Windows 7, Have you upgrated?

[ChampcarShark]

Just finished installing win 7.

Works decent on my two year old compaq laptop.

Had my first crash. Can't wait for SP1

[miatanut]

Still on 10.5. ;)

[High Sided]

my mac's running great :thumbup:

[racermike]

Win7 Ultimate on my 6 year old P4-2.0, no problems at all. Also have Ultimate on my new HP Laptop and very happy so far. (am Microsoft Partner/TechNet subscriber, and this year got lucky and got 3 copies of w7 Ultimate)

For fun I installed Ubuntu on the Virtual XP Mode, and works flawlessly.

:thumbup: to BitLocker with this version as well. Very easy to lockdown the laptop used in combination with my 16gb thumb drive

[WickerBill]

W7 isn't perfect, of course, but it is to Vista what XP was to Me.

[KLang]

I normally only upgrade OS when I buy new hardware. Hardware hasn't changed much lately so I'll give at shot. Not until after the first of the year though. I'll let the rest of you finish beta testing it first. :p

[Indy]

my mac's running great :thumbup:
:thumbup::D

[grungex]

Still running Windows 2000 here... Lazy :p

[nrc]

I'd really like to not buy another copy of Windows. Of course I'm good with Fedora Linux and Cedega (Wine) for games, but Grrl gots to have her Half-Life and Cedega is more finicky than she's going to want to deal with.

So it depends on how long Valve Software supports XP and what develops in the mean time. The new Mac Mini looks pretty attractive but I don't know how well it would run Half-Life on Boot Camp.

[pchall]

Still on 10.5. ;)

you cheater

10.2.8

[RusH]

yup, only "upgrade" with new hardware.

Given the good reviews, I`ll be ready after the first SP.:D

[miatanut]

you cheater

10.2.8

:rofl:

You know they HAVE added some nice stuff in the last seven years!

[Boatdesigner]

Still running Windows 2000 here... Lazy :p

Me too! This machine is so rock solid I don't want to take a chance on screwing it up with an "upgrade". Frankly, My wife has XP on her machine and I don't see anything it does that I can't do as well on mine. Other than fancy graphics on the desktop, is there any real advantage to Vista or 7 over what I am running now?

I will have to upgrade at some point as none of my CAD software is tested on 2000 anymore, so they can't say if it will continue to work on my machine each time they release an update. I built another machine running Mandriva, but haven't been able to get my CAD software to work on it. They were supposed to start porting the software for Linux a couple years ago, but that seems to have been delayed.

The big question for me is, does Win7 still have the BSOD?

[extramundane]

The big question for me is, does Win7 still have the BSOD?

It does, according to published reports. That said, after running a later beta, the RC release and now the official Win7 Professional on a mix of hardware ranging from 6 years old to 6 months old, I've yet to see it. My only real qualm thus far is that upgrading from the RC (which was Win7 Ultimate) to the final Win7 Professional retail version has ranged everywhere from unpleasant to impossible.

[WickerBill]

It is a really good, stable platform considering who it came from and that it hasn't yet been service packed.

The real question will be security... will there be 10 patches a month or have they finally learned something?

[nissan gtp]

my mac's running great :thumbup:

Snow Leopard for me :thumbup:

just ordered the wife an HP Pavilion dv6t Quad Edition with W7 Home 64

[JLMannin]

My W7 Premium edition 64 bit upgrade (I think that is what it is called) should be arriving shortly for the new desktop I purchased a couple of months back. I read reports that W7 runs faster on identical equipment than its predecessor. Hmmmmm. A new OS from Microsoft that is faster, has a better GUI, is less hardware intensive, and more secure . . . maybe the apocalypse is upon us ;)

[gerhard911]

DRM = FMS :thumdown:

I'll be on XP until I get motivated enough to get up to speed on Linux. Probably @ the same time AOW gets healthy again :saywhat:

[ferrarigod]

I don't think its much of an upgrade from Snow Leopard to 7. I'm gonna stay in the past of last month.

