I have just bought a refurbished computer from the HP Business Outlet store. The computer is described as: HP ProDesk 600 G6 W11P-64 DG10-64 i3-10100 3.6GHz65W 256G NVME 16GB (1x16GB) DDR4 2666 NIC WLAN BT Rfrbd MT (microtower) PC. Windows 10 (with capability of upgrading to Win 11 in the future).
The computer itself seems to be in perfect condition, as is the refurbished monitor I bought with it. I am running my old computer and monitor in parallel with the new set while I try to get everything working.
I turned on all the Win 10 security options. I downloaded the same software I use on my old computer (also Win 10) – Adobe (which came along with McAfee security software), Malwarebytes and Superantispyware. The computer comes with Edge and I added Firefox.
The problem is with our slow internet. We live in the boonies and our Centurylink DSL usually runs 3 Mbps. That’s good enough for our usual applications. (Yes, I know about Starlink but I want to continue our current provider.)
The new computer downloaded a bunch of updates when I first turned it on but then they were done.
After that, the modem showed that the internet was still in use – we could see the Ethernet light blinking like crazy on our modem. I even turned off the “update” option in Settings but the usage continued. I can’t for the life of me figure out why the computer is still using bandwidth. I had to put it into “sleep” mode to get it to stop. As soon as I wake it up the Ethernet light starts blinking even though there are no browsers running.
With both computers on our internet was so slow that I couldn’t download the printer driver to the new computer – it timed out.
Here are my questions.
What could be causing the computer to be using bandwidth even though updates are turned off and browsers are closed? I suddenly found out that the computer is uploading all my files (over 23,000 of them) to OneDrive! That’s what is tying up our band width. How can I get it to stop?
The DSL port on the computer is showing a red light as well as a green light. What does that mean?
I have used Firefox for years. It works fine on the old computer. When I try to sign in to Fidelity from the new computer, I get a message that some feature of Firefox is incompatible. How can I find out what that is and fix it?
On a completely separate topic, I transferred my iTunes music folder to the new computer. (I used to use my iPod a lot but haven’t in years.) The iTunes folder has 13 subfolders. Each sub contains a playlist which is a mixture of mp3 and mp4a songs (which the computer can play) plus mp4p songs which it can’t. While I was using iTunes I downloaded a lot of music off my CDs, plus bought some iTunes, plus downloaded some music from other sources (e.g. Jewish prayer music). Now they are all mixed together but separated into subfolders. How can I create and then re-divide a new list?
I can’t help much on the other issues, but to find out what’s using the network, try Task Manager. Here’s what mine shows right now (this is Windows 11, but Windows 10 should look similar) - with my Vivaldi browser and the System process using the most during this particular time slice. If yours only shows the System process using the network, more sleuthing is needed.
I just turned on my Windows 10 machine to see if Task Manager was about the same as I’m used to with 11. Yes, I can confirm that it is similar enough. Click on the Network column heading to sort the list with the most active processes at the top.
I recently got a new HP laptop.
It came with McAfee.
I updated all the software, downloaded libre office.
After each step, I checked to see if all seemed good.
Then installed McAfee. It immediately bogged down.
I downloaded and installed an ad blocker (total ad block was free).
The bog drained, data now flows, and I’m now using the laptop.
I’m not a computer tech. Installing the ad blocker was sorta like throwing some pasta on the wall and seeing if a Rembrandt emerged.
Ahh Wendy the same thing happened to me and everything on my computer was put onto one drive in the cloud. Then Microsoft wanted me to get a subscription because one drive was full…sigh. So to stop it here you go.
Then when you look on your desktop you should have a new folder that states where are my files. Click that and your files should be in there too. It’s a mess and I didn’t find everything.
Wendy, I would take Ralph’s suggestion. I use Adblock plus and it too is free. On both Edge and Firefox you just ad it through extensions. On Edge, go up to the 3 dots in the right hand upper corner, click and you will see extensions. Type in adblock plus and add it. This should shut down a lot of your internet traffic. On firefox, you go to the upper right hand corner and click the 3 horizontal bars. Look for addons and themes. Type in adblock plus and add it. Adblockers stop popup ads from many websites. On some websites they will tell you to turn off the adblocker for that site. You go up to the adblocker symbol (adblock plus is a red stop sign with ABP in it) click it and you will see 2 options which are self explanatory. Hope this helps…doc
Here’s a little summary of the best free and paid for antivirus…doc
Among paid antivirus programs, ESET was not the fastest in all three categories that we measured: passive system impact, full-scan system impact and quick-scan system impact.
That may be because ESET doesn’t have a quick-scan option. The lightest quick-scan impact among paid programs was held by Kaspersky Total Security at 22%, a percentage that was nearly twice as much as ESET’s full-scan impact. Kaspersky did have the second-lightest full-scan impact in the bunch, however.
Kaspersky Security Cloud Free was the undisputed winner in the free categories, beating all rivals in passive, full-scan and quick-scan impacts. It actually sped up the system a bit after installation, indicating that it may be more efficient than the built-in Microsoft Defender Antivirus, which runs by default but deactivates itself if a third-party antivirus program is installed.
Kaspersky Security Cloud Free’s full-scan system impact was a barely noticeable 6%; its quick-scan impact was a barely measurable 1%.
