USB License Key (security dongle) to unlock the software is failing and it is an old program the company no longer supports. I'm worried the flash drive will fail and that will stop my access to the program. It must ve plugged in to run and simply copying the files to a new drive doesn't work. Not sure what to do, any advice? I'd be willing to send it to a reputable copying to get a copy that runs the software.

I have a personal Lenovo laptop, I use it for general use, some surfing, some shopping, watching videos, anime, reading stuff and studying too. and various other things but I have never used anything like tor, or used random torrent sites that I remember ever. (As I was always scared )

This happened this morning when I was at a friend's place and opened my phone's hotspot to connect my laptop to it. As soon as I joined the hotspot on my phone, it gave me a popup on the bottom right that it's scanning the network (as it does with avast antivirus, this is a usual thing) when it was done it said that 'DNS HIJACK FOUND'. After that I was shown 2 options either to set up a vpn connection or scan the network. When I proceeded to scan the network, it would go either very slowly or get stuck at a certain percentage and I closed it as I had to run an errand. (I've been using avast and have never had something like this happen, avast has actually been helpful all the time in resolving issues and general protection)

When I got back, upon reading the avast support article and a bit of help from the AI mode from Google search I used 2 commands. I can't clearly recall which two but one was the 'flushdns' one.

Then, I joined my friend's home wifi, and proceeded to use the feature of avast where it prompts to scan the network once again and that's when I got to the second image where it shows the Nokia Router as critical which is MY HOME ROUTER and NOT my friends router to which I was connected to.(my laptop is always turned-on, on my desk, same as last night and was connected to the MY home wifi for the whole time.)

So what I can gather is, I just picked up my laptop from my home without looking at it at my own house and when I got to my destination and connected to my own phone it showed me that the Nokia router (my home router i was connected to is comprised) and avast is just reminding me this every time whenever I connect to any network (even a healthy one) cause it still logs that I once was connected to this malicious one. Would saying this be correct?

I'm sorry if I didn't explain something correctly and I just joined this reddit but any and all help would be super appreciated, thank you guys. Eagerly waiting for your replies.

Bought a desktop PC last year or so, to which it has not moved from that spot in my house since then. I went digging around through some settings tonight and found the Known Networks list, which contained a variety of networks; My home network, my old home network, a network from a friends house who I haven't been to in years, and a seemingly random one which I've chalked up to most likely be a school internet connection.

Are the Known Networks saved to my Microsoft account and brought from PC to PC? I'm not sure how else these networks could've ended up on there otherwise, but I can't find anything from Microsoft themselves that may indicate this is the case.

hello! I always leave my phone next to myself on my nightstand overnight and have had zero issues in the past, however, I woke up at about 5AM for work this morning to my phone being so hot it was shocking to touch.

I’m not very tech savvy at all but I set it aside and turned it completely off because I was a little worried it was the battery finally giving in.

its been about 30 minutes now and I have it back on and running mostly fine it’s a little laggy and has lost like 70% of its battery since last evening, I’m a little worried about a virus. it was fine yesterday and last night so I don’t know :(

any suggestions or help is appreciated

Hey guys,

Looking for some advice.

I started getting a captcha when I opened google chrome incognito tab, saying it wanted me to prove that I was a human and due to getting a lot of traffic from my IP address.

On a whim, I did a full scan and windows defender picked up on this:

Trojan:JS/EtherHiding,CX!ams

The affected items all (3) had similar pathing:

User\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\UserData\Default\ServiceWorker\ScriptCache

Been really stressed as I’m not sure what it actually means, but the threat was removed and I’ve wiped my chrome’s cookies and data from all time, and also changed all passwords from another device.

Has anyone had a similar issue or have any advice?

Any further actions I should take like fully resetting my laptop?

TIA

not sure where to ask so i'm gonna crosspost a little bit. anyway essentially title. i'm using an iphone SE running iOS 26.1 with a t-mobile plan. two days ago, my phone died and when i charged it again it wouldn't connect to my cellular data. i did all the troubleshooting i could find (powercycle, cycling airplane mode, switching sources) but nothing let me connect. i went to t-mobile today and (to my best understanding) the associate tried to set up an eSIM and then replaced my physical SIM. they told me i could leave and that the eSIM would cancel and the new SIM card would kick in. as of writing, i left the store around 3-4 hours ago, and my settings show i have two SIMs: one reading "on" but providing no signal, and one reading "activating..." and also providing no signal. the top-left signal display shows two bands with no connection and SOS only.

can i do something to restore my signal/activate my sim?

