Somethings not right!? Windows 10!

[DemonLobbiez]

Hi, So just to give a little back story.
On the 4th of May I got my brand new Dell XPS 15 9560 (Windows 10 Home) [i5 7300HQ, 2x4GB DDR4 2400MHZ, 1TB HDD & 32GB M.2 SSD & GTX 1050 4GB]

So far I have loved it and have had no major complains as it is a great laptop that I would recommend to anyone. However I decided that I did not want the 1TB HDD and decided to get a SanDisk Ultra II 480GB as a replacement. The install was easy enough as I used Macrium to clone the HDD over to the SSD and all was well...

However I have started a Ethical hacking course and have installed Oracle VirtualBox and that's when I first noticed issues arising. With nothing else running on the laptop it will take me easily 60-120 seconds to open VirtualBox... This was happening every time I open it not just the first time.

After this I started to notice that web pages and everything else on the station just started to run a little Funky as sometimes webpages would open fast enough and other times it would take 40-60 seconds for anything to respond. Please note that I do not have the best network speeds in the world averaging 8mb down and 0.6mb up however my girlfriend was sitting next to me connected to the same network and has experience no issues at all!

I was thinking that may be down to a virus however I have only downloaded a handful of files/programs as the laptop is only a few days old and I currently use Avast Free and it is not detecting anything... All downloads have been from official sites and I am very good at checking for https.

Then after setting up my first Virtual machine [Kali Linux] the station was operating very slow and after 10 minutes the laptop crashed and showed a blue screen with the following error code: "IRQL_Unexpected_Value". So after the laptop rebooted I started to google and it seems to be that drivers may be out of date however I checked and everything is up to date as the laptop is only a few days old. So why did this happen a lot of people seem to be reporting this error message as windows 10's fault and it causing it to open extremely slowly.

What should I do?
Would this have anything to do with the replacement SSD I installed or the way I cloned the driver?
Is the laptop faulty?

Thanks for help ahead of time I lover this laptop and just want it to function as normal so I can continue my Ethical Hacking course.

If this has been posted in the incorrect section please do NOT delete it rather move it to the correct section.

Any help?

 

[Rumbletum]

Have you a Restore Point prior to installation of Oracle VirtualBox, and which you could roll back to?

 

[DemonLobbiez]

Have you a Restore Point prior to installation of Oracle VirtualBox, and which you could roll back to?

Hi, Unfortunately not as I was to lazy to do so and have been putting if off however I was not expecting to have any issues this early on...

Thanks

Any other solutions?

 

[SchizTech]

Let's check for something working in the background. Preferably after a reboot, opening no other programs and letting the system settle, open the task manager. On the bottom click the button for "more details" and report the CPU, memory and disk usage. After a few minutes after rebooting CPU and disk should be close to zero and memory maybe showing a couple of GB. If there's something higher, try to determine under "Processes" which process is using those resources.

 

[DemonLobbiez]

Let's check for something working in the background. Preferably after a reboot, opening no other programs and letting the system settle, open the task manager. On the bottom click the button for "more details" and report the CPU, memory and disk usage. After a few minutes after rebooting CPU and disk should be close to zero and memory maybe showing a couple of GB. If there's something higher, try to determine under "Processes" which process is using those resources.

Hi, Ok ill try that now should be back with my findings within 10 minutes.

Thanks

 

[DemonLobbiez]

Let's check for something working in the background. Preferably after a reboot, opening no other programs and letting the system settle, open the task manager. On the bottom click the button for "more details" and report the CPU, memory and disk usage. After a few minutes after rebooting CPU and disk should be close to zero and memory maybe showing a couple of GB. If there's something higher, try to determine under "Processes" which process is using those resources.

Hi, So after doing as advised I noticed everything seemed to settle after a few minute as you said however as soon as I opened the snipping tool to show you the graphs stuff started to spike however is this not normal?

http://imgur.com/gallery/y568o

Thanks

 

[SchizTech]

There should be a brief spike with various sorts of activity initiated by the user (like opening a program or file) so as long as the spurt of activity settled quickly it's normal.

 

[SchizTech]

Is this SSD a new one?

 

[DemonLobbiez]

There should be a brief spike with various sorts of activity initiated by the user (like opening a program or file) so as long as the spurt of activity settled quickly it's normal.

yes the spikes seem to settle after 10-20 seconds at most.

 

[DemonLobbiez]

Is this SSD a new one?

