[senior citizen]

Just wondering if anyone else (besides me) had problems yesterday, Friday, March 28 at about 3:28 p.m. and thereon (all evening) with their computer?

This involved totally losing email, EVERYTHING....just kept saying "no signal". Couldn't log on with my password.

Total black screen. Later a grey screen. A few times, the four opening screens would come on and then go blank.

Long story, but I "restored" it about six times........each time with partial success.........I also let it "restore" itself. That worked the best.

When I did it in safe mode......it made it worse. Which key is good....F11 or F12? I've never used keys before but I had no icons or anything to click on.........just a blank screen. Is there a "control" something or other to press????????? You older techies might know.

I've had issues in the past each time one of these critical updates happens (from Microsoft).

I have an HP Pavillion Elite HPE with WINDOWS 7 operating system.
It's a desktop computer. The "tower" or hardrive would sometimes go on and sometimes seem to "fade away"......I turned it on and off quite a few times.

Everytime in the past when they try to change the internet explorer to a higher number, problems have arose but I always solved them easily, without taking the hard drive to a repair shop. Yesterday, my husband was planning on taking it this morning...........as the total black screen was recurring...........even after restoring. Microsoft said it had to do with critical update of yesterday..........March 28; that only after I got to the diagnostic part. The hard drive was just not working. Today it's fine.

This morning, I turned my computer on, hoping against hope, that it would be o.k...........and somehow it did "self adjust" and it's all back to normal.

Once yesterday, the icons were HUGE.......and discombobulated.
Today they are back to the original size.........and I have my email back.
All of my professional software seems intact and operational.

But, nothing like this has ever happened.
Where do I go to shut off the instant updates from Microsoft?????

If I do that, can they still screw up my computer??? I am not paranoid, but I was told by an HP tech in Costa Rica a few years ago that it is a battle between HP and Microsoft as to "who" owns your computer, meaning the operating system............it sure seems that way.

I've experienced sluggishness with prior "critical updates" but never anything like Friday afternoon and evening.....yesterday.

When my husband was convinced by me to upgrade to a new computer (same time I got this one) he hated it so much, he went back to his old one........which he uses to this date. He has so many computers, all with the older operating systems........the newer ones seem very touchy.

We also have Ipads (large and mini) plus he has an Iphone so I would be able to get my emails and stuff when the computer was at the repair guys, but thankfully, it didn't come to that.

WE always say that if terrorists wanted to drive Americans crazy, just take away their electric grid and their ability to access the internet. We'd all have withdrawal symptoms...........esp. those of us who like to shop online.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE for any help or ideas..........appreciate it.

[memason]

Sorry you had such a terrible time! I just found it a little humorous that you had your Apple products to depend on, should you not get your issues corrected in a timely manner.

Your story is the reason I switched to Apple 6 years ago... It could change in the future, but I've had 6 years of painless, virus free computing with Apple.

Good Luck!

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by memason

Sorry you had such a terrible time! I just found it a little humorous that you had your Apple products to depend on, should you not get your issues corrected in a timely manner.

Your story is the reason I switched to Apple 6 years ago... It could change in the future, but I've had 6 years of painless, virus free computing with Apple.

Good Luck!

The school system up here uses APPLE as they say it's a lot more stable.
Our son, ditto........for years and years now, for business and personal.

You are lucky also that you've had a good experience with APPLE.

Believe it or not, our first home computers were COMMODORE.
Very primitive. They are laughable now. Long gone, but funny to think of.

I have had a lot of Hewlett Packards with no problems at all......
Whatever transpired in the past, I was able to solve on my own.

But yesterday was crazy, to say the least. Good thing I'm a calm person.

It is great today......and flying very fast. I'm 100% sure it was the microsoft update.........and I realize now to just let it do it's thing.
It self adjusts.

The I-phone we had to get as the Villages told us there were no landlines in the Lifestyle Visit homes........ditto for the home we rented for the month thereafter. No landlines at all. It came in handy for navigational purposes as well........restaurants, etc.

The I-Pad our son gave us last Christmas and the mini I-Pad I gave my husband this Christmas.......it's about the same size as our Kindles.

He loves his APPS !!!!

He just said the only thing about the "tablets" is you can't put in software, right? They are great for everything else.

He can't put his Front Page software, and others......plus I couldn't put my ancestry.com and other professional software into the I-Pad's, right? Or wrong?

In a nutshell, Microsoft software doesn't work on an Apple.......

[Virtual Geezer]

No problems here using both Windows 7 and Windows 8 on an HP lap top. W7 was upgraded to IE10 while W8 was installed with it.

From the sound of things you have more going on than just the update. What anti virus program are you using? Do you have more than one anti virus program on your computer? Do you use Malwarebytes and if so do you run it in "safe mode".

You can turn off instant updates via the control panel but I would not recommend that.

HP does add a few of their own programs to an O/S that Microsoft does NOT support and of course they put the blame on MS. Classic example is the G6 line of lap tops by HP. These lap tops are about 3 years old and one would think that upgrading to W8 would not be an issue. Well running all the compatibility programs from MS shows no issues but if you install W8 you will not have any sound out of the speakers. This boils down to a driver issue with W8 and HP. HP points the finger at MS and MS points the finger at HP. Everything related to sound works with no problem under W7 but not under W8. Now HP is the one that provides the drivers and has stated that they will not support anything made before October 2011. I know of at least two people here in TV that are trying to deal with this issue.

VG

[784caroline]

I had problems earlier in the week...ie could not retrieve email and when I did , it was very slow. I uninstalled IE10 and reinstalled IE9. After a day its working much much better.

[gustavo]

Originally Posted by memason

Sorry you had such a terrible time! I just found it a little humorous that you had your Apple products to depend on, should you not get your issues corrected in a timely manner.

Your story is the reason I switched to Apple 6 years ago... It could change in the future, but I've had 6 years of painless, virus free computing with Apple.

Good Luck!

If you want pain free windows experience, turn off those automatic updates. None of the last two laptops I've bought ever had problems like that with updates turned off. The first one died of hardware failure after a long life, the other is running fine.

[senior citizen]

Thanks everyone. By the next day it was about 75% back to normal; on Sunday it was 100% back to normal. It seemed to self adjust. It's flying again, very fast.
It's only a two year old computer.......

However, it was interesting just reading that other post about the F.B.I. malware.
I didn't click on anything at all like that.......and received no such messages.....

Just glad it's back to it's normal self. Thanks for all the suggestions and comments.

p.s. Also glad I DID NOT let my husband take it to the computer repair guy. I've never had to do that in the past and didn't want to begin now.