Internet is connected in Windows Vista, but I cannot connect to certain websites or update anything

Hello, thank you for the replies and sorry I didn't answer the past few days.

• The updates are installed successfully beside the graphics driver once again. I had tried restarting in Safe Mode like you mentioned and unfortunately, the vertical lines still exist. Disabling the GeForce 8800 didn't do much help either, but if it won't work I'll just leave it disabled.

• I did try the link you gave regarding the CMOS battery (the one with 30s shutdown hold etc.). The error screen still pops up, so seems like that other option is the last. Probably not too bugged by it to follow the procedure right now, to be honest.
• Yes, that MSE message was when I still have MSE installed thinking Vista still support it. It has already been replaced with Avast for now.
• That is the correct FF ESR version I am running right now.

To sum it up: There are still some minor problems (maybe beside the screen one) that I can ignore so far. For a hand-me-down PC, I think I did my best trying to touch up this system. Hugely thanks to your advice too; they're really throughout and you put in more effort than even some Microsoft MVP/[insert big titles] here. 

My next step with this PC would just likely to use it for minor tasks or to mess around as Vista is still a new experience for me. I will put up with the problems that still persist; they aren't that big of a deal and are only annoying but not impactful. Once again, thank you very much for your help, I will conclude the thread here as most of my bigger problems have been answered :)

...I replaced the CMOS battery and for now the PC remembers the date. The screen that I said appears every startup still appear though...

Hi kn1000a:

If you're still seeing the "Alert! System battery voltage is low" warning in your image <here> and you're sure the new CMOS battery you used is the correct size / voltage for your Dell Precision 390 and has a full charge (many desktops now use a standard 3V lithium CR2032 coin battery), here's one possible solution posted in the Dell forum at Dell Precision Workstation 390 - System Battery Low Voltage, Battery Replaced - Error Persists!!! that seemed to work for the OP:

"Did you power off, unplug and press/hold the power button before removing the old battery? And did you press/hold the power button again for ~30 sec after removing the old one, and before installing the new battery?"

If this 30 sec hard reset to drain the voltages off your motherboard doesn't solve the problem, the Computer of Hope tutorial How to Replace the CMOS Battery I referenced <here> has a section titled Enter CMOS Values with a link to the companion article How to Reset CMOS or BIOS Settings.

I found an online Dell Precision Workstation 390 User's Guide that includes instructions on how to change the CMOS battery (page 99) and instructions for performing a hard reset of the CMOS settings using the RTCRST jumper plug on your mother board (page 11) if you have problems restoring the CMOS settings from your System Setup (try restarting your computer and press F2 key as soon as Dell logo appears).

32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.8.0 * Norton Security v22.14.0.54

HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Hi kn1000a:

The Windows Update "speed up" patches shown in your image look similar to those mentioned in the FAQ How to Fix Vista SP2 "Checking for Updates..." Hangs and Slow Windows Updates I recommended in my previous post.  The KB numbers for the required "speed up" patches are listed in the section titled "How Do I Fix These "Checking for updates..." Hangs?" in that FAQ.  If you read that FAQ it discusses problems with high CPU consumption and overheating while the Windows Update Agent searches for available updates for hours (or even days) on end, so if Windows Update is working normally again any previous issues related to an overheating CPU might be resolved now - unless the heat permanently damaged your motherboard.  Microsoft hasn't released any new security updates for Vista SP2 / IE9 via Windows Update since extended support ended on 11-Apr-2017 so if a manual Windows Update now runs to completion and reports that no further updates are available I'd advise that you permanently disable your automatic Windows Updates [Windows Update | Change settings | Important updates | Never check for updates (not recommended) and re-boot] unless you have other Microsoft products like MS Office 2010 that are still supported and need to be updated regularly. You can still run the occasional manual Windows Update [Windows Update | Check for updates] any time you wish.

