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October 14th, 2009 14:00
Vista has been hacked!
I've been having nothing but problems with my Inspiron 531 for the past 3-4 weeks. Runs fine for a few days and then crashes. Window repair runs and starts it again, but then after a short time, it crashes again. I've had the hard drive reformatted and everything reinstalled. Worked for a while...crash!
I contacted another computer repair guy today and was told Vista had been hacked and the total OS has been compromised. Nothing can be done other that upgrade to Windows 7 when it comes out.
Has anyone else heard this?
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DELL-Jesse L
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October 15th, 2009 07:00
Mrs A,
Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.
I have never heard that before. Do you get any errors? What do the errors read? Do you have any anti-virus and spyware removal software installed on your computer?
LA1
107 Posts
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October 15th, 2009 08:00
At first it seemed like that your computer guy was saying your install of Vista had been hacked, then he is telling you to upgrade, like in a broad sence , Vista has been hacked in general. I can assure you that OEM and Retail Vista has not been hacked. If you are using the Dell Vista cd that came with your computer you have nothing to worry about... I would probably guess that you might have bad ram. There is a really good free progam on the internet called metest86, you can download an ISO (image) file that you can burn to a cd and boot from, will test your ram...or you could run the Dell diags,,,it possible also that the hard drive has bad sectors...If you get to the point of removing ram...make sure your computer is off and will not accidentally start...remove power cords and system battery (notebook).
Mrs A
119 Posts
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October 15th, 2009 17:00
Actually I have gotten so many errors I can't keep track of them. It first started with a pop-up window stating my display driver had recovered. After several weeks of that occasionally popping up, I had my first crash. In problem reports and solutions it stated I need to update my NVIDIA GeForce 8300 GS driver, which I did, but didn't help. Several more crashes always giving me a different error: something about the root cause, hpqddsvc servicehang report, printer is not connected (when it was), windows mail stopped working,
I had SpywareBlaster, SuperAntiSpyware and MalwareBytes (which found a registry file called Adware.MYWebSearch and had it quarantined.) I finally called a computer repair guy and he thought he had it fixed. Said I had some corrupt files and told me I didn't need any of the programs I was running except AVG and Windows Defender which I was running, so he removed them. Crashed again the same day he returned my computer. I called him again and he reformatted my hard drive. Still didn't help.
For a couple days I couldn't even get on the Dell Forum. Kept telling my password was wrong. I tried changing the password several times, but still wouldn't work.
My computer is only 2 yrs. old so I wouldn't think that I would need new parts already. It's almost as if I have a virus or worm. I run fine for a couple days and then I crash.
Mrs A
119 Posts
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October 15th, 2009 17:00
I am running the original Vista that was installed on my computer by Dell. I contacted another computer guy and he thinks it is probably a hardware or memory problem. He's coming tomorrow to check it. So we'll see. He also said Vista has not been hacked!
LA1
107 Posts
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October 17th, 2009 12:00
that is what I think you have some bad ram...either that or your vid card is bad.... I do not like NVIDIA . They make the embedded video processor for the DELL D630s that have a flaw, that NVIDIA tried to hide from Dell. Where I work we have replaced probably 80 or mor mainboards over the last 3 years for video issues.