Sophy

I don't use hibernate. I use a fresh restart every time. After I posted this I did a restart just to check things out and the lines ran across the bar about 4 times, compared to 34 when I first started.

Just recently my computer has been really weird as far as start up times and I was wondering if anyone knows what might cause this. One time it will start super fast, and the next time be slower than heck. There are no new programs or anything. I have a Dell XPS410 with 2GB of RAM running Vista Home Premium. I have my startup programs pared down. I only have 3 programs running at startup: BitDefender, Win Patrol and RoboForm. When you get to the black screen with the Microsoft words and logo and the little bar with colored lines running across --- sometimes those lines will run across that bar just a few times and then my login screen opens. And then there are times like tonight, when the lines ran across the bar 34 times, and then there was quite a pause before my login screen appeared. I feel like there must be something wrong but don't have a clue to what.

Out of the blue my computer started make one soft, short beep every 3 minutes (I timed it) and this continued for about an hour and then stopped. I used the computer for about another 3 hours after that and it never started again. It has not beeped since I booted today. I contacted Dell and the tech thought for sure it must be the hard drive. But we ran a hard drive diagnostics and he said according to the results there was nothing wrong with the hard drive. Does anyone know what that might have been indicating?

Edzoss: If you are still checking this link, I did two things. I used the command box to make certain I had adequate storage space for System Restore. Just Google it and you will find the instructions. After that I shut System Restore off and started over. It has been enough days now so that I have accumulated new restore points and my System Restore is back to working. I opened it today and the features that were missing are once again in evidence. I hope your solution turns out to be as simple.

Edzoss: If you get an answer from another source please post it here so that I can view it. I will keep checking back. Thanks

I had already used the Search feature, plus googling the topic. If there was an answer as to how to get back the option to show restore points older than 5 days I couldn't find anything.

Vista Home Premium I used to have an option on System Restore where I could check it to show restore points older than five days. It has disappeared. How can I get it back? Also, I show that drive "D" is used for backup. I use Acronis, so could I somehow change things so that "D" is not used for backup? I don't understand much about this stuff so forgive me if I'm asking a completely stupid question. But, if that is possible, how do I do it? Thank you

I attempted to forward a joke to friends today and discovered that all of my contacts had disappeared. I use the Windows Mail in Vista Home Premium. Does anyone know why this would have happened? At the same time, I was having trouble with Internet Explorer 7. Every time I would attempt to log on I would get the message that it had stopped working and if there was a solution Windows would let me know. Thing is, it wasn't open, it wouldn't open. I finally switched to Firefox to Google these two things, and then when I went back to my RoboForm to sign into this forum Internet Explorer opened. Spyware Doctor keeps finding this item called: Spyware.Found_By_Browser_Defender. I select to fix it and then I can immediately do another scan and it shows up again. After "fixing" this item in the scan WinPatrol will pop up with a box that says they've detected a change to my home page to: about.blank. I select NO and WinPatrol keeps my home page in place. I also did a Quick Scan with SUPERAntiSpyware Free and it found nothing. I exited that program and did a Quick Scan with SpywareSweeper and it found only 6 low level tracking cookies. On these spyware programs, I normally alternate using them for scans. None of them run at start up and I have all the real time protection, etc., disabled in all of them so when I do open and run them only the scanner is active. The reason for this is that they don't get along with my BitDefender Internet Security 2008. Right now I am running a deep scan with BitDefender but don't expect it to find anything because I just ran a scan last night. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you, Sophy

Thank you so much for your answer. After posting I went to the Dell site. They showed an update for Intel Viiv 1.6, and then also a download for Intel Viiv 1.7 which I had already downloaded. I was so sick of fighting this problem I decided to step out on a limb so I set a restore point and first installed the 1.6 update, restarted and then installed the 1.7. I am no longer getting the message that it has stopped working. I appreciate the time you took to answer my post.

This started recently and I have no idea why because at the time it started I hadn't installed anything or made any changes. I have Windows Vista Home Premium. Every time I boot I get a pop up that states Intel Alert Service has stopped working and shut down. I went to Add/Remove, clicked on the Intel Viiv and selected to change. But it isn't solving the problem. I have downloaded the Intel Viiv 1.7 but don't know if I should install it or not since it's not working to start with. Can anyone help, please?

