HELP - Vista Control Panel problem + other strange things

Got a Intel Pen4 PC that was upgraded from XP Pro to Vista Home Premium
(Retail CD)
All was working fine till a couple of weeks ago.

Have the following problems:

1. Microsoft update window will open but closes
(there have been no updates since this problem arose)
2. Control panel will open then close.
3. Cannot uninstall programs (since the control panel closes - I tried
CCLEANER uninstall - that fails too)
4. Cannot open Windows Media Player - get an unknown error
5. Get a Windows Media Player Network Services has stopped working
message

When in SAFE mode - Control panel will open (only12 icons displayed)
Computer Management, Event Viewer, Firewall and Task Scheduler fail to open

Since I have SP1 installed and cannot use the Retail VISTA CD that I bought
to do a repair (I tried it anyway but it failed)
So, I found on the net on how to create a bootable VISTA CD w/SP1 using WAIK
and vLite. That repair completed, but did not fix any of the above problems.

Can someone please point me in a direction to help solve this problem?

TIA

Jim L.

Jiml wrote:

> Got a Intel Pen4 PC that was upgraded from XP Pro to Vista Home Premium
> (Retail CD)
> All was working fine till a couple of weeks ago.
>
> Have the following problems:
>
> 1. Microsoft update window will open but closes
> (there have been no updates since this problem arose)
> 2. Control panel will open then close.
> 3. Cannot uninstall programs (since the control panel closes - I tried
> CCLEANER uninstall - that fails too)
> 4. Cannot open Windows Media Player - get an unknown error
> 5. Get a Windows Media Player Network Services has stopped working
> message
>
> When in SAFE mode - Control panel will open (only12 icons displayed)
> Computer Management, Event Viewer, Firewall and Task Scheduler fail to
> open
>
> Since I have SP1 installed and cannot use the Retail VISTA CD that I
> bought to do a repair (I tried it anyway but it failed)
> So, I found on the net on how to create a bootable VISTA CD w/SP1 using
> WAIK and vLite. That repair completed, but did not fix any of the above
> problems.

1. What happened a couple of weeks ago? Possibly a power outage? This could
cause corruption of the operating system.

2. What is the malware/virus status of the machine? If you think it is
clean, what programs (and versions) did you use to determine this?

Be sure the computer is clean:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...moving_Malware

3. Because this is an older computer, I would definitely run some hardware
tests. You may have flaky/dying RAM or hard drive which could cause
operating system corruption such as you describe.

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...ardware_Tshoot

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

Wasn't doing anything special. No new programs or hardware changes.

So..I removed the HDD from bad computer and scanned it with AVG8 and Mcafee
8.5i on another computer via a USB/IDE adapter .. Also scanned it with
Spybot and Adaware. It cleaned up a few things but nothing major.

I just found a bad fan on the video graphics card - Am thinking that it may
be caused the strange behavior due to overheating. Have swapped it out, but
before I do anything else - I want to back up all HDD's to an image file on
a network storage unit I just got. Will do the HDD's on another computer
that works via the USB adapter.

I also think the OS maybe corrupted by now and will try a clean install
after I reformat and test all my HDD's for errors. Will use SPINRITE, MHDD
and a couple of other tools for that.

Will let you know how things go, may take a day ot two to complete.

Thanks for the quick response.

Jim

************************************************** ***********

"Malke" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Jiml wrote:
>
>> Got a Intel Pen4 PC that was upgraded from XP Pro to Vista Home Premium
>> (Retail CD)
>> All was working fine till a couple of weeks ago.
>>
>> Have the following problems:
>>
>> 1. Microsoft update window will open but closes
>> (there have been no updates since this problem arose)
>> 2. Control panel will open then close.
>> 3. Cannot uninstall programs (since the control panel closes - I
>> tried
>> CCLEANER uninstall - that fails too)
>> 4. Cannot open Windows Media Player - get an unknown error
>> 5. Get a Windows Media Player Network Services has stopped working
>> message
>>
>> When in SAFE mode - Control panel will open (only12 icons displayed)
>> Computer Management, Event Viewer, Firewall and Task Scheduler fail to
>> open
>>
>> Since I have SP1 installed and cannot use the Retail VISTA CD that I
>> bought to do a repair (I tried it anyway but it failed)
>> So, I found on the net on how to create a bootable VISTA CD w/SP1 using
>> WAIK and vLite. That repair completed, but did not fix any of the above
>> problems.
>
> 1. What happened a couple of weeks ago? Possibly a power outage? This
> could
> cause corruption of the operating system.
>
> 2. What is the malware/virus status of the machine? If you think it is
> clean, what programs (and versions) did you use to determine this?
>
> Be sure the computer is clean:
> http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...moving_Malware
>
> 3. Because this is an older computer, I would definitely run some hardware
> tests. You may have flaky/dying RAM or hard drive which could cause
> operating system corruption such as you describe.
>
> http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...ardware_Tshoot
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP
> Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
> FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ
>

Replaced the graphics card and reloaded the OS.. All seems to be working
again..

Damm fan..

cheers

Jim

Jiml wrote:

> Replaced the graphics card and reloaded the OS.. All seems to be working
> again..
>
> Damm fan..

Glad to hear you got it sorted. Thanks for taking the time to update the
thread.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