The new baby (hasta la Vista, XP)

[Matera the Mad]

I got so aggravated the last of three times my computer froze up in the middle of editing a photo that I ordered a new one with the guts to take it. Well, not quite new, refurbished. It's still the first time I have ever bought a whole computer.

Now I am preparing for it, reading and collecting information. So far I have only had a few encounters with Vista, never meeting it on my own terms. This time I will be on my own home ground.

The first thing I will do is uninstall any foist-ware that I don't want. I'm sure there will be some. Then defrag, and a complete backup of the whole shebang.

Next comes partitioning. Even Vista doesn't need a whole 640GB hard drive to park its fat arse on! Drive partitions are not only a logical extension of sensible file management, they are a file security precaution. Things can happen to futz up Windows and the partition it resides on, horrible things that may toss everything in My widdle Documents into a black hole, while files on a separate partition remain untouched and accessible. Of course I don't depend on that entirely -- CD and now DVD backups are my main strategy -- but I've seen it work for me more than once.

Then I install a firewall and lots of other good and useful things, transfer my writings, reference material and assorted goodies. THEN I proceed to tweak the holy hell out of Vista, as well as catering to any update needs it may have. :D

I will not be on line with the new machine until that firewall is installed.

It's gonna be sooooo good to have all the RAM I need, and a processor that doesn't suffer from self-induced heat stroke all the time. Not that I don't love Big Mary, but she just hasn't got what it takes for what I need to do. I know she will be much happier with a part-time office job, and we will still be together -- I'm donating the body to my workplace. :)

[dpaterso]

A couple of Vista tips here (if you haven't seen it before... thread was moved to TIO):

The I HATE VISTA thread
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125786

-Derek

[scarletpeaches]

Vista is shite.

That is all.

(Yes, dpaterso, I have seen the light).

[dpaterso]

Not wanting to repeat myself or anything, but my Vista software on my laptop runs pretty darn good and rarely gives me trouble. I don't have running slow, freezes, random resets, blue screens, anything like that. I really can't recall the last time I had a problem.

And I beat the crap out of the poor wee thing every day. Or at least I beat the crap out of my USB keyboard and USB mouse every day.

In a nutshell, at least 2Gb memory, classic mode, gadgets off, user account control off, Norton out, AVG in.

-Derek

[stephenf]

I have two machines. one running XP and other has XP professional .Both machines have to work for a living and do so every day .There are issues with Microsoft, but I have never had any problems with XP. I think if some one is having problems ,the problem must be something more than just a failure of XP.

[scarletpeaches]

Not wanting to repeat myself or anything, but my Vista software on my laptop runs pretty darn good and rarely gives me trouble. I don't have running slow, freezes, random resets, blue screens, anything like that. I really can't recall the last time I had a problem.

And I beat the crap out of the poor wee thing every day. Or at least I beat the crap out of my USB keyboard and USB mouse every day.

In a nutshell, at least 2Gb memory, classic mode, gadgets off, user account control off, Norton out, AVG in.

-Derek

I'm either going to stick more RAM in this machine, or take Vista off and put XP on. Hmm...I feel a poll coming on...

[Darzian]

I didn't have much of a problem with Vista at all. The only issue was speed. Even with 2 GB of DDR3 memory and a Core 2 Duo at 2.4GHz, it was slower than XP.


So I installed the beta version of Windows 7 when it came out. It was fabulous. There were no bugs and it worked perfectly, was faster than Vista, used less resources than Vista, and was free!

Then the RC version of Windows 7 came out and I'm running it right now as my primary Operating System with no issues at all. To the techies who are unsatisfied with Vista, I suggest downloading and installing Windows 7 RC (which is legitimate and free).

[Darzian]

I'm either going to stick more RAM in this machine, or take Vista off and put XP on. Hmm...I feel a poll coming on...

How much RAM do you have at present? 2 GB is typically considered a bare minimum for Vista.

You can also use this link (http://www.corsair.com/configurator/default.aspx) to find out how much more RAM your computer can support.

[scarletpeaches]

Just the one.