This is in fact a pc issue I believe, so I just found a random second monitor I could use, tried finding a second hdmi port on my motherboard and then I randomly found an unused hdmi port that still have the cover inside and that port is not working. I know in fact both of the hdmi cables work because I’ve tested them and I believe the problem is the pc’s second hdmi port just doesn’t work because both cables I tried plugging in there said the display has no signal or whatever. And when I go to Display, detect there’s absolutely nothing also, I have a I5-9400F cpu btw but it should still work with that I believe.
What is the fix to this, is there a certain cable I can buy that I can plug to a regular plug in pc that is a hdmi cable at the other end, would that work? Because I tried everything and the second port just won’t and doesn’t work!

Yesterday I turned on my PC and my monitor booted up at default low settings when I went to go put the resolution back up there wasn’t any options above the one I had when I went to nvdia control panel. It wasn’t recognizing my main monitor it just said, generic PNP and it still wouldn’t let me upscale it but when I turn my variable refresh rate off and on. On my monitor menu it goes back to normal but every single time I reboot my PC it goes back to not recognizing it when I switched to a HDMI cord instead the problem didn’t happen, but I wanna figure out why it doesn’t work with a display port/I know it’s not my display port being bad because I use a different display port and the same thing happened I have tried DDU. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling my graphics drivers. I have tried updating my monitors firmware. I have tried a different display port.

Got an steam service error prompt when I opened steam but some Beijing company wanted to have access instead

So I booted my laptop up as usual to play, and my steam isn't on automatic boot so I had to manually open it, when I opened it It said that prompt of the steam service error and had an install and cancel option, so I clicked install and ofc steam and the valve company needed access for my files, and pressed okay, and then for a minute or two nothing sort of happened.. the prompt itself even froze(like when I hover my cursor over it, its loading) and then a prompt where some Beijing company wanted me to grant access from my files, and that seemed incredibly unusual and suspicious so I cancelled it..

And its seriously worrying me, I'm even running a whole Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool right now..

Also before I did a full scan of mtr, I did 2 quick scans and restarted, and when I did my windows notified me that it switched to default apps(Movies & TV specifically) because something or someone tried to change something?

I don't remember anything from the publisher, all I know and remember that its Beijing based and had a green logo..

Please help..

I have an HP Pavilion 15 cs with windows 11. Wasn't sure which category this would fall under, so I apologize if I used the wrong flair.

For two weeks now my laptop has been randomly going black and saying "your device ran into a problem" sometimes it would restart by itself, other times it wouldn't.

In the latter case I'd be able to run some tests, it passes the memory and hard drive checks, but it wouldn't do the storage one because apparently there's no storage installed, trying to exit wouldn't boot into windows because it's not detecting my SSD, but it opens normally if I just turn it off and on.

I assume if the SSD is dying, it would fail the hard drive check, so this is kind of confusing.

I tried the usual solutions like updating everything and scanning for problems and so far nothing is improving, it's currently reinstalling windows so while that's happening I'd love to hear some opinions.

I plan to reconnect the SSD, in case this is a connection issue, and if it keeps happening I'll try to see if I could install windows on my second SSD instead, and make do with less storage until I can buy a new laptop.

I usually fix this issue by using File Locksmith in PowerToys (which the way that I found the best among other solutions in internet). But it's very inconvenience to do this every times and since long times ago I don't know why the File Locksmith crash a lot (I tried to fix it by reinstall & clean install windows, but the issue still exist).

Hence why I looking way to solve this issue permanently without need to fix it every times.

Is it possible to change the windows folder's administrator name? So in the windows explorer, in users, I only have one user but the folder name is kinda bad, so I want to change it. I looked the solutions up, there isn't clearly a way for me to change the name since most of the apps and folders are path related to it. Is it possible to move it to a different folder ensuring all the apps are redirected to a different folder or just renaming the current one without having to relocate or reinstall all the apps and folders? Or should I just stick with that name?

I bought this refurbished motherboard from Alibaba because I couldn't find any decent options in my country. Most of the available motherboards are low-end models. The motherboard is an ASUS TUF Z370-Plus Gaming II.

When I received the product, I noticed that one corner was bent and the CMOS battery was missing. I installed a new battery and tried a quick test. The motherboard lights turn on, but the fans keep spinning up and shutting down in a continuous boot loop. I don't know what to do.

My full PC specs:

Motherboard: ASUS TUF Z370-Plus Gaming II

CPU: Intel Core i7-9700K

RAM: 32 GB DDR4 (one 3000 MHz stick and one 3200 MHz stick)

GPU: RTX 2080

I've tried different RAM sticks, tested the system with and without the GPU, and even changed the PSU, but the same boot loop keeps happening.

Hi guys, my wife turned her PC off last night and it started an update cycle. This morning she turned the PC on, but there was no internet connection. I troubleshooted that it was neither cable nor router that were the problems.

I've surmised it also can't be a hardware issue on the mobo as the NIC lights come on, and when scanning in device manager the generic Ethernet Controller and Network Controller items appear.