I run Vista Home Premium. Suddenly BitDefender is reporting items that it could not scan because they are password protected. I haven't done anything different other than downloading Firefox, so don't understand why this is popping up all of a sudden. Originally there were 4 items. I went into some antispyware programs I have -- which I do not allow to run at startup or in the background -- and removed files in quarantine. However, it's still showing one item and the problem is, I don't have any logs. When I go into the area where it shows the scans that have been run and click to show any of the log files, it should open a browser window with the scan results, but instead Windows Explorer opens. Also when I go to C:/Program Files/BitDefender, the folder labeled Logs is empty. I've written to BitDefender support but feel like I'm getting a run-around. I'd appreciate any help or hints. Thanks, Nikilet

I have a Hotmail account and therefore I assumed I have a Live ID. If this is correct then why can't I sign in to Windows Community to ask a question? I can sign into my Hotmail account fine. When I go to Windows Community there is a "Sign In" button on the top right When I click on that nothing comes up -- no "Sign In" box. It just brings me right back to the Windows Community page I was on and still says "Sign In." I can read posts but can't reply to one or start a new one because I can't sign in. Maybe I'm not understanding this Live ID business right???

I think it was a problem with the mouse and I think I have it straightened out now. If not I'll come back. Thanks!

Thanks for your answers. I do have a 320GB Iomega USB hard drive, but I don't normally have it turned on.

I have Windows Vista Home Premium on a Dell XPS 410 with 2 GB RAM. Sometimes when I open System Restore it will open right up. Other times it takes forever and I'll go in and click on it again and then will get a pop up stating that it's already running but it still hasn't opened. Why is this?

Dell XPS 410 - Windows Vista Home Premium Just recently my computer has been hanging at the Welcome screen. It doesn't always happen. The only new thing I've installed is a Micro Innovations wireless keyboard and mouse. Does anyone have an idea why this may be happening all of a sudden?

I decided to do some research on MBSA to see if I could get more answers to some of the things I questioned from the scan I ran. It says that MSBA does not detect all the updates that Microsoft releases -- so I don't feel quite so safe again.

I have something to add here. When you go to these various updates that I downloaded it says there is a newer update and then it gives a link to get the most current cumulative security update and that link takes me to the Microsoft Update page. From there my Windows Update window opens and it says there are no new updates available for my computer. If this is correct, then what the heck is it with this Panda scan telling me last night that I had these 7 areas of vulnerability? I thought that was a pretty reputable company. It looks to me like either their scanner is wrong, or my Windows/Microsoft Update collection is not working properly. Which brings on another question. Why have I never received that Vista SP1 update through my Windows Update? Everything I read indicated that it would come through and I've been watching for it because I wanted to make sure I didn't install it. Thanks, guys/gals, for your help so far and anything further you can provide to help me get straightened around and understand things a little better.

I warned you ahead of time that when it comes to these technical issues I am a computer dummy. I hope you will hang in there with me and keep helping. As to MS08-031, how do I tell if the seven patches that I downloaded on recommendation from the Panda scan are included in this? Keep in mind that as to dates of issued updates, if updates for Internet Explorer do not come through the Windows Update, I've never downloaded any. I selected the option now to collect other updates too so I'm assuming that I will now receive IE updates from Microsoft through Windows Update. Is this right? In clicking on that MS08-031, I clicked on another link to take me to the latest computer security updates and it lists 7 updates issued in June; one of them is for DirectX and so this matches what I downloaded thru Panda scan, however, I've compared those update numbers with the ones I downloaded and they don't match so I'm more confused than ever. I downloaded and ran the Baseline Security Analyzer -- twice. No security updates are missing. However, this applies just to Windows updates, doesn't it? If so this still doesn't cover Internet Explorer updates. If this is wrong please advise. Office security updates indicates that I need to install Office XP SP3. I run Vista, so why would I need this? SQL Server: No updates missing. Under Administrative Vulnerabilities: It says a previous software update install was not completed and I need to restart to finish the update. I did that. I ran BSA again and it says the same thing. It doesn't give any indication of which piece of software this refers to. It says 3 f 4 user accounts have non-expiring passwords. I have no idea what this means, but the part that puzzles me is that I have only two user accounts. My administrative account which I use and the guest account so I don't know what the other 2 are. I am the only one who uses this computer. It shows 2 administrators on this computer: Administrator, and the other one is (My Name). Is this correct? Logon success and failure auditing are not enabled. I don't know if this should be enabled, but it tells me to go to Administrative Tools and click on Local Security Policy -- which I can't find under Administrative Tools. Under Internet it says IIS is not running on this computer and SQL Server and/or MSDE is not installed. I have no idea what this even means. Under Internet Zones it lists the same user three times and says all are under the recommended level. I opened IE and set all at default, which is what it suggests and it still says, in the second scan, the same thing.

