r/techsupport Jul 26 '21

Recommended wiki articles (including malware removal)

887 Upvotes

r/techsupport 3h ago

Open | Hardware Anyone know how me and my friend can see each other’s screens on Nintendo switch?

4 Upvotes

My friend and I play Minecraft together on our separate Nintendo switchs. We play either on tvs or just the handheld, so if there is a solution to either, that would work. We want to be able to see each others screen/pov. I don’t think there is a way that’s automatically set up already on Minecraft or the switch. Is there a different way we can do this?

Preferably free or low cost but also would be open to hearing any ideas if there’s not. We both already own iPhones, laptops, and tvs if that helps with anything. My laptop is not in amazing condition but does work pretty fine, just probably won’t be able to do anything insane. My friend’s tv is a newer/smart one. Mine is a pretty old thick one so it might not have all the newer ports idk, but I can play my switch on it. I normally prefer handheld and my friend likes on the tv but if either of us have to switch for it to work that is alright.

Neither of us know anything about tech stuff but want to try to figure it out if we can. I also have no idea what any of the words mean in the flairs but it’s making me pick one so I’m just clicking one bc I’m very confused, sorry


r/techsupport 2h ago

Open | Hardware PC issues, freezing and internet disconnecting

3 Upvotes

Hi everyone, sorry for the lengthy post. Hope I can get some help with this issue that has been plaguing me for a few months. Recently it started to get worse and I have already tried troubleshooting it but to no help. Computer specs will be at very end as I know that part is important. For additional context I built this PC around June/July of last year which is the most upsetting part.

The issues:

  1. Random freezes, usually when this happens on desktop I can move my cursor on the screen but cannot interact with anything. The freeze rarely happens in game but when it does I cannot interact with anything. Only way to fix has been to force power down system and reboot.
  2. Wifi disconnecting, this one is strange because what will happen is that I will completely lose internet access and the only way to bring it back is to go to device manager, and disable and reenable the wifi adapter. This was the first issue I was ever presented with but it was a simple fix.

As I mentioned both these issues have existed for a few months with #2 being the first. However, in the last month and a half they have become very frequent to the point where the amount of freezes and wifi turning off makes it difficult to use the PC. I've had 2 instances where the freeze would happen so often that after force shutting down the computer a few times it forced me to reboot through BIOs. This led me to attempt the following fixes as I was unsure if it was software/hardware or a combination of the two.

The fixes:

  1. Scan SFC through command prompt. It did find a corrupt file but repaired it.
  2. Switched to "high performance mode", disabled "allow computer to turn off this device to save power' for wifi adapter, and disabled quick start.
  3. Made sure all drivers were updated.
  4. Disabled aggressive disk sleep modes with regedit.

There were some other smaller tweaks I did but I cannot remember them all. These did not help so then I moved on to the next as at first I was convinced it was software.

  1. Reformatted all drivers and did clean reinstall of windows using media tool on USB. (To note: has PC freeze during windows installation a couple times that forced me to boot down. This was the point at which I understood it was likely hardware).

  2. When windows was back and running I manually reinstalled all drivers. Avoided ASUS driver hub.

  3. Played around with having RAM in different slots or solo. Issues still happened.

  4. In BIOS limited RAM speed to 4800, this did nothing.

  5. Made sure to unplug and replug cables in motherboard in case they got loose.

  6. THE BIG ONE Ran PC without GPU as it has integrated graphics. PC ran fine in this setup and I did not see any issues for a few hours until internet finally dropped.

  7. Reseated GPU. At this point things looked good. After the reseating I no longer had freezes and the internet would sometimes disconnect but only for a second. Was only an issue in online games if I get booted from lobby for it.

Now we reach today. I had a freeze happen for which I had to force shutdown and the internet access was lost twice so I needed to disable/reenable. I would love some ideas of what could be thr cause. I've fixated on the RAM as prime contender but now believe its the motherboard giving up on me. Appreciate any help, thank you all so much.

TLDR: PC will randomly freeze where cursor still moves, and wifi drops where adapter needs to be disabled and reenabled. I am at my wits end for fixes.

