem is probably too subtle.. – that is to say I would uninstall the display drivers, and tick the box for a complete removal, and then reinstall the latest and tick the box for overwriting any previous settings (where those boxes are offered, of course).

Then I think you need to reinstall the chipset drivers from the motherboard website), then the display driver form the card manufacturer’s website. I would wonder if the problem is at some point an installer has got confused and loaded the driver for a similar chip with integrated graphics (ie G series, eg the AMD Ryzen 5 2600G) and you have a graphics card (nothing on the spec to help there) which has shared components with that on chip display driver and they don’t mesh well as the data in each of the two display hardware implementations needs to go to a different part of the CPU to get to the graphics chip.

Unfortunately this still won’t fix it if the performance isn’t up to scratch as the data from the polygons (the areas of texture filled shapes drawn (or not) in some cases) need to be fetched from the drive, processed, and relayed to the display driver which instructs the card to perform the task – a delay at the start can cause the whole process to fall over, and the software simply starts the next task if that happens, there isn’t any “recovery” method as the frame refreshes happen periodically; there simply isn’t time…

Thus If crysyaldiskinfo shows anything worrying, or even to be sure, get the manufacturer diagnostics for the drive and check it out – just be sure to avoid any destructive tests!!,

To be honest its probably time to back up the actual user data  now, before you try to fix anything, in case the drive is about to fail or the drivers fall apart- sometimes things can go downhill fast. Download Windows install media from Microsoft if you haven’t then if the worst happens you’ve at least prepared a way back.

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@OP – Have you tried looking inside the PC for dust accumulation on heatsinks/ fans etc.?

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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Hi Microfix.

Yes, vacuumed and blown out everything.  Actually, there wasn’t anywhere near as  much as I thought there might be. I’ve certainly seen a lot worse, many times.

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these may be worth a check over..
Change Powerplan settings to performance (Control Panel-Power Options)
Disable non essential services (Services)
Disable unecessary scheduled tasks (Task Scheduler)
Disable non essential programs on startup (autoruns/ msconfig)
Run DiskCleanup ~ as admin, select all tickboxes then restart the PC immediately after. Once restarted, manually invoke ‘defrag and optimise’ drive.

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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For a computer with 16gb ram and an SSD to be slow, it sounds like something pretty odd is going on.  Graphics related crashes, followed by visual glitches with new drivers makes it sound like the graphics card either has a bad driver, is failing, or is not getting enough power.  If you can find a gaming support forum and ask what recommended “old” driver to use for that card, that might help, but replacing graphics card may be in order.  You could try a destructive or non-destructive install, but I think the effort will be wasted compared to playing with different graphics drivers.

Some graphics cards had a connection for extra power direct to the power supply.  Make sure this is connected if yours has this.

-BB

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Many thanks to everybody for all the suggestions. He has tried the majority of things, but with no luck.  He is resigned to the fact that he is going to have to take it into the shop to have it looked at, and possibly something needs to be replaced. But which something?!!

I will update you when something concrete happens, let you know the outcome.

Cheers, Keith.

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Well, we had a new high quality, high power graphics card installed, as recommended by NZs largest computer shop. No change, so it was refunded. They then recommended adding another couple of 8 GB of RAM, so that’s what we did. Computer wouldn’t work at all!  Then removed one of the 8s, and it worked again. Tried various combinations of new and used RAM, but no matter which ones were used, and which slots they were in, a total of 24 GB was the max that would work. It is a lot better now, with the extra 8 GB. I can see he is going to have to get a new computer, possibly sometime soonish!

Thanks everyone for suggestions etc.

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I would make an image backup to external disk and a boot USB for the backup software (try MiniTool, it’s free).
Then reinstall Windows from scratch and one game.

Does it work properly?

Have you checked the disk SMART attributes?
https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/hard-drives-still-pretty-s-m-a-r-t/

cheers, Paul

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