[nrc]

VMware Fusion 3 just came out with improved 3D support. Mac with an XP VM for gaming might be within reach.

http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/features.html

[SurfaceUnits]

win7=Vista SP3 :rolleyes:

[TravelGal]

I upgraded one computer last week and am moving on to two others this week. So look out (OffCamber) world, there will some off-the-wall questions coming, I'm sure. :laugh:

So far no issues except wonder what the libraries are (I was never on Vista) and why does the install corrupt my web camera? I'm assuming I go to the website to reinstall it but I'm too busy writing here in OC to look for that.

[extramundane]

So far no issues except wonder what the libraries are (I was never on Vista)

It's a new-to-Win7 organization method. The short version is that it allows for better organization, i.e. if you store photos in more than one place, all of those folders can be stored under the Pictures library. Speeds up searches quite a bit.


and why does the install corrupt my web camera? I'm assuming I go to the website to reinstall it

A handful of XP drivers just flat out won't work on 7. Most of them can be coerced, though, but I'd go to your manufacturer's site and look for a Vista/7 driver.

[TravelGal]

It's a new-to-Win7 organization method. The short version is that it allows for better organization, i.e. if you store photos in more than one place, all of those folders can be stored under the Pictures library. Speeds up searches quite a bit.

A handful of XP drivers just flat out won't work on 7. Most of them can be coerced, though, but I'd go to your manufacturer's site and look for a Vista/7 driver.

re: Libraries, that makes sense. My biggest problem was that I didn't see a program folder so when I download things like Firefox, I didn't know where to put them. Documents to me meant WORD documents. Now I'm blithely making up my own folders.

re: Drivers. Thing is, I never had Vista. Or should I say, I never used Vista. But I upgraded from Vista.

This is something that would probably only make sense to me but I'll try. Remember those discussions last December about what computer to buy? I bought one. THREE in fact. But I never had time to learn Vista so they stayed in their respective boxes. Getting old and out of date for first half of the year. I kept reading what a dog Vista was and that didn't help.

Eventually I realized that if I could nurse my old computers along until M7 came out, I could do the "easy" upgrade from Vista without ever having had to use it. It was a race to the finish to see whether the 'puters would croak completely before I got the M7 but they lasted. On Oct 22, I went and bought the "Family Upgrade Pack" and started with my new laptop last week. Next up, the work desktop and then a whole new world for TravelGuy who has been using my former work desktop (meaning that puppy is about 8 years old).

Oh and I now also have a new printer installed and networked. Supercool. (It was only in the box about a month. LOL) The old printer was very old and some of the functions had ceased to. Had to download the M7 driver from the HP website but it worked with no problems.

I tell you guys all this so you can have a good chuckle but also so you'll know why I don't understand anything about Vista but the upgrades are not from XP. It may explain some of the harebrained future questions.

[Rogue Leader]

I'd like to go windows 7 but my computer is almost 5 years old and I just dont even feel like spending the money/time to upgrade when XP is rolling fine for me with anyting I really do right now. I will wait till I build a new system.

[racermike]

I'd like to go windows 7 but my computer is almost 5 years old and I just dont even feel like spending the money/time to upgrade when XP is rolling fine for me with anyting I really do right now. I will wait till I build a new system.

FWIW I have Win7U running very smooth (without aero) on my 6 year old, P4-2.0 rig, and no problems yet at all. (I do have 3gb of ram installed, and 512mg video card, which does help).

[oddlycalm]

win7=Vista SP3 :rolleyes:
Basically true. Win7 is a refinement of Vista in the same way XP was a refinement of Win2K and on the 16 bit side 98 of 95. With the exception of NT4, where we got up to SP6, MS always seems to do two releases of each major kernal.

oc

[nrc]

Can I just add at this point that I still chuckle every time I see the "upgrated" typo. :D

[indyfan31]

Can I just add at this point that I still chuckle every time I see the "upgrated" typo. :D

Oh good, I'm not the only one.:D

[oddlycalm]

Can I just add at this point that I still chuckle every time I see the "upgrated" typo. :D
I foolishly assumed it was intentional...:gomer:

oc

[TravelGal]

Can I just add at this point that I still chuckle every time I see the "upgrated" typo. :D


Oh good, I'm not the only one.:D


I foolishly assumed it was intentional...:gomer:

oc

Thank you; thank you. It did seem so Freudianly appropriate though, didn't it?

