Sick and Tired of Windows Vista

[X40Nick]

Hi,

As you can see from the title, I am a centimetre away from giving up with Vista. I am getting these BSOD's, and this time it is about mpfp.sys? I can't find anything about how to fix them, except it might be due to my McAfee??? I bought that to get away from Kaspersky's BSODS!!! What the **** is wrong with my system? I don't know what to do. :(

Can anyone help me, I can't re-install it as I am away, and I don't have my XP Pro disc handy. But I am close to going to XP Pro.

Thank you.

Nick

[Jonny2Bad]

xp pro ftw, the only way is go back to xp buddy :wink:

[X40Nick]

I know, I am probably going to do that when I get back. But does anyone know what is causing the problems?

Thank you.

Nick

[JDowdall]

could be a corrupt install if you've been having all these errors, have you tried a re-install?

[X40Nick]

Maybe, what is mpfp.sys anyway?

Thank you,

Nick

[system7]

It's part of MacAfee personal firewall.

Maybe uninstall it for now and run Windows firewall.

If it plays nicely with uninstall, that is... :?

[X40Nick]

Right, so buying McAfee to avoid Kaspersky's random and highly frequent blue-screens was just a waste of money. I can't seem to uninstall it as it is joint with McAfee Internet Security. Can anyone help me by seeing if there is a patch or something? I have tried looking, but so far found nothing :( It is McAfee Internet Security 2008.

Thank you for all your help.

Nick

P.S

Windows, Sucks!

[JDowdall]

nooo!!! vista sucks :P

[system7]

I don't get too worried about anti-virus, having up to date browser and all that. Spyware bothers me more, but HijackThis can keep an eye on new and dubious running processes.

Why not lose the lot for now. You can always bung on Zonealarm or something till you get home.

I sometimes wonder how much all these Vista problems are to do with insufficient memory... :?

[X40Nick]

I may do that! But I am using dial-up and it is not feesable to download ZoneAlarm. I am using this free dial-up connection here in Spain. Not bad speed, but not broadband.

Are you suggesting that the memory in my laptop may be faulty? Or that I don't have enough? I have 2GB, which came with the laptop?

But by the way things are going, it is back to XP. Mainly so I can get more power out of my laptop, as I am correct in saying XP doesn't use as much resources right?

Thanks,

Nick.

[Jonny2Bad]

Yes xp uses half the resources that vista uses, i have used mcafee for 3 years now and never had a problem with it, just another compatibilty problem with vista, i know some people have no problem with this sort of thing but there are a lot that do, its a dog imho xp ftw lets hope they do better with the next os windows 7 please!!!!!

[PeteA]

Overclocking can some times cause a problem with vista.

I used to have Vista Ultimate 64 on my desktop and all of a sudden it BSOD, took my overclock off and it stopped.

There seems also to be problems with driver updates. If you install over drivers it can cause a problem, especially if you have the higher end cards.
I went back to XP Pro because I couldn't find the problem.

Try getting the error codes when it crashes, if you can take a pic that would be better. It would tell us exactly what is crashing the system.

[X40Nick]

Okay, next BSOD I will write down some information, but to be honest as there is no fix, then I will go back to Windows XP.

Nick

[PeteA]

Well if you write down the info we might be able to find a fix. There is a lot of useful information in a BSOD, it will tell you exactly what the problem is and there is always a fix.

[X40Nick]

Okay, here is the information from Problems & Solutions, in Vista.

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 2057

Files that help describe the problem (some files may no longer be available)
Mini080908-02.dmp
sysdata.xml
Version.txt

Extra information about the problem
BCCode: 50
BCP1: ADF7B000
BCP2: 00000000
BCP3: 8F112F96
BCP4: 00000000
OS Version: 6_0_6001
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 768_1

That's the details.

Thank you for all your help!

Nick.

[PeteA]

After doing a little bit of research a few things come up.
If you have an nvidia card either use a back dated version of the driver and make sure you remove the previous driver in its entirety.
There seems to be huge problems with Vista SP1 and people with nvidia cards. My guess is the way SP1 was installed / how older software works it causes deadlock between the operating systems and programs.
If that doesn't fix the problem then just go back to XP.

Just to clear up one presumption that people have. Vista as an operating system is a good operating system, very secure and user friendly. However the problem it has like any new operating system, same problem xp had for a while is that compatibility with new software is not very good. Which is down to the vendors of the OS not making their software properly, especially free software / cheap software that relies on specific drivers/files on the computer, when those change is where you get crashes.

The BSOD problem that seems to be cropping up seems to be when people close/open full screen programs, which is usually linked to Graphics Drivers.

[Jonny2Bad]

I agree Pete if it all worked fine and didnt hog so much of your rigs resources it would be a great tool, very pretty and user friendly, but unfortunately i feel that by the time they iron it all out windows 7 will be upon us lol so pretty pointless imo, hope they get it right with the next 1 heh.

[PeteA]

Vista was only designed to be a bridge to give MS a little more time before they bring the next one out.

Windows 7 or what ever they're going to call it will be a complete revamp. From what I've been reading its going to be a Windows Linux hybrid. Easier to do command line and better for administrators.

[X40Nick]

Well, I don't have a Nvidia card.

But when I close Firefox, it always tells me "Tell Mozilla about this crash" So I think for the time being, I won't be using Firefox. But on the 3rd September, I'll go back to Windows XP.

Thanks for your help, seems to be just a weird windows problem.

Sigh... another reinstallation.

Nick.

[PeteA]

That firefox crash is due to a bug between Firefox and Vista. It's completely stable with XP

[X40Nick]

Yet another incompatibility issue with Vista??? That's the final straw. Back to XP Professional, also I have a Western Digital HD in my X40r, which is 160GB, last time I installed XP. It would only read 127GB, mind you that was a Maxtor? My XP disc, is the original one without any service packs? Will I get a problem?

