OK, Windows Vista = BAD (more specifically, disappearing notification icons)

[Jek Hawkins]

seriously, windows vista is just going nuts on me most of the time. The computer I own equipped with Windows Vista is an HP laptop, the very maxed out one you can get. (AMD, of course)

2.4GHz X2
2GB DDR2 SDRAM
Virtual: 4GB cruzer micro (if you are running Vista, regardless of if you are on a laptop or desktop, I strongly recommend you give ReadyBoost a try, it's honestly amazing)
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 256MB
Vista Ultimate x64

The thing is SOOOOOOOO slow, it takes close to 15-30 minutes to start AFTER I've input my password and hit "Enter" and pretty much everything is WAY TOO SLOW compared to my XP-equipped desktop. But that's beside the point.

OK, have any of you out there with Vista found that your notification icons disappear randomly?

Here's my situation, and it's really irritating me. I will start my laptop once, with the flash drive plugged in, and when I come back and find it ready, there will sometimes be no volume indicator or networking indicator or battery indicator all of which I really REALLY like. They are not hidden, in fact, the Taskbar properties has the options to display them greyed out (or sometimes they'll be active but not filled in and I will fill them in and get them back). Other times, however, they will be there. There doesn't seem to be any discernable pattern or any change to the computer between startup and shutdown. Anybody out there had this? Better yet, anybody figured out how to fix this?

(Also, if you are Vista Ultimate HP lappy user, have you ever had your pad's scroll just suddenly stop working?!)

I

HATE

MICROSOFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Spero-T]

My mates got it on his pc and it works fine ?

http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,41423.0.html

[Jek Hawkins]

I don't know, man. And I didn't go through the entire thread, but that looks like a desktop to me. My main complaint is the notification icons at the moment because the laptop is moving around and not plugged in constantly, so I'd like to know my battery life. I also had an issue when I came out of hibernate and the computer didn't refresh the wireless networks. (I tried manually refreshing, and it said it refreshed, but it really didn't) That was cured by restarting the computer, which really ruined the point of hibernating the computer 

I have noticed, however, that hibernate seems to work very well for keeping the computer ready in a moment's notice. Shutting down and starting up is nothing short of a complete pain in the *censored* because it takes close to 5 minutes to startup and show all my gadgets and all my icons, then another half-hour or more for it to stop doing whatever the bloody heck is taking up 50+% processor power. I know this because I've gotten to the "started up but running uber slow stage" and opened up the task manager and the processes tab and performance tab. During this stage, the computer is showing no real processes going on (Maybe 1 or 2 percent CPU is being used for oh, two or three separate processes for a total of about 4% CPU usage indicated) and the performance tab shows 15-65% CPU use. As a side note, my memory is almost constantly half-full. (This really doesn't overly bother me because the speed boost from ReadyBoost helps even this out)

I just have bad luck

[Spero-T]

Lol sorry spaced on that one !!

[Jek Hawkins]

Lol sorry spaced on that one !!

lol

no problem, no harm done

 

just looking for ideas, or similar experiences

[Jek Hawkins]

OK, this is driving me insane. The icons are continually disappearing, and the startup time of 30 mins is just too much! Nobody has any suggestions? I was told by a friend that I might try sending the laptop back to HP as it is still under warranty + protection plan, since it could be a hardware issue, but I have so darn much on this lappy that it'd leave me kinda stuck for college... If there aren't any ideas, though, I might contact tech support and get them to have a look... 

[Spero-T]

Man wish ic ould help you, you have ran virus scans etc in both safe mode and regular ?

Have you posted a hi jack this log.....

Have you downloaded any dodge programs in the last few weeks, was it work fine at some stage ?

[Jek Hawkins]

well, i have NOT run virus scans in safe mode, haven't really had time. Then again, it hasn't really been a priority since I didn't think it was a virus bc the computer has been doing this since I got it... IDK, I'm blaming it on Vista for now, haha, it's really the only explanation. hijack, no, dodge progs, no, and no, it has been this bloody slow since i got the freaking thing for 2Gs.

does that suggest it's hardware problems? (or the laptop is just not fast enough for vista Ultimate?)



After I get done typing this paper, I might go to HP's site and see what the heck is up w/ this thing.

[Spero-T]

Minimum requirements 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

512 MB of system memory

20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space

[Jek Hawkins]

Yeah, I guess...

But we all know that minimum requirements are bare-bones requirements as in the system will start but nothing else... Then again I more than double those requirements easily. I don't know. The lappy seems to be running somewhat quicker since I've been just running from hibernate whenever possible, but whenever I actually shutdown and startup, it does that long, tedious whatever-the-heck-it's-doing thing. And I'm excessively annoyed by the disappearing icons.

 

I believe I shall check Microsoft and HP [again].

 

[patio]

Run diskclean and defrag on that machine...

[Jek Hawkins]

Way ahead of you, patio. 

I've run all optimization software with the one exception of HP's included Health Center program, which I am doing as I type. That includes anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-adware, defrag, cleanup, updates... (Did I miss any?)

Speed is really not a concern anymore, HP had a brand-new BIOS for the laptop, and I got that, and it helped some. I just circumvented the speed problem altogether by setting startup to start without as many programs as I could, then firing them up manually...

Also, with relation to the notification icons, HP's help told me to activate the Admin account and try again, and it worked... for two restarts... The problem came back after that. Dumb Microsoft... 

Ideas? Comments?