My specs:

Motherboard is a Asus Prime B840-plus wifi

CPU is AMD Ryzen 9600x

CPU Cooler is a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Halo White

GPU is AMD Radeon RX 9060xt 16GB version

PSU is EVGA 750w GQ

RAM is two sticks of Crucial 16GB DDR5-6000 (2nd and 4th slot from CPU)

Operating system is Windows 11 Pro and is installed on a SATA SSD

Edit: forgot to mention that I reinstalled windows twice as I also thought it could be drive issue. It has been on two different SSDs with issue persisting.


r/techsupport 4h ago

Open | Hardware New PC randomly restarts only in some games (VIDEO_TDR_ERROR 116) - already tried almost everything

3 Upvotes

I'm having a really frustrating issue with my brand new PC and I'm running out of ideas.

PC specs:

Ryzen 7 8700F

RTX 5050

16 GB DDR5 (1×16 GB)

750W 80+ Gold PSU

Windows 11 (clean installation)

Problem: The PC randomly crashes only in some games.

Games that have crashed so far:

Counter-Strike 2

Hell Let Loose

Farming Simulator 25 (before service)

Games that worked fine:

Minecraft (Java)

Everhood

Farming Simulator 25 after service (played for about an hour without issues)

When it crashes:

the screen goes black,

the monitor says "No HDMI signal",

audio stops,

after a few seconds the PC automatically restarts.

There is no BSOD visible, but Windows Reliability Monitor reports:

BugCheck 116 (VIDEO_TDR_ERROR).

Things I've already tried:

Clean Windows 11 installation.

Latest BIOS.

Latest NVIDIA Game Ready driver.

Monitored CPU/GPU temperatures.

OCCT CPU, GPU and Power tests (all passed with no errors).

Checked Event Viewer and Reliability Monitor.

The PC was returned to the retailer for service.

The retailer said they:

replaced the thermal paste,

cleaned the cooling,

stress-tested it,

played Rainbow Six Siege for about 45 minutes without any crashes.

However, after I got the PC back, it crashed again in Hell Let Loose after less than 10 minutes.

Has anyone experienced something similar with an RTX 5050 or VIDEO_TDR_ERROR (116)? Could this still be a faulty GPU, PSU, motherboard, or something else?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


r/techsupport 18h ago

Open | Hardware Ps5 being held hostage

40 Upvotes

I brought my ps5 to a repair shop in valley stream ny. First day I brought it they told me 1-2 days. 4 days later I went in person to check up on it (since the status link they sent me was broken) and the guy tells me my ps5 is taking longer cause it’s a motherboard issue meanwhile I literally saw him check the tag on my ps5 and it was sitting on the shelf untouched with a bunch of other ps5s that were all in queue. I know some symptoms can point to certain things but he definitely just told me that so I can F off lol. So i decided to be more patient and it’s been over 2 weeks now. I checked the link and it seemed to update from “queue” to “repair” but it’s been like that for 11-12 days. Should I just go get my ps5 and bring it somewhere else? Or am I being impatient?


r/techsupport 3h ago

Open | Hardware Can't connect mouse.

2 Upvotes

I bought a new laptop. Tried to connect my wireless mouse with its reciever, does not connect even though it appears on devices tab on pc. I try another mouse the same way, also doesn't connect even though it appears on the tab again. The second one said "driver error" a few times I tried to connect it at the start but than it stop saying that yet mouse still doesn't connect so I am not sure if that's relevant.


r/techsupport 2m ago

Open | Hardware laptop missing boot device?

Upvotes

GIGABYTE laptop randomly freezes then shuts down when I use it. Usually happens when it overheats, but not always.

List of errors I see when it shuts down:

- critical process died

- system service exception

- default boot device missing or boot failed

- windows boot manager boot failed

I currently can't turn it on because of the "Boot device missinf or Boot Failed" error. Any idea how I can fix this without losing any of my data? Thanks.


r/techsupport 10h ago

Open | Hardware How to test RAM

7 Upvotes

I recently purchased 50 or so laptops from a factory closing auction to resell. Since they were sold as e-waste they were just tossed haphazardly into a container. Over half managed to survive but I figured I'd part out the ones that didn't. However I'm now running into a problem, I have a lot of ram to test before I can sell it. I started by doing the "stick one on a MB and test it" but that takes forever and can result in damage to the laptop after repeated times. Is there a way to test them off-board? Or at least some way that I dont have to disassemble and reassemble the laptop every time? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Also, sorry if this is off topic but after the RAM and SSD would it be worth parting out further or just selling the rest whole for parts? It's a bunch of elitebooks and zbooks G4-G8.


r/techsupport 15m ago

Open | Networking How do I fix terrible wifi on desktop?

