HELP! Flash, Firefox, Sound, WMC probs...go back to xp?

[Guest]

(To start, I'm by no means a computer guru, but I have SOME limited knowledge)

Dell Inspiron 16400 (though labeled on the machine as a E1505)
Intel Core 2 CPU t7200 @ 2.00GHz
2046 MB Ram
32 bit Operating system (Vista Home Pro)
81.1GB Hard drive

When I first recieved my new laptop with Windows Vista, I was excited. I'd
heard there were still a few bugs to work out, but figured I'd give it a
shot. At first my only problem was that a few of the programs I wanted on
here had not come out with versions for Vista yet.

I installed Firefox and it ran with no problems. . . once. After that it
just wouldn't open. When I tried to uninstall then re-install it. . it would
hit an error in the middle of the installation process. Very annoying as it
still somehow became my default browser, so links would try to open through
it. I eventually had to manually delete the files with the help of tech
support (Dell). I should have called up Windows, but I didn't

Next strange thing: while playing music, I noticed it would kind of...lag
down while my computer was trying to do something else at the same time. Now
this is an almost naked machine at this point. And when I say "lag" I don't
mean get choppy..I mean like someone hit the slow option on a voice changer.
The tempo will slow down, and the tone will go down. Later when playing World
of Warcraft, I noticed the same thing would happen in high activity areas in
the game, and this time it would become choppy too. My video wouldn't lag,
but the sound, voice chat, and ambiance sounds would. Seems strange that a
computer that is brand new and decent should have this issue. ESPECIALLY when
my boyfriend, running on xp with 512mB Ram and 30gB hard drive with much
older hardware isn't having an issue. Should have called Windows. . didn't.

I discovered for the first time last night that I can use my XboX 360 as a
Windows Media Center Extender. Previously had just used Zune to play music
and movies from my computer. It would disconnect citing "Network congestion"
as a cause. Fair enough. I then installed an update for WMC. After that, my
360 could not detect my computer through WMC, and WMC on my computer kept
freezing.

Also after installing other Vista updates yesterday, I can now no longer
see/hear ANYTHING adobe Flash. Trying un-installing Flash, re-installing,
turning off UAC and Defender, as well as my other protection program MacAfee,
and any pop-up blockers. Restored my computer to yesterday afternoon (before
installing updates), and un-installing the updates. . still no flash works.

Now, when I'm severely annoyed, I discover that I can no longer call Windows
without paying $59.00 because it's been more than 90 days since I activated
my copy of Vista. I'm about to take my ball and go home. Seriously thinking
about buying myself a stack of DVD-R s, taking my stuff off this machine,
reformatting it, and putting XP on. Thank god I still have my licensed copy
lying around from my old machine.

If ANYONE can help me out with this, it would save me hours of aggravation.
This machine is less than a year old. I'm just getting tired of little piddly
things that shouldn't be happening.

 

[Guest]

http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14157

With the above link, uninstall flash completely; then reinstall it.

Incompatible programs: right-click on their setup.exe>select
properties>compatibility mode>install in XP SP2 compatibility mode.

Make sure that you have the latest version of Firefox.

Can not help with others; don't play computer games!

 

[Spanky deMonkey]

Aren't You The Guy Who Calls People Cockhead? Just FYI.

 

[HeyBub]

(To start, I'm by no means a computer guru, but I have SOME limited
knowledge)

Dell Inspiron 16400 (though labeled on the machine as a E1505)
Intel Core 2 CPU t7200 @ 2.00GHz
2046 MB Ram
32 bit Operating system (Vista Home Pro)
81.1GB Hard drive

When I first recieved my new laptop with Windows Vista, I was
excited. I'd heard there were still a few bugs to work out, but
figured I'd give it a shot. At first my only problem was that a few
of the programs I wanted on here had not come out with versions for
Vista yet.

I installed Firefox and it ran with no problems. . . once. After that
it
just wouldn't open. When I tried to uninstall then re-install it. .
it would hit an error in the middle of the installation process. Very
annoying as it still somehow became my default browser, so links
would try to open through it. I eventually had to manually delete the
files with the help of tech support (Dell). I should have called up
Windows, but I didn't

Next strange thing: while playing music, I noticed it would kind
of...lag down while my computer was trying to do something else at
the same time. Now this is an almost naked machine at this point. And
when I say "lag" I don't mean get choppy..I mean like someone hit the
slow option on a voice changer. The tempo will slow down, and the
tone will go down. Later when playing World of Warcraft, I noticed
the same thing would happen in high activity areas in the game, and
this time it would become choppy too. My video wouldn't lag, but the
sound, voice chat, and ambiance sounds would. Seems strange that a
computer that is brand new and decent should have this issue.
ESPECIALLY when my boyfriend, running on xp with 512mB Ram and 30gB
hard drive with much older hardware isn't having an issue. Should
have called Windows. . didn't.

