psimmons4

Gateway GT5034 AMD Athlon 64 4200+ 2.2GHz 2 GB (4X512 M) ram Western Dig. WD3200BB-22KEA0 hdd PNY Nvidia Geforce 7600GS Vista Home Prem. x86 Random BSODs (at least1-2 times/day)...Vista says its Nvidia SATA driver. I think this is a nforce 4 board (roughly yr 2005-2006)..its OEM from Gateway. Gateway has no driver for it that I have found for Vista...The board has integrated graphics--> Nvidia 6100 set, but Nvidia website has many nforce4 chipset versions (400, 410, 430, etc.). Anyone know if one of these might work? Thx

Agreed that installing SP1 may help fix, however, in my case, SP1 is installed and my problems continue.

I did in fact delete just the registry key...I just said folder because in regedit it looks like a folder...I did not delete the folder in Program Files. This solution still did not work for me and actually made things much worse for WMP11. BTW, I forgot to mention; When I tried the "delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer" folder (hehe) solution, MikeyHunt says that windows should ask if you want to reinstall WMP11, however this did not happen when I rebooted my machine. Peace, P

MikeyHunt, Uh...don't think this is a fix...I tried your solution and Media Player was severely damaged, would not play any video whatsoever (not even the visualizations when playing audio only)...some audio would not work, random crashes of WMP11, etc. I had to system restore to get the player to play ANY video. My experience: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer (delete folder/key) ---> Reboot ----> (nothing, no re-install, no dialogs, nada; no working WMP11) ---> System Restore ---> Reboot ---> WMP11 (with original problems) If I missed something, please lemme know.. Also, has anyone had issues with video stuttering after installing the new Nvidia 175.16 WHQL drivers....never had a problem before, now all video stutters (mpgs, wmvs, etc.) Thx Vista Home Prem. x86

Hey folks, thx for the posts... boston: I agree that your solution should be a fix, however, I have already tried your method and it will not solve the problem I described. I don't believe this is a "sorting" issue...when I apply the steps you outlined, the start menu items sort as they should, but the blank space still exists. bmhome1: Thank you for the information concerning Taskbar Repair Tool...while I find this tool is great for fixing some issues, it does not address any issues with the Start Menu itself...the only option in Taskbar Repair Tool concerning the start menu is to enable/disable it completely. BTW...almost all items included in Taskbar Repair Tool are available in PROPERTIES under startmenu/taskbar. Also, my research has lead me to a few 3rd party progs that run a startmenu, however, I don't think it should be necessary to run another program for start menu funcionality. All Windows versions have a start menu that functions just fine (unless you're organizing an large amount of items) and running another program to cover up problems with the OS's built-in functions is not a solution, it's a band-aid. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I would think that start menu functions are part of explorer.exe..can explorer.exe be repaired? Are there registry hax for explorer items? Of course, I know there are registry entries for some explorer items (context menu, sizing, etc.), but none I have seen so far that are specific to the start menu itself. Thx to all for responses...I know this is a rather minor issue, but it's interesting to find such a seemingly simple problem with no real solution...GO VISTA!!

LOL...there is no shortcut on the menu...it's just blank space. If blank space is right clicked, you get...PROPERTIES...the general properties for the taskbar and start menu. Removed all items from start menu left pane to see if menu would resize and it does not. Shouldn't the start menu resize based on what items are in the right and/or left panes (I only have 4 items in right pane)? This was tru for XP. I have tried every possible way of changing the start menu properties and the icons/shortcuts within the menu with no success. I guess explorer.exe (and hence the start menu) is corrupt slightly?!?! Is there any way to fix explorer.exe without a complete reinstall? This problem, I feel, is at the program level (explorer.exe) and not a problem with actual shortcuts and their modifiers...if that was the case, this problem would have been fixed already. Also, I've seen registry hax and DWORDS for a couple items having to do with the start menu. Anyone know comprehensive details on start menu registry functions? Thx, P

Has anyone noticed significantly slower internet and network connections? I'm using nVidia nforce controller (OEM gateway motherboard integrated). Since SP1 install, networking (home and internet) seem significantly slower (admittedly, haven't actually benchmarked speeds). Just tried updating driver...current driver is most current. Before SP1, network was never a problem...was speedy and no crashes. Now speed is slower and Firefox crashes quite a bit (I don't bother w/IE7 or 8beta...SLOOOOOOOOO!). I've read some horror stories about networking problems w/ SP1, but not many solutions. Just lookin' for some feedback/opinions. Thx, P

aye..tried uninstall/reinstall...no luck. ran a ccleaner to find prob entry...no luck there either. Goofy, huh? Thx! Vista Home Prem x86...btw

8 spots filled on the left pane...large icons...(9 spots including the blank space) only Docs, computer, control panel in right pane, so it should shrink to the left pane icon placeholders, which it does except for the Blank one.. I'd take a snip, but cant pull up start menu while using tool. Thx

Guess nobody knows on this item, huh?

I have recently uninstalled a program and forgot to unpin the shortcut from the start menu before removing. After uninstall, I unpinned the item from the start menu. Now there is a blank placeholder for this program in my Start Menu pinned items. I have tried all options available and cannot remove this blank placeholder. Even tried switching to classic and back...no dice. Not a big deal obviously, but very annoying. Is there a way to find this item in the registry and remove it. Any help is greatly appreciated, of course. Thx!! Vista Home Prem x86