Possible hardware failure?

[BowdonUK]

I have a friend on the Internet and shes having some major problems with her laptop.

OS: Win10 64bit
Laptop Brand: Gateway - NV75S

It first started when her laptop started to overheat and shut down, no BSOD or crash report in windows. This only used to happen when she was loadng up a game. The odd thing is, some games didn't do it. Like Guild Wars 2 never give her laptop any issues. But other games, even loading the character screen for 5 minutes and the laptop just shut down. I asked her if the exit fan on the side felt warm or hot. She said it felt warm. Then she told me the intake fan was on the bottom of the laptop. She was using it on a flat surface. I had her put the laptop tilted on a small book so the intake fan could get more air. This seemed to fix that problem.

The second thing that happened was suddenly the volume on her media keys (she was using an external usb keyboard) seemed to gradually go down by itself. She would fight with it to bring it back up. But it would go back down again. Eventually now she can't get the volume back up at all. Her Realtek Audio driver was up to. She's not changed any drivers recently that shes aware of.

The third most recent problem is that when she types on the IM's or even in notepad, suddenly she is only able to type 1 letter before something is triggering the enter/return key to press and so she ends up writing 1 letter per line, which makes reading downwards very difficult. It seems to randomly fix itself for a short time then does it again.

Other observations that shes relayed to me is sometimes the desktop screen goes black and takes a while to load back in.

I'm not sure if its a virus/malware or hardware failure? I wasnt sure which section to put the question in.

What's you guys opinion? It felt to me that some hardware was going to crash.. but then I wasnt sure which part it would be. Then with the typing 1 letter thing, that sounded about virus-like.

[Compton]

well it sounds like if the laptop is overheating

you should clean your fans out

and a virus problem

[BowdonUK]

Ran malwarebytes and it found 386 things! So got them cleaned out.

The fans are next.

Thanks for the reply mate.

[Britec]

malwarebytes found 386 you need to run more scans.

[Compton]

Fix with AdwCleaner

Please download AdwCleaner by Xplode and save the file to your desktop.

• Right-click on icon and select Run as Administrator to start the tool.
• Follow the prompts and click Scan.
• When finished, please click Clean.
• Upon completion, click Report. A log (AdwCleaner[S*].txt) will open.
  

Please include the contents of that file in your reply.


HitmanPro

• Please download HitmanPro.
• Launch the program by double clicking on the icon. (Windows Vista/7 users right click on the HitmanPro icon and select run as administrator).
• Click on the next button. You must agree with the terms of EULA.
• Check the box beside "No, I only want to perform a one-time scan to check this computer".
• Click on the next button.
• The program will start to scan the computer. The scan will typically take no more than 2-3 minutes.
• When the scan is done click on drop-down menu of the found entries (if any) and choose - Apply to all => Ignore <= IMPORTANT!!!
• Click on the next button.
• Click on the "Export scan results to XML file".
• Save that file to your desktop and post in your next reply.
  
  
  
  Fix with Junkware Removal Tool
  
  Please download JRT by Malwarebytes and save the file to your desktop.
  Temporary disable your AntiVirus and AntiSpyware protection - instructions here.
  
  
  • Right-click on icon and select Run as Administrator to start the tool.
  • Follow the prompts and let this process run uninterrupted.
  • This scan can take a while, depending on your System specs.
  • Upon completion, a log (JRT.txt) will open on your desktop.
    
  
  Please include the contents of that file in your reply.
  
  Do not forget to re-enable your previously switched off protection software!
  Please also manually reboot your machine after this procedure.

[BowdonUK]

Because I am at a distance and explaining to someone who isn't really up on the technical side it makes it difficult.

But the good news is, I had her run another malwarebytes scan, which found 2 PUP's and cleaned them. Then I had her do a full system scan with Avast, which came up clean. The problems have all gone away. Overheating, typing issues and graphical issues all gone.

I'm amazed how much the system improved by getting rid of all the malware.

[Compton]

you can team viewer in and run the scan

[mclarenclarkson]

Even if the overheating issues are gone, it's a good idea to get some compressed air and blow dust out the fans. Preferably use a hoover as you do this to suck up the dust and not just spray it everywhere. Making a fan spin without being on can damage the bearings so try not to let them spin much.