Thank you, it's a Western Digital drive so should be okay?

Best Regards,
Nick.

[Jonny2Bad]

Xp without any service packs will not recognise any hdd over 127g its only with sp1 that it will, you'll have to go into disc management and liven up the partition not seen after sp1 is installed. I did hear rumours of a fix but have never found it.

[PeteA]

Get a copy of XP with SP2.

Yeah vista has lots of compatibility issues but as I said its the software vendors problem not Microsoft. MS have even made it easy to make compatible software but the vendors seem not to bother to make it properly

[X40Nick]

Well that's just crptastic.

If I use a program like nLite, and bundle all 3 service packs will I get the same problem? If not, then I'll just have to reinstall Vista, again!!! Maybe this was just a corrupt install or something.

Thank you.

Nick

[Jonny2Bad]

Its not that bigger deal surely you will only be showing 150g ish on that hdd anyway so just partition it open once youve installed sp2, and have a partitioned drive. Is that so bad?

[X40Nick]

Well, I may try nLite, apparently that could solve my problem, although I think it wont... Anyone got a theory on that?

[Jonny2Bad]

Not sure i'd even bother with it tbh , for the sake of a 30g partition which i would use as file storage.

[X40Nick]

Yeah, might put Linux on there. I'll think about it.

[X40Nick]

I know, I am asking for a lot, but could anyone point me in the right direction. With Ubuntu, the headphone socket won't work. I am sure this is a common thing, but is there a fix?

I am really grateful that their are kind experts available on this forum! Thank you so much!

Best Regards,
Nick.

[PeteA]

You need to find the sound drivers for linux. It doesn't come as standard.

[X40Nick]

Right, I believe it is a Realtek card? How would I install the drivers? I have found that it is the HD Audio Codec pack?

Thank you.

Nick

[PeteA]

Realtek them selves don't make linux drivers but if you search for realtek drivers and linux you might be able to find them.

You might also want to search in the synaptic package manager.

[system7]

Actually, Pete, Realtek do provide a Linux driver. I don't have time to download the tarball file and check it out. Might have some instructions.

But I really think Nick could tell us more before we spend time on it. Does any other distro work? Mandriva is not so prissy about using proprietory drivers, and seems to have NVidia, ATI and Realtek. Do the usual loudspeakers work, and is it just the headphone socket not working?

What is the hardware: CPU, NorthBridge, southbridge, graphics and sound chip?

What does system/prefences/sound say: ALSA presumably? Any help in the mixer? Is this a problem where system sounds are OK, but movies and mp3s needing codecs are not playing back?

[PeteA]

Thanks for the info System7, last time I looked which was probably about 2 years ago I do admit they didn't.

[Jonny2Bad]

Right im making it my next project to learn about these linux os, gonna load it up a spare machine and have a play.

[Nox]

I'd suggest one of the following three :)

Fedora - If you ever want to learn about using linux in a corporate environment, this is definately the one to go for. Loads of info out there, very common.

Ubuntu - Same as Fedora but replace the corp environment bit with dedicated ubuntu forums.

Sabayon - based on Gentoo. Was the only distro to accurately pick up my 8700m gt in my laptop, and is way faster than either of the above two os. it also looks nicer. Troubleshooting is a bit tougher, but then again a fix on one breed of linux is a good starting place for fixing your own.

I run sabayon btw. I like the speed, and the colours/themes/layout, and the speed. As Kryton would say, such an important point, I thought i'd mention it twice.

Nox

[X40Nick]

Well, I have tried those distros and the only one's that worked were OpenSuse and Ubuntu. All the rest have a problem with the Intel X3100.

I would like Fedora, except of the graphics situation!

Speakers work, just when plugging in headphones -- no sound!

Nick.

P.S

Sorry, I didn't provide more info, I come on the computer quite late.

[Nox]

Speakers work, just when plugging in headphones -- no sound!


by saying that, my instant diagnosis is your headphones are bust. but i'll assume you've tried them in something else?

Nox

[PeteA]

My laptop has the same problem with XP and linux. It's actually the sound card. For some reason speakers will work but it needs the drivers for the jacks to work.
It's the laptop they released about a year ago that only had support for vista. 2.0 Dual Core, 2GB ram, ATI x1400.
I found some open source realtek drivers which seem to work, however I don't have a clue where they were from.

[Nox]

Are we were talking about a desktop or laptop?

Nox

[system7]

Indeed, Nox, the devil is in the detail. it's an X40R laptop. Intel 965 mobile chipset as far as I know.

I don't know if the Realtek driver is relevant here, but would doubtless help.

Far as I can tell it's a bug in the ALSA sound software in Ubuntu 8.04.1.

ALSA 1.1.17 evidently fixes this jack sensing issue.

This may help:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/HP2133

I also discovered that a lot of distros have graphical install trouble with the Intel X3100 graphics due to defaulting to the Intel i810 graphics driver. There's a bit of a Ubuntu wiz discussing his X3100 issues on an X40R here:
http://www.rufuspollock.org/2008/02/13/external-monitors-with-ubuntu-and-intel-gma-x3100-integrated-graphics/

[X40Nick]

Thank you for your replies! I see, what your saying about the graphics, but I did solve it by changing the xorg.conf file. But that worked with Ubuntu. Mandriva & Fedora were unfixable.

Is the new ALSA in 8.04 or is it a new update?

My headphones are not broken.

Is there any more info you need?

Thank you & Best Regards,

Nick.

[mazuk]

you know that vista has been out for 23 months and is actually more popular then xp was within 23 months of being released...its proven...