I thought if updates/patches were needed for Internet Explorer they were included in my critical updates from Windows Update. I ran an online scan with Panda and it listed 7 vulnerabilities. Six of these were with Internet Explorer and one for DirectX. Panda gave the links to download the patches and I did so but I haven't installed them yet. All of them were listed as critical. I don't want to download a bunch of stuff that's going to cause me problems because I've had enough of those lately, but I don't want to be unprotected either. Can someone advise this computer dummy what I'm supposed to do please? Should I be checking myself for updates and patches for Internet Explorer? Thank you Sophy

I'm running Vista Home Premium. I installed QuarkXPress 5.0 a year ago when I got this computer and it's always worked just fine. Now, I can open the Quark program only by selecting "Run as administrator" -- which is ok -- except that I can't open the documents I create through it. I love this program and use it a lot. Does anyone have any ideas why this little problem has suddenly cropped up?

I finally got an answer through the Sun forum. I am pasting the exact answer as follows: Go to this page http://java.sun.com/ and click the Java SE download link at the right. Select either the JDK or the JRE download (if you want to creat and compile Java programs you want the JDK, otherwise the JRE.) Save the download to your disk. Click the downloaded file to install Java. I saved the download to C/Users/Cindy -- rather than to my desktop. I exited BitDefender, went into the Users/Cindy file -- clicked to install and it installed like a dream. I want to express thanks for all the help, and now hopefully this process that worked for me will work for others who are having trouble. Sophy

I'm sorry but I'll need more help. I have the Process Monitor running. I think you want me to try and install the Java update while this is running, but I don't understand what you mean by "capture a trace." What exactly do I need to do? I tried to go into the help files for Process Monitor but nothing shows up when I click on a topic. Over on the right where the info should be it says "Navigation to the web page was cancelled." Or "The address is not valid."

Since I first wrote this I've changed my mind about it being a problem with Windows Installer. I have downloaded that Process Monitor and will run it and get back to you. In the meantime, perhaps the following will help. When I try to download the Java update I get the following error message: Error 1101.Error reading from file:http://javadl-esd.sun.com/update/1.6.0/sp-1.6.0_07/sp1033.MST. Verify that the file exists and that you can access it. I typed the above http address from the error message into my browser; it allowed me to save a file to my desktop and I opened with Notepad. It was mostly gibberish, but there were some clear messages in it as follows: TLOSS error SING error DOMAIN error R6029 - This application cannot run using the active version of the Microsoft .NET Runtime Please contact the application's support team for more information. R6028 - unable to initialize heap R6027 - not enough space for lowio initialization R6026 - not enough space for stdio initialization R6025 - pure virtual function call R6024 - not enough space for _onexit/atexit table R6019 - unable to open console device R6018 - unexpected heap error R6017 - unexpected multithread lock error R6016 - not enough space for thread data This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way. Please contact the application's support team for more information. R6009 - not enough space for environment R6008 - not enough space for arguments R6002 - floating point not loaded Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library Runtime Error! Program: ... <program name unknown> Program: A buffer overrun has been detected which has corrupted the program's internal state. The program cannot safely continue execution and must now be terminated. Buffer overrun detected! A security error of unknown cause has been detected which has corrupted the program's internal state. The program cannot safely continue execution and must now be terminated. Unknown security failure detected!

I wrote earlier about a problem installing Java update and didn't get any answers; however, I now am pretty sure this is a problem with the Windows Installer Service. I have Googled and been on the Microsoft site and read and read for several hours now and I really can't find much of anything. I wrote to Microsoft and they answered me with a bunch of links, most of which I'd already been to and which did me no good. From my Googling I surmise that this is quite a widespread problem. Is there anyone in this forum who knows of anything that can be done about this problem? Thanks, Sophy