Vista Permissions problem locking me out of everything

I just got my Dell Vostro today, and promptly got my Windows Vista updates, an antivirus and firewall installed. I also upgraded my RAM.

But now, I am completely locked out of doing most things like running a program or any system application. Right clicking and choosing "Run as Administrator" does not work.

I've gotten these errors:

"Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. you may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item."

"The service cannot accept control messages at this time."

"You don't have permissions to shut down this computer."

I can't get into User Accounts or the Control Panel. Most of my startup programs aren't running including Windows own security center. What do I do now?

 

What version of Vista do you use? What antivirus did you install?

You can force the laptop to reboot - just hold the power button down until the laptop shuts down. Boot up into safe mode, and then uninstall the antivirus, then reboot. If the problem stops, the antivirus was the cause. If not, repeat the above steps and remove the firewall.

 

Thanks for the tip. I figured it was the firewall Comodo, which I disabled in Safe Mode and everything booted fine. I'm sure it conflicts with Dell's preinstalled software.

But, as I was reinstalling my new Crucial RAM, I dropped it 1 foot on my tile floor and it must have died cause my laptop won't boot with it in anymore, while the stock RAM still works. I just bought it a month ago, so I assume warranty would cover it.

 

You might want to review the warranty. Dropping RAM doesn't really fall into the manufacturer defect category.

 

Oh. I thought it was your notebook you had dropped, and I was about to compliment you on taking that very well.

 

Been there, seen that. Read through my posts in this thread. I had the same issue with Comodo.