Replies

Thank you all so far.

Both machines were bought in 2013 and both are 64-bit – the desktop has 12GB RAM with 1TB HDD and the laptop 8GB RAM and . The desktop (Lenovo IdeaCentre B540) processor is an Intel i7-3770 and clock speed of 3.40 Ghz, whereas the laptop (HP Pavilion dm4) has an i5-2450M processor with a clock speed of 2.50 Ghz.

Both were running Windows 7 Home Edition before the upgrade. The laptop currently has no antivirus except Windows Defender and the desktop Norton Internet Security.

I have disabled everything in the Startup tab of the Task Manager and have spent some time staring (as one does :rolleyes: ) at the Processes tab in Task Manager with sort on the Disk column and the busiest Disk hogs seem to be System and various Service Host’s and, of course Task Manager.

I will try the Malwarebytes, Adwcleaner and Autoruns and see if that helps, but otherwise will likely just have to learn to live with it. Tsk!

Thanks again

Unfortunately not!

Thanks again Pete.
Both are HDD’s. I also went throught and made the changes recommended in this YouTube link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK_RxU9bCBQ with the exception of the Indexing at 1:25 or so, which I found confusing.

Thanks Pete – I have already disabled them all but still no change. Anything else?

Thank you! I will do so and report back …
Brian

Thank you Banyrola. The ActiveX was not checked, but I have upgraded the Flash Player to the latest version 11 so now I get video on the BBC site, but still not the Sydney Morning Herald (http://www.smh.com.au) site. There I get a White box (!) instead of a Black one :-).
I have tried checking the ActiveX but must confess I do not see the circle you refer to. Maybe I am looking in the wrong place.
Thank you for the response.
Brian

I tried to download the Microsoft Safety Scanner (after reading the article) and get the response “msert.exe couldn’t be downloaded”. I then disabled (temporarily) Norton Internet Security and got the same result – it went to 98% of the download before caving – am I doing something wrong, is my PC infected or ???
I tried both Running the download and Saving the file – both produced the same result. I have 64-bit laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium.
Thanks for any suggestions, answers
Brian

I sent the following response to Microsoft re the FixIt article that you referenced (MS Support article 2719962)

It says”To enable or disable this Fix it solution, click the Fix it button or link under the Enable heading or under the Disable heading. Click Run in the File Download dialog box, and then follow the steps in the Fix it wizard.”, but then promptly has the “ENABLE” over the Fix It button that has the text “Disable Windows Sidebar and Gadgets – Microsoft Fix it 50906”!!!! and “DISABLE” over the Fix It button that says “Enable Windows Sidebar and Gadgets – Microsoft Fix it 50907” !!!!!! Look for yourself – so which one should one click to DISABLE the gadgets???
Please unscramble the confusion and pass on the correct one to choose, thanks.

I would be interested to hear your take on which button to click
Brian

I am sad to say that I am not able to toggle the Accelerated Graphics settings – it is greyed out with the setting checked. Any advice please as I have IE go into “Not Responding” mode quite often.
Thanks, Brian

Thanks Clint – I have found that the Rank of the Installed Driver (this would presumably indicate if it is default) of the IDT High Definition Audio CODEC (i.e. the laptiop) is 00FF0001, whereas the NVIDIA HDMI Audio is given as 00FF2005, but there is no means in the devmgmt.msc to change that. I expect it might lie somewhere in the registry and to be honest, changing things there makes me a little bit nervous.
Brian

Hi Woody – you said that the SP1 update brings, inter alia, “An HDMI patch: I have no idea why MS emphasizes this as one of the noteworthy changes in Win7 SP1. It’s a bug fix to keep HDMI working when a PC is rebooted.”
I have a Dell HD monitor attached to my laptop via an HDMI cable (supplied by Dell) and also use the monitor to provide audio so that it plays through a subwoofer and stereo speakers. I have a headphone with mic set plugged into the laptop for use with Skype. All works exceptionally well except that whenever I put the laptop to sleep at night, the audio link is lost on wake up (I have a thread in this regard in the Lounge) and I need to physically unplug the HDMI cable, wait a second, then plug it in again and voila! All is restored. There is no issue with the vision, only the audio, which reports the NVIDIA HDMI Output device as disconnected!
Just thought I’d let you know and say that I hope this SP1 fixes the problem, though I am not holding my breath as the problem may lie with the NVIDIA Card..

I have tried setting PCI express; “Link State Power Management” set to off, but unfortunately, still no go. (who would know to even look there – I am so impressed).

I am running Windows 7 Home Edition

Thank you to both mercyh and PT (again!)

* Win7 Home Premium does not allow Backup across a network (Duh!), so I do a manual copy of the disk to the Buffalo Quad once a month and use Seagate Manager to do a backup with incremental backups to a connected free-standing Seagate hard drive, which of course it does as a background task.
* For the Vista PC, I use Microsoft Backup to do an incremental backup to a 1TB free-standing connected hard drive and do a manual copy of the files stored on the 1TB drive to the Buffalo NAS. (I started using Memeo for the latter, but it reduces all to snail speed and is horrible to use.)
* For the XP PC, which really is now just a standby, I do a manual copy to the Buffalo NAS every now and again.

I have checked that the NIC’s on the PC’s support 1000Mbps (they do) and the Buffalo Quad NAS (it does also) and I am off to the shops in the morning!
Any recommendations for what make to buy?

Thanks
Brian

IT WORKED – IT’S FIXED!!!!! YEEHAH!
I uninstalled VMware, tested the boot up with no network problems on any of the PC’s, i.e. started the Vista PC then the others. I then re-installed VMware and again no problems (it’s true, I did break the demo system and needed the IT people to come onto my machine remotely and “fix” it – it was also to do with IP issues in that the Hosts file needed updating after the re-install – I should have spotted that, but one lives and learns).
Thank you one and all for your patience, forebearance and advice. I am sorry that I seemed to have wasted your time with what turned out to be almost a non-problem, though it caused some havoc in my life. The manifestation belied the cause. I have no idea what changed or how it changed, but I am now much better armed for the future – I have read about extensively and now know so much more about networking and the difference between Vista and W7, and ICS and and and … THANK YOU VERY MUCH! Brian

As promised, here is the new ipconfig /all result (in this process, I have even learned how to do this copying directly from the DOS window!)

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6002]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:UsersBrian_2>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Brian-HP-PC
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : annova.de
gateway.2wire.net

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 3:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet8
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-56-C0-00-08
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.224.1(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection* 18:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : annova.de
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Check Point Virtual Network Adapter For SecureClient
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 54-BB-F2-7D-A3-17
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::8dba:550e:b644:d4c9%16(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 172.16.15.21(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.240
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, 21 July, 2010 09:51:43
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, 5 September, 2010 16:58:21
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 172.16.15.17
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 592755698
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-10-37-E8-84-00-21-5D-11-F3-D4

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 172.16.17.100
172.16.17.101
Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 172.16.17.100
Secondary WINS Server . . . . . . : 172.16.17.101
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : gateway.2wire.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100 AGN
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-21-5D-11-F3-D4
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : gateway.2wire.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1E-EC-9D-4D-1B
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::31d2:1d53:ec8c:a299%12(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.65(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, 21 July, 2010 09:21:54
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, 28 July, 2010 09:21:53
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 201334508
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-10-37-E8-84-00-21-5D-11-F3-D4

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 3:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter for VMnet1
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-56-C0-00-01
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::b87b:f85d:86a0:d0de%54(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.80.1(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 1073762390
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-10-37-E8-84-00-21-5D-11-F3-D4

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 12:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-00-54-55-4E-01
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

C:UsersBrian_2>