[Darzian]

Then you'll probably see a performance increase if you increased it to 2GB. You can use that link to identify your computer manufacturer and model. It will then tell you how much memory you can actually support. 1GB extra should cost around $35 ish.

[scarletpeaches]

It's probably be less bother than changing the OS, too. I mean, think of all the driver downloads and installs, rejigging all my programs...blech.

So yeah. I'll take this into the shop and get it rammed.

[Adam]

RAM installation takes literally less than a few minutes, and requires no drivers or fiddling about (you literally just plug it in and turn the computer on in most cases). Remember this in case they try and rip you off on the installation cost. :)

[benbradley]

I will not be on line with the new machine until that firewall is installed.
Just so you know, a firewall isn't everything.
A couple of Vista tips here (if you haven't seen it before... thread was moved to TIO):

The I HATE VISTA thread
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125786

-Derek
Is it really safe to get one's tech advice from TIO???
Vista is shite.

That is all.

(Yes, dpaterso, I have seen the light).
Sounds like you felt the heat.

There was a saying in a place I used to go to where God saves people from their own horrible, decrepit lives. "I didn't get here because I saw the light, I came here because I felt the heat!"
I'm either going to stick more RAM in this machine, or take Vista off and put XP on. Hmm...I feel a poll coming on...
I hear a voice chanting...

XP ... XP ...

... several voices...
XP ... XP ... XP ... XP... XP!


Linux! ... Linux! ... Linux!

[dpaterso]

Is it really safe to get one's tech advice from TIO???
It's a long exciting story with thrilling action scenes and gratifying chracter arcs, the thread started off in Tech Help but became so noisy that it was moved to TIO.

-Derek

[Matera the Mad]

lol

My original plan was just to get Herself more RAM. I had upgraded it two years ago when one of her original sticks went bad. I was on the edge of losing my home to back taxes, so she didn't get all she could hold. But the major straw that made camelburger is the lousy AMD chicken-fryer. I've had it with the whole thing, the ancient BIOS and all.

Silent Bob (yes, I named the baby) arrived today (squeeee). I uninstalled Big Fix (big joke, I call it), Norton, Microsoft (doesn't-)Works, stupid games, and some other stuff. Once I have a backup disk I'll put in my own fave anti-virus and all the other goodies. Yes, Derek, I know, but some people think anti-virus is everything, so I tend to overcompensate in the emphasis.


I'm stuck with Vista anyhowl, since XP wouldn't know what to do with this machine. But it's not so bad. When I can beat up an OS on my own terms...heh-heh-heh.

Meanwhile, I'm back in this granny-box with the 9 year old mobo.

[Nivarion]

I'm in a little love hate with my vista machine.

It updates.

I restart it and am at my desktop within 30 seconds. For about six days it runs like a lightning bolt slicing through all the process i send its way. Durring this time I don't have any crashes.

It updates again.

Now the lightning bolt is trying to push a boulder up an icy hill. It keeps trying but isn't getting there. It crashes every few hours, and I am just PO'd beyond belief.

It updates again.

It seems every other update is there to fix the update before it. And those updates are to screw with something that doesn't need to be screwed with. The computer is running like a dream machine again, so I turn off auto updates.

About a month latter it downloads a bunch of new updates. I'm sitting there "And who the hell told you you could do this!" After a couple of days of working against its want to needlessly update, i bring it out of a hibernation to have it BSOD. The cause line is blank.

So it installs these new updates that make it work like a piece of crap. I'm still waiting for the next set. grrr.

Well, welcome to the roller coaster. The exits are linux, mac and suicide. I really don't recommend the last one. no seriously, It like, shouldn't even be an option.

[Brutal Mustang]

It took some getting used to at first, but I love Vista. I don't know. Maybe it helps that I have a speedy little lap top with 4 gig of memory, plus dual cores.

[Matera the Mad]

I don't do automatic updates. Of anything. Ever. (Except antivirus) I wait until the dust has settled and choose the useful ones. I also doubt that Vista understands the limitations of dial-up internet. I can borrow a little bandwidth at work for that, since I am IT there :ROFL:

[Nivarion]

I don't do automatic updates. Of anything. Ever. (Except antivirus) I wait until the dust has settled and choose the useful ones. I also doubt that Vista understands the limitations of dial-up internet. I can borrow a little bandwidth at work for that, since I am IT there :ROFL:

I don't do them either. Vista doesn't seem to understand that no means NO.

billy gates will go into your computer at about 3:00 in the morning and change your update settings back to on.

