Vista fails to load... 1

[Neil Toulouse]

Hi!

My partner has a Vista machine. Yesterday all was going well. She installed FireFox (no problems) and a PDF writer called PDF24. After installing PDF24 she had to reboot the machine, and then Vista would not load (got the progress bar then a black screen).

Assuming this to be either FireFox of PDF24 causing the issue, I proceeded to safe mode in order to un-install these apps. However, safe mode 'hung' after it loaded so that was a no go. Next I decided to restore to a previous working state (or whatever its called). So I picked a point from the previous day, restored it, and bingo all was working again.

Today she switched on, back to Vista not loading. She rebooted, this time she gets to log on but no icons have appeared (in 10 mins), but the hard disc is being accessed.

I am at work at the mo so cant do anything about it until later, but is this smelling of a hardware problem?

TIA
Neil

I like work. It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours...

 

[Neil Toulouse]

EDIT: Hard disc it not being accessed (I interpreted what she said incorrectly!), so it has crashed again!

Any ideas?

I like work. It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours...

 

[BadBigBen]

The problem is not FF, as that is Vista compatible...

the problem lies in PDF24, it is dated 2006, and Vista was not around that time yet (officially)...

Vista hangs while trying to load/start the PDF24 driver, so you need to totally eradicate that piece of software from the VISTA partition...

My choice would be either BartPE or VistaPE...



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[Neil Toulouse]

Hi!

Update is when I got home the machine had finally woken up (after about 2 hours apparently!!) and she could log on, and has been using it fine all night without a problem!

The restore point I used yesterday was prior to the installation of PDF24 and FireFox, but whilst it is up and running I will see if PDF24 has slipped the net so-to-speak and remove it.

Thanks for the help!

I like work. It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours...

 

[BadBigBen]

Kinda strange behavior there...

Here is a better software for creating PDF's, and it is VISTA compatible and it is FREE...

CutePDF

http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[electronicsfreak]

Star for you Badbigben. I have been trying to find one of those, thanks!!

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon