SeanG
Member
Subject: Seeking Advice on Persistent Issues with HP Envy 17 Laptop After CCleaner Upgrade
Hello everyone,
I hope to explain my situation as clearly as possible, and I appreciate your understanding of my basic knowledge of these issues.
I have an HP Envy 17 laptop running Windows 11, which I primarily use for business tasks, including Excel work and web browsing.
Two weeks ago, I decided to upgrade from the free version of CCleaner, a program I had been using without problems for years. I was repeatedly prompted with upgrade offers, and on this occasion, I chose to accept one. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a significant mistake.
Shortly after the upgrade, I experienced problems that I believe corrupted the Windows registry, rendering my laptop unusable. In response, I opted to perform a full reset of the system using a cloud version of Windows.
After completing the reset, I encountered an issue where Windows would not register properly. I contacted the retailer from whom I purchased the laptop two years ago. They guided me on how to download a fresh copy of Windows from Microsoft and create a bootable USB drive using Rufus. This method would allow me to reinstall the operating system and utilize the product key embedded in the laptop's BIOS.
Due to various factors, including the time-consuming nature of these processes, it took me about a week to get my laptop functioning again with my essential applications reinstalled, such as Microsoft Office 365, Malwarebytes, and Google Chrome. For nearly a week, everything worked well, and the laptop performed better than it had in a long time.
However, two days ago, on Sunday, I stepped away from the laptop for about 15 minutes, and upon returning, the screen was black and unresponsive. I forced a shutdown using the power button to restart the laptop.
In my attempt to troubleshoot, I guessed that an update might have caused the issue and mistakenly used the "Go Back" function to revert to the previous installation. This action took me back to square one, requiring me to repeat the entire process of reinstalling the operating system from the USB.
After this reinstall, I was advised to run the System File Checker (SFC) with the command sfc /scannow, which found and repaired some corrupted files. I also ran the internal HP diagnostic tests for the memory and hard drive, which reported no issues. Despite these checks, I began experiencing slow performance after reinstalling my applications. Start-up times stretched to nearly two minutes, and functions like switching to a PIN sign-in instead of a password stopped working correctly.
Feeling exhausted from troubleshooting all day, I made the decision to perform another hard reset early this morning. As I write this, the reset is currently ongoing and is at 54% completion.
Why am I reaching out?
I am seeking to understand whether these issues stem from a problem with the laptop itself or if I might be making mistakes in my approach. Additionally, could this be related to a recent update to Windows 11?
I am quite frustrated with this situation and would greatly appreciate any advice or insights you may have.
Thank you for your help!
Sean
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows11
- Computer type
- Laptop
- Manufacturer/Model
- HP
- Browser
- Chrome
- Antivirus
- Malwarebytes, Windows Defender
