Volt-Schwibe

So i suddenly can't right click on anything at all, not the desktop, not an icon, not a folder, not an mp3, NOTHING. anything i right-click on, causes explorer to just simply crash onto it's face, it's AWESOME isn't it?

i freaking love it when this kind of stuff happens. It's 5:30am and i'm tired, angry, and i just want to beat this thing to peices, so i need to just go to bed. I'll be back in the morning though, hopefully someone can help me again.

By the way, this screenshot should make you laugh... there's about 40-50 of these crashes in less than 10 mins time. pretty funny. never did manage to get done with what i was doing.

P.S. what in the world is an audit failure? i noticed that during the same moments, i had 4 audit failures in the event logs.

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Untitled.jpg (160.7 KB, 22 views)

Volt-Schwibe

before i actually leave, i wanted to post this...

Does this pic mean that security essentials' OWN FILE was causing these audit failures, and perhaps turning vista's explorer into a crying mess?

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Untitled2.jpg (171.2 KB, 14 views)

Geekgirl

The right click issue leads me to think it is a problem with an entry in the context menu that is trying to display.
Read the following:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm


Also read here for past resolution
[SOLVED] Right-Click-Crash

Volt-Schwibe

Hey there GG nice to see you again :)

(if this post is tl;dr, then just skip it, no worries, i'm just super angry.)

Part of my problem is solved... i ran CCleaner and instantly the right-click problem was gone. (at the same time i disabled security essentials, it could have been that causing it, but the problem didn't return when i enabled it again)

However, i have every reason to believe that my vista isn't running like everyone else's vista. Literally every day, while just using the machine, something just fails out of the blue. Host services, Explorer, and other things i can't remember at the moment. My event viewer log is pages and pages of repetitive crashes, the first wave of which started before i installed even a single program.

This machine got here on the 5th, i did a fresh install on the 7th i think, and it immediately started drowning. The first errors came after i'd done nothing other than install the Dell drivers and the burning software they sent with the machine. Then i ran windows update and even more errors hit in the next few days. I then installed other programs, ran into serious issues, figured out that it was Eraser causing most of them, removed it, but still having multiple crashes per day. I've gone through and uninstalled other programs, and replaced them with their vista64 versions, or found replacement programs for the ones that didn't have a 64 bit version, and i'm staying at a consistent 5.something in my reliability index. (i have no idea how microsoft considers 1-5 crashes per day to be a 5 out of 10)

It took me 6 months with 32 bit vista to get to a reliability of 7, and that was tolerable, 2-3 times per week, something would just crash, so i'd just reboot and go on with things. From where i'm at right now, it's looking like i'll repeat the exact same process again, and i'm really not happy about that.

Which brings me to this rant i've been brewing:

The entire reason i use windows, is to have access to all those third party programs that people make. When i was on xp, i could run almost anything i found, and at worst, the program wouldn't run, or it would run incorrectly. Almost never did it bring winxp down like a glass house. (aside from bad drivers, i don't specifically know of anything i could install that would instantly turn xp into a crying infant, and i've tried literally hundreds of apps over the last 5-6 years) From what i can tell, vista isn't compatible with a very high percent of the third party programs out there, (i'd love to see a cross-comparison list of all the programs each os can and can't run, including linux, mac, bsd, and all flavors of windows) and since modern computing is ALL ABOUT APPS, this makes it not really much better than linux, or mac. (if i wanted to install an OS, and use it forever as-is, without installing any apps, then mac would be the obvious choice) Every day, more and more programs will run on linux and mac, and less and less run on windows. In some ways i'm the worst kind of geek, i know enough to use windows xp happily for 5 years, but i don't know enough to figure out why vista doesn't want to run anything i try to get it to run, and because of that, my advice to other people who ask me, is that if they run third party applications that they depend on, they should keep running xp, because it may not be the latest new fad, but their programs will all work. (a ton of people ask me about vista) So far, i've had noone tell me i was wrong, the two people who didn't listen, and bought computers with vista on them, ended up buying xp in the long run, because they depend on some program that vista can't run.

To sum it up, i have NEVER had these kinds of problems from an OS, until vista. I remember learning dos, i remember switching to windows 95, i remember how awesome 98 was, i remember when i finally switched to xp, i had nothing but problems for about a week, and then it was smooth sailing. Even when i tried linux it only took a couple weeks to get along with it. Mac, i just don't get along with because it treats the user like they're stupid, so because of that, it's not surprising that i've never had problems with it.