I discovered for the first time last night that I can use my XboX 360
as a Windows Media Center Extender. Previously had just used Zune to
play music and movies from my computer. It would disconnect citing
"Network congestion" as a cause. Fair enough. I then installed an
update for WMC. After that, my 360 could not detect my computer
through WMC, and WMC on my computer kept freezing.

Also after installing other Vista updates yesterday, I can now no
longer see/hear ANYTHING adobe Flash. Trying un-installing Flash,
re-installing, turning off UAC and Defender, as well as my other
protection program MacAfee, and any pop-up blockers. Restored my
computer to yesterday afternoon (before installing updates), and
un-installing the updates. . still no flash works.

Now, when I'm severely annoyed, I discover that I can no longer call
Windows without paying $59.00 because it's been more than 90 days
since I activated my copy of Vista. I'm about to take my ball and go
home. Seriously thinking about buying myself a stack of DVD-R s,
taking my stuff off this machine, reformatting it, and putting XP on.
Thank god I still have my licensed copy lying around from my old
machine.

If ANYONE can help me out with this, it would save me hours of
aggravation. This machine is less than a year old. I'm just getting
tired of little piddly things that shouldn't be happening.

First, you may not be ABLE to go back to XP. Dell may not have developed
hardware drivers to match their hardware to an older OS.

Second, Firefox has been known to cause your cat to develop warts. I've
never heard of Firefox bothering an OS, but I wouldn't be surprised. You
can't, for example, use parental controls or set Firefox 2.0.0 as the
default browser in Vista.

Adobe (both Flash and Acrobat) are known troublemakers. Zune does not work
with Vista (unless you apply the updates. McAffee (shudder) is not
recommended.

The alternative - copying your stuff to CDs and assuming you have 40Gigs of
stuff - would require about 60 CDs and about 8 hours of effort. Probably
more (both in time and CDs) as you would have to jiggle the numbers to get
the maximum number of files on each CD.


I'd restore the computer to its factory-fresh condition and lay off the
junk. In the alternative, offer to trade computers with your boyfriend...

 

[Riatana]

Ty for the suggestion. If it gets to the point where I do want to try
reformatting, I'll probably do this BEFORE I hit up XP. I'm so used to the
little nuances of Vista by now, I'd rather cross my fingers and hope it works
than run into those "Oh, that's right, I can't do that anymore" moments.
HOPEFULLY though, I'll find a solution that does not involve a date with my
CD/DVD+RW drive.

 

[Riatana]

Unfortunately, the uninstall and reinstall of Flash didn't work. Even the
de-bugger tool that Adobe provides didn't work.

For programs that aren't working, I'll try your suggestion and let you know
how it goes.

It was the latest version of Firefox at the time, but perhaps there is a
newer version out now, and maybe I should try the above suggestion when
installing it

As for games. I know you said you don't play computer games, but can you
think of a reasonable reason for my music and sound to hiccup when the
computer is doing something as small as loading a webpage? By no means is my
laptop "top of the line", but I don't think I have crap for system resources!

Thanks for your response!

 

[Riatana]

First, you may not be ABLE to go back to XP. Dell may not have developed
hardware drivers to match their hardware to an older OS.

Second, Firefox has been known to cause your cat to develop warts. I've
never heard of Firefox bothering an OS, but I wouldn't be surprised. You
can't, for example, use parental controls or set Firefox 2.0.0 as the
default browser in Vista.

Adobe (both Flash and Acrobat) are known troublemakers. Zune does not work
with Vista (unless you apply the updates. McAffee (shudder) is not
recommended.

The alternative - copying your stuff to CDs and assuming you have 40Gigs of
stuff - would require about 60 CDs and about 8 hours of effort. Probably
more (both in time and CDs) as you would have to jiggle the numbers to get
the maximum number of files on each CD.


I'd restore the computer to its factory-fresh condition and lay off the
junk. In the alternative, offer to trade computers with your boyfriend...

Lol, even despite the issues I'm having, my boyfriend's machine was above
average when I bought it. . . almost 5 years ago : ). So, I think I'll stay
away from THAT option

That's part of the thing that's bugging me is I really don't have too much
on this machine! Aside from pictures and documents (For school and work), and
a smattering of music, I have Photoshop CS2, and World of Warcraft.
Everything else is what came on the machine pretty much. The only things I've
tried to add (that needless to say didn't want to work) were Limewire,
Firefox, and AVG (virus and spyware protection...now you know why I still
have macafee on this thing)

The sync to my 360 works with Zune (just the program, I don't have the
little toy), it's working as a Media Center Extender that is messed up

Just strange that Flash stuff would die for no apparent reason!
Thanks for your response

 

[Riatana]

Used you compatibility suggestion to re-download firefox and it WORKS now.
Whats better is that Firefox is NOT having a problem with flash at all! At
least I have one browser working the way it's supposed to! (so far)