I need some Tech Help

Tom

An Old Friend
My Vista is hanging up and even task manager won't come up- I have to keep doing forced powerdown restarts

I will try to give more info tonight after work.

Windows update hangs during malicious removal tool install
ff3 hangs at youtube and during posts in msg boards

task manager wont start and sometimes it does then (not Responds)

Windows explorer hangs (not Responds)

This is all since vista sp1 update (I think)

I did hp hardware tests and everything is good
 
Sorry, Skwirl, but I'm not running Vista on any machines anywhere. :(

At work we use too many development tools on XP & Win Server boxes to allow us to have a mixed environment and at home I had nothing but problems trying to get Vista to work with our corporate VPN.

Does Vista SP1 offer an uninstall option so you can rollback the changes to see if that helps?
 
get a copy of Tuneuputilities and run the "registry cleaner" in that. then run the disk defragmenter. Not a brilliant one, diskeeper has the best when set on "file performance"
 
I have run antivirus, two reg cleaners and defragger twice

When it locks up even the processors are idle

sometimes I get a 'not reponding' and sometimes I dont

I even ran antivirus in safe mode.
 
have you installed Service Pack 1?

have you tried uninstalling all the programs you can do without, then reinstalling them. When uninstalled also uninstall any video codecs you've installed and then add them one by one by using Gspot on the videos you are trying to play that don't have picture/sound. Also, use videolan as your primary video player to start with.
 
The problem seemed to start just after I installed Vista SP1 update.

My videos play fine. I'm using GOM player as default - I like it - lots of good features

My issues are mainly with Windows update the malicious removal tool starts to download then hangs everything at 0% completion. I tried to hide it but it won't hide either.

Another thing it does is

if I walk away with my browser open and comeback it is all locked up SOMETIMES

Sometimes If I rt click my start bar and select task manager the task manager never opens
I just get a working cursor and no new programs will open. Cntrl/alt/del does absolutely nothing - SOMETIMES

Sometimes, like right now - everything is working great - Not attempting the windows update but that little icon by my clock is messing with me.

I went to MS knowledge base but It just tel you how to run the malicious tool remover thing - All my other updates work and install correctly as long as I uncheck the malicious tool one. The knowledge base has no knowledge about the issue I am experiencing.
I gave feedback and even sent the reports of the crash log. NOTHING back from them yet - I'm holding my breath.

I tried installing a game, x2 demo worldwide. It installs 3/4 of the way then stalls. I cancel and it just stays at 3/4. I cant close the installer, I can't bring up task manager (It won't start) I can't cntrl/alt/del into a forced log off. I have to pop the power strip power button and then it reboots and restarts. Sometimes its ok , sometimes it hangs. Usually after a forced power restart I do an immediate restart and its ok for awhile. Right now I am in that situation after 4 forced power starts earlier.

I was considering doing a full sys recovery but in order to save my files It will take 300gb and I don't wish to go to that extreme. I'm mostly concerned that these forced power-downs are taking a toll on my hardware.

The problem is a software issue, I imagine it has something to do with something sp1 changed or I tweaked after installing sp1.

I have every scheduled task turned off. I have a bunch of processes in manual and a few disabled. I tried putting every process at auto but that was awful.
I might be able to grab a screenshot of my process table from task manager. If task manager will start.

Ok I screenshot services in task manager in 4 consecutive shots
 
have you tried all the methods of turning off worthless stuff you see in the blogs offering techie advice to people whose vista install is slow because they have naff machines? you might find one of those processes is buggered and if you switch off one by one till you find it you might recover?
 
I know about that. I have been tweaking the processes but I have lost track of where I was at.
When it locks up I noticed that the processor light isn't blinking. Not everytime but most of the time. Its like it went to sleep but just stopped responding and never shuts down.

Could it be in my energy star system?
 
Well Right now its doing fine. I'm not going to try to update till there are other updates to do, then I will uncheck that one and go from there.

There may be multiple issues at work here
 
if it was your power supply, when you game your graphics card sucks electricity and the screen would go black.
 
I have 2 updates. The nvidia one from 2007 is older than the one I just downloaded from nvidia so I don't want to install it and have to reinstall the one I have next time I go to nvidia.

The other one is the problem child
july 2008
 
To rule out another problem that is hitting a lot of people thanks to a recent MS update, try disabling (temporarily!) any firewalls you might be running.
 
I got rid of McAfee and I have disabled threatfire, I alsow got rid of spyware blaster
I don't know how to disable my hardware firewall without disconnecting it.
 
Disabling the firewalls worked - I am now fully up to date

Now if the not responding ff3 issue is fixed I am all happy again
 
Just make sure that you're running a firewall somewhere so that your box does not appear on the net and your PC is protected.

Thanks to a recent MS update I am finding myself updating all of my home machines today thanks to a ZoneAlarm / MS patch conflict.

:banghead:
 
Jetico is a good free personal firewall, if it runs on vista (I'm using it on XP.) Will ask for everything to go online, but hasn't conflicted with anything yet I can see.
 
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