Too numerous to mention, but here are the main ones.

- CPU Usage has gone astronomical. Houston to Vistadome, we have problems. This is a recent phenomenon. I have not installed any software lately that would seem to justify this other than a fairly large (most recent) Windows update that provided video-card, Ethernet-card drivers, among other Vista-related patches.

- More blue screens than a hollywood set. Only now the BSOD are becoming much more ominous. The latest: "Windows vista has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer". Just lovely. The software I buy for good money is trying to destroy my hardware.

- In the start menu I can no longer right click on the CMD prompt to go to admin mode. Device Manager also does not work in a similar way.

- Upon resuming from hibernate, I lose my mouse functionality. The keyboard works, but the mouse does not and this forces me to reboot to regain functionality. I recently found a workaround by hitting the start button and selecting the button next to the "lock this computer" button. Minutes ago I tried to re-create this and the system crashed forcing me to lost about 10 minutes worth of typing here which I will not bother to recreate in such detail.

The list goes on and on, but those are at the top of my headache list.

Specs. Note the system originally had XP installed. I DoD cleaned my HDD and did a clean install of Windows Vista Home Premium. As for programs I downloaded since the clean install. Mainly top-rated anti-virus, spyware programs. (AVG, Spybot, Spywareblaster). These were working fine for some time. Even though I had major problems from the getgo with the Vista install, my system has took a nose-dive down for the worse, recently.

Product MPN
MPN pc098a#aba
Key Features
Form Factor Mini Tower

Processor Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz

Chipset Intel 915P

Installed Memory 512 MB (DDR SDRAM)

Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition

Recommended Use Home Use
Processor
Processor Type Intel Pentium 4

Processor Speed 2.8 GHz

Processor Manufacturer Intel

Socket Type Socket LGA775

Processor Upgradability Upgradable
Motherboard
Bus Speed 800 MHz

Video Output Interface AGP
Memory
RAM Technology DDR SDRAM

Installed RAM 512 MB

Max Supported RAM 4 GB

Number of Memory Slots 4 x 184 Pin DIMMs

Installed Video Memory 128 MB

Supported RAM Speeds 400 MHz

Installed Cache Memory 1 MB
Technical Features
Integrated Input/Output Ports USB 2.0 x 7 • FireWire (IEEE1394a) x 2 • RJ45 Lan Port x 1 • PS/2 Mouse x 1 • PS/2 Keyboard x 1 • Parallel Port (ECP/EPP/SPP) x 1

Expansion Bays 2 x 5.25" (External Access) • 1 x 3.5" (Internal Access)

Expansion Slots PCI Express x1 x 1 • PCI x 3

Other Features Hyper Thread Technology Ready
Hard Drive
Hard Drive Capacity 160 GB

Hard Drive Interface Serial ATA

Hard Drive Rotation Speed 7,200 RPM

Controller Type Serial ATA
CD / DVD
Optical Drive Type DVD+RW

Optical Drive Read Speed 12x (DVD) • 48x (CD)

Optical Drive Write Speed 24x (CD-R) • 8x (DVD+R)

Optical Drive ReWrite Speed 10x (CD-RW) • 4x (DVD+RW)

2nd Optical Drive DVD+RW

2nd Optical Drive Read Speed 12x (DVD)

2nd Optical Drive Write Speed 8x (DVD+R)

2nd Optical Drive ReWrite Speed 4x (DVD+RW)
Audio / Video
Graphic Processor ATI RADEON X300 SE

Video Out Ports 15 Pin D-Sub VGA port x 1 • S-Video x 1

Audio Input Microphone Jack • 1 x Line In

Audio Output Type Sound Card • Headphones

Integrated Audio Intel High Definition Audio Subsystem • Realtek ALC880

Video Input Type TV Tuner
Modem
Modem Type Fax / Modem
Networking
Networking Type Integrated 10/100 Network Card

Data Link Protocol Ethernet • Fast Ethernet
Dimensions
Width 7.5 in.

Depth 16 in.

Height 15.5 in.
Warranty
Warranty 1 Year
Miscellaneous
OS Certified Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition

Release Date 18 July, 2004

Product ID 22453205

Oh, and 1.5GB RAM after upgrading.

Hmm.... well if you want to give it another go I recommend doing this...
1.Clean install of vista.
2.Then turn off the(optional) UAC (to stop the annoying pop-ups in the task bar go to the security centre,look down the left hand side and click 'change the way windows alerts me'. You can now choose to stop the pop-ups).
3.Set the update utility not to update automatically.
4.Then using the 'standalone version' (you can download it from the support section and put it on a disk) immediately install SP1.
5.Download and install the latest drivers for your chipset,graphics, sound solution and anything else required.
6.Now go back to the update utility and set it to 'check for updates but let me choose to install them', now check for updates. You may see some 'optional' updates appear for your graphic card ect, being as you've already intalled the latest version, right-click on these and choose to 'hide the update'.
7.Install any third part software such as anti-virus, ect
Hopefully this should give you a relatively trouble free install. Your machine is definately up to running vista although I couldn't see what your graphic solution was..
Good luck..

__________________

Hello and thank you for taking the time to provide a thoughtful reply. Other than your SP1 suggestion being installed immediately (obviously not available at time of install initially), I did what you said to the letter when I first installed it.

Not sure I want to go the Vista route again and do another clean install, because I have all my media content (media center PC) on this PC. I will have to think about my next move. I know something needs to be done, we shall see. Thanks.

Hope you get everything straightened out cause I know that it is frustrating. Be well and have fun.

Ok, no problem...
Good luck in what ever you decide to do.. Oh and if you do need some advice when you do then hopefully we might be able to help

__________________

Thank you Kemical & Lorenkjr.

I think I can...I think I can...I think I can.

Take care to all. Logging off.

Update: I did a DoD (7 writes) clean install on my PC with Vista. I lost a full day on it, including the arduous task of transferring my media files, but I am hoping it was for the best.

Critically, I took your suggestion Kemical and turned off my automatic updates to make sure I installed SP1 first (right after Vista install) without the impurity of the other fixes that prove to compete with Vista and cause problems. Once the SP1 was installed, I then checked available updates and a decent percentage were no longer needed due to the SP1 install.

I believe if these pre-SP1 files are installed first, as I did initially, it creates problems when SP1 tries to overwrite the code and improve the stability of the OS.

Anyhow. So far, things seem more stable. Hope the feeling lasts.

Take care and thanks to Kemical et all for all your help. Appreciate it.

Hopefully it should prove it bit more stable (fingers crossed) but anyhow I totally agree about the service pack being introduced after a clean install. When they first released it the blurb said that it rewrote a fair portion of the kernal and I thought to myself that just applying the pack sort of anyhow just wouldn't do. The full benefit would be seen with a clean install and 'then' the pack being applied...
Good luck with the install.

__________________

Good morning Kemical. And your hunch seemingly proved spot on. Good call. Things definitely seem more stable on my end thus far. Once again, thanks.

Oh, and the mouse/sleep problem I mentioned previously persisted after the clean install. I think I may have solved it, though.

After doing a Google search, I tried the solution that was proposed by a person going under the name denzeljordan (see below). I think it may have just done the trick. So far, it works.

I share it here with the board in the interest of greater community and benevolence. I hope that it may help others that may find this board doing a similar search. Take care, I am logging off now.

-

Mouse pointer disappears in media center..
by denzeljordan - 10/7/07 12:23 PM
In reply to: Problem is bigger than that -- this is a real bug by kenmo2007

The solution is simple. Go to control panel->mouse->go to pointers tab->uncheck the option "enable pointer shadow"->apply the settings and the problem is fixed.