I'll assume that you confirmed that you have a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX before you installed the latest Vista-compatible drivers for that graphics card. If you right-click the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX graphics card in the Device Manager and choose Properties, does the General tab report that "This device is working properly" under Device Status?  Boot into Safe Mode (restart your computer and repeatedly tap the F8 key until you see the Advanced Boot Options menu) and see if your monitor works normally.  I believe that booting into Safe Mode will force Windows to use the on-board integrated graphics chip on your motherboard instead of your discrete NVIDIA graphics card, and if that helps you can disable the NVIDIA graphics card from the Device Manager as shown below and force Windows to use the on-board integrated graphics whenever you boot into Normal Mode.

Unfortunately, I suspect the odd squares and vertical lines on the monitor indicate faulty hardware, rather than a software/driver issue.  If you don't have a spare monitor you can swap in for testing, try re-seating (or even replacing) the cable to your monitor, or turn off your computer for a few hours and try re-seating the graphics card on the motherboard (again, make sure you're properly grounded with an anti-static wrist strap or follow other suggestions in the article ElectroStatic Discharge or ESD before you touch any internal components).  The Overclock tutorial Cleaning and Reseating Your Graphics Card has generic instructions for cleaning a graphics card but it shouldn't be necessary to do this type of thorough cleaning unless your Speccy diagnostic indicates that your GPU is overheating.

Searching for the keyword "NVIDIA" on Dell's support page for the Dell Precision 390 at http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/precision-390/drivers indicates that your machine originally came with an older NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics card.  The original owners of this computer might be able to tell you what OS / hardware upgrades, if any, they've done over the years, but I'm wondering if the current NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX is throwing too much heat for the main cooling fan to handle or whether the graphics card settings are optimized for the resolution and refresh rate of your monitor.  If the new v342.01 graphics drivers installed a NVIDIA Control Panel at Control Panel | Hardware and Sound you might be able to tweak the settings there.

Don't worry if you don't want to publish a full Speccy snapshot of your system.  I just thought someone monitoring this thread might notice an obvious problem (e.g., incorrect voltages) or find an issue with your software configuration.  For example, the screenshot of your Windows Update history indicates you might be using Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) but I'm sure that MSE is no longer supported for Vista SP2.  If you launch Firefox and go to Help | About Firefox the pop-up should show that you have the current FF ESR v52.8.0 (extended support release) released on 09-May-2018.  FF v60 (both the ESR and "standard" desktop branches) released on that same day uses the new Quantum engine and can't be installed on Win XP or Vista.

32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.8.0 * Norton Security v22.14.0.54

HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Greeting, and thank you for the reply on this and the second thread.

After digging the whole internet up yesterday, I was able to download and installed some security updates that apparently prevent one from running Windows Update:

Just getting back to you that I can get Windows Update to run now, and it found quite a lot of updates. So I will just leave the machine on for a day to wait for it to finish the whole process, hopefully without any errors. This means the PC will lags quite a bit, so I will refrain from looking into things that you suggested before it's completed.

However, I can answer some questions and suggestions you gave in your reply:

• I replaced the CMOS battery and for now the PC remembers the date. The screen that I said appears every startup still appear though.
• As for the graphics card, I downloaded and installed the driver like you suggested. But it seems like the PC has trouble recognizing it. I tried clicking on Update driver too but it wasn't much help. HOWEVER this was before Windows Update works, so I'll see how it is after the updates are installed.

• The vertical lines I described are still there the first few minutes of powering the PC on, but now they disappear after a while. Not sure if this is due to the fact I got the driver for the graphics card (even though it doesn't seem to work), or if this is some "warm up" thing, as strange as it sound (something like waiting for the monitor/PC to heat up a bit so it work normally haha). Though, back then no matter how long you left the PC on it never disappear.
• I did download the latest Firefox. I just went to the website and get it straight from there. Can't check right now, but maybe that isn't the extended support version. To be honest I never knew such a version existed, and not sure how to get it either (searching ESR 52 up only give me changelog)
• This PC is a Dell Precision 390.
• What info do you want me to capture on Speccy? Just that I also don't wanna reveal some private stuff either that's why I didn't post the whole log.

I will reply here once more when the updates are completed to let you know what else changes. Yes, I know it's an old system but I have never really use a Windows Vista before so I wanna give it a try. It might have numerous problems but I want to get it running, at least enough so that I can use it just to do random tasks.

Thank you again.