Does Vista usually freeze up?

Hi,

I just got a new Lenovo Y510 laptop last week and it has Vista Home Premium edition installed on it. It has been freezing up a lot. I also have a shared printer which is connected to my desktop in the other room and today whenever I try to print something from the laptop, regardless of the program, it keeps freezing up. I know that Windows isn't the most stable but I've never had problems after only have the computer for a few days.

Anyone know why this is happening?

Thanks.
Sandi

 

What is the printer, did you check for updates for Vista at Lenovo and Printer site?

 

The printer is an Epson Stylus 4800. It worked yesterday and today it freezes up no matter what app I print from. It's not only the printing....both browsers, IE and Firefox freeze up too at times and also programs.

I have CA Virus software suite installed....do you think that could do it? I hope not cause I spent $54 on it.

Thanks for your help.

Sandi

 

Hi Sandi,

So everything was fine yesterday? What have you installed/done since yesterday? Is CA a Suite with a firewall in it?

 

Well I should say everything worked ok yesterday late afternoon, then later on I had terrible problems. It would freeze and I couldn't even restart. I had to press the on/off button and then when it would boot up it would go into, I guess you could call it a diagnostics program (black screen, white letters) asking if I wanted to boot up with networking or normally, I chose normally and then after I clicked on my username it wouldn't even go into the desktop it just went into this black/blue screen with a white mouse pointer. So I just shut it off...went to bed and then this morning the same thing happened and then I shut down, booted up in Safe mode, and then rebooted from safe mode and then it booted up normally but programs still freeze up.

Yes the CA suite is with the firewall. It's the whole suite. Virus, Spyware, Spam, and Website inspector. I disabled the Parental Controls because it wouldn't let my son go into his myspace account.

i know a bit about computers and know that something is definitely wrong because after a week a new system shouldn't be freezing up.

I just hope it isn't the virus suite cause I then I will be upset cause I spent that money on something that doesn't work. My other computer (desktop) has McAfee and didn't cause any problems).


Do you have any ideas why this is happening?

Thanks for your help.

Sandi

 

Hi Sandi,

Could be the way the network was set up, a driver issue, malware if your browsers are effected now too or way CA is set up could also effect your browsers or a combo of issues.
Vista is very stable, never crashed since day one for me. I usually install/configure one thing, make sure all is well then do another so it's easy to track what is causing the problem before I add new factors.

Try looking in Event Viewer and in Problem Reports and Solutions, there has to be an error if crashing. Another option is call Lenovo, since it's new and still under warranty.

 

I agree that it could be the CA software. Uninstall it and see if that helps. If it doesn't and since the PC is only a week old, personally I'd go back to the place of purchase (hopefully you bought it from a store and not online) and ask them to at least look at it and see what they think it is. However, if it was running fine before the CA suite, and is now all "jacked up", then it might be safe to assume that the CA suite is at fault. I've seen security suites from other companies (mainly Norton and McAfee) cause similar problems, so uninstalling it is worth a shot.

(I hope you have the receipt! )

 

We bought the laptop over the phone but took out an extra 3 year in home warranty.

Isn't uninstalling the security (CA) software going to put me under attack for viruses?

 

Download this and save it where you can find it,it's a proven safe application.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/AVG_AntiVirus_Free_Edition_d886.html

then delete your CA software and load AVG it will protect you while you find out if your CA is the problem.

 

thanks....
yup it sure is a shame that I already got the CA software. It's too bad I didn't know before I bought it that it wasn't very good. I am going to go to that site that you gave me.

thanks for your help. i appreciate it.

 

I think I figured out what the problem is. My freeze up problems seem to be happening when I connect to my home network. I have two computers....this one that I'm typing on is a laptop and connects to the internet through a wireless router. I also have a desktop computer which is connected to the internet through the cable modem. I also have both computers networked to eachother. This laptop shares the printer with the desktop where the printer is actually connected to. Anyway, it seems that when I try to print to that printer from this laptop or open a file from the desktop, that is when it freezes. The desktop is running on XP....would the two different O/S create the problem?

Thanks.
Sandi

 

Not sure if you resolved this but check that your printer software is updated/current by going to the Mfg. site. Also you might get better help in the Networking Forum here if it is a Network issue. Also check that the XP OS has all it's updates too.

 

I'm sure you've already checked this, but I had a friend call me over, convinced his printer was out of whack, cuz it kept freezing up on *his* new laptop...w/Vista....

And I did what I always do, when checking out new Vista machines,and make sure there is at *least* a gigabyte of ram, as many people were used to much less, and the computer stores, online or otherwise, sell Vista machines w/not near enough ram, and seems like the printer and other peripherals suffer for it...anyway, he bumped up two gigs, and it's now fine...

Like I said: I'm sure you already checked this, I didn't want to imply that, just a lot of people don't realize what a memory hog Vista can be....so, this is one of those fwiw posts...

Best wishes...

 

Can you sometimes successfully print? Can you sometimes successfully open files on the other computer?

No. I have a notebook PC running Vista Home Premium SP1 and have it networked to my desktop PC running Win XP Pro SP3, and have no problem sharing a printer (connected to the XP comp) or sharing files.