Windows Vista

[Wedgie]

It was with great shock that I drove up to my parents in the country today to try and help "clean up" their PC and it was the first time I'd encountered Vista.
I was abhored to say the least, I can see why some computer companies still sell PCs with XP and charge people more for it.
Has anyone had experience with fixing up issues on it?
This one doesn't have the Control panel easily appear on it, Windows Update doesn't work and to my absolute horror I found the PC was sold with only 512mb of ram which is a ridiculous amount of RAM to run Vista. Also has no Windows CD.
Anyone had issues/experience with these sort of issues (and costnant freezing of system), Im tempted to completely clean it off (after installing another 2gb of RAM) and put XP on it.
Any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated as Im up bush for a couple of days.
Tempted to drive to Pirie or Kadina tomorrow and pay well over "Adelaide price" for RAM to help kick start it.

[amber_fluid]

Vista is sh*t and slow and nothing but problems.............I bought a Laptop recently that had Vista............I lasted 4-5 days with it before I wiped it and installed XP.............Laptop runs like a dream now.

[gadj1976]

Wegs, go and install XP. I've spoken to many people and told them to avoid putting Vista on their computers, till it's had time to have "x" amount of bug fixes.

The guys I used to work with in IT always said "give it two years", meaning the bugs will be ironed out by then, THEN install it.

Your parents were seen coming! Installing 512 of ram is a joke, they should take the thing back - or you should take it back and tell them to jam the lot of it. That's a blatant rip off.

[Psyber]

This may be some help Wedgie:
http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/vi ... cpanel.htm

But 512MB RAM is not going to run Vista anything. Only a crook, or an ignoramus who believed what Microsoft said would function as minimum, would sell that combination. If considering the change to XP, which I agree would be best, make sure you find and download the XP drivers for the chipset and other internals first.

If it came without disks there may be an OEM preinstall on a partition on the HDD. If there isn't the outlet may be selling machines with pirate copies and could possibly be leaned on to do a good deal on RAM. Even with a preinstall partition there should be some documentation to prove it is a legitimate version of the OS.

Then there is Ubuntu which seems to supply everything you need for most machines.

[smac]

Have been running Vista on my laptop for the last 4 or 5 months (since I bought the laptop, new) and can't help with problem solving as I have not encountered a single problem.

From everything I have read and experienced a system that is properly built to handle Vista will do so just fine.

Go and smack the mob who sold them the computer.

And tell your Dad to stop surfing porn, it's bad for the computer.

[Wedgie]

Thanks for the info guys but:
a) Im aware 512mb is not adequate, its actually running in the 400s as it has a shared video card!! That will be fixed
b) I'd love to reisntall Vista or preferably install XP but Im currently in the country and my copy of XP is at home.

Im thinking I'll have to come back next week with more RAM and XP on disc.
Can't believe how bad it is.

[Punk Rooster]

Wedgie, have you checked the RAM?
I wouldn't have thought 512mb was enough...
Get some more? Another 512?
I run 1 gig & it works well (I don't have Vista though)

[Wedgie]

Dunno Punky, perhaps it needs some more?

[Punk Rooster]

Dunno Punky, perhaps it needs some more?

Bait not taken...

[Footy Chick]

Pfft..Vista.. I have it and it won't install flash, therefore, I cant access half of my facebook applications and cant watch anything on you tube. Its been this way for ages (as you may remember) and I still cant fix it... Can't say Im a big fan..

[Psyber]

Pfft..Vista.. I have it and it won't install flash, therefore, I cant access half of my facebook applications and cant watch anything on you tube. Its been this way for ages (as you may remember) and I still cant fix it... Can't say Im a big fan..

See if you can pick up a copy of XP Pro while it is still around - just remember you need to download the XP drivers for the mobo and video card and save them on a CD before you convert.

I picked up an extra OEM copy of XP Pro with a new HDD recently just to have on hand for my next computer.
[Although I do know how to put the same copy on multiple computers in such a way that they would pass authentification, I wouldn't do that of course Mr Gates.]

[rod_rooster]

It's illegal to sell a computer with an OS installed and not supply a copy of the OS. Most places now use a recovery partition as Pysber has suggested. This is what you will find as the case Wedgie. Having said that don't bother with it. Vista is garbage plus there is no point running it on 512MB RAM. As you said lots of places are now selling machines with XP as an option rather than Vista. Unfortunately some newer machines didn't have drivers for XP. I know of people who bought Toshiba laptops and tried installing XP but had a hell of a time getting things to work cos there were no drivers for it. I eventually managed to sort this out for them but it was a long process.

