New Acer Aspire Desktop: problems. Help? Suggestions?

Hi R. Proffitt. Thanks for responding. Yes, it's a long post. I apologize to everyone for that.

I used the Windows software to burn the CD. Burning the CD wasn't the problem. That went off without a hitch. What freaked me out this morning and prompted me to post was that the tab for Windows Help that came up when I clicked the link "Which do I choose?" before burning, self-launched today upon computer startup.

I'm concerned because of
1. Chrome often (and once, Paint) self-launching with computer start-up, and
2. the difficulty with "grasping" and moving a window (takes about 5 tries), and
3. the double-clicking issue, and
4. program windows being shrunken in size upon wake-up
When the computer wakes up, the cursor doesn't appear for about 30 seconds and I have to stare at the Start menu box until I can get the cursor and click to get the Start Menu to go back down. This isn't a gaming computer, but it shouldn't be sluggish like this.
...Just everything altogether.

Acers are the only computers I've ever had a bunch of problems like this with, before. I guess I'm less "curious" and more "freaked out" because of my experience with my last computer, which is also an Acer. I know that what parts/manufacturers that go into an Acer laptop are hit and miss, and that's a quality concern. But I have no idea if the same goes for the Desktops. Like I said, both Acers have been trouble from Day One. I have a 7 year old Toshiba laptop that, apart from the dead battery and dead fan, is still going strong with no problems. I can't afford to keep on replacing computers or paying for them to be shipped out for what might or might not be a repair.

However, you've solved one of my problems (I think)...that of the double-clicking. Although I was quite familiar with how to set mouse-click speed in Windows 7, I haven't tried looking it up in Windows 10. I've just tried double-clicking at different speeds. I'll definitely be using the click-enter method from now on.

Perhaps someone could reassure me that Acers are OK? Or if not, tell me to get it shipped out? Or maybe other viewers can give me advice on the other issues? One problem might not bother me too much, but constantly encountering different problems DOES bother me.

Thanks again, R. Proffitt, for the click-enter suggestion. You have helped me in the past and I'm grateful.

Not an answer. Just 4 questions:
1. Do you mean wake up after sleep or after hibernate?
2. Or both?
3. Is Windows set to ask for your password after such a wake-up? Or not?
4. If you do the same while logged in to another user account (just make a local one, it's free) does the same happen?

Hi, Kees_B.

1. When I say "Wake up", I mean I've gone to the Start menu, selected the power button icon, selected "Sleep".
2. There's no "Hibernate" option.
3. I have the "Require Sign In" set to "Never". To wake the computer, I hit the space bar a few times, or wiggle the mouse. If the computer is waking from being put to sleep by my Microsoft Admin Account, I am not asked for a password; it just wakes to the regular screen, with the start menu plastered across the bottom left 1/4 of the screen (a little bigger than that if truth be told). Now that I've created a local account to answer your last question, I'm asked for a password if I switch from the local account to the Admin account.
4. To answer this, I created a local account. Yes, the computer does the same things on this local account upon wake-up. Wait; I can only say this about the time lag between waking up and getting a cursor. I can't really comment on the shrunken windows upon wake-up because I don't think I've seen that for a couple of weeks. Perhaps an Update changed that.

However, when I was playing around, switching between accounts, the last time I went back to the local account, the notification box scrolled over in the right bottom of the screen with the heading of one of my external drives, and asked me if I wanted to choose what to do when it came to removing my external drives. So I clicked on that and it brought up a white scroll-box on the top right of my screen that I could not grasp and move at all. It had a list of things to choose from and when I clicked on "Choose what to do with removable devices" (or something like that), the whole box just disappeared and nothing else happened. Very curious.

Thank-you for taking the time to help me investigate this confounding machine.

.

I said before that the window size shrinking seemed to have stopped over the last couple of weeks. But perhaps I haven't been putting the computer to sleep during that time.

I just took a look through my computer log notebook and found that it also happens when I turn off the monitor, and then turn it back on later. So I just tried that now. Full sized browser window. I turned off the monitor and left it off for about 5 minutes. Then I turned it back on. The browser window was small and in the top left corner of the screen. I guess it's a "weird thing" that's still happening, after all. Not just upon computer waking, but also when I turn the monitor back on.

This is typical on many PCs. To reduce this has me doing basic checks (actually questions when in a forum) like: What USB things are plugged in? USB drives and printers can slow the resume from hibernation and sleep.

Hi R. Proffitt.

Well, if that's typical on many PCs, I'm glad to hear it. I've never encountered it before, but if it is typical, then I guess I've been lucky. I have 2-4 port hubs plugged in, with a total of 5 external drives, a scanner, and a printer plugged in. That does make sense. Thanks.

You have USB drives, printers and hubs. Windows is going to have to do a lot of checking over USB to be sure all those things are good to go and unchanged.

Well, it does make sense. It's just that I've had the same number of USB drives, hubs, printer, and scanner for about ten years. And this is the first computer that's ever given me this sort of pause when it wakes up. Maybe it's a Windows 10 thing. This IS the first computer I've ever had with Windows 10.

And printer drivers. If you have a top folder with videos or large photos the resume process takes longer. All this is to deal with possible changes when the PC has been asleep. I don't consider this a bug.

I don't know what you mean by "top folder", but I do store videos and large photos on those drives. Judging by what you're telling me, I wouldn't consider this a bug, either. It's just new for me to have to wait that long after a wake-up. Even if the computer has only just been put to sleep and then woken again immediately, I suppose the computer had to partially shut some processes down in order to achieve sleep status.

We all seem to be figuring things out together Now I just have to figure out the:
1. Chrome often (and once, Paint) self-launching with computer start-up, and
2. the difficulty with "grasping" and moving a window (takes about 5 tries)

It would be nice if these aren't bugs either, and have logical explanation.

