Samsung PC that updates slowly may be full or flawed

Q: I upgraded my four-year-old Samsung Ultrabook PC to Windows 10 about seven months ago. Windows updates are now taking 10 to 23 hours to install via Wi-Fi, even though my cable internet connection has been upgraded to 100 megabits (million bits per second). What's wrong?

Susan Miller, Reading, Pa.

A: The problem may be your Samsung PC can't handle Windows 10, your hard drive is congested or your Wi-Fi connection doesn't work properly.

Samsung has been slow to adapt to Windows 10. In June, the company said that it still had not developed Windows 10 software drivers for its PCs, even though Windows 10 was a year old. (Software drivers allow Windows to communicate with individual PC components.) Samsung urged its PC customers to delay Windows 10 upgrades until new software drivers are available. If this is causing your problem, there's little you can do. But before you buy a new PC, check out the other possible causes.

Hard drive: If your hard drive is nearly full, the Windows 10 updates will be slow to install. In Windows File Explorer, right-click the C drive (your hard drive) and choose "properties." If the C drive is nearly full, delete some data files (after backing them up). Another way to ease hard disk congestion is called defragmenting; it consolidates files that are partly stored in many disk locations. Use the task bar search window to find "defragment and optimize drives" and click it. Then click "optimize."

Wi-Fi: Go to speedtest.net and click "begin test." Your download speed should be 60 to 100 megabits. If it's not, use the search window to find "wifi," and click "identify and repair network problems." If nothing's wrong, ask the cable company to remotely test the modem.

Q: When I play songs that I've downloaded on my HTC One smartphone, I hear a clipping sound in some of them. I don't have this problem with my Samsung phone. What's wrong?

A: The noise could be caused by the phone's own sound effects or by interference from an app that didn't come with the phone.

Some HTC One models produce sounds of clicking or water dripping whenever you touch the screen. To turn off those sounds, see tinyurl.com/z4rjy6s.

To find out if an app is interfering with the sound, start the phone in "safe mode," which disables apps you have downloaded. Enter safe mode by pressing and holding the power key. In the list of options, press and hold "power off." When "reboot to safe mode" appears, tap "restart." If the problem disappears, restart normally and disable any downloaded apps one at a time until you find the one that's interfering with the phone's sound.

Note: Last week, I suggested fixing the compass on a Galaxy Tab 4 tablet computer by downloading an app to calibrate it (see tinyurl.com/zl62sq2). But reader Ralph Delperdang of Burnsville said the solution is to remove the tablet's magnetic cover. "The cover folds back into a stand, and uses a magnet to hold it in place," Delperdang said. "If I remove the tablet cover and get the magnet out of range, the compass app works perfectly."