Some sort of instabilty!

[Quetzal013]

Hi everyone,

I've recently hit problems effecting a 'recovery' on my new Sony LA1. I'm running Win XP MCE. This is now the fifth time that I have tried, with no success. I suspected Norton, but now I don't think that it is.

One immediate sign that I have a problem is that I cannot go between showing my desktop icons and hiding them without the machine hanging and needing a re-boot.

This was reminiscent of there being problems after installing the printer software previously, after Norton and Office had been removed. It isn't just my printer software, which I have been using for about two years on my old laptop without any problems, it's any piece of software that I try to install!

I decided to effect a fresh Recovery and take things carefully stage by stage.

1. After Recovery, check for Windows instability. Done & all fine.

2. Using the Norton Removal Tool, clean off Norton from the Sony. Check for Windows instability. Done & all fine.

3. Install the printer and its drivers. Test printer. Then check again for any Windows instability. Done & all fine.

4. That was fine, so I then removed the printer and all associated software/drivers etc. Check for Windows instability. Done & all fine.

5. I then removed Microsoft Office 2003 from the Sony, first removing Office 2003 Trial Assistant, both via Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. Check for Windows instability.

Note: there was an error message on removing Office 2003. It began: 'C:\Documents and Settings\(my name)\Desktop refers to a location that is unavailable.'

On testing the desktop icons, many were missing. Only the system default ones were there. I suspected that they would reappear after a reboot. And, they did indeed reappear. With software removal completed, and after the reboot that brought back all desktop icons, Windows was checked for instability. Done & all fine.

6. After that, try re-installing the printer once more. Done, and printer test page was fine. All desktop icons appeared and disappeared to order prior to reboot. Machine rebooted and then checked for Windows instability. After reboot, all fine with Windows; icons appear and disappear to order, and so on. Done & all fine.

The above was all OK, so ... Next stage ... install McAfee.

Did reboot and tested Windows for icons coming and going on desktop prior to downloading. All fine and OK.

This time downloaded a customized version, excluding McAfee Data Backup, McAfee EasyNetwork, McAfee Wireless Home Network Security. Opted for one desktop icon - that of the McAfee Security Center.

As soon as McAfee was on board, rebooted before doing anything else.

After the boot, checked for desktop icons coming and going to order. NO DEAL. Jammed on that instruction.

Can anybody give me any advice please? I'm starting to get pretty fed up and desperate. If I have Windows corruption how can I get round this using only the recovery disks that I made from the machine? What is going wrong? BTW, I'm not a beginner when it comes to setting up computers. I used to work selling and supporting them in the nineties!

Many thanks for your help.

Q

[cluberti]

If you have a PS/2 keyboard attached (or can attach one for testing), follow the instructions here for configuring your machine for a complete memory dump. Once you follow that and reboot, the next time the box hangs you can dump it by holding down the RIGHT-hand CTRL key and pressing the SCROLL LOCK key twice - it'll generate a bugcheck STOP 0xE2, dump memory, and ultimately reboot. The resulting memory.dmp file that will eventually get created in your Windows directory (usually takes 5 - 25 minutes, depending on how much RAM you have installed) can be analyzed to show us the hang, and the culprit of such.

[Silenti]

Strange bug, really. Likely its roots are based on a "usefull" software that comes with PC.

There are a mass of posts on a net complaining about blunt staff coming with OEM PCs. The main purpose of those uselless or demo things is marketing-promoting. Usually it spoils OS and makes it operate slowler. For example, Sony's battery "improvements", OpenMG "manacle" and so on.

I hint, it's a better solution not to repair damaged OS, but to re-install a fresh copy of OS, even the best is to slim it down by nLite. It is possible to find on the net a way how to make a clean installation CD from "dirty" OS_restore_CD. One of them is there.

Added:

If you want to install MCE, don't use a SLP found in that post, because it installs only Pro-version and no matter you inserted MCE_CD. Key you could find on your recovery CD.

Edited May 17, 2007 by Silenti