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Overnight vista "strangeness"


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#1
bpotvin

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I am not a computer novice, but have a situation that I cannot figure out. Could use some help, please.
HP desktop computer running vista ultimate. Running great for 6 months (bought brand new at that time). No issues at all. OS fully up to date via windows update (always). Norton Internet Security in place, up to date, and fully operational. never had a virus or malware problem with this computer to-date.
Last saturday night something changed in the computer. Now it is doing 3 very strange things and I can't figure it out.
1. Windows media now comes up every time with error "Media sharing not available...". Goes into dialog to enable normal sharing. After that the program works great. I have worked on this issue considerably so far and cannot make this error go away each time Windows media is started. it's more annoying than anything but clearly indicates that something else is going on that I can't see (yet).
2. When attempting to switch to a user OTHER than the adminstrator the screen goes completely BLACK. The welcome screen comes up, then the screen goes black. However, can still see the mouse-arrow (and it moves with the mouse). computer does NOT lock up because can toggle back to user-select main screen (Cntrl-alt-del). Originally, when this error showed up. this ONLY occured for standard users. After working on it for some time I seem to have made it worse. Now, the problem occurs with administrator users as well. Basically, the computer can now ONLY be used by the main administrator... ??
3. Computer goes into what appears to be a "deep sleep" mode. If walk away from computer for some time normal screen saver steps into place as expected. However, when attempting to revive it for subsequent use I notice that it takes extra, extra long to come back, and the CDROM drive light is flashing (odd - never seen before). Also, this computer is a webserver... I have noticed that when the computer slips into this "state" that IIS will not respond to exterrnal requests. Almost as if the network has shut down as well and the computer has gone completely offline. After "reviving" computer IIS and FTP server resume operation as usual...

I mention all of these errors in the same post not to confuse and frustrate the contributor but because I suspect they are all related.
The ONLY thing that i can point to that changed on the computer (which might trace back to the original problem), is that on sunday morning I noticed that there was an AOL IM update to version 6 (sub version escapes me). I DID apply the update, thinking that the normal-right thing to do. Prior to that update I did not notice anything strange about the computer. Shortly after apply this update I began to see the problems. I have not tried deinstalling AOL IM, no evidence (yet) that this is the culprit. A likely coincidence as far as I can tell right now.

I really do NOT want to rebuild this computer from scratch. I have much work on it in place and would prefer to try to tackle the problem before punting with a rebuild.
I have applied much effor to fix these problems, but to no avail. Am very open to suggestions and input from others much more experienced than I.
This would be very much appreciated. Thankyou.
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#2
pip22

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Another suspect is Norton IS. An update may have messed with the PC. I'm surprised you are using Norton IS. It's infamous for causing trouble, and Vista uses too much RAM as it is without making it worse with memory-sapping Norton IS. That would be tolerable if the Norton's antivirus module was good at detection, which it isn't. Not by a long way. It would be the first thing to go if I found it on any PC of mine that developed problems.

Edited by pip22, 12 November 2007 - 01:45 PM.

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#3
bpotvin

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thanks for the input.
I will focus on Norton IS to see if I can find anything unusual.
do you suggest a replacement for it..? I have used it for years without issue to-date. But, always a first time.
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