if your latest incremental
upgrade was accompanied by
a fresh Windows install, which
is a must when swapping out
motherboard, CPU, and RAM.
If this isn’t the case, perform
a clean reinstall to see if the
problem clears (image your
current setup first, then roll
back if the problem persists).
We suspect you’ve already
performed this step, in which
case we suspect your sluggish
performance is related to File
Explorer’s slow opening times.
There are literally dozens
of potential causes—and
solutions—to wade through,
but the Doc’s hunch is that this
is a problem with the Windows
Search index, linked to the
gargantuan amount of storage
attached to your PC. Windows
Search can end up consuming
vast amounts of CPU cycles
and RAM attempting to index
large folders, and the problem
can be exacerbated by a
corrupt index. One symptom
of this? File Explorer takes an
age to open.
To see if you can resolve
this, type “index” into the
Search box to open Indexing
Options. Click “Modify” to
check the current indexing
options. Try removing large
folders from this list, then
click “OK” followed by
“Advanced” to click “Rebuild”
and flush and rebuild the
index. Hopefully, you’ll
immediately feel the benefit.
If not, use a free tool like
HDDScan (https://hddscan.
com) to check your drives’
physical health and SMART
status, then run a full series
of health checks on the drives
and Windows itself—start with
a disk check on each drive.
Open an elevated Command
Prompt and use “chkdsk
c: /f/r” to schedule a boot
check when prompted, then
repeat the command for every
other drive. After rebooting,
if Windows finds and fixes
errors, you’ll almost certainly
see improvements.
Still having problems?
One more thing to try: If
File Explorer opens to
the “Quick Access” folder
rather than “This PC,” a
shortcut to a currently
inaccessible folder—typically
an unconnected network
drive—could be holding things
up. Try removing this or switch
to the File Explorer ribbon’s
“View” tab and choose
“Options > Change folder and
search options” to set “This
PC” as the default to bypass
the problem.Wake-Up Conundrum
Doc, my desktop PC has
been randomly waking itself
up in the night for some
time now. This wouldn’t be
much of a problem except
it doesn’t go back to sleep
on its own despite normally
sleeping perfectly. I’ve used
my nine years of reading
experience to troubleshoot,
making sure no backup is
scheduled, not participating
in any reporting, and so on.
“Powercfg -lastwake” finally
yielded the culprit: a nightly
Windows Media Center wake
timer. What?! I upgraded to
Windows 10 years ago and
have shaken my fist many
times at Microsoft for taking
that beloved software from
me. I’ve deleted the offending
task, so hopefully it cures
my PC’s insomnia, but are
there whisperings of WMC
being brought back, or is this
a perfect example of why you
recommend clean installs
every now and then? Thanks!
–James BreenTHE DOCTOR RESPONDS:
Congrats on performing a
textbook diagnosis of your
problem. There is little chance
Microsoft will resurrect
Windows Media Center (if
you’ve not already done so,
install Kodi—www.kodi.tv—
with live TV support, following
our tutorial from the July 2017
issue), so the offending task
does not foretell its return.
Ultimately, you’ve answered
your own question: If you’ve
never reinstalled Windows
from scratch since upgrading
to Win 10, this is almost
certainly a leftover from your
Win 7 install. We suspect it
may have been waking your
PC every night since youupgraded, but it’s only recently
something has prevented
it from going back to sleep
again—it may, for example, be
related to the sleep-related
problems reported (among
many other glitches) with the
recent KB4535996 optional
Windows update.
We recommend you bite
the bullet and perform that
clean reinstall; most Windows
installs need clearing out
every two or three years—
particularly now Windows
insists on six-monthly
refreshes. Not only will you
banish gremlins like this, but
you’ll end up with a leaner,
faster system.Safe or Scam?
Do you have any information
about a program called
Advanced System Repair
Pro? I’ve seen various
reports that it is a “scam,”
doesn’t work as advertised,
and corrupts hard drives,
but others say it works as
advertised. –Mike BeckerTHE DOCTOR RESPONDS: We
clicked the link Mike sent
us, and it was blocked by
Malwarebytes on the grounds
of it being a “Potentially
Unwanted Program.” The
Doc then visited the site on
a sandboxed PC and saw it
was simply another in a long
line of system maintenance
apps promising a collection
of miraculous optimization,
repair and malware-cleaning
tools. The Doc is naturally
suspicious of all such
programs, so stay away from
this—and indeed any all-in-
one tool with components like
Registry cleaners that have
at best a placebo effect and at
worst the ability to screw up
your Windows installation.Mouse Startup Glitch
I’m having an issue with my
mouse not being recognized
at startup. When I power up
my computer, the mouse isn’t
recognized, but unplugging
it from the USB port and
plugging it back in makes it
work. What’s strange is that
it happens only about once inevery four boots, and there’s
no pattern to its behavior.
I’ve tried every rear USB
port and it happens in all of
them. Updating the mouse
firmware and motherboard
drivers doesn’t help. Is there
a BIOS or some startup
setting I may be missing? The
computer is a year old now,
but the mouse never had any
problems on my prior build.
The mouse is a Corsair
M65 RGB and I’m running
a Ryzen 5 2600X on an MSI
X470 Gaming Pro Carbon,
with 32GB HyperX Predator
RAM, and an M.2 NVMe
Samsung 970 Pro as the boot
drive. My mobo drivers are
all up to date and I’m running
Corsair’s iCUE for the mouse
(firmware v 3.02). Thanks for
the help, Doc!
–Isaac PetersonTHE DOCTOR RESPONDS:
This is a known issue with the
Corsair M65 RGB—you’re not
alone in complaining about
the mouse occasionally failing
to be spotted at startup.
It appears Corsair’s iCUE
software is to blame—try
reflashing the firmware.
Unplug the mouse, then hold
down the left and right mouse
buttons before plugging it in.
iCUE should prompt you to
update the firmware.
Assuming this doesn’t
work, try the following
workaround, which prevents
iCUE from starting with
Windows, and ensures your
mouse works in basic mode
on every boot. You’ll have to
create a shortcut to launch
iCUE manually when you need
it, but at least you won’t have
to keep stressing the USB port
by unplugging and plugging in
the mouse to get it to work.
To stop iCUE from
launching with Windows, first
disable the Corsair Service
entry—press Win-R, type
“msconfig” and hit Enter,
then uncheck its entry on
the “Service” tab. Once done,
switch to the “Startup” tab and
click “Open Task Manager” to
jump to its “Startup” tab. From
here, right-click the iCUE
entry and choose “Disable.”maximumpc.com MAY 2020 MAXIMUM PC 21