Fix for Vista Home Premium

[Stu Davis]

I have been having more or less continuing problems with my HP OEM Vista
Home Premium.

Several times a day it has been hanging up whether I am using Firefox
(preferred) or Internet Explorer

I have checked with every tool I can put my hands on but with no positive
results.

I am now looking at:

Reinstalling Vista OEM (would loose all my data information, bookmarks,
purchased tools, etc).

Buying a copy of Vista Home Premium Upgrade for about $60 or so on Ebay.
By doing this could I do a repair on Vista without loosing all my info?

Buying Norton Internet Security or a version that hones in on Vista.

If anyone has other suggestions or has an opinion I would appreciate it.
BTW, all updates, patches, SP1, etc have been applied.

Thanks for any help on this one. Vista is driving me crazy and there are no
Internet drivers I can find for XP for this HP laptop, otherwise I would
switch in an instant. It appears to his model was created strictly as a
Vista computer.

 

[Malke]

Stu Davis wrote:

Comments inline:

I have been having more or less continuing problems with my HP OEM Vista
Home Premium.

Several times a day it has been hanging up whether I am using Firefox
(preferred) or Internet Explorer

Have you done any hardware troubleshooting? Are the freezes only when you
are on the Internet?

I have checked with every tool I can put my hands on but with no positive
results.

What tools? What have you done? Have you updated your network adapter
drivers from HP?

The First Question Of Troubleshooting: If the problem is new, what changed
between the time things worked and the time they didn't?

The Second Question of Windows Troubleshooting: what is the malware/virus
status of the machine? If you think it is clean, what programs (and
versions) did you use to determine this?

Be sure the computer is clean:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

Since you really haven't given us enough information to troubleshoot your
issues, that's all I can suggest.

I am now looking at:

Reinstalling Vista OEM (would loose all my data information,
bookmarks,
purchased tools, etc).

No need to lose your data or your bookmarks. Back them up to an external
hard drive or burn to DVD. As for the "purchased tools", save your
license/purchase agreements and the installers.

Buying a copy of Vista Home Premium Upgrade for about $60 or so on
Ebay.
By doing this could I do a repair on Vista without loosing all my info?

Vista repair installs don't work the same as they did in XP so buying Vista
OEM would not be a solution. In any case, it would be foolish to attempt an
upgrade on a troubled system. And if the problems are caused by hardware,
this will not help at all. You need to fix the issues first.

Buying Norton Internet Security or a version that hones in on Vista.

Norton is one of the worst products you could buy. Only McAfee is worse.
Recommended antivirus programs are NOD32 (commercial) or Avast (free). The
built-in Windows Firewall is fine for most people.

If anyone has other suggestions or has an opinion I would appreciate it.
BTW, all updates, patches, SP1, etc have been applied.

Malke

 

[Malke]

Thanks for the info.

I am currently running AVG (free version) for my anti-virus.

I am using Spyware Doctor (subscription) for my Anti-Spyware.

I am using Advanced System Care Pro for my software maintenance.

As far as I can tell there is no udated Network adapter available for this
system.

Right now the system is running fine but is apt to freeze up on me again
at any time.

This laptop is about 14 months old. I would like to keep it for a while
longer.

I'm in agreement with Mike Hall except that I prefer Avast free instead of
Avira. I did use Avira on several of my machines and liked it but found
that the nag screen was annoying and could be alarming to some clients so I
went back to Avast.

As Mike said, get rid of Spyware Doctor and Advanced System Care Pro.

In spite of what you had installed, I would also do a malware scan with
either MalwareBytes' Anti-malware (www.malwarebytes.org) or
SuperAntiSpyware (www.superantispyware.com). The free versions are fine;
you do *not* need to purchase them.

And you need to do some hardware troubleshooting, at least checking the RAM
and the hard drive.

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

Malke

 

[Steve McGarrett]

I'm in agreement with Mike Hall except that I prefer Avast free instead of
Avira. I did use Avira on several of my machines and liked it but found
that the nag screen was annoying and could be alarming to some clients so I
went back to Avast.

That - and the splash screen - can be easily removed, even in the
newest version.

http://www.elitekiller.com/files/disable_antivir_nag.htm

 

[Stu Davis]

Well I have removed both Advanced Windows Care Pro and Spyware Doctor. At
this point still using AVG.

Will keep the group posted and thanks to all of you for the help. Right now
the system is running with no apparent problems.

Stu Davis

 

[Gordon]

Avira does have a nag screen to get you to buy the full version, BUT it
can be disabled easily enough

Didn't work on my Vista HP SP1.........
still, it was only £12 for a year for the full version.

 

[Stu Davis]

So, do I go with Avast or Avira?

Stu Davis

Didn't work on my Vista HP SP1.........
still, it was only £12 for a year for the full version.

--
Asking a question?
Please tell us the version of the application you are asking about,
your OS, Service Pack level
and the FULL contents of any error message(s)

 

[Gordon]

So, do I go with Avast or Avira?

Personally, I prefer Avira.....

 

[Stu Davis]

Well, for now I went with AVAST. Will see how it works out.

I did neglect to say that I also run Zone Alarm (free edition). Any comments
on this one.

Stu Davis

 

[Gordon]

Well, for now I went with AVAST. Will see how it works out.

I did neglect to say that I also run Zone Alarm (free edition). Any
comments on this one.

Only that if you are behind a NATS router, then the built-in Windows
firewall is perfectly adequate...

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

So, do I go with Avast or Avira?

You're going to get different answers from different people, and
ultimately you will have to make up your mind yourself.

But note that both are good products, so you don't have to worry about
making a disastrous choice.

 

[Stu Davis]

As far as I can determine I have the latest version of Zone Alarm as
provided by CheckPoint. I am not using a router.

No error messages appear, the system just freezes up with a message
"stopped" appearing in the lower left part of the firefox or IE screen.

I am running Vista Home Premium with SP1 applied and all other
patches/updates.

Stu Davis

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

As far as I can determine I have the latest version of Zone Alarm as
provided by CheckPoint. I am not using a router.

No error messages appear, the system just freezes up with a message
"stopped" appearing in the lower left part of the firefox or IE screen.

I am running Vista Home Premium with SP1 applied and all other
patches/updates.

Stu Davis

Even without a router, the Windows firewall is less problematic than Zone
Alarm..