New Dell Inspiron 620 won't "log off" users and won't share WI-FI amongst users

BenEadir

Hi all,

I've a 6 week old Dell Inspiron 620 which up until a few days ago was the bees knees. I got rid of all the bloatware I didn't want (McAfee etc) and set up user accounts for each member of the family. I then installed Microsoft Security Essentials + Microsoft Family Security to try and put some control over when the kids can use it and monitor their web surfing etc.

I also installed a NetGear wireless N USB adapter http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-RangeMax-WNDA3100-Wireless-N-Adapter/dp/B001498LIO/ref=dp_cp_ob_e_title_3 which connects no problem to the house WI-FI.

I noticed from the beginning that if I was logged in and then switched user to one of the other user accounts I got a notice saying the wireless connection was being used by another user (I guess my own account) but after 30 seconds or so the user I had switched to established it's own connection to the wi-fi network and everything was hunky dory.

Yesterday I started getting problems. When switching user the wireless connection wouldn't work with the user I was switching to and the machine now refuses to "log off" any user. It just hangs on "logging off" and stays that way until I power off the machine.

I've rebooted the machine several times and the problem is consistent. It won't log off any user and the first user to log in is the only user who can get an internet connection. If I switch to another user the network connection icon confirm I'm connected to the house WI-FI with 4 out of 5 of the white bars showing but I can't make any connections via the browser, it says I don't have a connection.

Today I also got two fairly serious looking error messages at different times:-

1. "Failure to display security and shut down options

X The login process was unable to display security and login options and CTRL+ALT+DELETE was pressed. If the operating system does not respond, press ESC or restart the computer by using the power switch"

and later on #2.

a blue screen of death which started

"acedrv08.sys

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA"

I'f you've taken the time to read through the above I'd really appreciate your thoughts on what I can do to remedy this. I really don't want to call Dell yet as they'll probably only offer to replace it and I've 450GB of data newly transferred to it and don't want to have to copy all that to an external drive and reinstall everything from scratch again unless absolutely necessary.

Would restoring the machine to a week ago be worth doing? Would that impact on the Carbonite backup which is currently running? I guess some of the games the kids have downloaded would be lost but that's not a biggie.

Cheers in advance for your help.

Ben

BenEadir

Bump ^^^^^

Seriously, 40 people have read this post and no one has any suggestions :eek:

This is a rare thing on Boards. I guess I must be truly fcuked

Ben

mp22

If you start by uninstalling the most recent software,ie Microsoft Family Security, see what happens.

Hijpo

mp22 wrote: »

If you start by uninstalling the most recent software,ie Microsoft Family Security, see what happens.

Also what if you tried manually disconnecting from the network before trying to log off the user.

BenEadir

Thanks guys,

Before seeing your posts I spent 90 minutes onto Dell premium support (how much is the 1850 434 334 number per minute :eek: ) who concluded I need to reinstall my operating system. Not a happy camper.

What I hadn't included in my original post (because I only noticed it today) is an error message in the bottom right of the screen when the log off process hangs stating the version of Win 7 I'm running isn't genuine. WTF?? I got the machine direct from Dell just over a month ago.

Anyway, Dell concluded that some of the windows updates I did (which are done automatically) are corrupt and these are causing the problem.

I feel like restoring the operating system is a standard Dell recommendation when a problem isn't easily fixed and they don't care about the hassle it causes i.e. backing up 450GB of data, reinstalling all the apps, setting up users and settings etc etc. I tried therefore to do a restore to last week well before these problems started but that isn't working either as the restore process needs to shut down the system to take effect and the system simply won't shutdown. It won't let users log off and it won't shut down when "shut down" is selected.

I guess it is related to some corrupt security update and I have no choice but to back everything up, reinstall Win 7 and just build it all back up again but before I get stuck into doing that tomorrow I'd appreciate any thoughts you guys have??

Ben

Hijpo

Start up in safe mode and see if theres still an issue with it shutting down. That loads the basic windows compnents. If there isnt a problem i would be confident a reinstall isnt necessary as windows itself.isnt broken and its just about narrowing it down to what IS causing it. That pop up would concern me though. It could all be down to malware, have you done any scans?

dilallio

I've had 8 Dell laptops over the past 5 years and they will always tell you to do a factory restore if they can't quickly identify a software issue.

