Windows 7 An incredible plethora of problems...

[aklyatne]

So, I just recently got an HP Pavillion DV8, with Windows 7. This has proved to be...problematic. There are an incredible number of problems that never, ever happened with XP. I'll start with the specs, and then a list of problems.

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600)
HP Pavillion dv8 Notebook PC
Default System BIOS
Intel Core i7 CPU Q 720 @ 1.60GHz (8CPUs), ~1.6GHz
4GB RAM
DirectX 11
NVIDIA GeForce GT 230M

I turned off the firewall because it does absolutely nothing but get in the way. Antivirus software has been uninstalled, and I use a portable version of AVG when I want to scan. It is completely virus free - the only malware seems to be Windows itself.


And now the problems...
1) On the logon screen, when I try to type in a password, the screen flashes roughly every four seconds. Every single time that it flashes, the cursor moves back to the beginning of the box. I need to split my password in half to be able to even log in; I type in half, wait for the flash, click the end, and type in the rest. It is an incredible pain, and something that should not be happening.

2) iTunes causes the machine to completely lock up on occasion. I can't change the volume, interact with iTunes, or even end the process. At all. This is, of course, makes it completely and entirely useless, and with that wonderful DRM, I can't actually use another program to play it.

3) Most games are broken. Team Fortress 2, notably, freezes on "Sending Client Info" every single time I try to join certain servers. This did not happen at all with XP.

4) Icons have gotten completely and entirely messed up in the taskbar. I deleted the icon database, which fixed the problem, but it should not happen at all.

5) This is unrelated to Windows 7 specifically, but it seems to be limited to Windows in general, and one of you might know a fix. In Facebook chat, when I receive a message, the entire computer does not accept input. I'm using Firefox, but the same exact thing happens with IE. You need to click on the background of a page to be able to type at all.

So, Windows 7 has, so far, been not good. All drivers and programs are updated, by the way, and I've looked for solutions to these problems but haven't found a single solution, other than the icon problem.

 

[Joe S]

Did these problems arise after you turned off firewall, uninstalled AV and made a few other tweaks? Was Windows 7 preinstalled or was this another upgrade?
Joe

 

[aklyatne]

Windows 7 was preinstalled. I never actually activated the antivirus in the first place (it was Norton, which is completely and entirely obnoxious and obtrusive.) I disabled the firewall after some of the problems happened, and it changed nothing. I didn't make any other tweaks, as far as I know. All Windows settings are vanilla, except the normal changes (view hidden folders, show file extensions, and simple stuff like that.)

 

[RAK]

Windows 7 runs 100% "Out of the Box". I would suggest, as you say you have recently purchased, that you take it back to the seller an discuss the problem there. Your only other alternative, that I can see, would be a reinstall, which would void any warranty. Ditto, if you start altering too many features.

 

[aklyatne]

You can't say with 100% certainty that Windows 7 runs perfectly out of the box. Most of these happened before any of the changes that should no have caused any problems. The logon screen flashing, which is the most annoying by far, can't even have been caused by anything that I've done - it's the first GUI after startup, before any programs actually run. I'll contact HP and see what they have to say.

 

[reghakr]

Get rid of Norton first

Download RevoUinstaller here:
Download Revo Uninstaller Freeware - Free and Full Download

Then the Norton Removal Tool:
Link Removed - Invalid URL

Go to Start > Run, and ape msconfig and uncheck everything

 

[Joe S]

Did it boot up OK when you first started before you began loading and adjusting things? If it didn't why didn't you contact HP then?

 

[RAK]

Did it boot up OK when you first started before you began loading and adjusting things? If it didn't why didn't you contact HP then?

Exactly Joe. From the first post, it is not clear. Did you purchase with delivery, or from a retailer. If the latter, how did it start up and look before purchase? Presumably the seller put on the password, which was you first problem.

 

[aklyatne]

Exactly Joe. From the first post, it is not clear. Did you purchase with delivery, or from a retailer. If the latter, how did it start up and look before purchase? Presumably the seller put on the password, which was you first problem.

I purchased it through the mail. It started up with the standard Windows 7 'first boot' screen, where I was made to set up accounts and passwords and register and such. The first time I started it, I'm not sure if the login screen thing happened or not. It could be because of the fingerprint scanner bit. I'll try disabling that and restarting.

Also, I didn't contact HP about these problems because they're individually minor, and the computer still functions. It's just very much annoying. Besides, I've never had a computer where the producer actually supports Windows itself on problems that don't actually break the computer.

 

[Joe S]

Go to msconfig and disable everything but your antivirus and see if that works. If it does start adding things back to startup until you find the problem. I try and minimize things that start on boot up. In services you can select delayed startup on some items too.
Joe

 

[aklyatne]

I disabled everything last night. 'My' antivirus was uninstalled right after I turned the computer on - I absolutely hate Norton. Logon screen is still flashing, iTunes is still freezing sometimes, and TF2 can't properly connect to some servers. It's fine if there's no real solution though - I'm used to Windows having lots of tiny problems. I learn to ignore them.