Big Problem With Windows (Vista Related)??

Hi all,

Quick Background--I bought this laptop about 2 months ago:

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=207898147

HP Pavilion dv9730nr Entertainment Notebook PC, and it has Windows Vista. I heard a lot of bad things about Vista but bought this anyway.

Problem--2 weeks ago, I got the error message of "Windows Explorer has stopped responding (windows is shutting down) and then it says "Windows is now restarting" and everything closes, then restarts, and it KEEPS DOING THAT, over and over and over. I can't even open any other programs because the messagebox overrides my clicking. So what I've done is just go to task manager and close explorer.exe manually, and then just open internet explorer or whatever else I need from task manager. *****I don't know if this was a coincidence or had something to do with it, but a little bit before the problem I had downloaded the DivX player or a file associated with it. The problem didn't start RIGHT after that download, but maybe within 30 minutes or less? It was the last thing I downloaded before the problem started though, so I just thought I'd mention that in case someone thinks it's relevant.******

Questions--

1. So as I said, for the last 2-3 weeks I turn off Windows from the task manager when I start my computer and just opened the internet, etc. from the task manager. I KNOW I should have addressed this problem sooner, but I'm a student getting through exams and have had NO time until now, so now I want to solve this problem. What do I do?

2. I've tried to doing the "restore" feature, which somehow I actually did have turned on, and that did NOT work, I restored to a time like 1 week earlier and the problem persists. Should I restore to a few more weeks earlier (and lose info. possibly) or just abandon that solution?

3. Other things I've noticed--I CANNOT hear sound on clips like from youtube on Mozilla Fire Fox, but when I use Internet Explorer I suddenly CAN hear sound. I have no idea if this is related or why it happens but just thought to mention that as another problem.

4. Am I able to return it to the store? I got this laptop less than 3 months ago from Best Buy with no extra warranties or whatever, so I'm not sure if I can do that?


Please help a student in need with limited knowledge of computers. I need to use the CD-ROM drive soon for work to listen to audio files and programs in the next week, and really need to solve this problem by then...thanks for any responses or guidance, I really, really, really, really appreciate it.

-roca88

 

You need to reinstall the operating system since you've messed it up. Since it's a software problem, no warranty is going to cover it.

 

just reformat and reinstall windows. it should be fine then. looks like you messed something up =/

 

I agree with Lithus. The only solution is probably to reinstall Vista (take the chance to install XP instead, if you can find the necessary drivers).

 

You REALLY need to reformat. Sometimes things ho haywire even when installing simple programs.(This also applies to uninstalling which by the way happened to uninstall my OS, I was just uninstallinga simple software)

 

You might want to download SP1 for Vista and try to install it. If it installs then it might well fix the problems you have got. Save SP1 (on CD?) so that you can still apply it even if you have to reinstall Vista.

John

 

Thanks for all the responses, but here's my concern, my computer came with Vista already installed, and it doesn't seem to have come with any kind of CD? I mean I could go through the packaging again, but I don't believe a Vista CD or anything like that came with the comp., so how would I reformat it?

 

First thing you should have done (or what I recommend) is that you create another account to work with. I've seen these types of problems pop up under 1 user account but everything works fine under another (especially the explorer.exe issue). Hopefully, you have the Administrator and then another account, so you can log in with the Administrator account and create a new user account?

 

Do a clean install
you can download copies of vista legally from the thread in my sig

 

For the easiest solution (not necessarily the best) you could just run the system restore from either the hard drive or from the DVD/CD's if you made them. This will put your system back to a brand new state, but will also wipe out everything on the computer.

 

You could also just create a new profile. and delete the old profile. While this may break some programs, this will workaround having to reinstall all your drivers. but it essentially cleans out much of the registry and gunk that may have built up from installling and uninstalling programs.