Why has my Laptop suddenly started running slow

Megahertz · 10 Nov 2020

I use Sledgehammer to control updates. Very good

Matthew Wai · 10 Nov 2020

I use the following, very good.

Using CMD script and VBScript to control Windows Update

ship69 · 12 Nov 2020

Megahertz said:

I use Sledgehammer to control updates. Very good

EDIT: OK I have tried again. This time I think Sledgehammer has stopped my updates.

[Fwiw, meanwhile I have tried to do a full-on reinstallation of Windows 10. Unfortunately even with a clean, fresh installation of Window 10 (x64) as soon as Windows 10 upgraded itself to version 1909 and I immediately lost control of the Brightness Control keys. In fact I'm not sure that I ever had control, given that I had lost all the Samsung-drivers etc.

In my defence I managed to find and install Samsung Update and eventually got it to install various things including the promising-looking Brightnes Control Patch but none of it had any affect whatsover.

So I am now going to re-install my Macrium Reflect image of my hard disk from 1.5 years ago. ]

BUT going fowards it it SAFE for me to stop updates beyone Windows version 1809? I mean while things like Office365 still work? Will I be vulnerable to malware?

(Because, to recap, it seems that v1909 and beyond cripples my brightness controls!)

J

Megahertz · 13 Nov 2020

All this OEM controls are driven by a dedicated driver.
As already wrote, you should go to the computer site and get the keyboard driver for it.
You can also, once recovered from your backup, extract the driver from the system and then try to install on the new Win 10 version.

ship69 · 14 Nov 2020

Megahertz said:

All this OEM controls are driven by a dedicated driver.
As already wrote, you should go to the computer site and get the keyboard driver for it.
You can also, once recovered from your backup, extract the driver from the system and then try to install on the new Win 10 version.

The truth is that I can't work out how to get any individual drivers from Samsung.

Recap: My PC is a sSamsung Series 7 Ultra Notebook 13.3" (Model: NP740U3E-S04UK)
URL 13.3" Series 7 Ultra Notebook 128GB SSD NP740U3E | Samsung Support UK

All they seem to offer is the "Samsung Update" application - a utility that is supposed to keep all the drivers up-to-date, but it's extremely clunky, stopped at Windows version v16[something] and seems to say that I can get everything I need from Window Update!

Meanwhile, if I stop the updates at v1809, I still keep control of the screen brightness using the keyboard.
However I now have a problem with one of my Microsoft Outlook 365 (Exchange) email accounts. The same account works just fine on my main PC but it Outlook flickers like crazy when I open it. My other Outlook account seems fine.

I tried completely re-instally the whole ms Office 365 suite, but the problem doesn's go away.

I was toying with doing a windows online "repair" thing using the Media Creation Tool etc but I need to make sure that I don't update to beyond Windows 1809, or I will lose control of my screen brightness again.

Btw, re Alt/F4 not working, maybe I just have to live with it. (This is a TOTALLY ridiculous situation, IMHO, but to be fair, the Samsung laptop is now nearly 7 years old.... It's just that I can't afford to buy another one and in most ways there is absolutely nothing wrong with my laptop except for these issues. i.e. A gross failure by Samsung to adequately support the thing.

)

ship69 · 16 Nov 2020

OK I am having a total nightmare!

I tried to upgrade all my drivers by using Snappy Driver Installer. But unfortunately I let it upgrade my graphics card and it has completely crashed my laptop. Worse, I now can't seem to remember the password for the laptop to I can't use a system restore.

So now my ONLY option is to restore AGAIN from my Macrium Refect disk image from 1.5 years ago.

[In my defence the Windows Password is from 1.5 years ago!]

Anyhow I this time I shall
A) Use Sledgehammer to stop any upgrades beyond windows 10 v1809
B) Change the Windows Password ASAP

- What is the best (free) utility to update my windows drivers?

- Going forwards, what are my best options for this damned AMD Graphics Card (model Radeon™ HD 8570M)?
e.g. If AMD and Samsung are failing to support it, should I just abandon it and use the internal Intel HD Graphics 4000??

zbook · 16 Nov 2020

When installing drivers it's best to use the motherboard and component manufacturer websites:

Download Intel(R) Driver & Support Assistant
NVIDIA Driver Downloads - Automatically Detect NVIDIA Products
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/fa...ver-autodetect

ship69 · 18 Nov 2020

zbook said:

When installing drivers it's best to use the motherboard and component manufacturer websites:
Download Intel(R) Driver & Support Assistant
NVIDIA Driver Downloads - Automatically Detect NVIDIA Products
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/fa...ver-autodetect

Yes, you might have thought so....

However THREE times now I have tried to get a slightly more up-to-date driver for the AMD graphics card and wound up with it installing something called Adrenalin which has turned my laptop into a brick! Frankly after all this time, it's just a total disgrace that if you let AMD's "autodetect" utility run that it completely crashes windows, irrecoverably. [GRRR]

And it's the same problem if you carefully enter the graphics card's model name into their website and install the recommended driver for it. [GRRRR]

Worse, because I had already had to re-install my entire hard disk from a 1.5 year-old Macrium Reflect image, (twice in fact) Windows was still using my OLD passwords from 1.5 years ago and I because had forgotten to leave TeamViewer installed and so I was totally unable to log in so as to do a system restore to get rid of the offending Adrenalin garbage, and so I was compelled to do a THIRD re-installation of the entire disk using Macrium Reflect. [GRRRRR]

WHAT I HAVE FOUND OUT
It turns out that even though my laptop says (in Task Manager) that it is using the AMD Radeon graphics card, that it is ALSO using the Intel HD 4000 that is built into the motherboard, which must have the correct driver version.

Worse is that the Intel HD 4000 must not have version
10.18.10.4252 installed. And that if you have the PREVIOUS version of the Intel driver i.e.
10.18.10.4242 installed than all is good. The problem was, how the heck could I get it to re-install the 4242 driver version, given that "rollback" in Device Manager found nothing!

Eventually as if by a miracle Intel suddenly decided to install version, which was: 10.18.10.4276 which does seem to have given me control over screen brightness.

Hallelujuah.

MEANWHILE, because I had to go back to an old disk image, msOutlook was all over the place. In the end I spent the ENTIRE MORNING with a microsoft tech support guy - who to his credit was extremely competent - trying to fix it. Yes, in the end we did get there in the end, but the deep problem is that no matter what you do, the Office Suite fails to completely 100% uninstall. The MS Tech Support guy downloaded some two different special microsoft utilities to help clear Outlook off the disk [i.e. "Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant" and "Microsoft.Sara.exe"] but still Outlook had remembered various data setting which are now incorrect. We ended up doing about 5 manual tweaks to the registry and STILL it didn't work first time. Unbelievable. In the end we tried adding accounts three different ways before we found a way that work. [GRRRRRRRRR!]

TBH, I was left with a deep burning sense of wanting to buy an Apple computer. Or maybe a nice iPad Pro.

zbook · 18 Nov 2020

In general:

motherboard manufacturer driver support: best tested drivers
component manufacturer driver support: most up to date drivers

When troubleshooting start with the best tested drivers