Vista Hanging

tulipthecat

I've had a new laptop for three days. It's got Vista which works for a max of five mins (often much less) before hanging. Usually the screen stays as it is with the circle next to the mouse pointer (I presume this is the Vista equivalent of the egg timer) going round and round, but occasionally the screen goes black with just the mouse pointer showing. ctl-alt-del doesn't have any effect. It's much better in safe mode, but still hangs occasionally.

I've spoken to the company I bought it from and they say it sounds like a virus. They've asked me to send it back (at my expense) and if they find it's a virus they'll want £60 + VAT to fix it. I explained to them that I doubt it's a virus as the computer hung while booting up the very first time I turned it on and I've only been to a few reputable websites and haven't done any emailing or messaging. However, they just kept saying that it sounded like a virus. Since speaking to them I've run the version of Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool which was issued yesterday and it didn't find anthing untoward.

If anyone knows anything I can do to try fixing it myself I'd be grateful for ideas as I'm worried that whatever the problem is the company will claim it's a virus and charge me.

Thanks for any help.

DatabaseError

if i was sure there was no chance of a virus/malware (you have run an up to date virus scan?) take a photo/printout of a clean virus scan results page, and send it back.
One thing worth checking, try the lappy on a cooling tray (for baking) or even an oven rack, anything to allow the air to circulate around and under the chassis, and see if the problem persists

startech

I'd say that looked more like hardware fault or problem with the Vista installation (as per http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946532).

If possible I would approach the store and asking for a DOA replacement as there's obviously something wrong - if you're able to, take the laptop into them and reproduce the issue in front of them.

You could also try formatting and reinstalling Vista, however I'm loathe to suggest that considering it's a new laptop and the problems seem to be appearing out of the box.

penrhyn

Have you tried looking at the task manager to determine what the PC is doing whilst it appears to hang.
As asked before is your antivirus software up to date and running? Have you downloaded anything onto the PC since buying it?
Its not for example trying to install updates, possibly Vista service pack1.

Cat695

sounds like its software problem thats causing it to hang

boot into safe mode and turn off all none essential programs from booting up on start up and see if that makes it any better.

then if works turn each one on in turn until it hangs then you can try and get it updated or remove the software

(new laptops etc always come with crap software that you never use)

tulipthecat

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply.

In answer to the various questions and ideas:

I've tried running it on a rack to see if it's overheating, but it makes no difference.

It didn't come with the Vista disks so I don't think I can reinstall it - and I think I'd be outside my capabilities doing it anyway.

Once it's hung, ctrl-alt-del doesn't work. Is there any other way of getting to the task manager so I can see what's running at the time?

The laptop came with a trial of Norton, but when I tried to use it, it said the trial period had expired (!). So I unistalled it and downloaded free AVG (which has kept my PC free of any probs for several years). However, when I try to install it in safe mode I get an error message saying it can't be done in safe mode and in full mode it just hangs. October's Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool runs OK in safe mode and doesn't find anything. I haven't got as far as installing printer drivers, but the idea of taking a photo of the screen is a good one and I'll run it again and do that.

I've tried turning off all the programs which run on start up (other than all the ones in the Windows and Intel sections which I assume are necessary) but it makes no difference.

chunter

Seen the topic and thought someone had been rustling cattle.

Airwolf1

If Norton had expired, there possibly could be a virus on it? But then again, why would a trial version expire after 3 days...it all looks a bit suspicous to me, especially if the Norton has expired, I thought a trial version lasted 30 days. I wonder if someone else has taken the lappy back before?

aliEnRIK

Airwolf1 wrote: »

If Norton had expired, there possibly could be a virus on it? But then again, why would a trial version expire after 3 days...it all looks a bit suspicous to me, especially if the Norton has expired, I thought a trial version lasted 30 days. I wonder if someone else has taken the lappy back before?

I agree ~ VERY suspicious!

lesley1960

I kept getting this problem , the cicle going round , if i clicked on it , it would say something about windows explorer having a problem and gave me a couple of options one was ( i think restart ) and If i clicked it i could open one window up , but if i wanted to open another window I had to go through the whole rigmarole again . In the end it was easy to fix ................I had XP installed

Btw it was a brand new lap top that had Vista installed when I bought it

aliEnRIK

lesley1960 wrote: »

I kept getting this problem , the cicle going round , if i clicked on it , it would say something about windows explorer having a problem and gave me a couple of options one was ( i think restart ) and If i clicked it i could open one window up , but if i wanted to open another window I had to go through the whole rigmarole again . In the end it was easy to fix ................I had XP installed

Btw it was a brand new lap top that had Vista installed when I bought it

So you had 2 operating systems installed?