That would be

C:\
D:\

and so on. Windows would at the very least read that folder and if ANY file is in the Recent listings those files might get a re-read for changes in ICON and availability. This is how Windows works and as folk store more, startup can take longer as we didn't keep videos around like this as often.

As Chrome launching, it's going to take a lot of digging why. This area is not simple or the same from machine to machine compared to USB startup delays. But if you want to see all the possible startup items we use AUTORUNS from Microsoft. Be prepared for the "sig from the fire hose" effect as the information these will drown most folk.

-> As to grasping I too see this as I must mouse to just the right spot and as the mouse button is pushed the pointer could move and I miss the grab.

https://www.google.com/search?q=make+grabbing+window+edges+easier didn't find any ready fix for this but a touch pad or pen will always make this too hard and I'm back to using my mouse.

Thanks for the explanation about "top folder". I think I understand.

Chrome isn't listed in the list of Startup Items, if that's what you meant. But even if it is listed in Startup items in some hidden part of the computer (something called AUTORUNS?), then that wouldn't explain why it launches by itself at some times but not others.

As for grasping, I've tried clicking everywhere on the windows. It seems to be a matter of giving it enough time. As I said, it takes about 5 tries (with about 4 seconds between each attempt) to get the window to move, and I've gotten to the point where I just keep clicking on the same place on the top of the window, until it starts moving. Again, I never had such a problem before this particular computer.

In your personal opinion, do you see these as potential problems, or simply irritants?

I worry whether you already FINISHED your investigations or didn't understand what AUTORUNS is. Here's the app at Microsoft.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns

Not only must you look for Chrome but any app that could launch an update or notice. If Chrome is your default browser an app could decide to "Hey, let's pop up a special offer for Terminus Pro Extreme." (fictitious title.)

Are you sure you've looked at every AUTORUNS item to discern if it's there or just an app that launched Chrome to do something?

Note: Edited to insert a missing word. Sorry about that.

I just used "Settings" to look up what was in the Start-up list. I didn't understand what AUTORUNS is, that's why I put a question mark beside it. Thank-you for the link to it: I am looking at the page, and am trying to understand what it's telling me. I still don't see, though, why if even a third party somehow managed to pop up Chrome to launch itself, why that would lead to the type of self-launches that I've been seeing. Except for this morning (when it launched with just a tab for the Windows Help page I visited yesterday), every time it's self-launched, it's been Chrome as usual. Just the tabs that I've set it to open with. Nothing that would suggest a third party was launching it upon Start-up for it's own benefit.

I will download AUTORUNS and see if I can find anything unusual. What kind of apps could or would launch an update or notice?

Complicated by how Windows works. An app can call for the system to run some "URL" or www.something.com/offers.html and if you have Chrome as default, Chrome will launch. If you have Chrome set to open to specific tabs this launch could fail and you end up with your tabs and not what was called for in the launch code.

I'm the one suggesting this since the story is all too familiar and quite the pain (work?) to figure out what launched Chrome.

Example priors? Sure. https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+track+down+what+launched+chrome+on+boot

I found this in Google Forums...

"In Chrome go to Settings, click on Advanced> and go to System.
Then turn off
"Continue running background apps with Google Chrome closed" "

I have done this and will see over the next week or so if it works for me. It worked for others...

Crap, Chrome self-launched this morning, with all the tabs I was using last night before I closed it. That Google Forums advice didn't work.

make it default. See if that stops the problem, or if then firefox pops up without accessing. If the latter, then the problem isn't browser related (maybe trojan?). Switch the chrome as default again, see if it starts up again. If so, look in the chrome settings area, especially in the telemetry area and can turn most telemetry off.

I went into Chrome Settings and couldn't see anything relating to telemetry. I don't know what telemetry means. But I searched for "Telemetry" in settings, and it's not there.

I have made Firefox my default. We'll see what happens.

Hopefully NOT malware as anything I scan with says the computer is clean.

...mouse related. Try a different mouse. If using wireless, make sure to try a different receiver with it too. If still have a problem, plug in a wired mouse and see if that corrects problem. If so, then something is interfering with transmission between wifi mouse and receiver. That can be caused by too close to wifi transmitter on a router. If so, you can lower the transmit power of the wireless in the router usually. No need to broadcast wireless all the way to your neighbor's homes.

I don't have wi-fi. However, I live in a high-rise, and almost everyone else has wi-fi, so maybe I'm just being inundated with everyone else's signals!

The computer came with a wired mouse and keyboard. I replaced them after a couple of weeks with a Microsoft keyboard and Mouse set. I didn't notice any difference in call quality or the chances of losing signal to the phone. I don't know what you mean by using a different receiver with it. Could you please clarify?

Was that wired? If problem still with wired mouse, then at least we have that removed from part of the problem.

The wired keyboard and mouse that came with the computer were made by someone else. They came in the box with the Acer computer. I bought the Microsoft Keyboard and mouse set (wireless) later.

Hi Wako2323.

Your answer is really different from the other advice I've been getting. It sounds like you think that the issues the computer is having are indicative of a more serious problem I'm very interested in why you have such a different response. Could you please elaborate?

Thank-you.

It seems, then, that I will have to just put up with it and hope it's not destabilizing the computer as time goes by. I did try to use and understand AUTORUNS as you suggested, but it's way beyond me. I don't understand what you mean by breaking the HTML, HTM and URL associations with Chrome means, as aren't they what tells the browser what page to go to? But if it's "rough on users that are not advanced enough", then it would be rough on me. I certainly fit into the "Not Advanced Enough" category.

In your opinion, would this self-launching of Chrome destabilize the computer over time?