Is your day gig involving IT? I've been fighting a stubborn computer problem that you would solve in minutes, not weeks. My entire system has slowed to a crawl making it almost unusable. Upon good advise I downloaded an ISO Image file of Windows 7/64 Home Premium which came pre-installed on my HP Elite computer, however, when attempting to install it, it reported that my PRODUCT KEY was invalid so I couldn't continue the installation.
Going backward, my first indication of trouble was a predictable black screen after about 40 minutes of viewing a movie on either YT or NetFlix. Nothing else was affected.
I was informed by friends on www.majorgeeks.com to run a system file scan from the DOS prompt which discovered a corrupted system file but didn't name the file. That led to my attempt to reinstall Windows 7. I started this project over a week ago and I'm in tears of utter frustration. I think I've fixed the black screen problems but now it's terribly slow loading and delays after each keystroke or button press. Boot time ranges between 2 and 6 minutes when it had been well under 1 minute prior to these problems.
I'd be thrilled to pay a reasonable fee to anyone willing to "remote" my computer to explore and repair my system. Meanwhile, my music has been placed on perpetual hold.
Is it possible when entering your product key during reinstall that you may have typed an O that should have been a 0? Or a 2 that is really a Z? (I've made those errors a time or two over the decades until I really looked closely at the tiny fonts that are sometimes used).
Could it be your video driver is not up to date?
That's totally shooting from the hip....but, at least a bump.
Is it possible when entering your product key during reinstall that you may have typed an O that should have been a 0? Or a 2 that is really a Z? (I've made those errors a time or two over the decades until I really looked closely at the tiny fonts that are sometimes used).
Could it be your video driver is not up to date?
That's totally shooting from the hip....but, at least a bump.
Carry on....
I cut/pasted directly from the computer's registry anticipating exactly what you suggested.
I've now got a correct and clean PRODUCT KEY and will jump back in after Josie's show at 1pm Central.
Thanks for tossing out a lifeline. Much appreciated.
I verified that my video drivers are up to date. Great call though.
Don, I'm no longer an active comp sci prof but I'm going to keep reading this thread in case something rings a bell. I understand that just fooling around testing stuff is more difficult for you than us.
What utility told you that it was a corrupt system file? Did the major geek advice include trying to let Windows repair itself?
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
When you get to the point of less than 10% things do start to slow way down. I had that issue some time back and it seems that windows likes to save practically everything in it's TEMP and TEMP INTERNET file folders. You can generally delete the contents of those folders safely, which are often many gigabytes in size. Also reset the RESTORE size and frequency as well. It comes with a default setting on what it wants to save and how many copies of the restore it is set to keep. It's relatively safe to let it keep only two or three of the most recent ones. My restore had many dozens of backups in it's registry. I deleted them all but the most recent two or three. It freed up a huge chunk of digital real estate.
Doing that one thing took my laptop from 94% filled back to less than 60% filled in about 30 seconds and the machine ran so much better after that.
You might also want to run ANTI-MALWARE BYTES on the disks and let it check for and fix the issues it finds. Also, a good registry fixer can make a huge difference. When it's all done, run your defrag utility as well to organize and rearrange the files.
Any time you see an issue, a cold reboot is in order.....and if the issue is still there.... do a restore. Don't wait. Restore has solved a bunch of glitches for me.
Last edited by Guitarhacker; 09/18/1607:09 AM.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
I have a 1 TB C: drive showing only 25% used but I like your suggestion. It is stuffed with junk files that I can transfer to my 2 TB external drive and probably delete most of it.
I've been instructed how to find a clean PRODUCT KEY so, armed with that, I'm plunging back in.
Major Geeks informed me that the PRODUCT KEY on OEM computers cover a broad range of machines and often fail at reinstalling time.
I hope I can reinstall Windows 7 today. I had it tweaked to perfection!
It will be interesting to see if the product key works Donny. I doubt it will. In my case I was in the middle of transferring all my stuff from my old Win 7 machine to the system in my sig that originally was also Win 7. My original plan was to do the free upgrade to Win 10 on the old box last July, test it, make sure everything worked then do the same with the new box. That's when I discovered I also had an invalid key and it wouldn't do the upgrade. I was all over the internet and talked to several people and there's no way to get a valid key any more. At least that's what I've read and was told.
I suspect your only option is to buy and install Win 10 but don't worry, it works fine and there's no problem at all working with it. If you really do find a valid key and can reinstall Win 7 please let us know because I still have that old box and would like to do that with it. Like your's it too was finally running so slow and messed up there's nothing to do but a reinstall. If I want to use it I may have to buy and put Win 10 on that one too.
Not realizing, I downloaded the ISO Image to my C: Drive thinking I could then copy it over to any boot-able media. I may have to download it again. Another 6 hour d/l.Chortle.
So far, it hasn't asked for a product key. IIRC, that's part of the actual installation, not yet.
This is the first company I've seen selling Win 7 that looks legit. They're also selling Win 10 Pro for $105 as well. Now, if Donny is forced to pay for a copy I would just get Win 10 and forget 7 but that's up to him of course.
My experience has been that the longer you have windows installed and have tried lots of software after 2-3 years the computer will slow down, in my case at boot and would take about 3 mins to boot up. It was so slow I seriously considered doing a fresh install of 7.
In my case I bought an SSD 500gb and what a change it has been, can't sing its praises enough. so something to think about. Just clone the old hard drive system over to it and do the relevant SSD tweaks. Chances are the PC will speed up a lot.
By the way even though the windows 10 free upgrade has finished for windows 7 or 8, you can still get it if you use assistive technologies such as the magnifier, so still free.
Windows 10 (64bit) M-Audio Fast Track Pro, Band in a Box 2024, Cubase 13, Cakewalk and far too many VST plugins that I probably don't need or will ever use
I'll usually back up any important files on my Windows drive, wipe it and reinstall Windows every couple of years or so. Seems to help with the bloat that accumulates over time.
My experience has been that the longer you have windows installed and have tried lots of software after 2-3 years the computer will slow down, in my case at boot and would take about 3 mins to boot up. It was so slow I seriously considered doing a fresh install of 7.
In my case I bought an SSD 500gb and what a change it has been, can't sing its praises enough. so something to think about. Just clone the old hard drive system over to it and do the relevant SSD tweaks. Chances are the PC will speed up a lot.
By the way even though the windows 10 free upgrade has finished for windows 7 or 8, you can still get it if you use assistive technologies such as the magnifier, so still free.
Yep, you definitely need a valid 7 key to get the free upgrade to 10.
Hope it goes ok for you.
One thing to do when you are up and running is download CCleaner, go into the tools on it, select startup and disable any non essential startup programs that will slow your computer down at boot up time.
And when everything is up and running again, do the Macrium Reflect image and burn the boot dvd for it, in case of any further emergency. You do need to image that to a different drive not your system drive and if possible to an external drive as a safe guard as well.
Windows 10 (64bit) M-Audio Fast Track Pro, Band in a Box 2024, Cubase 13, Cakewalk and far too many VST plugins that I probably don't need or will ever use
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