Solved Vista freezes after factory reinstall and removal of Win7 install

I own a Gateway NV52 that I purchased almost a year ago. Last month, I installed Windows 7 64-bit on it since I missed having Best Buy do the free upgrade. After the install, I re-downloaded and re-installed my old programs and somewhere during the process, the laptop keep freezing - just a black screen. It tended to happen when I plugged in my wireless mouse.

After trying to fix the issue for Win7, I gave up and re-installed Vista 64 from the Gateway recovery disks. After this fresh install, my USB mouse still seemed to be the issue, so I stopped using it. It seems to not be the problem, however, since it freezes randomly while in the middle of working in programs or idle and nowhere near transitioning to screen saver.

I've run antivirus and antispyware software and come up empty. I'm unsure what to do next, since Gateway tech support seems to be stumped as well. Are there any options I should check before breaking down and shipping this out?

Any help would be appreciated greatly.

Hello Dakarien,
Did you re-install the chipset drivers, sound drivers, and video drivers after the install of Vista ?. The chipset drivers will be on the MB CD/DVD disk.
Just to eliminate any software try this clean boot.

How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7

Go to Event Viewer and check for any clues there.
Go to Device Manger and look for any yellow triangles. (warning triangles).

Hope this helps, good luck and post your results.

I did not reinstall the drivers manually. I thought I noticed the CD doing so. I'll go on the site and get them again.

The clean boot is finding nothing as of right now, but the Reliability Monitor shows Disruptive Shutdowns, and the Event Viewer shows a repeated string of errors and warnings:

Error - Source (WMI), Event ID - 10
Event filter with query "SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60 WHERE TargetInstance ISA "Win32_Processor" AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99" could not be reactivated in namespace "//./root/CIMV2" because of error 0x80041003. Events cannot be delivered through this filter until the problem is corrected.

Error 6/4/2010 4:51:12 PM Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider 7000 None
The Norton Internet Security service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the path specified.

(But I don't have Norton on it...)

Error 6/4/2010 4:51:12 PM Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider 7026 None
The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:
SRTSP
SRTSPX

Warning 6/4/2010 5:09:47 PM k57nd60a 4 None
Broadcom NetLink (TM) Gigabit Ethernet: The network link is down. Check to make sure the network cable is properly connected.

Error 6/4/2010 5:09:58 PM Eventlog 1101 Event processing
Audit events have been dropped by the transport. The real time backup file was corrupt due to improper shutdown.

Error 6/4/2010 5:09:58 PM EventLog 6008 None
The previous system shutdown at 5:08:28 PM on 6/4/2010 was unexpected.

Prior to that, there are a lot of events that show up. Right now, I'm at 3,851.

Is this the area I should be looking in?

Have you ever had Norton installed ?.

Factory default installation trial version, but other than that, no.

You can go to the norton site and use their clean up tool.
If you had it as a preload and removed it.
Stiil it is there in the reg.

Just one idea.
As for the other errors can not help.

Jimmy

Norton provide a removal tool, go to this site and download, this should clear out all remnants of Norton.

Download and run the Norton Removal Tool

The removal tool didn't find much, and in the registry, I believe it's trying to run a value found here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SMDEn\OEM0

and it says the value is this:

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Norton Internet Security\Norton Internet Security.lnk

Can I get rid of that without screwing up the laptop, and will that stop the freezing?
What are the 2 boot-start drivers that it said didn't load?

Create a restore point before deleting anything just to be on the safe side.

After deleting run the removal tool again and see if it finds anything else.

Also, download and run this memory testing software. You will have to let this run over night to get the best results. This will eliminate the memory, which is often the cause of lockups.

Download MemTest 4.0 Free - A small but very powerful utility for RAM testing - Softpedia

Ran MemTest and no errors were found. Should I run it a few times as the manual suggests?

Also, no backlash from removing that line from the registry. Thank you!

Yes, you need to have Memtest running for 4 th 6 hours, the longer the better.
Most people run the test to make 6 passes.

Thus far, the freezing issue has ceased. If anything else pops up in conjunction, I will let you know. Thank you for your help.

I'll run it 3 more times, as I've done it at least three now. Thanks again!

So far so good. No issues marked for memory and random freezing has stopped. Looks like this issue may have been resolved.

Thanks for the updates, i will keep my fingers crossed for you. Good luck.

Alright. I have access to this account again.

Is there anyway to start from scratch and figure out what may be ailling my computer?