Can't hold back...

I guess MSFT hates me for that. IE's issues are legend.

I like to check on it from time to time, like you would any sick patient.

I think IE might be analogous to a patient with leprosy, ebola, and cancer. You have to be a masochist to use it for anything besides Windows Update.

...or something, but I'm probably speaking too soon.

I believe I mentioned that many of the problems with this lappy occurred right out of the box or at least, right after I did the initial setup that included swapping out the AV and installing Office.

Well, for the first six months or so, every time it crashed, after it rebooted itself, it popped up that window that gave me the option to send the details of the crash to MS. So I did, figuring it couldn't hurt. I went through the normal channels for help and reached that point where it was complete wipe and re-install or send it in which is where I halted. But I was still sending in those error reports, for at least six months, maybe longer.

But I finally gave up, thinking "what's the point". And things never changed. Crashes on average every day, might go two days, might crash twice a day.

Well, a couple months ago, for some reason I don't know, I started sending in those error reports again. Again, I figured it couldn't hurt. Come about a week ago, I incurred a large update. Took about twice as long as a normal update. And the lappy hasn't crashed since!

Still have some scrolling issues but it has shocked me how it hasn't crashed or done anything. It just wakes up and works. So, now that I'm saying this, it will probably crash next time I open it. But we'll see. Maybe MS recognized and fixed something that was a common issue with certain machines. It's always nice to think positive. Would even make a good Christmas present, a lappy that worked, finally.

In either case, I'd like to wish everyone here a wonderful, SAFE, and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Time to spike the eggnog.
Bob

I'm sure you knew I was speaking too soon. It crashed twice the same day, just after I made that post. Well, I've come to the realization that I'll never be satisfied with this one.

Opened it yesterday morning hoping to just get a quick look at the weather 'cause I was on the way out the door. Took nearly five minutes to reboot and get itself together before Explorer opened and when I finally did get to the weather page, it wouldn't scroll down to where I needed.

So, yesterday afternoon, I made a big change. I knew that sometimes, it was because it was attempting to perform or complete an "update" that it had to reboot itself. I figured, unlike what I was used to, Windows 8 by default gives you no prior warning, just does the updates and if you happen to close the lid because it never told you it was in the midst of an update, when you next opened it, it had to reboot.

So I changed the automatic update process to just let me know when it needs an update and let me pick the time for the download and install. I'll, of course allow all those necessary to keep it running but I figured that would eliminate an entire source of "the problem".

This morning, (laughing), it took another five minutes to get its act together and when I started reading my email, Outlook crashed.

If I didn't have all my banking and secure stuff on this, I'd probably dump it in the trash.

The old lappy just never hiccups. Not once. Plus it is so damn fast. I was stupid to buy this after having that one. I hope my next purchase can be more like that old one. I certainly won't buy another one of these.

tried another AV program ?

Digger

...I could have sworn this Pro-version of AVG was running out. I know it's renewal date was in December. I haven't received any notices to renew it and I think it's very possible I may have purchased two years of coverage last year. I've done that before but I didn't remember doing that this time.
My plan was to just let it run out and I was considering two possible options. One was just going for the free AVG but then I thought about trying something else.
Since I only use this lappy for my banking and looking at a couple forums like this one and "TheHelpfulGardener", I was considering just doing away with ANY anti-virus program. I do NOT surf or download anything on his machine. I have a really old lappy at work running XP that I've done that with. No anti-virus at all. But, because I only use it to access ONE site, the data site I use for my work, I haven't had any issues with it. I just do whatever updates it asks for as long as I -KNOW- they are legitimate updates, and the thing seems to run fine.
So that was my plan, no AV and just make sure I don't use this to do -anything- but my bank, credit account, and these two forums. No AV should help this thing run considerably faster. Maybe even make me not hate it so much.

In my OP, I did neglect to mention I use IE 11 exclusively, and it is both IE and Office 2013 that give me that "Not Responding" message at the top. It usually last about 5 seconds and then the page reloads. As far as the scrolling issue, often, the scroll bar on the touch pad which I use the most, just doesn't work at all. It also affects clicking on the scroll bar. It acts like the whole system is frozen on that part of a page. I'm sure it is just updating or loading something somewhere else but you tend to get impatient when you're use to my old lappy.

Yes, I know the old lappy makes this new one look like a cheap toy. I paid quite a bit more for that old one. But the new one has more Ram so I expected a little better from it.

I contacted warranty when it was 6 weeks old. We went back and forth until it was either reload the OS or send it in. I've sent lappys in before, (that was a Sony). I got it back twice "unfixed" until eventually, it became the best lappy I ever had after they changed the system board so I was able to hand it down to one of my kids, minus one feature. When they changed the system board, my restore discs no longer worked. But I didn't find that till it was a few years old and Sony didn't want to talk about it without my credit card. Hence, no more Sonys.

So I decided to live with the total reboot every second or third time I woke it up from sleep or hibernation and the scrolling issues and the not responding issues. I told you I was easy! But the other day I was in a bad mood and I finally decided to let somebody else know what I thought about this thing.

The most frustrating part to me is the doubt as to whether it is the lappy or Windows 8. I know it's the lappy on the reboot. But the not responding could be the way Windows loads things in the background without telling you what it's doing. And the scrolling could be the same thing. Just really frustrating when I can just pull out the old one and it flies through everything.

the lower they are set in internet explorer settings on security tab, the faster browsing will go. I think default is medium-high, but medium is quite sufficient for most. Other settings like for international websites and requiring https or ssl be used always when possible can slow things down.

