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General discussion

Please answer this

Sep 13, 2007 11:48PM PDT

Almost everytime I open a lot of paint images or Youtube videos or anything especially Ares my taskbar at the bottom goes to the top of the screen and everything starts blinking like a strobe light and either I can't click on anything or I start closing a lot of stuff and it won't stop so I have to pull the cord out since it won't let me click on the start menu to get to the restart button. It only started doing this after I installed Vista Home after tried to do a full recovery with Windows XP Home and it wasn't working so I bought Vista Home. I've only had Vista for like 2 weeks and it started doing this like 3 or 4 days after I installed it so it can't be a virus even though I don't have any anti-virus programs. Have you ever heard of this ******** happening to anyone else? This might of caused it: When I did the system recovery I forgot I did a full recovery and erased my hard drive and the reason I bought Vista was because when I put in the system recovery disk 2 it said it wasn't disc 2 which is absurd since it says disc 2 on the disc and I got these from Compaq instead of making them myself and so thats why I bought Vista but since I forgot I did a full recovery I bought the upgrade version and didn't put the product key in during installation so I did that a week later and it said my product key wouldn't work for clean installations so I bought the full version and used its product key to activate it. Yeah I'm a idiot so do you think I should use the full version CD to reinstall Vista will solve the problem? Is it possible to reinstall the software since I already activated it with this product key. I think if I did erase the harddrive once again, reinstalled it, and then tried to use this product key it would think I'm trying to install it on a different computer which it probably won't let me do. Remember the upgrade CD did do a full installation its just its product key woudn't activate it and it would of stopped working after like 26 days without activating it.

Discussion is locked

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Very interesting...
Sep 14, 2007 12:10AM PDT

* Sounds like Explorer.exe may have been crashing, causing the unresponsiveness. If it happens again press ctrl + shirt + esc and kill the process Explorer.exe, then go File->Run and create a new instance of it. If you can then use the task bar/start menu that's the surface problem.

* I take it your computer came with XP Home preinstalled? How did you upgrade to Vista...an upgrade provided by Compaq/HP or did you purchase a Vista upgrade license?

* The average attack occurs minutes after connecting to the internet without protection, so a malware infection is far from impossible. Also note that Ares and other P2P networks are loaded with malware-infested downloads, so you are much more likely to contract something than the average user. You really need to add virus and spyware protection.

* You said "I installed Vista Home after tried to do a full recovery with Windows XP Home and it wasn't working so I bought Vista Home." How did you install Vista Home before you purchased it? Where did that initial copy come from? If it came from Compaq/HP, what about the copy of XP? (Did Compaq ship you both?)

* Yes, using the Vista DVD with a full retail product key as opposed to an upgrader's key should let you install normally. I would consider its purchase a waste of money since it's not needed, but if you've opened the packaging it's too late now to return it for a refund. However, Microsoft does accept returns within the first 90 days if you're dissatisfied, so you may want to explore your options there.

* You can reinstall Vista as many times as you like. Microsoft logs your hardware configuration during each install, so as long as that matches, within a little leeway for upgrades, you shouldn't have a problem. Worst case scenario: You have you call Microsoft for a phone activation.

Let us know.
John

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thanks
Sep 15, 2007 4:54AM PDT

"* I take it your computer came with XP Home preinstalled? How did you upgrade to Vista...an upgrade provided by Compaq/HP or did you purchase a Vista upgrade license?"

"* The average attack occurs minutes after connecting to the internet without protection, so a malware infection is far from impossible. Also note that Ares and other P2P networks are loaded with malware-infested downloads, so you are much more likely to contract something than the average user. You really need to add virus and spyware protection."

"* You said "I installed Vista Home after tried to do a full recovery with Windows XP Home and it wasn't working so I bought Vista Home." How did you install Vista Home before you purchased it? Where did that initial copy come from? If it came from Compaq/HP, what about the copy of XP? (Did Compaq ship you both?)"

"* Yes, using the Vista DVD with a full retail product key as opposed to an upgrader's key should let you install normally. I would consider its purchase a waste of money since it's not needed, but if you've opened the packaging it's too late now to return it for a refund. However, Microsoft does accept returns within the first 90 days if you're dissatisfied, so you may want to explore your options there."


Yeah Windows XP came installed. I didn't install Vista before I purshased it. I did a full system recovery but my system recovery disks weren't working so I went to CompUSA to buy a new operating system because I didn't want to mess with getting new recovery disks from Compaq and I've been wanting Vista since it came out so this gave me more of a reason to buy it but you don't have to type your product key at installation and I didn't so I guess if I did it would of told me then that I can't do a clean install but I skipped typing the product key and did a clean installation and then a week later I tried to activate the product key and it told me it would only work for upgrades so I went back to CompUSA and got my money back then bought the full version and used its product key to activate it since after 26 days it would of stopped working. They did let me return it after I said I bought the wrong version since I'm a idiot and I was going to use the money to buy the full version which was $200 instead of $100.

I think I started getting this strange problem 3-4 days after the installation and I downloaded the newest version of Ares probably on the second day since I spent the first day putting stuff from my CDRWS and music CDs back on here. I noticed awhile ago that when I started downloading stuff from Ares it was more likely to happen and I also think when I open a lot of folders its more likely to happen. Like I said I don't have a anti-virus since I erased my harddrive but my computer did come with one. It could be a virus but I've never heard of one causing this problem. Thanks for the help.

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Ditto on the anti-virus
Sep 20, 2007 3:21AM PDT

You can get Ad-aware for free and there are free anti-viruses on the net. Check on Cnets, download.com for these items. You can be up and running with protection very quickly. This is not an anti-virus program but you might want to run it anyway.

http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx

Do you really need Ares? These P2P (person to person) sites are really risky you know. Do your scans often. If you want to be protected I'd recommend a security suite. This will give you protection from computer threats but not the people kind. Be careful.

Have you checked to see if your computer is Vista compatible? To run Vista you might need some Hardware upgrades. Vista doesn't work well on older machines. Only the most modern in fact. Two GBs of RAM are recommended, for starters. This is the site for the upgrade advisor software.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradeadvisor.mspx?wt_svl=20409a&mg_id=20409b

This software will allow you to check your software and hardware to make sure that it will run with Vista.

Good luck.