Maybe it is a thing with Vista. Ditto and likewise problem - keyboard and mouse freeze, windows key or ctrl-alt-del no effect, only solution is to hold down the power button until the thing shuts down. On startup, apart from stating the obvious "Your machine did not shut down normally ....." it works. Sometimes it works for days, other times it can be a bitch. So, taking advice from Mr Optomistic and Sprogget, the Event Viewer for the last episode shows:
Error 08/04/2011 18:40:43 Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider 7026 None
Error 08/04/2011 18:40:43 Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider 7000 None
Error 08/04/2011 18:40:36 WMI 10 None
Error 08/04/2011 18:39:31 EventLog 6008 None
Error 08/04/2011 18:39:32 Eventlog 1101 Event processing
Error 08/04/2011 17:42:20 Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider 7026 None
Error 08/04/2011 17:42:20 Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider 7000 None
Error 08/04/2011 17:42:13 WMI 10 None
Error 08/04/2011 17:41:06 Dhcp-Client 1002 None
Warning 08/04/2011 17:41:06 Dhcp-Client 1003 None
Expanding some of these gives me absolutely no idea what goes on e.g. the "Warning" that preceded all this provides the following:
Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Dhcp-Client
Date: 08/04/2011 17:41:06
Event ID: 1003
Task Category: None
Level: Warning
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: preinstalled-PC
Description:
The description for Event ID 1003 from source Microsoft-Windows-Dhcp-Client cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.
If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.
The following information was included with the event:
0024B247EBB4
%%2163146757
The locale specific resource for the desired message is not present
This presumably means something more than "something is missing"? And what can I do about it??