But we installed Classic Shell and don't use IE except to confirm a web site or issue is a problem. If a client wants to stick with IE, we usually nod a lot but as there is no cure for that thing, we just nod.
Bob

I loved XP but it became antiquated and I never did the Vista thing because I was a dedicate XP Pro user till 7 came out. It didn't take long but I fell in love with 7. It's so much more reliable and the HP I was using it on just screamed. Blazing fast and scored really high on all the tests I ran because I kept it lean and mean. So I was heart-broken when I thought it was dying. I bought the Toshiba simply because I was loosing my faith in newer laptops and didn't want to spend as much. So I got what I got. And I can't even replace the darn battery because it's "built-in" like a frickin' Apple product.

When I finally figured out the power supply issues were a bad battery, I was thrilled and frustrated. I had already switched all my banking and important stuff, along with my Pro version of AVG over to the new machine. I really really hate this computer after getting used to my HP. It's like no contest speed wise and this Toshiba blue-screens at least once every two or three days, at best. Sometimes it will happen twice a day. So frustrating. But, it's lighter and I was able to over-ride all the cloud-based defaults and set things to look and act like 7. I didn't like the idea of all my office documents being saved "online". I know it helps to be able to open them form any computer anywhere but I'm not that comfy with security yet. I like knowing my stuff is untouchable when my computer is turned off.

It's my fault for not doing the complete system restore or sending it in under warranty. It hasn't gotten any worse, it just sucks the way it works and by being so slow on top of that. Thankfully, I have both available and if I need to check something really quick, I'll grab the HP. Plus, I have two lappys to back each other up on. That and the 1TB external HD makes for always having a reliable backup.

But if someone asked me what to buy, I absolutely would NOT tell them to buy a Toshiba now. That might be unfair to them. But it had these problems out of the box. It was never reliable. It not a computer you can count on firing up and working on the first try. If I'm going to use this thing, I have to make sure I have time to sit down and let it reboot which takes forever.

The HP is greased lightning. And it has never ever once blue-screened on me. The power supply quit working one day. I bought a new power supply and it quit after a couple days. No other indication except the battery was going down and reached it's "Low Battery" alert status and I kept trying to figure out why it wouldn't charge with the charger plugged in. I always used it on a UPS and even changed that. I finally ordered another battery just by chance and that fixed everything.

So it probably wouldn't take much to talk me out of this thing. But I'd like to get used to 8 on a decent machine. I think there are a lot of good features of 8 that I'm not using and won't until I have something more reliable than this. But I guess I'm probably complaining too much.

Something's up with this one. At the office there was an initial ban till we found Classic Shell to let us get back to work but so far it's been the most stable issue from MS for years. XP and 7 were nice too but we have to work with PCs that clients can buy today. We also support apps we did ages ago so at the office is a mix and old and new.
Bob

doesn't like AVG . Have you tried another anti-virus?

Digger

I was going to post about that anyway. This morning, it crashed when I opened it, just like it did last night. But this morning, the Toshiba Service Station popped up saying there was an update. Turned out to be two and one was a Bios update that I had to install separately.

The reason I mention this is because I wanted to point out that I have tried my best not to alter any of the original computer's settings believing that leaving everything set at the factory defaults would allow this to run the best. So, the ONLY change I made was to go in and remove everything I could find that related to Norton or Symantec and then install my AVG Pro Internet Suite.

I only did that because I had already purchased the AVG Pro and had it on my HP. So, believing the HP was dying, I removed it from the HP, put the free version on the HP, then put the Pro version on here.

I understand that switching to AVG Pro here could very likely be the cause of many of the issues I'm experiencing. My contract with AVG ends sometime this month, I think. So I am trying to decide whether to re-purchase it, purchase it for two computers, or move all my banking back to the HP temporarily and do a complete system restore on this one.

The downside is that I don't want to pay for Norton and I know they only give you a certain amount of time before they come after you for money. I have used AVG Pro for many years and I have loved the way it works. I like AVG's firewall and I'm use to it. And I know my wife's lappy, (another Toshiba), has had a couple close calls with some bugs using the free AVG. But that could be because she is apt to download more questionable things than I do. I don't download ANY games or anything that isn't absolutely necessary and absolutely proven reliable.

So I'm not 100% convinced that I really have to have the AVG Pro but I'm fairly certain I don't want to pay for Norton. So that leaves me in kind of a quandary for what to do. I doubt I have too many days left before I have to decide.

And to complicate matters even more, I just found out yesterday that my health care premiums are going to double so that makes buying another year of AVG more of an issue. So, even if I did a complete restore on this thing, I still might end up removing Norton when they start asking for money and installing the free AVG. That might put me right back where I am now.

So I have no idea what to do.

Here's the AVG remover tool => http://support.avg.com/SupportArticleView?l=en_US&urlname=How-to-uninstall-AVG

Before you do that you should back up everything and maybe wait a little while before doing this and talk to the Pro's here as I'm just a hobbyist.

Digger

...for the link to the "removal" tool. When I took the Pro version off the HP, I just used the "Uninstall" feature in the Add/Remove Programs thing in Control Panel. But that was removing it from 7. Removing it from 8 could be trickier.

BUT: I thought of something this morning. Of course, it crashed again this morning. But then I realized that the only time it crashes or BS's is when it is waking up from hibernation or sleep mode. And since it is crashing more often, maybe I should just do a total shut-down when ever I'm done using it. Because it's going to go through the entire boot process anyway and then it wastes more time with the error reporting procedure.

If I just remember to shut it down, I might be able to get away with a clean fresh start each time I use it and not have to deal with that "Send Details" screen either. Of course, that won't fix the freezing and lack of scrolling, but it's moving in the right direction.

Let us know how things turn out ...

Digger

I do know things start to get wonky when renewal time is near

Digger