Month: July 2016

Windows 10 – Fix 100% Disk Usage

A computer should rarely ever run at 100% Disk Usage, especially a new computer.

Outside of malware and viruses on your machine, here are a 4 things you can look for:

 

1) Services – Windows Search and Superfetch have been known to sometimes cause problems while indexing your files.

You can manually stop these services just for your current session until the next boot by stopping the services in an elevated command prompt:
                net.exe stop “windows search”
                net.exe stop “superfetch”

To permanently disable the services, press Windows + R, enter services.exe, and hit Enter.

To find the Windows Search, click the top row and begin typing Windows Search. Double click the row. Click the Stop button to stop the service, and then click the Startup type dropdown and choose disable, click apply, then click OK.

To find Superfetch, click the top row and begin typing Superfetch. Double click the row. Click the Stop button to stop the service, and then click the Startup type dropdown and choose disable, click apply, then click OK.

 

2) Running Adobe Flash in your Internet Browsers could also be the culprit.

In Chrome Browser’s address bar, type chrome://plugins/ and hit enter.
Do a find on Adobe Flash Player and disable the player to see if that resolves the issue.

 

3) Identify if you are running the inbox AHCI driver (StorAHCI.sys):

Open an elevated command prompt. Type the following command in the command prompt window and hit Enter: devmgmt.msc
Under IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers right-click on the AHCI controller node and select Properties. This node is usually called “Standard SATA AHCI Controller.
Navigate to the driver tab and click Driver Details. If you see “StorAHCI.sys” in the list, you are running the inbox driver, and so, disable MSI for the controller by doing the following:

a) In the same properties window, click the Details tab and select “Device instance path” from the Property drop-down menu. Note this path for you need to find it in the Registry
b) Open the registry editor by typing regedit in the previously opened command prompt.

Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\<AHCI Controller>\Device Parameters\Interrupt Management\MessageSignaledInterruptProperties,

and replace <AHCI Controller> with your device instance path you noted above. Change the value of the MSISupported key from “1” to “0”.

If you don’t know which controller your boot device is attached to, repeat this process for all AHCI controllers found under the Details tab.

Reboot the machine.

 

4) A memory leak on the Microsoft side with the Windows Network Data Usage Monitor (Ndu) driver could be the culprit. You can disable this driver in the Registry as follows:

Hkey_Local_Machine\System\ControlSet001\Services\Ndu

Change the “Start” DWord from 2 to 4

For more information about the Ndu driver, see this article:

http://www.howtogeek.com/224170/how-to-monitor-your-network-usage-in-windows-10

Windows 10 – Older Software Won’t Install from Disc Anymore

Reason: The Win upd disables a driver called secdrv.

You can manually invert the process by doing the following:

Go to Start, enter cmd (with admin rights), enter the following:

1) “Arm” and “activate” secdrv at once by entering sc config secdrv start=auto . The driver will then be automatically started at startup which MS does not advice.

2) “Arm” the driver by entering sc config secdrv start= demand . This will load it when needed. To load it directly enter sc start secdrv . If the upcoming log contains the line “4 RUNNING” you can go on.

Deactivate the driver with sc stop secdrv (single time) or sc config secdrv start= disabled(by default) if needed.

 

Microsoft Word – Turning Off Background Repagination (Word 2016)

By default, Word automatically repaginates your document as you work. At times, this may slow down the program to the point where you consider it unacceptable. The solution is to turn off the background repagination. Word will then only paginate the document when you print or perform some other action that requires pagination (such as using Print Preview).

  1. Click View and view your blank document in Draft mode. (Can’t change this option in the default Print Layout mode because it will be greyed out.
  2. Click File, Options, and Advanced Tab.
  3. Under he General section of the Advanced Tab, uncheck the box “Enable background repagination.
  4. Repeat steps 1 – 3 for Outline view.

You can always change your default printer to something else to see if that may help.

Wireless – Wireless Adapter Disables Itself on Its Own

Disable the Power Off option for the adapter:
1. Open Device Manager. (Win Key+R > type devmgmt.msc > OK)
2. Expand the Network adapters.
3. Right click on the Ethernet/Wireless Adapter and click Properties.
4. Click the Power Management tab.
5. Remove the check mark beside Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
6. Click OK.
7. Test.

Reset the TCP/IP settings on your PC:
1. Go to your start screen/menu and type CMD.
2. Right click on the command prompt icon and chose Run as administrator.
3. In the window that opens type “netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt” without quotes, and press enter.
4. Restart your PC and test.

It may also help to reset the winsock catalogue:
1. Go to your start screen/menu and type CMD.
2. Right click on the command prompt icon and chose Run as administrator.
3. In the window that opens type “netsh winsock reset” without quotes, and press enter.
4. Restart your PC and test.

Wireless – Wireless Router Asking for Username, Password and Logon Domain

Control Panel ->
Network and Internet ->
Network and Sharing center ->
Set up a new connection or network

Manually connect to a wireless network and click NEXT

Network Name: Type in network name that shows up for your router
Security Type: WEP
Security Key: Enter the security password

Click NEXT