In the past, reinstalling ALWAYS fixed my windows problems, but on vista, i just can't seem to get it going smoothly, even after 6 months and more than a dozen reinstalls, i never got my reliability score above 7. I HATE vista, but i'm stuck with it, and i'm very unhappy about it. As soon as i find a 64 bit copy of XP, (should have payed the $50 for dell to put xp on it) i'm switching back, vista is just a mess, (although a very nice looking mess) and i think that i'm too impatient/stubborn to ever figure it out. When 7 comes out, if its "xp mode" actually works, then i'll buy 7, and run it only in xp mode, but until then i'd rather just be using xp. The few non-essential things vista can do that xp can't, don't matter to me in the least, and it's not worth even a fraction of this amount of trouble. I wish that microsoft would allow any version of windows to be traded in for any older version, but they'd have to be crazy to do that, because they take some kind of sick pride in the raw numbers of people using vista, rather than the actual number of satisfied customers.

Right now, my xp machine has 183 third party apps installed, 7 are set to autorun, and it's amazingly stable. (i've been running most of those programs for the last 2-3 years, and i've come to depend on most of them) On this vista machine, i've narrowed it down to the most crucial 42, (the ones i could find vista64 versions of) 2 of them set to autorun, and it's amazingly unstable. Not only is it unstable, but many of the apps i depend on, i can't run, so i've been stuck just using a VNC terminal from my laptop so that i can perform the work on my xp machine, and i could have bought a $200 linux netbook for all that, not a $900 vista laptop. Even if vista crashed twice as often as xp, i'd be completely satisfied with it, but it crashes at least 20x more often, and it's ridiculous.

I can assume that after this rant, not many people are really going to be interested in helping me, but, if someone wants to take a look and try to figure out why my vista is a crying pile of rubble, i'll post the typical files like i did last time, they should have a lot more info in them this time, as i didn't let CCleaner rape those log files this last time i ran it. I'll be back in about 10 mins with that zipped file that is typically asked for.

I should also point out, before i get haters on my tail, i hated on xp for a long time too, but once i installed it and started using it, i changed my mind. With vista, this is not the case, i've been using it for 6 months, and i hate it more than i did when i was refusing it out of fear and habit. It boils down to this, vista can't do the things i need it to, and xp could, so i'm not just hating it out of fear/habit, i'm hating it out of actual negative experiences with it.

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Untitled3.jpg (35.2 KB, 8 views)

Volt-Schwibe

and here it is.

Attached Files

PERFMON.zip (1.20 MB, 7 views)

joeten

Hi if you could follow the instructions here Bsod -- windows vista and get as much of the info as possible including minindumps and attach to your next post I will ask someone to run it through a debug and see if they can help you sort things out if possible,also when you installed your dell drivers did you do it as per dell's instructions if you did not it would not suprise me as it seems to be a common thing that folks are not aware, anyway please post the info and lets see what can be done to try to end this torture lol regards joeten

jcgriff2

Hi -

It is nice to see you again, sorry it has to be under these circumstances.

If you go back and look at the screenshot in your 1st post (extreme lower left of screen), it appears to be a Dell Support Center app causing WERCON to go nuts and fire off 100's of transmissions per minute to Microsoft.

Your attachment --> http://www.techsupportforum.com/atta...k-untitled.jpg

The Dell app --> sprtsvc_dellsupportcenter

Download SysInternals AutoRuns from Microsoft TechNet and SAVE it to your Documents folder. RIGHT-click on autoruns.exe and select "Run as Administrator". Allow 10-20 secs for it to scan the registry (status = bottom-left of the AutoRuns screen). Now begins the hunt for the Dell app. You can go through the "Everything" tab or go tab-to-tab starting with "Logon". When you locate the Dell app, un-check the box and re-boot. See if that quiets wercon down.

Live SysInternals AutoRuns --> http://live.sysinternals.com/autoruns.exe

I am not convinced at all that a single Dell app is the cause of all of these issues. Usually when WERCON goes off like it has, there is an underlying hardware or hardware-like cause. You may also see WERFAULT go off similar to WERCON.

I experienced a similar fate after playing a game of "what happens if I click on this EXE file". Well, I lost the last round. Both WERCON and WERFAULT were in a perpetual launch state tying the Internet up and causing excessive paging - to the tune of bloating the page file to over 15 GB.

Very similar screenshots to yours -





`

I would advise that you go into System Services or use AutoRuns and disable WERCON for the time being to give you some breathing room while we look into this.
START | services.msc

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

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Volt-Schwibe

Was a busy day, i'll try that stuff and report back in the morning.

Thank you for the help everyone, you're all awesome :)

And, just for fun, i wanted to post today's perfmon /rel, showing how different last night was than usual. You can see that it was around 5, and then these massive errors brought it down to 2.something.

EDIT: also, i wanted to mention, when we see all these panics so close together, it wasn't in a panic all by itself, i was right-clicking the desktop like a monkey, and so each time explorer would start to launch, my right-clicking would crash it again. I was hammering on it so hard that it wasn't even finishing reloading explorer before it crashed again. anyhow, i'll be back tomorrow, thanks again!