[Psyber]

It's illegal to sell a computer with an OS installed and not supply a copy of the OS. Most places now use a recovery partition as Pysber has suggested. This is what you will find as the case Wedgie. Having said that don't bother with it. Vista is garbage plus there is no point running it on 512MB RAM. As you said lots of places are now selling machines with XP as an option rather than Vista. Unfortunately some newer machines didn't have drivers for XP. I know of people who bought Toshiba laptops and tried installing XP but had a hell of a time getting things to work cos there were no drivers for it. I eventually managed to sort this out for them but it was a long process.

Yes, I recently bought myself an ASUS laptop that came with the restore disks for Vista Ultimate, but I bought it through one of our suppliers who had already collected up the XP drivers and would supply it with XP Pro installed for a small extra fee. I have the disks and can restore it as Vista if I ever want to. I'd have to check first that I could get the XP drivers from that supplier, or on the net, so I had the option to go back before I'd risk it.

[Kahuna]

I built my PC back in January and I finally settled on Vista Home Premium. Not entirely sure why as I was pretty comfy with XP but ended up taking the plunge. Had a lot of trouble early with hangs and crashes which I eventually tracked down to a hacked scanner driver that I installed one night whilst in a stupor and had forgotten about. Uninstalled the offender and order was restored. Can't really blame Vista for that one.
Service Pack 1 was released a couple of months ago containing around 6 gadzillion bug fixes and I think it may be worthwhile to see if it is installed to your olds' lappy. I have it on disc if you need a copy.
One thing they didn't fix that is my main beef with Vista is file transfer speed,it spends an eternity calculating how long it is going to take to move your stuff before it has a go at moving anything.
The File Indexing Service is disabled as it used to drive me mad with its thrashing of my hard drives.
User Access Control is also disabled as it just plain gave me the sh*ts.
I run 2 gig of RAM which is pretty standard for a Vista desktop and is probably needed as Vista is forever doing something. As I type this it is using around 600mB and has 58 processes running. Doing the same with XP,would only have 28 or so.

I suspect Vista is going to end up much like Win ME, unloved and unmourned.

[Psyber]

I built my PC back in January and I finally settled on Vista Home Premium. Not entirely sure why as I was pretty comfy with XP but ended up taking the plunge. Had a lot of trouble early with hangs and crashes which I eventually tracked down to a hacked scanner driver that I installed one night whilst in a stupor and had forgotten about. Uninstalled the offender and order was restored. Can't really blame Vista for that one.
Service Pack 1 was released a couple of months ago containing around 6 gadzillion bug fixes and I think it may be worthwhile to see if it is installed to your olds' lappy. I have it on disc if you need a copy.
One thing they didn't fix that is my main beef with Vista is file transfer speed,it spends an eternity calculating how long it is going to take to move your stuff before it has a go at moving anything.
The File Indexing Service is disabled as it used to drive me mad with its thrashing of my hard drives.
User Access Control is also disabled as it just plain gave me the sh*ts.
I run 2 gig of RAM which is pretty standard for a Vista desktop and is probably needed as Vista is forever doing something. As I type this it is using around 600mB and has 58 processes running. Doing the same with XP,would only have 28 or so.

I suspect Vista is going to end up much like Win ME, unloved and unmourned.

Yes I think so. I kept W98SE until XP came along. So many people I knew had major had problems with ME, and I kept waiting for it to appear to be fixed, but XP came out before it was!

[Wedgie]

Couldn't get my hands on decent ram in the country today so my next step was to download the service pack, had a look at the log and updates haven't been downloading for about 5 months, installing it now, took bloody 5 hours to download, can't stand ADSL1!!!

[Kahuna]

installing it now, took bloody 5 hours to download

Well make yourself comfy,it took 3/4 of an hour to install!!

[Wedgie]

installing it now, took bloody 5 hours to download

Well make yourself comfy,it took 3/4 of an hour to install!!

I wish! Didn't bloody install at all.

[zipzap]

DECS schools have an agreement with Microsoft whereby they get all the latest versions of pretty much everything...except Vista. Schools have been told not to touch it and stick with XP Pro.

[rod_rooster]

DECS schools have an agreement with Microsoft whereby they get all the latest versions of pretty much everything...except Vista. Schools have been told not to touch it and stick with XP Pro.

Okay whilst i don't think much of Vista, using DECS as an example of knowing what is good or not is pretty silly.