Windows Vista Freezes

Starting about a month ago I ran into a problem in which Windows Vista would freeze if I didn't use my computer for a while. It seemed to happen after about two hours of inactivity. I found a patch to make Windows Vista more stable on the Microsoft website but that didn't help. I also ran all the updates and searched for individual updates. I read about all types of solutions which included replacing the hard drive, uninstalling and reinstalling drivers for all hardware as well as stopping various services which are running on your computer. I also read that anti-virus programs use a lot of memory and they could also cause the problem.

When the computer freezes up the only thing you can do is to hold down the start button until it shuts off.

I own an advertising agency and to be without my computer while it is in getting repaired would be a big hassle. The other concern I had was that my Dell computer was now less than two years old but it was just under $500.00 when I bought it so I didn't want to spend a lot of money fixing a relatively inexpensive computer. To bring it to any repair shop would cost about $150.00 just to diagnose the problem. Then if it did need a new hard drive that could add $150.00 to the bill and then I'm at $300.00 in repairs on a computer that only cost $480.00 to begin with.

Finally I discovered the actual problem and I was able to fix it myself. About a month ago I downloaded Microsoft Essentials and just before that or with that Microsoft One Live. The problem seems to be Microsoft One Live is no longer in use so when my computer tries to connect to the server it gets stuck. The screen would either go black and nothing would work or it would just look like normal but the mouse and keypad didn't work. Even the clock would stop at whatever time it was when the problem occurred.

To fix this problem I went to Start - Control Panel - Programs - Add/Remove Software and then I removed Microsoft One Live. That resolved the problem.

OK I have to confess, the solution I found above did seem to make my computer work better and for a day it didn't freeze up on me.  However, the problem continued and I took it into a repair shop and found out that the power supply was going bad and needed to be replaced.  It was explained to me that the keyboard internally connects like a USB device and they use a lot of power.  So the problem is that if your power supply is going bad then the Windows Vista operating system shuts off the keyboard to conserve power.  The shop also disabled many services which were starting up automatically when I turned the computer on.  So now I think the problem is finally solved.

OK here's the final update.  The new power supply did not solve the problem.  However, I did a restore and restored the computer to a previous date when everything worked properly.  Also around the time I did this there were some Windows Vista updates that came out and I installed those.  So far it has been working great but there is one other problem now; the screen saver never comes on.  This is minor compared with the other problem so I'll just live with that.