64-bit Vista with 32-bit woes.

pylonman

Junior Member
Dec 8, 2004
4
0
0
Vista Home Premium 64-bit, installed fresh on a new HD not upgraded, running off an Intel Core 2 Duo 965 chipset. Network chipset is onboard Marvell using their latest driver.

Whenever my Internet connection is interrupted and renewed, rarely-ADSL, *ALL* 32-bit applications can no longer connect to the internet. While that is happening all 32-bit programs requesting Internet access crash upon exiting, anything from WoW to 32-bit IE7. 64-bit IE7 works normally and I am typing this message from it now. Windows Update works as well. I experienced a similar problem way back on Vista 64-bit RC1 on a DIFFERENT system but it was a short-lived problem. (AMD Athlon 64 nForce 410 chipset)

Examples: Open IE7 32-bit, IE cannot display the webpage. Close IE, get a pop-up window saying IE has stopped working. Open Opera v9.20, same result. Open Word 2007 and try online help, the Help window states there is no internet connection. On closing the Word Help window I get "Microsoft Office Help Viewer has stopped working" and right after that "Windows Problem Reporting has stopped working."

Last time I had this problem, about 1 month ago, a system restore fixed the problem. That is not working this time. :( Attempted restores from different dates several times now with no progress. I ran Windows' memory diagnostic and it found no errors.

Where should I go from here? (besides wiping disk, reinstalling, and hoping my ADSL link isn't lost for awhile)
 

pylonman

Junior Member
Dec 8, 2004
4
0
0
Sorry for the delayed response. I disabled the Marvell chipset and tried a NIC with a RealTek 8169 chipset. I first used the default driver and then one through Windows Update, no change in my problems either way. For the heck of it I pulled the NIC in addition to disabling the onboard network and I still get the exact same errors described earlier.... IE/Opera/Office 32-bit crash on exit. My assumption from here on is that, somehow, the crashing apps are related to the loss of network acess and that some corrupted component in Windows is sending junk data to my 32-bit apps.

I tried using the "diagnostic startup" from MSCONFIG and, again, same problems. The only way I could rid myself of the crashing programs was through safe-mode without networking.

The last thing I tried was a system restore from booting off of the Vista DVD. Now I am back to my original configuration with no problems, no crashing 32-bit apps and Internet access.