Replies

Ted

I should have said – yes I tried that, as another obvious possibility, and it did not help. In fact, ZA is running in safe mode where I have minimal CPU activity and on another PC, running XP and the same build of ZA, I see 5% CPU activity when other applications are quiet.

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

I suspect the answer to this problem may lie in Fred Langa’s article in Windows Secrets (paid edition) of 11 March 2010:

“More on Win7-NAS networking problems

Charles Ojserkis also wrote a follow-up note, but on a different issue:
 “Just wanted to comment on the ‘Solving Windows 7 Networking Problems’ item in the Feb. 25 issue.

“I had the same problem with two older NAS (network attached storage) units on my LAN when I went from XP to Vista. They were older (like 1999) Linux-based Iomega devices.

“There was a problem with the method of encryption used by the new OS to communicate with the network shares. As I recall, I had to go into the OS and reduce the type of encryption/handshaking used by the new OS. Once I made the change, I was able to create the share. Prior to the change, the share could not be created. Hope this helps.”
Thanks, Charles. Yes, it’s confirmation of one of the items I suspected and described this way: “But HomeGroup — and related elements of Win7’s networking, such as 128-bit encryption for shared files — introduces new and added complexity into your local networking mix.”

To change Win7’s network-share encryption levels, go into the Network and Sharing Center and do the following:
 Open Control Panel (default view), click Network and Internet, then click Network and Sharing Center.
 In the Network and Sharing Center’s left-hand pane, select Change advanced sharing settings.
 Select the appropriate type of networking profile: Home or work or Public (LANs are likely to be the former); then scroll down to File Sharing Connections and make your selection. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. In the Network and Sharing Center’s advanced settings, you can change the encryption level for Win7 network shares.

If 128-bit encryption is selected, try the 40- or 56-bit option. Win7 should now communicate with older and non-Win7 devices.”

However, for the life of me I cannot find the equivalent of the Change Advanced Sharing Settings in Vista – although Charles Ojserkis clearly could. Has anyone any idea where it might be?

Chris B

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

As James Sykes has remarked, Intuit precipitously discontinued Quicken in the UK market quite a while ago, which does not help. I am using Quicken 2002 Deluxe & Business, having started with Quicken 3 many years ago. What locks me in is the need to interrogate old data, but my worry is that at some stage it will fail to respond to a new operating system or its file size will fall over. My main file is 20MB, so James you should be safe for a while. The problem I will have then is that I doubt I will be able transfer my old data to a new package.

I also object to the Rent Me approach to pricing, and refused to upgrade when that came in. However, I do not download stock prices, because I trust my own real return calculations not those of a package. On the other hand, I have always regarded Quicken’s reporting routines to be the best of the bunch.

I have a big problem with Intuit’s approach to service which started with Quicken 2002. I found that their computation of VAT was wrong, which exposed me to the sledgehammer of the Inland Revenue, and that this version removed all the timesaving features of Business transaction entry (memorised transactions specifically). Net result was a great deal more time spent on input and on detailed checking of VAT each period. Intuit refused to acknowledge the problems, let alone correct them, despite the legal liability that their clients were exposed to from the VAT flaws.

I have introduced a client to MYOB, which I think is a good package, but I did not use it myself because of the weaker reporting and the fact that transferability of data substantially locks me into Quicken.

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

Do you have update KB 973475 installed? That seems to be one of the many bugs with that particular update.

Rory – what a brilliant “get”. I did indeed install it on 12 Nov, and as far as I can see my first problems occurred on 20 Nov. This particular bug, I find after your prompt, is documented in
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973475.

I tested on one of the spreadsheets, disabling freeze frames per the MS article, and the formula worked without a crash. I will stick with this workaround unless the problem occurs too often, in which case I will uninstall KB973475.

Many thanks for your help.

Chris

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

Just tried to do the same thing on the same spreadsheet in Excel 2007 and it worked fine. Looks like an Excel 2003 bug, methinks.

