What's going on with my laptop? Closed

Question

I have a Dell Inspiron 14 laptop, and I have absolutely no idea what's going on with it.
My Dell laptop had shut down suddenly, upon restarting it was devoid of everything once on it. I shut it down, or tried to; as it would not shut down, before pressing the power button until it did. When it restarted, the flag in the corner where it says "Start" looked more basic and was a gray block.After that, it loaded with all my stuff, however, the computer is running very slowly. And videos among other things are not working. Does anyone know what is wrong and how to fix it? And the bottom portion where the icons are thumb-tacked keeps freezing and disappearing.
It works well in safe mode, however, I'd like to find the initial problem. Video and sound are the main problems, as videos on Itunes and You-tube, in example, don't play. Also, it occasionally has moments where the screen blacks out for a second. There was a scan by Microsoft Security showing that a virus was quarintined, which was 'Adware:Win32/BetterSurf'
It's rather difficult to get rid of this when everything keeps freezing.
Please help me, all help is appreciated!!!

kieferschild · Answer

Hello,

load windows in to Safe Mode.

In safe mode press start and type "run" and hit OK

in the run box type MSCONFIG and press OK

under the startup tab i want you to untick EVERYTHING and apply.

go to the services tab and click "Hide microsoft services" and disable all services.

restart your computer in normal mode.

download malwarebytes free from here

update the program and run a quick scan first.

restart and run a second FULL scan and remove threats.

after restarting run another full scan and keep doing so until nothing else is detected.

then go to https://www.eset.com/us/home/online-scanner/ and run the ESET Online scanner.

once this has finished, restart and do it again until its clean.

once this is done go to start > Run > MSCONFIG and enable services and startup items again.

officialotaku · Answer

Ah... It keeps freezing during the scan.. Any advice, or do I just keep going and hope I get lucky?

kieferschild · Answer

It freezes in safe mode?

on which scan? 

try the scans in safe mode.
 
Sometimes when my internet is down I forget the rest of my computer works.
PS - I'm from GMT time zone.

kieferschild · Answer

if you go in to safe mode again and use MSCONGIG to untick everything in the startup tab and restart in normal mode, does it still play up?

kieferschild · Answer

Hello,

you should reset internet explorer settings.

go to start > control panel > internet options

clear out temp files

go to the advanced tab and reset settings

kieferschild · Answer

Right click computer and go to manage

in device manager do you have any yellow triangle warnings?

kieferschild · Answer

Can you run malwarebytes again after updating it.

kieferschild · Answer

Just to clarify,

do you get the problems when you're in safe mode with networking?

kieferschild · Answer

What if you set it to basic and see what happens?

I think you should run Windows Updates and see if there is an update for your graphics adapter.

kieferschild · Answer

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04?c=&l=&s=bsd?c=us

click detect my product and look for VGA/display drivers.

kieferschild · Answer

You'll have to manually enter your laptop make/model.

kieferschild · Answer

It sounds like you're having fun on your own here..

in normal mode can you uninstall itunes and try?

officialotaku · Answer

No, it didn't work. Do you know why the aero theme keeps getting replaced by the classic theme?

kieferschild · Answer

You said it only happens when you watch videos or use itunes?

What happens if you  turn your laptop on and leave it?

kieferschild · Answer

Can you go to device manager (Start > right click computer > manage)

find your graphics driver, right click it and uninstall and tick the option to delete.

restart the computer and try with use basic microsoft drivers.

kieferschild · Answer

Have you got the recovery CD for your laptop? does it have a recovery partition?

officialotaku · Answer

No, but I noticed Itunes and video work fine in safe mode... I really have no idea what the problem is.

kieferschild · Answer

I think you've got to reinstall your graphics drivers.

go back to the dell support website and put in the model number of your laptop and download the graphics drivers in normal mode.

kieferschild · Answer

I don't know what to suggest other than a reinstall of your operating system.

I recommend you backup all your files and data from safe mode and look to reinstall it.

You may need to contact Dell support to purchase recovery media.

What's going on with my laptop?

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