[dpaterso]

I switched automatic updates off, too. (Windows Update > Change Settings > Never check for updates.) If I have a quiet moment on a Sunday morning or whenever, I manually run the software and see what updates are available.

-Derek

[Nivarion]

I switched automatic updates off, too. (Windows Update > Change Settings > Never check for updates.) If I have a quiet moment on a Sunday morning or whenever, I manually run the software and see what updates are available.

-Derek

I switched it to off too. That's why I've been so PO'd about it for months.

I've actually heard about it doing that to a lot of people.

[dpaterso]

Sometimes I think my copy of Vista was some kind of radical test prototype that was rigged to actually work as designed, and accidentally got out of the factory when no one was looking. I worry that They will come to claim it back.

-Derek

[scarletpeaches]

I hate you and your Vista compatibility.

[Carmy]

Matera -- why not install a D drive?

I keep all my work and important documents on D. It was easily, physically removed from my old computer into this one, with everything intact.

Oddly, when I got a virus on my old PC, it couldn't get into D. Maybe I was just lucky.

[Darzian]

Matera -- why not install a D drive?

I keep all my work and important documents on D. It was easily, physically removed from my old computer into this one, with everything intact.

Oddly, when I got a virus on my old PC, it couldn't get into D. Maybe I was just lucky.

It depends. 'D drive' varies from computer to computer. You can have one physical internal hard disk split into "C" and "D." Or you can have two internal hard disks, the first being "C" and the second being "D." Or you can have one internal hard disk and one external, though the external would likely show up as some other letter than "D."

[Carmy]

Ooh, Darzian -- now you've gone all technical on me.

All I can tell you is that my D drive looks physically identical to my old C drive (taken out of my old WIN98 PC and brought home). It fits into a slot beneath my C drive and shows up on screen as D drive. The techie took about two minutes to take it out of my old PC and hook it up into this WINXP PC with all the contents intact.

[Darzian]

Ooh, Darzian -- now you've gone all technical on me.

All I can tell you is that my D drive looks physically identical to my old C drive (taken out of my old WIN98 PC and brought home). It fits into a slot beneath my C drive and shows up on screen as D drive. The techie took about two minutes to take it out of my old PC and hook it up into this WINXP PC with all the contents intact.

:D

Then it's the second instance, where you have two internal hard disks, on as "C" and one as "D."

[Carmy]

Ah, thanks Darzian. Now I understand.

[Matera the Mad]

I intend to install another drive. When and if the dust settles.

I'd be happy right now if I just had Vista. God damn all computer manufacturers.

Both machines went berserk yesterday, as if they were in a conspiracy. Big Mary is back up because I figured out what her problems were. Touchy b1atch :( Silent Bob is in a coma. I have no idea what caused the bluescreen insanity. So far my attempts to restore it have been futile. Both the hard drive recovery partition and the disks I burned before taking any dramatic steps forward have failed. Since I don't have a real installation disk(s) for Vista and my old XP is 32-bit, I am in an interesting state of screwedness. Or enjoying a terrific new challenge. I hope it's the latter.

[Carmy]

Matera -- I don't now if this will help -- I'm about to post a new thread asking for information on boycotting Microsoft.

[Matera the Mad]

Been there, enjoyed that :D

I have concluded that my Vista probem was a case of suicide. It was horrible -- blood everywhere :ROFL: The old XP machine is perfectly happy as long as I keep the USB2 card out of it. It has taken a severe hating to it. A pity, it was working fine until yesterday. It's the stupid case -- things don't screw in and they can work loose too easily.

After a few rounds of try-this-try-that, I'm shopping for a proper Vista install disk. I don't even know anyone I could borrow one from -- a perfectly legal solution AFAIK, since I have a license.

