Two weeks and still with problems...

[Guest]

Hi,

I have various issues with my Vista Installation:
- Really long times for Windows during start up, specially after compu has
been shut down.

- Windows registry file getting corrupt now and then.

- Long time for programs to install.

I have checked the hard drive and the ram, wondering if the PSU is ok, does
anybody know how can i test the PSU?

Thanks

 

[Jon]

Hi,

I have various issues with my Vista Installation:
- Really long times for Windows during start up, specially after compu has
been shut down.

- Windows registry file getting corrupt now and then.

- Long time for programs to install.

I have checked the hard drive and the ram, wondering if the PSU is ok,
does
anybody know how can i test the PSU?

Thanks

I'd forget about the PSU - start with a chkdsk, defrag and removing any
unnecessary startup programs. Repost if you need help with any of those
areas, and I'm sure people will be able to fill you in.

 

[Guest]

HI,

please see answers below

Thanks

We need more information.

Is it a new build? Yes
What CPU? Intel Q6800 Extreme
What Motherboard? MSI K6N Diamond
What kind of , and how much RAM? 2x1Gb
Clean Vista install or upgrade? Clean Vista Home Premium install
Dual Boot? No
Any other add in cards in the system? No
Checked all drivers? Vista updated and all hardware ok, apart from a USB WLAN adapter which is using XP drivers
Bios updates? updated, version 1.3
Video card? What kind? 2 x Gforce 8800 GTX
Audio cards? What kind? X-Fi integrated in the MOBO
x64? no
What other issues?

I have just installed the Unreal Tournament III demo and works perfectly...

 

[Charlie Tame]

Hi,

I have various issues with my Vista Installation:
- Really long times for Windows during start up, specially after compu has
been shut down.

- Windows registry file getting corrupt now and then.

- Long time for programs to install.

I have checked the hard drive and the ram, wondering if the PSU is ok, does
anybody know how can i test the PSU?

Thanks

This sounds like a hardware / driver problem.

If you installed Vista yourself...

Did you have a CD with drivers on for the motherboard that came with the
machine, if so you need to visit the manufacturer's website and check
for Vista compatible drivers, this depends on a lot of factors and
installing Vista on a machine with parts you may not have drivers for is
a really bad idea, motherboards have numerous parts that need drivers
and unlike XP Vista is poorly supported - never mind what the publicity
machine tells you. This will slow you down to a crawl and probably cause
errors.

You need to have lots of memory, 2 Gigabytes at least. 1G will work but
is slow. 512 K will work but is hopeless. If not, don't add to what you
already have but buy a new batch from one place at the same time.

What do you mean by the registry getting corrupt? This could indicate
either of the above problems but also malware, unless you are in the
habit of simply turning the machine off instead of shutting down, which
I doubt.

If you are using some "Registry Cleaner" then stop using it, in only 2
weeks you should not have been able to use the machine enough in that
time for registry cleaning, defragmenting or any other service type work
to be done.

1. Look for motherboard drivers if you have not already done so.
2. Video card drivers next (Once you are sure you got all the others)
3. Copy these to CD or someplace you can get at them if offline
4. Consider a clean install of Vista followed by the drivers if the
drivers don't solve the problems, there may be something broken now.
Install Windows updates but NOT driver software that is offered. Do this
one item at a time.
5. Begin installing things patiently, install-test / install-test etc.
6. Avoid McAfee and Norton and things that promise complete security
packaging, most are bloated and interfere with things they should not,
AVG or Avast work reasonably well.

 

[Guest]

Another issue I get very commonly is during the install of programs, the
system will start the process, and all of a sudden it will stop, the hard
drive will keep flashing intermitently, and I have to reboot the system to
try again.

The program will normally install after I try two or three times, isn't it
weird?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Guest]

Hi,

first of all, thanks for your help.

I have built the system myself with parts.

The hard drive is as Seagate ST3750640AS 750Gb.

I have updated drivers for the motherboard, graphic cards, etc.

Due to the fact that system hangs up occasioanally during the install of
some of the programs, I have to switch off the computer instead of shutting
it down properly, I don't know if this may be causing the problems with the
registry file.

Is it normal that the hard drive keeps reading intermittently during normal
operation in Windows Vista? I have disabled the index service, and UAC, but
still the hard drive will keep reading intermittently.

Thanks.

 

[XS11E]

Is it normal that the hard drive keeps reading intermittently during
normal operation in Windows Vista? I have disabled the index service,
and UAC, but still the hard drive will keep reading intermittently.

Sounds like you might have a bad harddrive or a bad motherboard.

 

[Guest]

The hard drive has passed the Sea Tools hard drive analyser software, on
both, the short and the long test.

