Vista Crashes Everytime I Try to Launch the First Program

**Paul4763** · #1 27th Sep 2009, 03:58

I'm running Vista on an ASUS M51A, 4GB RAM, 2GHz Core 2 Duo T6400.

Had it for about 2 months, been running fine. Recently every now and then it would say "Windows Explorer has stopped working" and I didn't think anything of it because it would sort itself out after a few moments.

Yesterday I had by 1TB external HDD conected via USB and also a friends 320GB external HDD, I was doing some large transfers. About halfway through it came up that Windows Explorer has stopped. Not only that but the green line progress line-thing had completely stopped. I tried to open a folder and everything froze. All I could literally do is move the mouse around.
So I turned it off manually and then re-booted, which took a very long time. No error messages, everything was really slow though. So I tried to open Firefox and everything just froze again. So I turned it off manually again. Rebooted except this time, before Windows started up, the computer did this random scan. I can't really describe it, it just came up "A scan is being performed and can be skipped but it is highly recommended that you don't". So it scanned and then Windows booted up, again really slowly, then froze as soon as I tried to open up a program. I tried booting up in safe mode, but it froze, except this time, the screen went black and it came up "Error - security options".

I'm at a total loss. I can't even get on Windows, it's completely inoperable.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm freaking out here. Thanks.

**Carbon** · #2 27th Sep 2009, 04:27

There is a topic about it here, suffice to say it seems to be an issue related to AV programs.

**Paul4763** · #3 27th Sep 2009, 04:40

that's brilliant, thanks a lot, but how am i supposed to uninstall it if I can't even get on to vista?

**Paul4763** · #4 27th Sep 2009, 04:54

Ok, new problem. I managed to get on there and uninstall the AV software (NOD32). And I restarted and I opened up firefox and it froze again. So the problem is seemingly still here

**buzzby1080** · #5 27th Sep 2009, 05:41

Did you uninstall using the following procedure?

How do I uninstall or re-install ESET Smart Security/ESET NOD32 Antivirus? (4.0)
KB Solution ID: SOLN2116|Last Revised: July 23, 2009 Due to corrupted installations or newer program releases, reinstalling your ESET security product is sometimes necessary.
Uninstall

Click Start → All Programs → ESET → Uninstall. After you uninstall, you will need to restart your computer.

Warning: Do not attempt to uninstall your ESET security product using the Windows Add or Remove Programs utility from the Control Panel.
After restarting, confirm that you can see hidden files and folders by clicking Start → Control Panel → Appearance and Personalizations → Show hidden files and folders under Folder Options and select the Show hidden files and folders option.
Click Start → My Computer and then navigate to and delete the following folders:

C:\Program Files\ESET
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ESET
C:\Documents and Settings\%USER%\Application Data\ESET

Windows Vista Users must delete the following folders:

C:\Program Files\ESET
C:\Program Data\ESET