[Matera the Mad]

Addendum: My e-mail to Gateway Support, explaining the situation:

While I was gradually and cautiously customizing my new computer, the operating system suddenly became violently unstable, blue sceens every few minutes. The Windows system restore did not help, so I resorted to the Gateway System Recovery, first through the Start Menu and then, when I could no longer boot into Windows, from the Restore Disks that I had made. Both methods resulted in the same failure, with this message:

x:RyTools\NAPP6.exe
Restore failed - reason 0X00000570
Click OK to restart your computer

Of course there was nothing to restart to.... After that, I tried setting the restore partition to boot, which worked just fine except that I got the same message. Reformatting all but the restore partition and booting from it again resulted in the same failure.

Do I have any other options, besides buying a REAL Vista install disk? The failure message is not very helpful, since I have not turned up any information about it after hours of searching the Internet, not to mention Gateway support.

***

Wonder if I'll get any meaningful response? *Sigh* This affair hasn't done anything for my respect for Microslut or Gateway. I survived over two years without serious trouble with XP, and managed nicely before that with computers that had already been given up for dead. Now I can haz shineee new corpse ready for Linux revival.

[Matera the Mad]

One week after the negative event, here we are happily surfing together at last. For the first time in my life I shelled out real bucks for a Microslut operating system, simply because I want to continue to use a lot of software that I already have. The disk arrived yesterday, and so did my second HD and a few other goodies. So I put in the new drive and did a squeaky-clean install. I have deleted the Gateway recovery partition on the original drive. *Snerk!* Have to admit the driver/apps disk that I burned before the bust came in handy, even though the recovery DVD set was a waste of plastic.

I'm using Comodo Internet Security (free version) for armor, since there's not much choice in freeware firewalls for 64-bit systems. It's a PITA in many ways, but it doesn't nag and it doesn't destroy anything without notice. I appreciate that so much that I almost forgive it for wanting me to go online in Admin mode -- and I am not presently. "Run as admin" doesn't seem to work for it either. PITA max -- any sensible anti-V will not demand insecure conditions for an update. I might uninstall it and reinstall as firewall only. Or even fall back on the M$ thing, which is better than nothing if one gets seriously into configuring it. Besides, it keeps screaming and pointing at harmless things as possible threats. I swear it was much more sensible a few of years ago.

I hate the fscking abominable stupidity of these catch-22 idiocies. Make the system secure but don't allow security. Grow up, you software people. I think I'll birch at them.

Anyhowl, I'm feeling right at home otherwise, though the furniture is not all arranged to my comfort yet. The biggest problem I've run into so far is that Fractal Explorer's formula parser can't function in x64. Owoo! I had some good ones going. :(

Oh, and I bloody loathe the Vista Solitaire. Good grief, what crap. I want my XP game back. Besides, I had hacked it so the menu worked the way it should and put in custom card backs. :(

ETA: Okay, I've had it with Comodo. It's a total pig, sucks moldy gorilla balls. By its own admission, it's hogging over 90% of my precious bandwidth. It's effing hopeless. I might as well be using a 12K modem, if there is such a thing. After I reclaim my internet connection, I'm going to flame their faces raw. :rant:

Shyte. It used to be pretty good.

[Darzian]

Matera, a possibly advantage is that you can probably upgrade to Windows 7 for free in late October 2009 when Win 7 comes out, since you just bought your Vista.

[Matera the Mad]

Not sure if I get in on that, with this refurb plus eBay deal, but I would want to wait until the dust settles before grabbing M$'s latest anyway. Let 'em crank out the buggy service packs and replace them with the good ones first! :roll: Vista and I are getting along surprisingly(?) well. I activated it today. Besides, I'd be sure to lose at least a gig of RAM and a big chunk of HD to a new Microbloat. Each version = double the demand on all resources is the rule of thumb.

I'm still running Comodo as firewall; removing the AV part eliminates the unstoppable impossible update problems. Still not thrilled with it, but it is a tad more thorough than winderz. I'll stick with my simple scan-on-demand AV, something I don't recommend for non-geeks.

Can't wait 'til I get my new Ubuntu disk. I have a new USB modem that is practically guaranteed, Xfingers.