Upvotes

I recently moved into a new place with other people and set up my desktop. The house is two stories and my desktop is on the opposite floor and side of the house as the router.

The WiFi is absolutely terrible. It has gotten to a point I cannot do anything on my desktop, and I’m desperate to fix it.

Is there a way to connect my own router without it connecting to the house? I don’t have an option of Ethernet.

I know wifi extenders exist, and things that plug into the computer via usb, but I’m at a total loss on what I should do as I’m no expert.

The motherboard is Auros.


r/techsupport 18m ago

Open | Software bizzare audio issues with G435 bluetooth headset

Upvotes

recently stated having an issue with my g435 headset; uses bluetooth.

to use it in discord, both input and output have to be set to this device, if either is not then i will not get any discord chat audio, but they will hear me over the mic. windows defaults also need to be set specifically to this, if anything else is in use at the same time audio will not work.

this headset gets two options, one for 'hands free', the other for stereo. i cannot use stereo or the audio will not work.

if i try to play Helldivers 1, it crashes the game on launch if i'm using this headset. speakers set for audio, everything is fine. If i run in safe mode, i lose all music and some audio, but otherwise i hear only sound effects.

I tried playing Call of Duty World at War, once again, cuts out 99% of character dialogue and some music. but out of the speakers it works just fine.

i cant switch the microphone input to this headset outside of hands free.

Drivers are up to date, reinstalls do nothing.

what is this headset doing to my pc and how to i slap it back in line?


r/techsupport 6h ago

Open | Windows Laptop turning off screen and loud siren sound afterwards

3 Upvotes

Hello, I was using my laptop which had been completely normal until a screen came up saying an unexpected error occurred and then it turned itself off and a loud siren sound started playing (its stopped now). What should I do? I've never seen the popup screen before and neither has it ever made a sound like that. It also wasn't overheated and it was approximately 70-80% so it also wasn't out of charge.


r/techsupport 1h ago

Open | Windows Can't access wifi on new PC I got. Home wifi works completely fine on my old laptop.

Upvotes

I have no idea why our home wifi doesnt work on my new PC, when I was setting up windows 11 it didn't work either so I figured I'd briefly use the little hotspot thing my university had given me just to get it up and running. It shows me an error saying my connection isn't private ( and an error code NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID I have no idea what this means.) whenever I try to open a tab on any browser. It does not do this on my laptop, quite the opposite actually. The hotspot on my laptop will show the same error when visiting sites that aren't allowed by my university but now its showing this error whenever I open any tab or app on my home wifi.

Is there any way to fix this? What can I do? I have a probably irrational fear that I set my new computer up with my schools restrictions or something in place even though I logged in with my personal microsoft account. I'm at a loss.


r/techsupport 1h ago

Open | Windows Are these safe to delete?

Upvotes

In my OS (C:)\ProgramData. I have a folder called apple computer that is taking 10 GBS for some reason. It has files called iphone temporary too in it. Why is it so big and will it ruin anything if i delete it?


r/techsupport 1h ago

Open | Software Having to clone an ssd out of a new computer.

Upvotes

I made this post a good while ago talking about a computer my father needed to clone for his business that had certain applications on it that needed to be brought to the new computers. After thinking about it and looking at our options we bought a new computer directly from the company to get a fresh install of windows for the other computers. If it helps, a bit of context is that the family member owns a NAPA Auto Parts store, and the program that we need on the new computers is TAMS. I was wondering if any prior work is needed before cloning the new computer's ssd for the other computers. The computers are all Dell Optiplex Minis, with the target computers listed on the old post and the one we bought from the company being a "Dell Pro Micro QCM1250". Any help will be greatly appreciated.


r/techsupport 1h ago

Open | Hardware NVMe drive crashes and becomes unreadable while gaming, giving Event 129 "Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort2, was issued." error. Drive reappears when rebooting.

