Vista Service Pack1. Everythings going crazy

[danmc_82]

Just downloaded service pack1 for vista ultimate and everythings going nuts. Firefox and inernet explorer keep stopping and then it wont let me sign into msn until I restart the pc.
Its saying its something to do with "Lame Codec mp3" ive looked on programs but there isnt such a thing. Ive tried uninstalling it using command prompt but nothing will work.

Please help.

[mattclarkie]

I just installed it on my main PC, and it has been running on my laptop for months with not much issue.

However on my main PC it seemed to completely balls Nero 8, I had to unistall it and re-install an updated version from the Nero website. I also had some issues with Spybot, in the end I just uninstalled it.

I think it is something to do with system files being changed or moved, and having an effect on software dependent on them. I had an issue with a security update a few months back that damaged a system file and it caused Nortons Internet Security to completely die and I had to restore the system and re-install it.

Alternatively a nasty may have entered the system conicidentally at the same time as you installed SP1 and that is causing the issues and not SP1.

Running a virus/spyware scan first to check if there is a nasty, and if not just restore the PC to before you installed SP1, and then try again. If the issue still happens maybe someone has more info about it.

Seems that LAME is an open-source MP3 encoder and part of Audacity and Winamp and a few other things, but if you haven't installed it on your system it could be something fishy on your system.

[danmc_82]

Cheers for that. Is there a free spyware/virus scan program you could recomment.
So far Ive used PC Doc Pro, Registry Mechanic and Ace utilities. Do you think I should unistall firefox and msn first to see if that works?

[mattclarkie]

Originally Posted by danmc_82

Cheers for that. Is there a free spyware/virus scan program you could recomment.
So far Ive used PC Doc Pro, Registry Mechanic and Ace utilities. Do you think I should unistall firefox and msn first to see if that works?

Adaware is good, but a bit limited. Spybot is recommended by others but I don't rate it.

As for Registry Mechanic, when I ran it on various computers it recommended operations that I am sure would have made the pc un-bootable, so I ignored it.

I would leave everything as is. You don't want to start un-installing stuff when a PC is acting funny as you could end up with half un-installed programmes(I have had that happen), and the only option is to call it quits.

[wormvortex]

I've always found adaware and spybot a load of crap if you actually have malware. In the past they've always found loads of problems, fixed them and then only to give me a totally different list of problems the next scan.

[treacle]

Originally Posted by danmc_82

Just downloaded service pack1 for vista ultimate and everythings going nuts. Firefox and inernet explorer keep stopping and then it wont let me sign into msn until I restart the pc.
Its saying its something to do with "Lame Codec mp3" ive looked on programs but there isnt such a thing. Ive tried uninstalling it using command prompt but nothing will work.

Please help.

Did you get it as an update, or download from MS site.?

[ntm1275]

You could try the new AVG free edition

The new version 8 is an Antivirus and AntiSpyware in one

[danmc_82]

Originally Posted by treacle

Did you get it as an update, or download from MS site.?

As an update.

[danmc_82]

Originally Posted by ntm1275

You could try the new AVG free edition

The new version 8 is an Antivirus and AntiSpyware in one

Cheers, I'll try that and see how it goes. Firefox isnt as bad as it was now Ive got version 3.0 installed but it still stops working every no and then

[sunnybacon]

Originally Posted by ntm1275

You could try the new AVG free edition

The new version 8 is an Antivirus and AntiSpyware in one

AVG 8 is fantastic. I posted a while ago on how to get the Professional edition for free due to a loophole AVG forgot to close.
See my previous post here.
Hope that helps

[danmc_82]

Its official, laptop has gone to pot. Any advice before I throw it away.
Ive only just managed to get back onto this site.

Ive restored pc back a month- diddnt help and now firefox wont work at all. Tried installing it again but nope, nothing works.

It wont let me restore even further back because it says I have no restore points saved.
Still keeps saying "internet explorer has stopped working" and now msn wont even let me read my emails.

[Chaosx]

Did anyone else with 4GB of ram on the 32 bit version notice that Vista now recognises all of your ram?

[tapzilla2k]

SP1 will recognise the amount of installed RAM you have in the 32bit versions, not the actual amount that windows can use i.e. it'll see 4gb but will only be able to use 3.25gb etc

[Chaosx]

So it's not actually a benefit then. Shame. I just can't bring myself to upgrade to the 64 bit version as there are so many reported problems.

[tapzilla2k]

Originally Posted by Chaosx

So it's not actually a benefit then. Shame. I just can't bring myself to upgrade to the 64 bit version as there are so many reported problems.

I've done some digging about this -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946003/
Seems there is a slight benefit to this, but not a noticeable one.

Things are improving in the 64bit world but problems do still persist.
I may well go 64bit when Windows 7 is released, things should have improved a great deal by then i hope.