Peppurr101
Power User
Hello,
About six weeks ago I had an issue with my computer that seems to be related to an update downloaded at that time. I had Automatic Update set to download and install updates automatically and after one such update, the computer instructed me to restart which I did.
All went well until I logged in. The log in screen came up, I logged in and hit enter and the desktop started to load...and froze there. I restarted in safe mode and system restore failed. I called Dell and they walked me through diagnostics until they were fairly sure that it was not a hardware problem. I finally got it to reboot from the Windows disk that came with the computer, but the problem persisted. No error message, no lights, no beeps. Just frozen at the same place at the same time. In addition, each time I had to hold the power button down to reboot, my RAID array would have to 're-verify' the data on both disks which would take about 4 hours before I could even think of doing anything with the box.
Finally Dell had me restore the system from a partition on my hard drive which reset the computer to how it was from the factory... It worked fine till I downloaded the updates again. The last bunch included a Vista security update and a bunch of Office updates. I had to Factory Image reinstall again.
I have now shut off my Auto Update. It tells me that there are updates to download, but I have not done any of them in the last month. The computer works fine now. The only nagging issue is that my Roxio CD Creator wants a certificate reinstalled (?)I left it on for a while, no problems. I gingerly logged off and on again.. the chime on the log off sounds different, but it logs back on ok.. Restart, shut down and power on.. fine. I am almost certain it has to do with one of the updates.
My questions are these. Has anyone had this specific problem and what did you do about it? Does it actually have to do with the updates or am I missing something completely?
The second question is I have all these Vista security updates waiting to be downloaded and I don't want to leave any loopholes in my Vista for hackers to break into so... how do I do this? One at a time and restart? Oldest first?
Any help would be appreciated.. My specs are listed below:
Thanks in advance.:D
Dell 420XPS running Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit
4GB dual channel DDR2 667MHZ [4x 1024]
500G Data Safe local hard drive
DVD+/-RW 16x max and DVD 16x reader
20" wide flat panel monitor
Single 768MB nVidia GeForce 8800GTX
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer PCI soundcard
TV Tuner and AVIO Accelerator
Internal V.92 PCI Data Fax modem
Speedtouch 330 external USB broadband modem
Norton Internet Security
Adobe Reader 7.0.8
MS Office 2007 Home and Student
Standard mouse keyboard and speakers
About six weeks ago I had an issue with my computer that seems to be related to an update downloaded at that time. I had Automatic Update set to download and install updates automatically and after one such update, the computer instructed me to restart which I did.
All went well until I logged in. The log in screen came up, I logged in and hit enter and the desktop started to load...and froze there. I restarted in safe mode and system restore failed. I called Dell and they walked me through diagnostics until they were fairly sure that it was not a hardware problem. I finally got it to reboot from the Windows disk that came with the computer, but the problem persisted. No error message, no lights, no beeps. Just frozen at the same place at the same time. In addition, each time I had to hold the power button down to reboot, my RAID array would have to 're-verify' the data on both disks which would take about 4 hours before I could even think of doing anything with the box.
Finally Dell had me restore the system from a partition on my hard drive which reset the computer to how it was from the factory... It worked fine till I downloaded the updates again. The last bunch included a Vista security update and a bunch of Office updates. I had to Factory Image reinstall again.
I have now shut off my Auto Update. It tells me that there are updates to download, but I have not done any of them in the last month. The computer works fine now. The only nagging issue is that my Roxio CD Creator wants a certificate reinstalled (?)I left it on for a while, no problems. I gingerly logged off and on again.. the chime on the log off sounds different, but it logs back on ok.. Restart, shut down and power on.. fine. I am almost certain it has to do with one of the updates.
My questions are these. Has anyone had this specific problem and what did you do about it? Does it actually have to do with the updates or am I missing something completely?
The second question is I have all these Vista security updates waiting to be downloaded and I don't want to leave any loopholes in my Vista for hackers to break into so... how do I do this? One at a time and restart? Oldest first?
Any help would be appreciated.. My specs are listed below:
Thanks in advance.:D
Dell 420XPS running Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit
4GB dual channel DDR2 667MHZ [4x 1024]
500G Data Safe local hard drive
DVD+/-RW 16x max and DVD 16x reader
20" wide flat panel monitor
Single 768MB nVidia GeForce 8800GTX
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer PCI soundcard
TV Tuner and AVIO Accelerator
Internal V.92 PCI Data Fax modem
Speedtouch 330 external USB broadband modem
Norton Internet Security
Adobe Reader 7.0.8
MS Office 2007 Home and Student
Standard mouse keyboard and speakers
My Computer
System One
-
- Manufacturer/Model
- Dell XPS 420
- CPU
- Intel (R) Core(TM) Quad 6600 @2.4GHz
- Memory
- 4GB dual channel DDR2 667MHZ [4x 1024]
- Graphics card(s)
- NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
- Sound Card
- Creative SB X-Fi
- Monitor(s) Displays
- Generic Dell PnP Monitor
- Screen Resolution
- 1680x1050
- Hard Drives
- 2 500GB Hard drives in a RAID 1 Mirror configuration.
- Mouse
- Standard optical mouse
- Keyboard
- Standard USB QWERTY keyboard
- Internet Speed
- Actual 2.2 Mbps
- Other Info
- Connected to DSL internet via ethernet via Netgear DGN2000 modem router. Also connected via ethernet to HP 8180 All-in-One Photosmart printer. 19-in1 card reader and 1 DVD and 1 DVD RW drives