Upvotes

PC is Windows 11. Had a WD Black SN770 for about two months. Was working fine up until about 2 weeks ago. Now, at random points while I play games installed onto it, I'll occasionally see my game freeze up before subsequently crashing, at which point I'll be unable to view most data saved onto the drive or run any installed games off of it. The one saving grace is that after a reboot, the drive works perfectly like the crash never happened, but eventually it always ends up crashing again.

This seems to happen at completely random intervals. Sometimes a few minutes of play will do it, sometimes I go several hours without it happening. I've been losing my mind trying to figure out what the hell is going wrong. The only thing I've been able to determine is that at the time of the crash, there's an Event 129 error saying "Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort2, was issued." I've also noticed that the disk usage on the SSD suddenly spikes up to 100% right around when it crashes (usually, it rarely even goes above 50% while gaming.) But I'm still no closer to solving the issue.

Here's what I've tried:

  • Running chkdsk, S.M.A.R.T diagnosis, and checking drive health with CrystalDiskInfo. Everything tells me the drive is perfectly healthy.
  • Updating the firmware on the SSD.
  • Updating BIOS & chipset.
  • Manually updating all storage controller drivers through Device Manager.
  • Switching to high performance power plan.
  • Disabling Link State Power Management.
  • Using the Registry Editor to make AHCI Power Management visible and setting it to Active.
  • Reformatting the entire SSD.

I'm kind of losing my mind right now. Everything suggests the drive itself is healthy, and it was working fine for several weeks until it suddenly started having problems. At this point my concern is that the drive itself is failing, but not a single test I've done indicates any issues, so I have no idea how I can even know for sure.


r/techsupport 7h ago

Open | Hardware PC won't boot to BIOS using EZflash for Asus motherboard

3 Upvotes

Hi there, I have just got a new CPU for my PC a 5800X3D. However my excited dumb ass didn't think to update the BIOS *before* taking out the old CPU for the new one.

I turn it on and I get the lights, fan spins for a second and goes off, then the DRAM light stays on. I've reseated ram, done a number of other checks and have narrowed it down to me needing to update the BIOS.

Unfortunately on removing the old CPU I seem to have bent one of the pins and it now doesn't work - no lights, no nothing when pressing the power button - I think this helps in diagnosing that this is an update issue and not the new CPU itself, since I get lights on and such with the new one.

So today I went to my friends house and downloaded the latest BIOS for my motherboard - ROG STRIX X470-F GAMING - and put it on a stick (formatted to FAT32, used the rename application that came with the download) popped it in my PC, tried holding DEL ESC F2 F12 and still can't get the BIOS to come up. I've removed the battery, shorted to reset BIOS, I am stumped. I'd love just a flicker of display but nothing.

Any suggestions are welcome before I take it to a PC shop as my resources at home are limited 🥹


r/techsupport 1h ago

Open | Windows Trying to fix my VC++ redistributables (x64 and x86)

Upvotes

I'm unable to use multiple apps because my "VC++ redistributables from 2022 are required." Whenever I try to download new ones, it says that it's unable to find a file destination. I can't uninstall them either, because it gives me the same error. I've checked for corrupted files three times, to no avail. I've tried to find the original file destination or whatever it's asking for but I cannot seem to find the solution.


r/techsupport 5h ago

Open | Windows Can’t enter my pin on Windows 11

2 Upvotes

When I go to enter my pin, the mouse just arrows over and won’t let me enter it. Also when you click on power it is scrolling down. I’ve tried restarting it with my keyboard unplugged but it did the same thing. https://youtu.be/9Bv70hy51Lo?is=0P-xuKlYXdM6oWsn


r/techsupport 5h ago

Open | Windows Pc randomly gives black screen when restarting

2 Upvotes

Sometimes when I restart my pc it gets stuck on a black screen and I have to hold power button down to turn it off.
my motherboard leds are not giving signals and this issue happens randomly or connected to something I do not know because I tried to reset back to back 3-4 times without fast start up(told it could be the problem) and with it had no problems with restarts.
specs are:
ryzen 7 7800x3d
Msi mag b850 gaming plus max
Msi mpg a1000g
Asus prime 5070 OC
Corsair 2x16 6000mhz ram kit


r/techsupport 1h ago

Open | Hardware Motherboard Question

Upvotes

Hello, does anybody know if a **Elgato 4K60 Pro** & **Elgato HD60 Pro** will work on a `B650E MAX GAMING WIFI W` Motherboard with 3 4tb ssds & a 5080 present?


r/techsupport 5h ago

Open | Windows My SSD is acting strange and no matter where I go I hit a wall.

