m4400 Freezes While Switching Users

My m4400 seems to like to lock up while switching users. It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does the "Please Wait..." spins away on the screen and it will stay that way forever. The only way to fix it is to force a reboot by holding down the power button. I'm using Vista Business 64.

The machine seems to do this most often after it hasn't been used for a few hours.

Any ideas as to what could be causing this? My guess is that it has something to do with the security software. Can I safely uninstall the Embassy / Dell security software? I've tried updating it to the latest version, and that made no difference.

 

Yep, I'd say it's a software issue too. You can definitely try to uninstall components of the Dell security suite (if you aren't using them). If you're using the factory image, I'd recommend doing a clean installation of the OS (as I would for anyone still using a factory image).

 

So uninstalling the security software won't cause any issues, aside from not being able to use the fingerprint reader / smartcard?

What about the pre-boot environment? That will still function correctly?

I just want to make sure I'm not locked out of my machine.

 

Yes and yes, if you haven't been using these features. Even if you have, the machine should just default to making you use your user name and password to log in instead, but I'm not absolutely certain about that as I've never tried it myself. I can say that I've been using my machine without either and it's been working fine.

 

Just in case anybody is interested, uninstalling the Dell Security software fixed the problem completely. It's like a whole new laptop... one that I no longer despise.