[Rogue Leader]

FWIW I have Win7U running very smooth (without aero) on my 6 year old, P4-2.0 rig, and no problems yet at all. (I do have 3gb of ram installed, and 512mg video card, which does help).

I only have 2 GB of ram on an Athlon 64 3500+. Though for me its less of a concern about the system running it and moreso that I'm gonna spend say $150 on the new OS, only to maybe buy a new PC in a year with it pre-installed. Hmm... but maybe I will build my next PC instead then its useful... I dunno maybe....

[ChampcarShark]

Can I just add at this point that I still chuckle every time I see the "upgrated" typo. :D

Definition of Upgrating: (verb): when a software upgrade or update causes more harm than good.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=upgrating

I was a bit upset back then.

So far, my computer has crashed twice, after 200 downloads/updates from microsoft, from anything from the mouse driver to the graphics. Its working more stable now.

[ChampcarShark]

Basically true. Win7 is a refinement of Vista in the same way XP was a refinement of Win2K and on the 16 bit side 98 of 95. With the exception of NT4, where we got up to SP6, MS always seems to do two releases of each major kernal.

oc


More like ME to WIN2K...

[oddlycalm]

More like ME to WIN2K...
Mmm, not really. ME was a 16 bit OS built on the 95/98 kernal that still had DOS at it's core and Win2K was a full 32 bit OS built on the NT kernal. The two branches didn't meet until the release of XP when the old 16 bit kernal was finally retired.

oc

[SurfaceUnits]

Windows7=Vista v2.0

[JLMannin]

Windows7=Vista v2.0

Call it what you like, but if it boots up faster, runs faster, and is more secure, I'm OK with it, even if Microsoft calls it Windows for Workgroups 3.11 SP15. :)

[dando]

even if Microsoft calls it Windows for Workgroups 3.11 SP15. :)

Yeah, but what if they called it Bob? :gomer :saywhat:

-Kevin

[JLMannin]

Yeah, but what if they called it Bob? :gomer :saywhat:

-Kevin

OK, you got me on that one. :) I forgot all about that.

[WickerBill]

I'm going to upgrade the family's PC tonight. I'll let everyone know how it goes. I've only used it in a few VMs at work.

Yes, I'm making my children guinea pigs. Duh.

[dcracer]

Been using the release candidate for win 7 on the desk top for a few months now and have been extremely happy with it.

Just upgraded the laptop from vista 64 bit to win 7 64 bit. Easily the most straight forward upgrade i have ever done. Every thing worked properly without having to search for a single driver. That's a first for any MS upgrade I have ever done. So far its running very smoothly. Now if i could figure out how to get rid of a couple of unwanted icons that are on the desktop. Why does MS force us to keep unwanted icons on the desktop?

[SurfaceUnits]

After Sun Microsystems is absorbed by Oracle, who will be the dot in dot com?

[oddlycalm]

I'm going to upgrade the family's PC tonight. I'll let everyone know how it goes. I've only used it in a few VMs at work.

Yes, I'm making my children guinea pigs. Duh.
You gonna make 'em eat broccoli as well...? :)

oc

[nrc]

After Sun Microsystems is absorbed by Oracle, who will be the dot in dot com?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Tux-G2.png

[WickerBill]

You gonna make 'em eat broccoli as well...? :)

oc


If I make broccoli at my house, I don't get any. The 'rats scarf it down. At any restaurant, if steamed veggies are an option instead of fries, my kids get the veggies. I do not understand them.

[oddlycalm]

If I make broccoli at my house, I don't get any. The 'rats scarf it down. At any restaurant, if steamed veggies are an option instead of fries, my kids get the veggies. I do not understand them.
Their lucky, stable OS and good veggies. :thumbup:

oc

[WickerBill]

Back on topic, W7 upgrade was a fantastic experience as far as OS upgrades go.

[nissan gtp]

got the new laptop today w/ W7home. Pretty nice, but the recovery sw takes up 3 DVDs :shakehead

initial system setup was easy but took a while

[oddlycalm]

This may be a convincing argument for some folks to migrate to Win7. I'm not ready to toss the TiVo over the side yet but cable card tuners for PC's is certainly interesting.