Yes it is brand new purchased from Maplin on the 05/05/2017 (day after receiving the laptop)

 

[SchizTech]

Various Dell systems have built-in diagnostics tools. This might indicate if any part of the system is not functioning properly. Often it's found by hitting F12 repeatedly at bootup and selecting "diagnostics;" I also found this link pertaining to the XPS 15:

http://xps-15.wikia.com/wiki/Run_Dell_Diagnostics

 

[DemonLobbiez]

Various Dell systems have built-in diagnostics tools. This might indicate if any part of the system is not functioning properly. Often it's found by hitting F12 repeatedly at bootup and selecting "diagnostics;" I also found this link pertaining to the XPS 15:

http://xps-15.wikia.com/wiki/Run_Dell_Diagnostics

Ok great ill give it a shot right now be back soon with my finding's

thanks again!

 

[DemonLobbiez]

Various Dell systems have built-in diagnostics tools. This might indicate if any part of the system is not functioning properly. Often it's found by hitting F12 repeatedly at bootup and selecting "diagnostics;" I also found this link pertaining to the XPS 15:

http://xps-15.wikia.com/wiki/Run_Dell_Diagnostics

Ok so I have just finished the hardware test and it passed with no issues at all...

any clue what else it could be?

Thanks

 

[SchizTech]

Well I didn't expect any failures but thought it appropriate to check to be sure.

So, the hardware is able but the software is unwilling. There's no sign of infection as determined earlier, so that leaves me to hypothesize there's something corrupt in Windows (possibly due to errors in the cloning process but it's impossible to say for sure). Since Win 8, Windows has included a built-in recovery tool. In 10 you find it in Settings, under Update and Recovery. The option is there to keep any files you may have downloaded (probably not much yet) but it can't save programs you installed. This will clean the system.

 

[DemonLobbiez]

Well I didn't expect any failures but thought it appropriate to check to be sure.

So, the hardware is able but the software is unwilling. There's no sign of infection as determined earlier, so that leaves me to hypothesize there's something corrupt in Windows (possibly due to errors in the cloning process but it's impossible to say for sure). Since Win 8, Windows has included a built-in recovery tool. In 10 you find it in Settings, under Update and Recovery. The option is there to keep any files you may have downloaded (probably not much yet) but it can't save programs you installed. This will clean the system.

Ok so since there is very little currently on the system I will back up everything that I need to a USB and then proceed with this option, Just to make sure I am doing this correctly are there any videos you would recommend for me to follow as a reference point?

Thanks

 

[Rumbletum]

have you run System File checker to see if any of your new installations have overwritten or damaged a file.

 

[DemonLobbiez]

have you run System File checker to see if any of your new installations have overwritten or damaged a file.

No I have not done this, what is it what does it do and how do I do it?

Thanks

 

[SchizTech]

I suppose you could look it up on youtube, though it's mostly automated: click reset and mostly just wait for Windows to finish it's process.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12415/windows-10-recovery-options

 

[SchizTech]

have you run System File checker to see if any of your new installations have overwritten or damaged a file.

No I have not done this, what is it what does it do and how do I do it?

Thanks

run sfc/ scannow at a command prompt as administrator. There's also a dism command which is similar but a bit more thorough. This could be tried before you reset everything but it doesn't always find issues when clearly there's something amiss.

 

[DemonLobbiez]

have you run System File checker to see if any of your new installations have overwritten or damaged a file.

No I have not done this, what is it what does it do and how do I do it?

Thanks

run sfc/ scannow at a command prompt as administrator. There's also a dism command which is similar but a bit more thorough. This could be tried before you reset everything but it doesn't always find issues when clearly there's something amiss.

ok great I shall try this first

be back in a few with results.

thanks

 

[DemonLobbiez]

have you run System File checker to see if any of your new installations have overwritten or damaged a file.

No I have not done this, what is it what does it do and how do I do it?

Thanks

run sfc/ scannow at a command prompt as administrator. There's also a dism command which is similar but a bit more thorough. This could be tried before you reset everything but it doesn't always find issues when clearly there's something amiss.

completed this and it found nothing. I will proceed with the other suggestion and let you know how I get on after finishing my backing up.

thanks

 

[DemonLobbiez]

Well I didn't expect any failures but thought it appropriate to check to be sure.

So, the hardware is able but the software is unwilling. There's no sign of infection as determined earlier, so that leaves me to hypothesize there's something corrupt in Windows (possibly due to errors in the cloning process but it's impossible to say for sure). Since Win 8, Windows has included a built-in recovery tool. In 10 you find it in Settings, under Update and Recovery. The option is there to keep any files you may have downloaded (probably not much yet) but it can't save programs you installed. This will clean the system.

ok so the only restore point showing is one from less than an hour ago... is there any point in going back to then?

 

[SchizTech]

Well that's a different utility you've gotten to there. There aren't likely to be too many restore points (system restore is an older utility dating to 7 or Vista). The full reset option is in the Settings app, under Update and Security > Recovery (or searching for "reset" in the Start menu)