My computer is dying and Circuit City holds the warranty! (Dial-up warning)

[Ian David]

Granted, my misery does not come close to that of the 35,000 employees who are losing the jobs. But nevertheless, I still have to deal with this.

BREAKING NEWS: Circuit City to be liquidated, CNBC reports; 35,000 expected to lose jobs
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3693283


HELP!

Here is what happened to my computer after the first automatic update:



Video:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v653/ian02302/Computer%20Problems/?action=view¤t=0114091043.flv


And here is what it's doing after I do a system restore to before the update:







In order to really understand how bad it is, you need to see this video clip, but even that doesn't really show as much as I'd like:

Video:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v653/ian02302/Computer%20Problems/?action=view¤t=0114091607.flv

There are crazy, white drop-out pixels all over everything.


Also, I can now no longer open two browser windows at the same time, but I can open two tabs.

That means I can't have two Mozilla windows, two Explorer windows, or one Mozilla and one Explorer window open.

I tried setting the screen resolution a little lower, and that hasn't helped.

Doing a System Restore helps some, but only for a few hours at a time.

Ran SpyBot S&D and a disk defrag. No help.


Configuration info:




Error Logs:

[Gore1FL]

1. Can you fall back to an earlier snaphot?

[Ian David]

5. Falling back on an earlier snapshot makes things better for a few hours.

But even then, the only browser that works is Safari now.

Mozilla won't work.

Internet Explorer will only open one window at a time.

[BlueJazz]

2. If It were me, the first thing I'd do is save my "Stuff" ...Wipe the drive and do a New Install.

From what you descibe, it could be corrupted System files, Video Circuit/Card or a few other things.
Since a New Save/Install can be done in under an hour...you would at least know it was a hardware problem if the trouble came back....

[Ian David]

6. I already backed-up all my files except for video and music. I may do what you suggest soon. n/t

[Shardik]

3. It looks like McAfee may be causing some problems.

There have been many posts I've read about it causing memory usage spikes. I don't have any personal experience with it and Vista, but you might start there in troubleshooting this.

Have you tried starting in safe mode to see if you have the same problems?

[Ian David]

7. I'll try uninstalling McAfee. Thanks! n/t

[charlie]

4. You might want to look at this

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935685

[Ian David]

8. Ooh! Thanks! But oh...

... it says the solution is to download the latest Vista service pack.

But doing that makes my system worse.

I think what I may try is downloading one system update at a time, rather than the whole service pack.

[PennDem]

9. Try these steps...

First, rename the "eHome" folder to "eHome_old". It is located at C:\programdata\microsoft\ehome (Note: you will lose your scheduled recordings).

Restart your PC and see if there is any improvement. If the trouble continues try running the system file check utility as follows:

Click on the Start menu, choose "All Programs", then "Accessories", then right-click on "Command Prompt" and select "Run as administrator".
Click "Continue" to authorize opening a command prompt with administrative privileges.
Type this command at the cmd prompt and hit Enter: "sfc /scannow"
Wait for the scan to complete.
When the scan completes, the SFC tool will indicate whether or not it found any problems and whether or not it was able to fix them.

Reboot your PC and see if there is any improvement.

[Ian David]

10. I haven't USED the stupid media center thing at all.

Except when it's been accidentally activated in the middle of playing a video game and screwed me up.