Vista Home Premium locks up constantly

I have a Dell E1505 laptop (2 gigs, dual core, graphics card, should
handle Vista fine they tell me). It came with XP but Dell later sent
a Vista upgrade disk. I upgraded, worked with it for a couple of days
until it went blue screen and ate a days worth of data, and then I did
a full install. The full install is working better (by far) but now
Vista has developed another habit.

It constantly locks up. It locked up as I was writing this note.

It boots and the icons load up. You can click an icon and the
application will load (or system software such as Microsoft Explorer)
but that is often it (can't close, save files, etc.)

Now, what does work is the Task Manager and here is the odd thing to
me. Just getting in and out of the Task Manager unlocks everything.

By bios is the latest version.
I've checked the system files (sfc.exe) - looks good
I've ran chkdsk and the thing is fully defragmented
There were a lot of error messages in a log about the Vista search
engine being corrupt so I stopped it. I'll probably do a re-index
tonight.

Spyware - I checked it - clean
Viruses - checked with two programs

Drivers are the latest I can find.
Most of the software has been upgraded to "Vista specs" (well kinda -
I think a couple of the programs have a ways to go but not running
them doesn't help)

Anybody have any ideas?????

<snipped>

> Drivers are the latest I can find.

What do you mean the latest you can find? Either they are Vista compliant or
they are not compliant.

> Most of the software has been upgraded to "Vista specs" (well kinda -
> I think a couple of the programs have a ways to go but not running
> them doesn't help)

It could also be the fact that you installed those programs that could have
replaced common dll(s) used by other programs that can cause a problem too
that were not tested to run on the Vista platform, possibly.

You should try to install Vista compliant software at all times, if
possible.


http://www.bestvistadownloads.com/

Common dll(s) to more than one 3rd party applications or common to Windows dll(s)?
Have you attempted to replace any common to Windows dll(s) by installing a 3rd party application ?
--
...winston
MS-MVP WLM

"Mr. Arnold" <MR. > wrote in message news:...
:
: <snipped>
:
: > Drivers are the latest I can find.
:
: What do you mean the latest you can find? Either they are Vista compliant or
: they are not compliant.
:
: > Most of the software has been upgraded to "Vista specs" (well kinda -
: > I think a couple of the programs have a ways to go but not running
: > them doesn't help)
:
: It could also be the fact that you installed those programs that could have
: replaced common dll(s) used by other programs that can cause a problem too
: that were not tested to run on the Vista platform, possibly.
:
: You should try to install Vista compliant software at all times, if
: possible.
:
:
: http://www.bestvistadownloads.com/
:

"...winston" <> wrote in message
news:...
Common dll(s) to more than one 3rd party applications or common to Windows
dll(s)?
Have you attempted to replace any common to Windows dll(s) by installing a
3rd party application ?

---

Yeah, I have seen it, since I have been writing MS solutions since 1996.
Yeah I have taken common Dll(s) off a machine used in an install package and
watched different version of common dll(s) break other solutions on another
machine or the machine start lock-ups when application was deployed.

That's why a company will have a build machine to build solutions from that
single machine that has company approved with a base installation of
solutions, which in turn all machine is the company are built on that base
installation to keep common dlls in sync so that one doesn't have problems
and watch things stop working when the solution is deployed.

One doesn't take a solution that was built on another platform such as Win
2k and deploy the solution to XP thinking that everything is going to be OK,
because that may not case, and things may start breaking.

And the same holds true with Vista as well where an install package built to
run on XP as example can be deployed to Vista. Since the installation is
going to be run under Admin rights, the install package can and do have
common dlls in it that are deployed, and they are going to be replace common
dll(s) on the machine. And they can and do just that can lead to problems.
It's one of the factors in the so called Dll H*l.

So, are you going to sit there MVP and tell me you know what's being
deployed in an installation package?

Keep in mind now, that you're talking to someone that hold two different MS
MCP(s) in MS technology programming wise, and I have been programming since
1980, MVP.