Windows 8 performance, generally slow, printers and hw

pyrohaz

New Member
Messages
8
Hi,
I've recently upgraded my laptop from Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 8 Professional, I did a fresh install on my freshly formatted Seagate ST750LX003 Hard drive. My laptop is an Acer Aspire 5755g and is Windows 8 certified by Acer.

I’ve been plagued with problems from the start, after starting with a completely open mind to Windows 8, I’ve been turned against it to the point that I might be downgrading back to Windows 7, along with really wanting to share my terrible experiences with anyone thinking of getting Windows 8!

The first problem comes with what I can only assume as ACPI problems, my laptop doesn’t sleep properly (it can sometimes take absolutely ages to get to sleep), along with shutdowns and restarts taking their time and sometimes just not happening, it sticks on the restart screen most of the time with the white dots going in a circle infinitely. I've tried disabling "fast boot" but this has made no difference what so ever. Also, my CBS logs are around 60mb each of pure text, surely that can't be a good sign?

I’ve had many many problems trying to merely log in. about 1/3 times of logging in, the desktop will not work properly, the start menu will but then when I try and access my desktop, it will be completely blank, displaying only a green background and my grey task bar at the bottom (with no icons on).

Along with this, Windows 8 just feels generally unstable, I’ve had it less than 2 weeks and its already crashed loads of times, most of these crashes are where it just freezes and refuses to do anything. If I’m playing music at that point, the music just sticks at the same point and jitters as if the same 100msecs were being repeated. These crashed can only be recovered from by holding the off button.

I installed Windows 8 using the USB windows install tool on a freshly formatted USB memory stick.

Another problem I’ve had is the use of USB, where it can sometimes take up to 5 minutes for my laptop to realize that something has been plugged in or unplugged. None of these problems were ever present on Windows 7.

Yet another problem is using my printer (Kodak ESP C110), which has worked perfectly up to now seems to crash the “Windows Image Acquisition” program where it causes my laptop to have a drastic rise in temperature, along with act extremely laggy.

Is it possible for me to fix these issues without having to resort to Windows 7, I really do want to like Windows 8 because its good to keep up with the tech times etc. and eventually I’m sure, Windows 7 will be eradicated as Windows XP is being soon.

Thanks,
Harris
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
I can only confirm that Windows 8 has been rock solid for me and I'm guessing something went drastically wrong with your installation. So, did you have any installation problems like hanging on a reboot attempt during the installation process?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Drivers, drivers, drivers. People please, if you have brand name machines, desktops, laptops or whatever, check at manufacturer's sites if they have drivers for it, if not, attempting to install a new OS can prove pretty complicated. They all seem to have some different BIOSes and custom hardware so finding right drivers can be frustrating business. Now. Win8 seems to be able to find allot more of drivers than previous versions but is not omnipotent.
Few brand name manufacturers even released their own versions of Windows with drivers and programs for particular machine. That holds true for all other versions of Windows, not only W8.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
Where did you obtain your install media? If it's official authentic media from Microsoft I would have another go at a clean install. It sounds like a corrupted install to me. If you downloaded your install media online I would download it again and redo your install thumb drive.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
I can only confirm that Windows 8 has been rock solid for me and I'm guessing something went drastically wrong with your installation. So, did you have any installation problems like hanging on a reboot attempt during the installation process?

Thats the thing unfortunately! It installed just fine, the problems only hit within the next week.

Drivers, drivers, drivers. People please, if you have brand name machines, desktops, laptops or whatever, check at manufacturer's sites if they have drivers for it, if not, attempting to install a new OS can prove pretty complicated. They all seem to have some different BIOSes and custom hardware so finding right drivers can be frustrating business. Now. Win8 seems to be able to find allot more of drivers than previous versions but is not omnipotent.
Few brand name manufacturers even released their own versions of Windows with drivers and programs for particular machine. That holds true for all other versions of Windows, not only W8.

I completely agree about drivers, the second i'd completed all the windows updates, I went straight to the acer website and installed all of the drivers. This unfortunately didn't help either :(.


Where did you obtain your install media? If it's official authentic media from Microsoft I would have another go at a clean install. It sounds like a corrupted install to me. If you downloaded your install media online I would download it again and redo your install thumb drive.