Cable cards for Win7 PC's (http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2009/09/cablecard-now-a-go-in-homebrew-home-theater-pcs.ars)

oc

[FTG]

I'm upgrading as soon as HP updates the drivers for my printer.
Firefox keeps crashing in Vista. What do you guys think about Firefox versus Internet Explorer in Windows 7?

[racermike]

I'm upgrading as soon as HP updates the drivers for my printer.
Firefox keeps crashing in Vista. What do you guys think about Firefox versus Internet Explorer in Windows 7?

Firefox all the way :thumbup:

[KLang]

This may be a convincing argument for some folks to migrate to Win7. I'm not ready to toss the TiVo over the side yet but cable card tuners for PC's is certainly interesting.

Cable cards for Win7 PC's (http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2009/09/cablecard-now-a-go-in-homebrew-home-theater-pcs.ars)

oc

I haven't seen press about CableCards for quite a while. Thought they were dead.

[dando]

I haven't seen press about CableCards for quite a while. Thought they were dead.

'tis all Tivos use these daze, but the cable cos. are trying to screw cable card users by using switched video or SDV.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched_video

-Kevin

[KLang]

'tis all Tivos use these daze, but the cable cos. are trying to screw cable card users by using switched video or SDV.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched_video

-Kevin

That explains it, I've never been a Tivo user.

They don't put a cablecard slot in many TV's now do they? I don't think any of mine have one.

[dando]

That explains it, I've never been a Tivo user.

They don't put a cablecard slot in many TV's now do they? I don't think any of mine have one.

Likely only a few models offer them. I'm guessing that when built-in HD tuners were mandated, cable card slots went away.

-Kevin

[oddlycalm]

Windows 7 media center computers combined with a cable card tuner could be great thing. Microsoft and CableLabs wouldn't have bothered if there were no demand. The fact they are relaxing DRM rights to do it is even more surprising because the trend has been towards more restriction. If this capability remains unique to Win7 will give serious pwnage the media center market.

oc

[nrc]

Likely only a few models offer them. I'm guessing that when built-in HD tuners were mandated, cable card slots went away.

When CC first became a standard CS manufacturers rolled it out and nobody used it. Cable companies generally made it too much hassle to acquire a cable card and they were hoping to kill the standard anyway. So CS manufacturers dropped it from all but their top models.

Since then TiVo and the mandate that all cable boxes use Cable Card for security has made CC much more accessible, although switched digital and the lack of on demand and PPV access are still hurdles. This will change. Cable is going to find that if they don't make their services accessible people will go elsewhere for content. It's going to be an on-demand content world.


Windows 7 media center computers combined with a cable card tuner could be great thing. Microsoft and CableLabs wouldn't have bothered if there were no demand. The fact they are relaxing DRM rights to do it is even more surprising because the trend has been towards more restriction. If this capability remains unique to Win7 will give serious pwnage the media center market.

Oh, it's no bother for Cable Labs. You submit a device, you pay them, they test it. Microsoft may have relaxed the DRM they were applying, but Cable Labs DRM standards are the same as ever.

For some cable systems like ours it's fine. Most programs don't have copy protection applied and I can put them on a network drive, copy them to another device, etc. Unfortunately many cable systems have started setting copy protect flags on many channels even though they're not required to. This means you can only save them on the recording device. Any view from other devices has to be by streaming, not copying.

I doubt that Win7 is going to have much impact. A PC, Win7, a $400 cable card tuner, and a truck roll will add up to more trouble than most people want to go through. Yes, Windows nerds will tinker with it, but the average consumer doesn't want to deal with Windows. They want an appliance that will do what they want. That's why consoles have largely replaced PC gaming.

[TravelGal]

I'm upgrading as soon as HP updates the drivers for my printer.
Firefox keeps crashing in Vista. What do you guys think about Firefox versus Internet Explorer in Windows 7?

As soon as? When I upgraded, I just downloaded the new drivers to get the printer to work. It's a new printer (8500 Premier Officejet) so I should think they would have older ones done also. Or do they work in reverse order? Either way, it's not they didn't have heaps of time to get all the drivers ready. The system has been in beta for ages.

PS, I work with both IE8 and Firefox in Win7 and have had no problem with either but the choice is always Firefox if I have a choice.

[FTG]

As soon as?