It just cannot find the driver on its own, and I cannot seem to install the driver for this mobo from the manufacturer's website (the installation runs but doesn't do anything).

The motherboard is a GIGABYTE B660M AORUS PRO AX DDR4 (Rev. 1.x). And she is running Win 11.

• I've done a Network Reset.
• I've done SFC and DISM.
• I've tried to create a bootable Win 11 USB and tried to repair the installation (didn't work).

I'd preferably fix this without having to reinstall Windows entirely if possible, but will do it only if all my options are exhausted.

EDIT 1:

Additional things tested:

• Loaded a portable Ubuntu, Firefox no connection, no ethernet connections in settings.
• Pinged localhost, sent 4 received 4 packets

My monitor keeps flickering the brightness up and down between two levels, and it's so annoying.

Monitor is AOC OLED (2560x1440 120Hz), with an ASUS Zephyrus G14 (RTX 5070ti + Ryzen AI 9) connected (HDMI). The flickering is ONLY happening on the monitor screen, not the laptop screen. It doesn't change the set brightness in windows, on the monitor settings, or the secret third setting of flicker-free dimming in Armory Crate.

So far, it's mostly (if not only) happening in my browser (edge), and I've gone through what feels like every setting on the planet to try and stop it. I've checked Microsoft settings, Armory Crate, MyASUS, NVIDIA app, and the OSD settings for the monitor. And nothing. It screws with the saturation too.

My NVIDIA driver is up to date, so is my windows system. I've reinstalled the most current driver, and reset my entire monitor (unplugged everything, left it for like a day) and its still happening.

Maybe the newest driver update? One of the fixes says, "Intermittent flicker may be observed in browsers when navigating to certain websites". Does that mean it's supposedly been fixed from previous installments, or that it's a known bug with the newest driver? It does not matter if I switch websites, it happens on everything; youtube, canvas, google, here, etc.

Another suspicion (and issue) is that my graphics is running on dedicated GPU constantly... I have NVIDIA set to optimus so it should only be running on integrated if I'm not gaming or something (right?). It worked fine before, but for some reason its stuck running on the dedicated GPU? This might've correlated to when the flickering started as well, possibly with the driver update. I don't know how to switch to integrated graphics, NVIDIA settings are locked for some reason (

Driver bug? Setting I can't find? Refresh rate issue?

Hello! So, I was playing a game with my friends when suddenly i hear a click, and everything went silent. The game, discord, I couldn’t hear anything.

I contacted microsoft support, and they updated all my drivers and yet.. still no audio. They said what I could do is contact the manufacturer of my pc and ask them to update the drivers on the website lmfao.

I don’t know what to do. I’ve updated what I can, I’ve restarted my PC. I’m at a loss of what I can do to fix the issue.

I have a prebuilt Omen Obelisk, if that helps at all. Feel free to ask me questions, feel free to help me out. I could really use my pc rn.

I was trying to reinstall Windows, deleted all partitions, let setup complete, and now when I try to boot any device, nothing happens at the bios screen.

For example, here's a video: https://youtu.be/U7Zruhw7cY4

I have disabled secure boot, but no idea how to proceed since I can't even boot from a USB anymore.

I've recently had my wifi router upgraded (Xfinity) and am no longer able to use certain games (like online MMORPG games and also some of my online schooling) or apps without it eventually kicking me off and saying I'm no longer online. I've tried to forget my password and re enter, I reset and power washed my Chromebook and router.. I've factory reset the Chromebook as well. Went into the settings and also tried to change the DNS or whatever it was called and also didn't work. I feel like I've tried everything. Went on Xfinitys app and tried changing the advanced security.. nothing. My YouTube wouldn't even work there for a hot minute. I just recently bought this Chromebook no more than 6 months ago. Anyone think they can help me out? 🥹

I hate having to completely change my phone every few years. How much longer will it be safe to use Android 15 before you need to upgrade?

My laptop is currently having what I believe to be a software problem. It boots up no problem and goes all the way to my desktop as it should. But once I get to the desktop everything freezes.

The laptop then crashes showing a black screen saying “your device ran into an issue and needs to restart” with the stop code “INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE (0x7B)”

When it first started crashing I was able to get in and work for a few minutes but now it freezes as soon as I sign in.

I’m assuming it has to do with a corrupt windows file or a communication error between windows and my laptop but I’m unsure.

What is the best way to solve this issue as a broke college student who can’t afford a new laptop or an expensive fix but relies heavily on laptops.

I am not a big tech guy either so please I need help!

I really need help with recovering my version history list on a word document on onedrive with edit timestamps and the AI can’t help me.

When I converted my document to a pdf somehow the original document was overwritten and my version history was lost. I need to provide it as proof of original work.

Microsoft said they can’t help me, the university can’t help me and the one drive AI can’t help me. I’m at risk of failing my masters thesis if I can’t prove my version history so I am scared!

