A user's personal laptop has been behaving erratically for the past month. Today, however, the user cannot perform any work on the laptop, as the device locks up immediately after logging on. Believing the issue to be a malware infection, a technician takes the laptop back to the workbench for additional tests and diagnostics. A full-system malware scan returns inconclusive results. The user reports only new software installations have been made to the laptop.
Following best practice methodologies, which of the following should the technician perform NEXT to resolve the problem?