How can I check if the motherboard has a problem?

Thanks.

 

[Charlie Tame]

Okay, if you right click on the drive you should see another checkbox
related to indexing. Try unchecking that, it made a huge difference on a
couple of machines here though I have no idea why. Others have
apparently found the same.

Random hangs could be a number of things, when you start it up see if
there is a setting in the BIOS something like "Plug and Play OS? Y/N"

Set this to no, that should force the BIOS to examine your devices and
sort out any IRQ conflicts etc. Sometimes the BIOS sets things and the
the OS cannot sort them out.

You only have one drive right? Check the jumpers on that and the CD /
DVD if they are on the same cable and if possible use the CS setting on
both.

On one vista machine the power off simply refuses to work, I just have
to wait until all drive activity has stopped and turn it off.

It does reboot however if something demands a reboot after install.
Turning off like this is a bad thing to do but I have no choice.

Yes it will damage the registry if there is some activity leaving it
open when you are forced to switch off. Better if you can to use
ctl/alt/del and use the "End TasK" option although that's not great
either

It may well be that you have some bad or damaged memory, shows up in
many different ways. What other hardware you got in there you can remove
to see what happens if the worst comes to the worst and no easy solution
is found?

 

[XS11E]

The hard drive has passed the Sea Tools hard drive analyser
software, on both, the short and the long test.

How can I check if the motherboard has a problem?

Other than replacing it, I don't know. Google around for some test
tools and see if there are any but I'd bet it's a bad Hard drive.

The SeaTools long test runs how long? If it's less than several hours
or less than the time between failures, your hard drive hasn't really
been tested.

 

[XS11E]

The hard drive has passed the Sea Tools hard drive analyser
software, on both, the short and the long test.

One other thought, I used to run 2 HDs in my old machine and had some
very odd failures, sometimes when I'd boot the BIOS would tell me there
was only one HD. I fixed that by setting the drive jumpers to master
and slave rather than cable select, check the setting on your drive.
If it's cable select move it to master or only drive, if it's master
move it to cable select.

 

[Guest]

HI,

please see answers below:

Okay, if you right click on the drive you should see another checkbox
related to indexing. Try unchecking that, it made a huge difference on a
couple of machines here though I have no idea why. Others have
apparently found the same.

I have the indexing function already disabled.

Random hangs could be a number of things, when you start it up see if
there is a setting in the BIOS something like "Plug and Play OS? Y/N"

Set this to no, that should force the BIOS to examine your devices and
sort out any IRQ conflicts etc. Sometimes the BIOS sets things and the
the OS cannot sort them out.

I couldn't find any option in the BIOS similar to what you discribe.

You only have one drive right? Check the jumpers on that and the CD /
DVD if they are on the same cable and if possible use the CS setting on
both.

All hard drives and the DVD unit are SATA, I haven't used any jumpers.

On one vista machine the power off simply refuses to work, I just have
to wait until all drive activity has stopped and turn it off.

It does reboot however if something demands a reboot after install.
Turning off like this is a bad thing to do but I have no choice.

Yes it will damage the registry if there is some activity leaving it
open when you are forced to switch off. Better if you can to use
ctl/alt/del and use the "End TasK" option although that's not great
either

Unfortunately, if I have to switch off the PC is because the ctrl+alt+delete
does not work.

It may well be that you have some bad or damaged memory, shows up in
many different ways. What other hardware you got in there you can remove
to see what happens if the worst comes to the worst and no easy solution
is found?

The memory has been checked twice already with Memtest, and it was ok.

The hard drive has had various tests with Sea Tools from Seagate and it was
ok. The last test was the one called "Long" and it lasted for 5 hours on my
750 Gb unit.

Yesterday I had errors when trying to install Nero 8.0, when I tried to
reboot the system, the PC could not boot, and all I'm left with is a black
screen with a cursor.

I need to use Windows Vista DVD to repair the situation.... really anoying...

 

[Guest]

Hi,

I have three hard drives, all of the SATA.

Two of them ara running on a hardware RAID 0, the other one is the main one
with the OS.

I haven't used any jumpers, because my understanding is that as these are
SATA hard drives, they don't need any jumpers, is this correct?

Thanks.

 

[XS11E]

I haven't used any jumpers, because my understanding is that as
these are SATA hard drives, they don't need any jumpers, is this
correct?

That's correct, I wasn't thinking, sorry.

 

[cvp]

That's correct, I wasn't thinking, sorry.

Depends on the make. Some have a jumper for 150Mb/s or 300Mb/s (Seagate
for example..). Others have that turned on by a utility program.
(Hitachi for example)