I also have a greatly reduced bank balance and still need a water heater and my roof leaks and winter is coming, but...I wuvz my new computer. Large selections in The GIMP don't take three minutes any more. :D

[Darzian]

Ah, I see. And just to note: Win 7 is meant to use less RAM than Vista. Microsoft is trying to correct its former errors. I'm actually testing the tester version of Win 7 and have found very few bugs so far. It's certainly promising to be more successful than Vista, but only time will tell!

[Matera the Mad]

Ha, they do learn! :roll: I have to admit that while Vista uses some idiotic kluges it isn't too bad to live with. I pwned the default user pics today. I still hate the new Solitaire, but I found a great freeware sol game to replace it. As soon as I get a new deck designed or find one I like, anyway.

As long as I can open a umpty-meg image and do something with it, I'm happy.

[Carmy]

Glad to hear you're up and running, Matera.

I've heard good things about Windows 7. Whether it will be free to those of us who don't have Vista, I guess we have to wait and see. Apparently, they lost a bundle on Vista, so they may be offering 7 free to them as a form of recompense.

[Darzian]

If you buy certain versions of Vista right now, then you can upgrade to certain versions of Windows 7 for free. This offer has been on for the last month or two, I think. If you bought Vista before a certain date (I can't remember but I think around July 2009), you will not be eligible for the free upgrade. I got my Vista in Feb 2009 and I'm not eligible. Of course, I'm anyway running the tester version of Win 7 and that is supposed to work for free until July 2010. So technically I only need to buy Win 7 in June 2010 before my free tester version expires.

Also, there are interesting family combo packages. You can get 3 licenses for Win 7 at discounted prices. I don't recall MS doing this before. I always spend forever researching before buying anything. :D

[Matera the Mad]

Research and procrastination are my specialtudes :D

[Matera the Mad]

Great lolz -- S'bob froze up about a minute past midnight last night. Seemed all right after that, but after we both had a good night's sleep he was a total terror, freezing any time from early in the boot process onward. IMO it's punk RAM, he's running sweet on one stick right now. A couple more phases of testing and we should be back on track. I was SO irked, my new scanner arrived today.

[Matera the Mad]

This is getting to be my own personal soap opera. I thought I had the freeze-ups fixed merely by reseating all the RAM. The little feller was all shiny-happy for a couple of weeks.

This morning he went bonkers again. So...either one stick of RAM has a real problem after all, or I have to bash my head against other walls. No idea how to disable the onboard video if that's it; the luser's manual doesn't include a mobo diagram (and I need a humonguous magnifying glass to see anything anyway). They assume that one will either have no probs or one will just buy something new. One doesn't do that. One tackles it tooth and nail and gets it fisked but good.

My worst regards to Gateway. Vendetta time is getting closer every minute.

Honest to gawd, I thought I was going to save myself some trouble with this deal.

[Matera the Mad]

Epilogue:

One bad stick of RAM, wonking out intermittently. I finally nailed it. We are content.

[Matera the Mad]

Just for the record, I have now met Win7, and I don't see what's the big deal.

*Posting from a visiting laptop. Back later -- got power problem(.

ETA: Power cord was not in tight *slapped me*
I h8 laptops. Sitting on couch with it now and NOT comfortable. Box on lap helps.

It's my thread...I'm not OT ;)

[Darzian]

Just for the record, I have now met Win7, and I don't see what's the big deal.

For me, it was the reduction in RAM usage and greater OS reliability.

[Matera the Mad]

RAM usage maybe...but so what? Vista has pretty good memory management. It wouldn't make much difference for me anyway. I worked over a pore lil Vista critter with less than a gig of RAM today. It was maybe not smokin' when I was done getting rid of unnecessary garbage, but it's fine now for what little it has to do.

As for stability, the only bad crash I've had after clearing up my wee hardware problem was while trying to run a gnarled-up virtual machine. That was cool -- two Windows with one stone. :ROFL: Any OS that can take what I hand out gets my respect. Many times I've easily bailed out of situations that would have had XP on the floor.

I've got Vista where I want it (underneath, lol) and I'll probably keep it there a while. :) Meanwhile, I get a free tour of 7 until the lappy goes home :D