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001.jpg (139.9 KB, 4 views)

Volt-Schwibe

ok so i haven't been at home much in the last couple days, i've been super busy, but i did a few of the things that were mentioned, and so far so good, not a crash in two days, and it isn't listing today, but today's been solid as well.

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Untitled23456.jpg (65.7 KB, 4 views)

jcgriff2

What happened on 10-18? It appears of be the start of the downfall.

Volt-Schwibe

No software installs or driver updates that day, i have no idea what happened. On the reliability monitor, the 18th has a single disruptive shutdown, and that isn't rare enough for me to remember why.

The havoc all started the next night, as i was about to go to bed.

For what it's worth, i think that each time i'v had serious issues with it, i had just used firefox for 2 or so hours, so i might try in a day or two, if it remains solid, i might use firefox for a couple hours again, and then see if it causes problems.

Thank you all for the help, and thank you for being patient while i make time to fix this.

P.S. Also wanted to post today's pefmon/rel, it's still climbing :)

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Untitledfdhg54er.jpg (64.6 KB, 5 views)

Volt-Schwibe

Ok, so the other day, i tried to get dellsupportcenter to stop autostarting, i used the autoruns tool, and dellsupportcenter put itself back anyhow. It installs fast, and i don't need it all the time, so i uninstalled it, and put the installer in my resource folder. I'll just install it each time i actually need it.

Since i uninstalled that, things have been solid. However, i also haven't used firefox in that time. It could be co-incidence.

I'm going to spend some time tonight removing some of the outdated programs i still have on here, and try to find current replacements for them, including firefox.

People keep telling me that "normal" reliability index for vista should be at least 8, usually 9-10. I'd like to have that level of reliability, so i'm going to go through my crash logs, and make a list of programs to replace. Many of the programs i use crash, bringing my rel score down, and if i can just replace them and have it stop, it's worth the effort.

Thank you all for helping me on my adventure to become a vista user, i get a little mad sometimes, but i think i'm getting there.

Volt-Schwibe

So i've made it above 8.0 and i'm very stoked about it! It seems that winamp, eraser, and dellsupportcenter had to die, i'm very sad about winamp and eraser. I have found a replacement for eraser, but for music, i'm stuck using VLC, which starts rediculously slow, and doesn't fit right for just throwing music in and playing it. But meh, it's working and i'm somewhat happy.

I'm hoping to get a 7 upgrade, i hear it's cheap.

I spliced this pic together to show the entire history of the machine, from install to today. Around 10-18 is the crashes that caused me to come make this thread, and a lot has changed since then. But there it is above 8.0 and it's not even showing today, so i'm probably closer to 8.5 now.

Thank you all for helping me through this, i don't adjust well to stupid things like this whole vista 32bit / vista 64bit thing.

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wrench97

The pre-release was priced at $49 but that was in August, the current deal is if you are a student, have a .edu email address you can D/L from MS for $39. Otherwise the Home Premium Family Pack is $149 for 3 PC upgrades.

Volt-Schwibe

Ouch, that kills that idea. I had heard somewhere that the vista to 7 upgrade was a flat $30-40, but if it's 149 then i'm just burnt.

oh well.

jcgriff2

Hi -

Windows 7 Upgrade $$ --> http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/buy/default.aspx

Windows 7 & Vista are siblings, with the former being the younger, but wiser one. I would consider XP and all prior Windows OS' to be a distant relative to both. I have reviewed this thread and I must say that I don't believe Windows 7 is the answer to your system troubles.

System Information/ files, please ?? --> http://www.techsupportforum.com/1871981-post2.html

I will gladly look through them and see what clues they yield related to your system problems.

Kind Regards. . .

John

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wrench97

I'm with JC Win7 is good and stable but so is Vista now after the Service Packs, If you were coming from XP or Buying new Win 7 would be the favored OS. You can buy the single upgrade or a OEM copy for around $110 they were just the current deals I listed above.

Volt-Schwibe

I'll get the files you want in a bit after i'm done with the yardwork. The problems i'm still having seem to only be compatibility with programs i've grown used to using. Other than that it seems very solid. Unfortunately, the compatibility is important enough to me that i'd thought switching to 7 would help, since it's said that 7 has "xp mode" which eliminates all the compatibility problems. If this isn't the case, please let me know, i've been told all kinds of things and i don't know which side is up anymore.

wrench97

There are some caveats to XP mode, you need Win 7 Pro or Ultimate, the CPU has to support Hardware Assisted Virtualization most laptops do not, but MS has a tool to test your system> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

There is more about it here> http://www.microsoft.com/windows/vir.../download.aspx

Volt-Schwibe

And here's the zip.

Attached Files

TSF_Vista_Support.zip (1.32 MB, 5 views)