x55c-si30202m Keeps locking up

Daughter has an ASUS X55c-si30202m that keeps locking up on occasion, it was doing that is a.m. and she did a "refresh" and the screen went to black and then this popped up:


She tried to restart the system and it went to a black screen with just the recycle bin showing, nothing else. She was able to access a W8 menu but only was able to see a few items, but it wouldnt click on them.
Then suddenly the machine reverted back to "normal" so to speak, BUT it was virtually locked up, clicking on anything made it lag horribly.
She has had this issue previously( the lagging and lockups) and a refresh seemed to help.

Nor sure where to start, she is across the country and i help her manage the machine remotely using teamviewer, but at the moment i don't have access as teamviewer isn't loading.

Any thoughts?
(Everything on the machine is backed up)

 

Sounds like a virus to me, but if it's any indication of hardware failure, it would be the storage drive.

For virus removal, a general practice is to boot into Safe Mode with all Microsoft Services disabled and all Startup entries disabled; run rkill, then run a full scan using MalwareBytes (after updating it). There are other utilities as well.

If you can't access her system remotely, you can share this link with her and walk her through it over the phone, for what it's worth to you: MajorGeeks Support Forums - View Single Post - READ & RUN ME FIRST Malware Removal Guide (incl. spyware, virus, trojan, hijacker)

If there is a problem with her HDD/SSD, though, that will probably require a RMA of the system to the system manufacturer, or the drive itself to the drive manufacturer.

 

I am familiar with rkill and malwarebytes and will run through those.
The reality is this machine has been buggy since the start, and windows 8 is just a pain in the rear. We have utilized something called "start is back" which has mad it easier to navigate, but certain things, like not be able to use F8 by default to choose safe-mode is frustrating. ( ive found a way to enable it).

 

Yeah i've not seen windows 8 behave like that, that certainly looks like malware to me.

 

You're not alone. Windows 8.1 will hopefully bring some reprieve, even if it isn't the full 180 many are looking for.

 

i think the best course of action now is to do a complete factory restore on the machine.
She didnt make any restore media that i am aware of, is there a restore built into this machine?
i found this:
ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Troubleshooting X55C
but im not sure how or if that applies to a windows 8 machine.

 

I don't think the new start button will impress people if it still just takes them to the metro screen.

 

If it's anything like their other Windows 8 units, then the recovery might not work if she didn't make a recovery drive. A lot of people were confused about how to access it, and it turned out that you couldn't (on many of the ultrabooks shipped with Windows 8) initiate the recovery from the partition alone; a recovery drive - using a USB 16 GB drive - was needed (created by end-user, like other recovery media).

Have her try it, but I have a feeling without the recovery drive, it won't work.

Adding insult to injury, as another user put it. Ironically, 8.1 is suppose to allow booting straight to desktop, so a Start button that brings users back to the Metro interface seems sort of counter intuitive.

 

Yeah, hopefully it's still easy to mod.