Chris B

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

I am not convinced. In one case I had to rebuild anyway, since I had not saved for an hour. In the other, I continued using it with a bodge to achieve what I wanted. In any case, Excel itself thought it had a problem, since it “called home”.

I will try it in Excel 2007 in a bit, to see if the same thing happens.

Chris

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

I’d prioritise getting a new hard disc for your machine rather than hoping it’ll work better with a different OS. Install Windows 7 by all means (you’ll need to reinstall Vista anyway), but I suspect the root of the problem is with the HDD itself. If you get an HDD external caddy you should be able to retrieve your data from the suspect one.

Hmmmm. You may be right, but I am disappointed with a disk that might be crook after only 2 years of use, when it has hardly left the house.

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

So, I come back to the problem this morning, after a couple of days and very many reboots showing curruption, to find that both chkdsk and chkntfs find the drive to be clean. I am bemused – is this the famed magical selfhealing property of NTFS? If so, would be nice if it told me what is going on! On the other hand, the slow shutdown is still there, and when I attempted to run chkdsk /f at startup (just to be sure), chkdsk still stopped after 5 seconds.

My only course of action is to press on operating normally and watch it like a hawk. Perhaps in the medium term I should contemplate an upgrade to Win 7, as a slicker system with hopefully more reliable system tools. Any views on whether that is a smart move or a foolhardy one, given the potential problems I have at present?

Many thanks DocWatson and JoePerez for your help.

Chris

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

Event log – all I could find was errors in Administrative events, 9 each time I booted saying “The file system is corrupt and unusabe. Please run chkdsk utility on the volumeDeviceHarddiskVolume1. I could not see anything for the sheduled chkdsk that I asked for on reboot.

Chris

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

Doc Watson – I have not tried System Restore because it seemed to me that if the file system was corrupt that would not help – in any case I am not sure quite when the problem started.

Joe Perez – just tried with /f/r and I had the same result. Not sure how to get at the System Event Log – can you give me a pointer?

Chris

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

Hans

Thanks – I will proceed on that basis

Chris

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

I think the issue is finally resolved. The PC crashed again today, but on recovery it offered Vista SP1. Having installed that, it immediately offered a version of KB947562 dated 27 May. This is the compatibility patch originally dated 8 April, but reissued in May to incorporate many more issues (according to the article). With that, SP1 installed, and perhaps my problems with bsods may diminish.

So, perhaps I was hasty with HP, in that MS may well have withheld SP1 while they sorted out the problems. However, what did not help is that all the MS and HP articles said SP1 was available nornally through WU. I guess the one thing that stands is the last line of my previous post:

Wouldn’t it save us all a great deal of time if these people would just be open with us!

Hope this might help other HP owners.

Chris

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

Joe – thanks for the caveats, which I shall watch carefully if I go that route.

I think I am getting the picture now, although HP is not being open with me and are continuing to maintain that MS have pulled SP1 from Windows Update.

I think there is a problem within the HP setup for my laptop (HP Pavilion dv2535ea) that conflicts with SP1. I think HP is working with Microsoft to fix the problem, because HP have now admitted that HP, not Microsoft, will release the fix that allows SP1 to load. Unfortunately, I do not have a time frame.

I think I am going to give them a bit more time to fix it, since I do not want to go from one sequence of BSODs to another sequence of different BSODs. However, I am still pursuing HP support.

Wouldn’t it save us all a great deal of time if these people would just be open with us!

Chris

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

John

Thanks – that’s what I thought. I will have a try at installing that patch manually – it should have come down automatically but I cannot see it on the list I have, but that will have to wait till I get back tomorrow. Meanwhile, HP are still insisting that SP1 has been pulled from Windows Update.

Need I say more?

Chris

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

John

Are you getting at the suspension in Feb? I thought that was long since resolved. Microsoft site says it is available through WU, and has not been changed since late April.

Chris

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A