BleepingComputer.com: Vista problems with FF and Powering Down

I have a brand new Compaq Presario sr5610f which has Vista Home Premium installed. Specs: Desktop PC (2.5 GHz AMD Athlon X2 4800 Dual- Core Processor, 3 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive

I have had this desktop less than a week. It has Norton already on it, since then I have installed Winpatrol, Zone Alarm, chat software (Pidgeon), Thunderbird, Firefox, SeaMonkey, Spybot Search, Spywareblaster, and a few other things.

Problems I have:

1. Browsers, Firefox quits working after a while:

I run as a limited user, and I have noticed already that Firefox will hang after a while if I have had the desktop running for a few hours. It will simply hang, until I try to kill the process, firefox, exe, which I am not able to do successfully from task manager or from the freeware version of Winpatrol. Firefox error tells me "Close Firefox: FF is already running but not responding, must close existing FF or restart your computer" - I believe as an administrator user, the same error occurs. It happens as well with Seamonkey. I use IE very little, but have not noticed the timing out as I have with FF and SM.

2. When I try to power off the PC from Windows --> Shut Off or Restart
That does not work either, I have to power it down from the CPU.

I looked in the event viewer as Administrator and found these errors:

- The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load: i8042prt


- Unable to initialize the security package Kerberos for server side authentication. The data field contains the error number.


- The machine-default permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID
{9BA05972-F6A8-11CF-A442-00A0C90A8F39}
to the user Demator-PC\MyLimitedUser SID (S-1-5-21-2864145695-3375406145-1318430211-1001) from address LocalHost (Using LRPC). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.


I googled them and it was mentioned permissions. I set the permissions as recommended, but still these same errors.


Should I do a restore and see if any of this started when I got the box? The first day or 2 I had this desktop, none of these errors occurred. I also wondered if any of my software is having conflicts.

I ran scan disk and defrag as well, and of course scanned it with the AV. It still gives me this headache after a few days now.


Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

This post has been edited by nospam: 15 December 2008 - 10:33 PM

As it's a new computer, I'd backup anything you can't afford to lose and then perform a system recovery to the out-of-the-box state (I believe it's F11 during boot on a Compaq).

This will be the quickest way of determining if it's a problem with the stuff that was added after you purchased it.
Then visit Windows Update and ensure you've got all the latest updates.
Then start adding things one at a time - and test after each to see if the problem recurs.
Install the anti-spyware and tweaking stuff last - as that may have "default" settings that conflict with your system.

First thing I would try is turn off all the virus programs(Norton) firewall and see if things work as you would expect. If so then you are probably running one too many protections or your firewall or some protective software isn't set up correctly. If you have 32 bit Vista then I would try surfing the net using Sandboxie rather than through a virus shield. The concept is much simpler. It doesn't let sandboxed programs write to the HD or Registry except inside the sandbox.

A google should turn up the home page or you can take a guess how to add a '.com' to the name

This post has been edited by MilesAhead: 17 December 2008 - 02:11 PM

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If there is any it should be this one. Norton 360 has already a firewall. Zone alarm, even without already having another firewall, can at times be problematic.
The rule of thumb:Just one AV and one Firewall (other than Windows).

Uninstall Zone Alarm and see if it makes a difference.

Thanks, good suggestions, I will let you know if I get it resolved, whenever I get a chance.

Thanks for the suggestions. I took the box back and got another desktop. A kind belated thanks, again!

Glad it is resolved.