Windows Vista? Grrrr!

[WizeOne]

Just bought Missy WO a new Dell Laptop to send her on her way to get her masters degree. The LT has Windows Vista. It just told her, today, that updates were ready to download. She was not sure exactly what they/it was/were but thinks it was some kind of Service Pack.

Well guess what, after the download, the LT will not boot. She got a message that the computer could not start and she may be able to restore/repair by clicking 'here'. It's now been in that mode for over a couple of hours.

What the heck is going on? I've heard bad things about Vista but this is ridiculous. If it does not come out of the 'repair/restore' operation, I'm going to dump it back in Costcos lap.

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Windows Vista? Grrrr!

For all those waiting with bated breath, to the solution of the above problem, it has been fixed.

After staying in the restore mode for the whole nite and never resolving anything, I shut the computer down this morning and rebooted it again. It went thru the same motions as after the Service Pack 1 download and went back into restore/repair.

After a short while, this time, it finally booted to the desktop. I called Dell support, they took control of the laptop, confirmed that the download had failed then proceeded to downloaded Service Pack 1 straight from the Microsoft Website. They stayed attached to the computer until it was finished (about one hour) then called me back and had me repoot several times to make sure all was well.

Dell service, I assume from India, was very good and helpful. The rep called back timely, as promised, and everything is now working. He reminded me that XP had similar glitches when it was new and we just had to have a little 'patience' with this relatively new OS system.

 

[mscher]

Re: Windows Vista? Grrrr!

I had about the same problem you described, installing SP1 on my HP. Hung in system recovery, until a power cycle brought everything back up with SP1 installed.

Had valuable stuff backed up but needed the PC, so a complete system recovery would have stunk, big time.

We all knew there would be a time when the Microsoft OS, would evolve from software to bloatware and Vista is that time.

IMO, I could use XP forever, but then that would not fare well for the MS bottom line.

As soon as the bugs get removed from Vista, MS will release the next version of bloatware and make Vista obsolete.


Welcome to the machine

 

[crabby_bob]

Re: Windows Vista? Grrrr!

I had nothing but problems with Vista for over a year. I tried to install XP but the installation CD doesn't support the laptop's hardrive. So, I downloaded a free copy of Ubuntu Linux, burned a CD, and about 20 minutes later I was up and running. That was 2 weeks ago and except for losing some streaming radio stations Ubuntu has been great. If you ever want to test it they have a live CD that can also be used to install the OS. www.ubuntu.com

 

[mainexile]

Re: Windows Vista? Grrrr!

Vista...another strong sales tool for Macintosh. LOL

 

[Wingnutt]

Re: Windows Vista? Grrrr!

To prove what a debacle Vista has been, Microsoft has suspended further development of it and is concentrating on Windows 7 which has a tenitive release date of late '08. I can only hope they learned their lesson! IMHO, just keep XP and have optional add ons!

 

[rwise]

Re: Windows Vista? Grrrr!

Why buy Billyware? Linux is free!

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Windows Vista? Grrrr!

Hire a witch doctor. I hear they are pretty good at figuring out Vista and other curses on your puter.

I too, am seriously thinking of "boning up" on linux!

 

[crabby_bob]

Re: Windows Vista? Grrrr!

Dell service, I assume from India, was very good and helpful. The rep called back timely, as promised, and everything is now working. He reminded me that XP had similar glitches when it was new and we just had to have a little 'patience' with this relatively new OS system.

That's what happens when an industry is dominated by a single company. Microsoft published Vista and people who bought PCs after that were expected to be patient while the bugs were being worked out. I was patient for while but when it reached the point where I could not work from home anymore Vista had to go. I tried to install Windows XP but the installation script kept telling me that the laptop didn't have a hard drive. So the XP CD got tossed aside and Ubuntu got a try. Guess what. The free OS installed without a problem.

I found a BIOS setting that works around the XP problem so now the laptop is dual booted with Linux and XP. Unlike Ubuntu XP didn't come with drivers for the wireless or sound cards so they had to be downloaded from Lenovo's website. Ubuntu is doing everything I need it to do but I'm keeping XP around for situations where there isn't a Linux substitute for an MS program. It's also nice to switch between desktops every now and then.