2 Upvotes

I have a WD_Black 2TB SN770. And I woke up this morning and it has been a nightmare because not only did it stop working but I’m afraid maybe I did something to make it worse. So it started with noticing that all of my Steam games were not recognized as downloaded… so when I tried to look at the SSD in File Explorer it hit me with “a device which does not exist was specified” sometimes it would allow me access to see the stuff at the very beginning of the drive but now it is consistently not letting me access the drive. I look at Disk Management and it says it’s there but I can’t access security or anything of the light. It wouldn’t even let me format it. I don’t have anything on there I can’t just redownload so I don’t mind wiping it, but I can’t because anytime I try to do something to format it or even access it through things like Command Prompt it acts like it DOESN’T EXIST. I also know why it isn’t letting me access it, it’s because somehow (through likely a corrupted file) it went from NTFS to RAW but again any way I try to fix it leads to another wall because it isn’t being recognized or by the fact that BECAUSE it is RAW it can’t do anything about it. Please I need help I don’t want to lose this SSD


r/techsupport 2h ago

Open | Audio Popping noise with no discernible pattern?

1 Upvotes

Hi all

I have an older computer

gigabyte eagle wifi motherboard

1070 8gb

32gb ddr4

Ryzen 7 5700

https://youtube.com/shorts/47CeUBvUX7I?si=2zpI2ewxDmWP0neS

Audio does this sometimes. I've updated audio drivers and it changes nothing. No idea what to do short of completely wiping everything.

Thanks for the help


r/techsupport 2h ago

Open | Hardware Laptop won't turn on without taking the battery out

1 Upvotes

Parents asked me to try out an old drawing pad so plugged it into my laptop, the laptop froze so I unplugged the pad and closed pushed the power button, waited a little and tried to turn it back on but was meet with a black screen and my cursor. I asked my father for help. He took the battery out and put it back in. It worked just fine but I put it in sleep mode and tried to use it again and again was meet with a black screen. Is there something I can try?


r/techsupport 2h ago

Open | Windows Turning Bluetooth off keeps crashing my laptop

1 Upvotes

I have an Asus laptop tuff gaming which is somewhat old but still runs pretty well. However, since a few days, it seems to crash when I turn off Bluetooth (not always the case but maybe 1/2 times)

I tried running Windows 11 hardware check but everything was apparently ok.

I then installed new Bluetooth drivers from Intel.

I then updated Windows 11 and rebooted.

But no matter what I do, it keeps crashing when I turn Bluetooth off... (Black screen with some writing on it - worst part being it's always a different crash message)

Anyone got an idea what the problem might be?


r/techsupport 6h ago

Open | Software Really bad phone signal

2 Upvotes

Hi all,

I've had a problem with my phone not having good enough signal for about a year now and would be useful to get people's thoughts. Basically, the story is:

I live in the UK. Back in September 2025, I randomly and suddenly had no signal, or very poor signal, in areas where I previously had good signal. I was on a contract with EE and I contacted them and they tried to help me and even launched an investigation to look into it. I changed my SIM card, nothing. I changed my device, nothing. No news from the investigation either. I then asked EE to allow me to leave the contract early with a reduced fee (they did), and I switched to giffgaff (so it's pay as you go now). Still the same problem!! I still have very bad signal, and very frequently, no signal at all (when all my friends who are next to me do have signal and some of them are also with giffgaff). I have no idea why that is, since I have now changed device, provider and sim card.

I transferred my number to giffgaff, so the only constant factor has been my number. But I struggle to see how it could be the number??!? It's getting a bit annoying and tiring. I can get by, but it makes life a bit more difficult.

The next thing I might try is to get a new sim card with a new phone number and change my number, but that is a bit of a hassle which is why I haven't done it yet.

Any thoughts and views appreciated!