Thats a very good call actually, I downloaded the operating system from my university intranet (all us engineering students get windows 8 pro for free), I think i'm going to have to re-download and reinstall for sure.

Thanks a lot!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
Thats the thing unfortunately! It installed just fine, the problems only hit within the next week.

Just hit? Like a malware infection possibly? Have you done a full AV scan?

Yup, did a full scan (I've got Comodo Internet Security Premium) and it didnt seem to find anything, all completely updated.

Can we see a screenshot of your disk management please? Mine is a UEFI clean install:

Screenshot (40).png
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Hmm... that's strange. It appears you have the partition structure of a Win 7 Legacy install because a Win 8 Legacy clean install should look like this:

Screenshot (2).png

My best guess is that you did not do a "true" clean install. Actually, I think you left the Win 7 structure in place. This may or may not be contributing to all of your issues; however, I would consider doing a true clean install and deleting all partitions as part of the process. Also, I can only assume that your BIOS is not UEFI capable and that is why your only option appears to be a Legacy install; yes?

I will be updating this link with a clean install tutorial so I'll be right back.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2299-clean-install-windows-8-a.html
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
That is awfully strange, every time I've ever reinstalled Windows, I've already deleted the current partition and let the Windows setup do whatever is classed as standard. I don't know whether my bios is UEFI compatible or not, though having upgraded to the latest acer bios, I assume it would be since didnt UEFI come out back in ~2005? Acer also states that this laptop should be Windows 8 compatible too.

I think it may just be worth doing a full reinstall, time to go borrow a memory stick! My 2gb one just doesn't do the job haha
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
That is awfully strange, every time I've ever reinstalled Windows, I've already deleted the current partition and let the Windows setup do whatever is classed as standard. I don't know whether my bios is UEFI compatible or not, though having upgraded to the latest acer bios, I assume it would be since didnt UEFI come out back in ~2005? Acer also states that this laptop should be Windows 8 compatible too.

I think it may just be worth doing a full reinstall, time to go borrow a memory stick! My 2gb one just doesn't do the job haha

WAIT! First determine if your BIOS is UEFI capable or not. This is very important. You can sometimes just bring up your boot manager and see if you have any UEFI boot options. Also, I'm not sure why you chose a USB install over a DVD install; however, if you need a UEFI USB install, see here for more information:

Again, I need to link to a tutorial so I'll be right back.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorial...e-firmware-interface-install-windows-8-a.html
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Yup, I made sure once i'd installed to download all of the Windows 8 drivers fresh off the Acer website! Would it be better if I went straight to the component manufacturer rather than the acer website?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
Its absolutely brilliant, thank you very much! I'll inform you what has happened once I reinstall windows.

Thanks,
Harris
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
Yup, I made sure once i'd installed to download all of the Windows 8 drivers fresh off the Acer website! Would it be better if I went straight to the component manufacturer rather than the acer website?

Not at this time. I would stick with the ACER drivers initially. I assume they have tested them and certified their compatibility. Once up and running, you might want to explore updated versions available from manufacturer's websites but I have found those direct download drivers do not always "play nice" with proprietary rigs; especially Dells.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Its absolutely brilliant, thank you very much! I'll inform you what has happened once I reinstall windows.

Thanks,
Harris

Please let us know. Now, this may not fix all your issues but it is certainly worth a shot IMHO. Good luck!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
It's been my experience that USB thumb drive installs are a lot quicker than installing from a DVD. I do all my installs from thumb drives. I do everything from thumb drives other than DRM protected DVD media like games. I'd recommend going to Acer for drivers, especially if its a laptop. The stock drivers are often modified and you may lose some functionality by using other generic drivers. One example is your custom Fn keys on your keyboard may not work correctly for volume up down etc. My system reserved partition has always been bigger than 100 MB on a Windows 8 install. Also I do believe if you don't already have a UEFI BIOS, flashing your BIOS will not make it UEFI. The motherboard has to be physically modified to switch it to a UEFI BIOS.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
Well it is with my sincerest apologies that I decided in the end to just go back to Windows 7. Yes! I feel like a failure and Yes! At some point i'll have to upgrade but for compatibility and stability, I just don't see myself changing to Windows 8 for a while.

Thank you all for the help none the less, its been brilliant!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
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