Windows Vista Gadgets issue

[dotmaster206]

I am running Vista Business on a Dell Latitude D620. The other day when I booted up, I noticed my gadgets were all weird. They were either not loading completely, or some were simply little white boxes. I have seen the issue resolved elsewhere on the net by fixing .dll files and whatnot, and I have tried several of these fixes, but to no avail.

Then today, I started up AIM6, and I found that the box where I would normally view a conversation is completely blank no matter what. I cannot see a history of the conversation; what I write, or what the other person does. I feel like these things are related because AIM was working fine before the gadgets issue. Any thoughts?

 

[kemical]

Scan for viruses....and spyware/malware. In case you need one a good free anti-virus program is AVG 8.5

AVG Free - Download Free Antivirus and Antispyware for Windows XP and Vista

 

[dotmaster206]

I actually did just run AVG 8.5, and it came up with a few tracking cookies, but nothing else. I also ran Spybot. Any other ideas?

 

[Celestra]

Have you installed anything recently ? New program or update? Perhaps a system restore might help....

 

[dotmaster206]

I did install a game recently. I uninstalled it, problem remained. I decided to try to do a system "upgrade" by upgrading to the same version of vista that I'm already using with my vista disk, but it didn't work...said the disk was corrupted. I complained to Dell a lot and they eventually agreed to give overnight a new one to me for free. So, we'll see if it works.

FYI, if you try to do this, you have to uninstall Service Pack 1 and Windows PowerShell before running the disk.

 

[kemical]

From what you say it is possible that some files may have been corrupted during the 'upgrade' process especially when you say that it went wrong due to a corrupt disk.. I'd wait for your new disk and then do a clean install.

 

[dotmaster206]

Well, it quit on me during the first phase, copying files. When I cancelled the upgrade process, it said nothing had been changed on my system, so I think it should be fine. I really want to avoid doing a clean install if it's possible. So, I'll try to do the standing upgrade again with a good disk first.

I got Dell to overnight me a new disk for free, but they sent me a 64bit version instead of 32, and I know for a fact my drivers are not all going to be happy with that. After spending 20 minutes convincing a Dell tech that 64 is different and not necessarily better, they finally have agreed to ship me the right one.

Should be here by Monday.