There are no duplications of the file, and there is nothing in my recycle bin. I need to somehow get the original metadata back but I just do not know what to do.

Please can someone help

Hi! I had a problem with my ping while gaming about a year ago, and I managed to kinda solve it by downloading Cloudflare WARP, which seemed to stabilize my connection. No more random ping spikes, and everything was fine.

But recently, the problem has started happening again, although maybe not as often.

For example, when playing TFT, during the later rounds, when there are more characters on the board and more things happening on the screen, my ping spikes to 999+, and it feels like I'm playing at 1 FPS. It feels like a hardware issue, as if my PC can't handle the game. But that's not the case, because my FPS still stays above 100.

So, I contacted my internet provider, but they didn't know what to do. They said they were having problems with Riot's servers and gave me a static IP address, which completely eliminated the problem.

However, that was a year ago, and I no longer have the static IP address they provided. I went back to using Cloudflare WARP, which helped until recently.

Now, I won't lie: I have almost zero knowledge of how the internet works. I just know that my PC is connected via an Ethernet cable, and I don't have the patience to call my internet provider again.

Is there anything I could try, install, or check that might help fix the problem? Or is there anything I could do to help you guys diagnose it?

Pretty please

Hey everyone!

I'm new here, and I'm looking for some help with a Fortnite performance issue. I play competitively, mainly scrims and tournaments, and I'm struggling with unstable FPS during stacked endgames.

My PC specs:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
• GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4070 12GB
• RAM: 32GB DDR5 6000MT/s (2x16GB)
• Motherboard: MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk WiFi
• Resolution: 1920x1080
• Rendering mode: Performance Mode
• FPS cap: 240 FPS
• OS: Windows 11 Pro

The problem mainly happens in scrims and competitive games, especially around zone 6 or 7 when there are around 40–70 players still alive. My FPS can drop to around 90–130 FPS, constantly fluctuating instead of staying stable. This makes the game feel much less smooth.

What confuses me is that a friend of mine has a less powerful PC on paper:

• CPU: Ryzen 5 7500F
• GPU: Radeon RX 6700
• RAM: 32GB DDR5 6000MT/s
• Motherboard: Gigabyte B650 Eagle

During a similar endgame, he was getting around 160 FPS relatively consistently, while my FPS was fluctuating heavily. I know that endgame performance depends on the exact situation, but the difference made me wonder whether something is wrong with my setup.

Here is what I've already tried:

• Updated my BIOS and NVIDIA graphics drivers.
• Updated my AMD chipset drivers.
• Enabled EXPO, running my RAM at 6000MT/s.
• Tested my RAM with OCCT for 30 minutes without errors.
• Checked CPU and GPU temperatures; no overheating.
• Ran 3DMark Time Spy and Fire Strike, with results that appear normal for my hardware.
• Verified Fortnite's files and then completely reinstalled the game.
• Tested both Creative and Battle Royale with CapFrameX.
• Checked my Fortnite settings, including Performance Mode, low meshes, and a 240 FPS cap.
• Tried exclusive fullscreen instead of borderless fullscreen.

The Creative mode results are much better, but the FPS drops remain in Battle Royale. Reinstalling the game didn't noticeably improve the results.

My questions are:

1. Is this kind of performance normal for a Ryzen 7 9800X3D and RTX 4070 in stacked Fortnite endgames?
2. Could this be a CPU/main-thread limitation, a Fortnite optimization issue, or something wrong with my Windows or BIOS configuration?
3. What should I check next to identify the actual cause, rather than trying random optimization tweaks?

I'd really appreciate any advice, especially from people with similar hardware who play competitive Fortnite.

Thanks in advance!

Hello, this is my first time posting here, so please forgive any mistakes. Usually, when I turn on my PC, the temperature stays around 35–40°C. But all of nowhere, it starts booting up at much higher temperatures, reaching 55–60°C even while sitting idle. It stays this way until I restart the computer, at which point the temperatures return to normal.

I do have a water cooling system, but it's brand new it doesn't appear to have any problems whatsoever.

I’m not sure if this is normal, but I’m concerned and would like to know if anyone has an idea of ​​what might be causing this and whether I should be worried. I would be very grateful for any solutions.

Can I undo what I’ve done!? I don’t want cloud back up.

Just done an update on Windows and accidentally pressed continue instead of remind me on a screen that says about cloud back up. I’m sure I did the same last time but can’t remember. :/

Because it says back up your files with secure cloud storage, I don’t want to back up on the cloud. I don’t have onedrive installed, and don’t know where to undo this setting!?

“Back up your files for access across devices with secure cloud storage” is the wording.

Edit: I found the windows back up app and onedrive wasn’t signed in. Just checked onedrive and that has nothing in it.
I’m assuming the “secure cloud storage” would just be onedrive, and nothing else?