You could try and call Microsoft as it appears to be more of a Windows rather than Dell hardware issue, but because you are running an OEM version of Windows, Microsoft don't have to support you. They may do so though.

If you cannot un-install any of the programs you have installed to see if that fixes the issue, and the restore to an earlier state does not work, the next steps that I would do are:

1. Try and start in Safe Mode, and if successfull, uninstall the Microsoft Family Security.

2. If that doesn't work, perform a Windows 7 Startup Repair. This will reinstall and register vital windows files & components which may have been damaged (this often happens if the machine is powered off during a windows update).

3. If that doesn't work, then a Restore to Factory Default will be required.

Have you run the Dell diagnostics to eliminate any hardware issues?

Do you need to retreive user files from the machine?

BenEadir

Great suggestions lads, thanks.

Started up in safe mode then shut down no problem so that's encouraging.

Eventually figured out how to uninstall Family Security (I'm sure this is the root cause) which in Win 7 is via uninstalling Windows Live Essentials then clicking on the app you want to uninstall and it got to 38% of the uninstall and hung :mad:

Not sure what to do next. Will probably go back into safe mode and uninstall from there but I may not be able to do that in safe mode.

I feel I'm on the right track thanks to you're respective suggestions but it's a battle I can tell you.

Ben

Cuddlesworth

Blue screen was caused by a bad driver from a product called "protect software". Its supposedly a form of cd/DVD protection that puts itself in front of the cd drives. It would seem to be a really common issue.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-performance/acedrv08sys/83ed4d50-569d-41f0-bd32-728bccb96a7d

In fairness a reinstall of the OS would fix it. There are also some suggestions at the bottom of the thread above.

Windows not shutting down is generally due to a program or service going unresponsive. The only real way to find out is to go through the running services and processes one by one to identify the cause. Same thing would affect a log out as well. You could check the application log in Event Viewer, although its doubtful anything is being logged. Reinstall would normally work out quicker.

On that note though, I also see in you OP that you removed the inbuilt Anti-Virus (McAfee). I'd suggest googling how to properly remove it. Its been a long time since its been able to properly remove itself from a system. I'd do that first before trying anything else relating to the "shutdown and log out properly" issue.


As for the wireless. On my work machine we have fast switched profiles and had them maintain a connection while using it on another user. Can you test the old onboard wireless G card to see if its a card or driver issue? Possibly due to it being a usb device that can't be dual shared across profiles?

Cuddlesworth

BenThere wrote: »

Before seeing your posts I spent 90 minutes onto Dell premium support (how much is the 1850 434 334 number per minute :eek: ) who concluded I need to reinstall my operating system. Not a happy camper.

That's their answer to everything. And in fairness to them, it fix's software and OS problems.

Hijpo

BenThere wrote: »

Great suggestions lads, thanks.

Started up in safe mode then shut down no problem

good you shouldnt need to go through the hassle of a reinstall. Try unplug your routet from the wall and boot, if its a malware problem it might establish an end point and keep it open which in turn will keep your connection open and could cause that log off error your getting? Worth a try.

BenEadir

Thanks for all the help here lads. I'm not a natural at this and get out of my depth pretty quickly. It's great having a bit of help to lean on.

I'm confident Family Security is part of if not the main issue here. I ttried uninstalling it from my own (Admin) user account but it hung at 38% of the uninstall and when I tried aborting the uninstall (after leaving it for an hour to se if it would eventually muddle through) it hung trying to cancel the uninstall leaving me no option but to do a hard reset i.e. power the machine off and on again.

Started up in safe mode, logged into my Admin user account and again tried uninstalling Family Security. This time it immediately failed with the following error message

"Couldn't install programs
We couldn't remove Family Safety

An unknown error occurred.
Error 0x80070641
Source: familysafety-amd64"

Any suggestions on what to do from here?

I'd really like to get Family safety removed and see where that leaves me but if I can't remove it perhaps I am better off to just back up all my data, reformat the C: drive and then load the Win 7 reinstallation CD and start building it backup again??

Ben

mp22

http://www.revouninstaller.com/ get the 30 day free trial.

BenEadir

mp22 wrote: »

http://www.revouninstaller.com/ get the 30 day free trial.

Deadly, will give that a lash this evening. Just backing up all my data to an external drive at the moment which will take a few hours.

Ben

BenEadir

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