Vista freezes when changing identies

[Guest]

I have a-less-than-one-month-old-Gateway with Vista Home Premium, 64X2 dual
core processor, 5000Nvidia Get Force 6150 SE, 2G Ram. I am set up with five
seperate identities. Almost always, when I shift between identies, the
system freezes. I have tried shutting down the identity I'm leaving and I've
left running with no difference in the result. This is doubly aggravating
because I have to "pull-the-plug" and I can do nothing while the system
recovers from the improper shut-down as neither the mouse nor the keyboard
load until I've gone through the whole process. I've read seven pages of
posts and answers but haven't run across anything close to this issue.
Thanks for any and all replies.

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 10:06:04 -0700, Deacon Bernie

I have a-less-than-one-month-old-Gateway with Vista Home Premium, 64X2 dual
core processor, 5000Nvidia Get Force 6150 SE, 2G Ram. I am set up with five
seperate identities.

Define "identities". Do you mean "Outlook Express"-style email
identities, as impacted by Norton av etc. or user accounts?

Almost always, when I shift between identies, the system freezes.
I have tried shutting down the identity I'm leaving and I've left
running with no difference in the result.

Is the Fast User Switching service running?

Switching between active user account sessions will have impact on
memory and HD space usage. If low HD space, that will hurt, as might
a page file size that is constrained for other reasons.

This is doubly aggravating because I have to "pull-the-plug"

DO NOT DO THAT.

and I can do nothing while the system recovers from the improper
shut-down as neither the mouse nor the keyboard load until I've
gone through the whole process.

Boo-hoo. You do realise that "recovering from an improper shut-down"
involves AutoChk silently "fixing" the file system at the expense of
any files broken by pending writes, yes?

Repeated bad exits is a great way to decend into "I had to just wipe
and re-instrall" bit-rot territory.

I've read seven pages of posts and answers but haven't run
across anything close to this issue.

First, I'd check your file system for errors, and I'd check the Fast
User Switching service that facilitates what you are trying to do.

Next, I'd test the process with a minimum of applications running,
i.e. start two user account sessions without explicitly running
anything within these. Try swapping between these sessions.

If that is OK, then start adding launched applications in each, on a
"test to break" basis.

If that is not OK, then disconnect all networks (for safety) and
re-test that as the baseline state, expecting it to be as bad. If OK,
then consider malware and networking factors.

If still bad, then use MSConfig to reversibly disable startup items
and non-MS services in each user account, then re-test with these
slimmed-down sessions. If OK, add back to test-to-break.

HTH?

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