Computer Trouble

[MorningStar]

Last week my computer went through some major issues. A reset switch was bumped and shut off the power to my computer. When I restarted it, it said the C disk needed to be checked for consistency and started doing a lot of stuff, deleting files, restoring others, etc. It erased a lot of things, but it was working fine until my husband used Windows Media Player to store his CD's. That program kept causing it to freeze up before.

We have Windows Vista. After it froze up, I had to just turn the computer off and now it gave me the message, "Group policy service failed the log on. Access is denied."

I don't know what that means or how to fix it. Right now I'm on my husband's laptop which doesn't work that great either. I am way frustrated and have no money to fix it. Any ideas on what to do? Thank you.

[miztrniceguy]

I think you have a virus.

when i need help i go to Bleeping Computer - Computer Help and Discussion

and look for help there.

[MorningStar]

I have anti-virus and scan every day. Nothing has come up. I'll check out that forum. Thanks. :)

[miztrniceguy]

i don't know which antivirus you have. none are able to get everything. i use 3 different ones that also look for anti-spyware and anti-malware. all are free, but 2 offer paid versions with more features here are links:

Malwarebytes.org

SUPERAntiSpyware.com | Remove Malware | Remove Spyware - AntiMalware, AntiSpyware, AntiAdware!

The home of Spybot-S&D!

i run at least one each day. on my primary computer i have paid versions for automatic scanning. also, if you use firefox browser there is a plug-in called WOT that can warn you of websites with bad reputations.

[Mahone]

I've heard that zone alarm can cause the error message you are receiving. Do you have zone alarm installed by any chance? Have you installed any new software recently, particularly security related software?

[MorningStar]

No, I haven't. We have Verizon's Security Suite, Windows defender, and I had Spybot on there too. I have our Vista DVD and was going to reinstall it, but I didn't even know how to start that process. I don't know if that would fix it either.

[tubaloth]

Last week my computer went through some major issues. A reset switch was bumped and shut off the power to my computer. When I restarted it, it said the C disk needed to be checked for consistency and started doing a lot of stuff, deleting files, restoring others, etc.

This probably more then just checking the Hard disk (which is what it should have done). I'm guessing it actually needed restore part of your windows back to "normal".

We have Windows Vista. After it froze up, I had to just turn the computer off and now it gave me the message, "Group policy service failed the log on. Access is denied."

This is good. (being specific is good) A google search shows a lot with this error message.

Which means its not a virus. It looks like some setting in the Registry gets set incorrectly.

The problem is, messing with the registry can cause a lot of more problems if you don't know what you are doing. It does seems like people did a system restore or a clean install? That would fix it (but could loose more data).

[bytebear]

Best advice is to google each error message with quotes and see what turns up. You can find a lot of information by researching a little. Hopefully you can find step by step corrections online. But be careful, messing with your registry or deep internals of windows can be tricky.

Alternatively you can try reinstalling software which corrects some things, And as a final step, you might want to consider upgrading to Windows 7.

[MorningStar]

I would love to upgrade to Windows 7! I hear sometimes there are problems with trying to do an upgrade though. Grr. My birthday is next month. I guess I know what I'll be asking for. Either Windows 7 or a sledgehammer.

[Moksha]

Either Windows 7 or a sledgehammer.

Or possibly both. Does your hard drive have enough space to also have Linux on it?

[MorningStar]

I have no idea. I don't know the first thing about Linux except that my brother-in-law loves it and hates Microsoft with a passion.

[Vanhin]

One thing you can try is downloading Windows Vista Service Pack 2 and installing it. It may restore missing or corrupt files or the right version of files. Here's a link to the 32 bit version.

Download details: Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 - Five Language Standalone (KB948465)

Right click on "Computer" in the Start menu, and select "Properties". Look for something that says "System type:". If the system type is "64-bit Operating System" then you will need the 64 bit version of the service pack instead of the one I linked above. Here is the link to it.

Download details: Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 - Five Language Standalone for x64-based systems (KB948465)

Try it. Afterwards run Windows Update again and download all the updates. Doing all that might work.

Regards,

Vanhin

[MorningStar]

Thanks for all the advice. A nice man in my ward took the computer and says the DVD drive is messed up and it was impossible to log on in any mode. So he's going to try installing XP, which is what I wanted when I got my new computer. I didn't want Vista, but nothing was packaged with XP when I went looking. So maybe I'll get what I wanted originally. I hope it all works out great. If not, not sure what we'll do. I can't just run out and buy a new computer. He seems pretty confident though that it's going to work.

[Outshined]

Until you get the hammer, try this game to get started. GeekFocus News Portal

[pam]

Wow now there is a name I haven't seen forever. Wooohoo...You need to come back more often Outshined. Some of us miss y ou.

[MorningStar]

And my hard drive is messed up too. Good times. And the disk I have for XP is an upgrade disk, so first a lesser version of Windows has to be installed so we can upgrade it to XP! We're not going to bother with the Vista disk. I've had enough fun with Vista.

[miztrniceguy]

you shouldn't have to install the lesser first...XP will prompt you for the previous version disc during the install process. I've done it many times.

[Hemidakota]

Last week my computer went through some major issues. A reset switch was bumped and shut off the power to my computer. When I restarted it, it said the C disk needed to be checked for consistency and started doing a lot of stuff, deleting files, restoring others, etc. It erased a lot of things, but it was working fine until my husband used Windows Media Player to store his CD's. That program kept causing it to freeze up before.

We have Windows Vista. After it froze up, I had to just turn the computer off and now it gave me the message, "Group policy service failed the log on. Access is denied."

I don't know what that means or how to fix it. Right now I'm on my husband's laptop which doesn't work that great either. I am way frustrated and have no money to fix it. Any ideas on what to do? Thank you.

Microsoft's Chkdisk application is correcting missing links...this not uncommon MorningStar. Missing links is a common problem with any NTFS formatted disk. Inherited from the old days of WIN 1 thru 3.X OS.

[Hemidakota]

And my hard drive is messed up too. Good times. And the disk I have for XP is an upgrade disk, so first a lesser version of Windows has to be installed so we can upgrade it to XP! We're not going to bother with the Vista disk. I've had enough fun with Vista.

Word of advice, stick with XP and if you have a need for a 64-bit application then only upgrade to Windows 7.