The customer brought me the machine for a few different reasons, but after I had it for some time, it started giving me a blue screen of death.  This is vista 32, by the way.  After installing Windows Debugging tools from Microsoft, I saw the error was starting at “fsvidmir.dll“.  This is a driver from Freedom Scientific, which brings up a mirror display.

Searching and searching didn’t come up with anything, other than to remove and reinstall.  Instead, I called their tech support, whose first question was “Do you have any other screen sharing software installed, like Logmein or GoToMyPC?” Actually, yes it does.  GoToMyPc was installed on the machine.

After removing that, no more blue screens.  Apparently, Jaws is very particular about what software it will play nice with.  Just a heads-up for anyone else out there with similar issues.  Good luck!

I’ve noticed that Vista is the most problematic of operating systems to come out of Microsoft in a long time.   It had a lot of bad press, and when it shipped, it shipped on poor hardware.  Things have gotten better in the few years that it’s been out, and I don’t think it deserves the rap it has received, though  I’m not a huge fan of it myself.

First things first: stopping turning it off mid-shutdown.  Sure, if it goes on for hours at a time, go ahead and pull the plug, but, if it boots afterwards, follow these steps:

1. Defragment the hard drive – the built in defragment tool isn’t that great.  This (http://itsfood.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/tech-how-to-defrag-in-windows-vista) is a good article instructing you on using the Vista defrag tool to its limit, but I like another tool better.  It used to be known as “JKDefrag, now known as “MyDefrag” (http://kessels.biz/JkDefrag/) , and is one of the best available Windows defragmentation programs available today, and it’s free.   Many technicians use it, and employ it in some scripting tool or another.
2. Apply all the Windows updates you are missing. This may have been what caused the machine to not shut down in the first place.  However, not having these updates can cause you even more problems.  Personally, if at first you don’t succeed, try again, but slowly.  By this, I mean use Microsoft update to download and install one at a time.  After each installation, reboot the computer, and attempt the next installation. 
3. Another tool to run is “CCleaner” (http://www.ccleaner.com) , another free utility designed to optimize and clean your system.  It deletes your temporary files, removes old and unused Registry entries (which can bog down your system), and problematic third party applications.

There’s a lot more that can help you keep your computer running smoothly, sometimes better than new.  I’ll be sharing additional tips soon. 

Thoughts or comments are greatly appreciated.