HP is slow on my model. Just lucky I guess. But nice of Microsoft to scan my system and tell me the driver wasn't ready. I'd rather wait a month to upgrade than go a month without a printer. Can't say MS doesn't learn.

Nice to know Firefox is more stable in 7. It was starting to really tick me off.

[Hard Driver]

Ok, I bit the bullet and did an upgrade from XP to Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. This requires a clean install, so make sure data is backed up.

Went very smoothly. I did upgrade my 2GHz Core2 laptop to 4GB of ram first. First impressions, Win7 runs quickly and has a nice interface.

Beside the pretty graphics, Windows 7 64bit addresses more memory, and has basic kernal changes that utilize some of the advanced features of new processors better, like mulitple cores. And I would say that there are a few usability tweaks that I like.

[oddlycalm]

Yes, Windows nerds will tinker with it, but the average consumer doesn't want to deal with Windows. They want an appliance that will do what they want. That's why consoles have largely replaced PC gaming.
No argument on that, it's certainly a niche market. Looks like the media center PC nerds will love Win7 though.

oc

[JLMannin]

PS, I work with both IE8 and Firefox in Win7 and have had no problem with either but the choice is always Firefox if I have a choice.

I'll pick Chrome over both any day.

[dando]

Did the needful last night. Upgrade process was a C+...mainly due to the upgrade assistant Dell uses on top of the Windoze 7 upgrade. So far so good (other than losing my FF prefs and cookies). :( Doesn't appear to be a huge leap from Vista from a UI perspective, but I haven't had much of a chance to investigate the nooks and crannies yet. I also never had any issues with Vista the month or so I used it.

-Kevin

[SurfaceUnits]

30+ Windows 7 Features Phone Home to Microsoft

A closer look at the Windows 7 Privacy Statement

Windows 7, just as the vast majority of software products, and certainly Cloud-based applications and services, harvests information from each end user and shares it with the mother company. This is, of course, not new to the latest iteration of Windows, as previous releases of the OS, including Windows Vista and Windows XP were also designed to contact Microsoft servers in order to provide data gathered from user machines. The Redmond-based company is making no secret of the Windows 7 features that phone home, and, in fact, offers a full, although not exhaustive, disclosure on the Windows 7 Privacy Statement webpage.

However, even if the software giant is upfront about the information collected by Windows 7, sent and stored on Microsoft servers, it’s very unlikely that customers buying and running the operating system go to all the trouble of reading the Privacy Statement. Below, you will find excerpts from the official Windows 7 Privacy Statement provided by Microsoft, along with a list of the operating system’s features that connect to company servers. According to the maker, the privacy information related to the latest version of the Windows platform was updated in July 2009. It was on July 22 that Microsoft released Windows 7 to manufacturing, with general availability kicking in on October 22.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/30-Windows-7-Features-Phone-Home-to-Microsoft-129592.shtml

A comparison between Windows7’s privacy statement and Google Chrome’s will easily allow customers to discern the differences between what Microsoft and Google offer in terms of harvesting, storing, leveraging and protecting user data. Those users that continue to criticize Microsoft as the Big Brother of the software industry should definitely know that everything they type into the Chrome address bar is automatically sent to Google. Everything. And here is the reality of how good Google protects end user privacy, “If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place,” according to Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt.

[FTG]

I finally made the switch. The upgrade was a pain in the ass, but the performance of 64-bit Windows 7 is way better than Vista 32-bit. The indexing function actually runs in the background, instead of while you're trying to do your work, which is a major improvement over Vista.

[Napoleon]

I upgraded my laptop that had Vista and it definitely is faster and better.

[cameraman]

And here I am killing a Saturday morning trying to get the stupid XP service pack 3 to install:irked:

Got a new much larger hard drive for my mac and the fresh install of everything has gone perfectly until I got to SP3. And it is on a brand new, untouched XP Pro installation on a brand new 100 Gb partition. And it fails:mad: ****ing microsoft. I'm downloading the stand alone version of sp3 as I type this:flame:


Edit to add that it turns out to be an Apple/Microsoft goat rope that has a work around if you dig around for it.


Seems it is a little glitch where the XP installer tries to put apply SP3 to OS X with the expected result.:eek:

Oooohhhhh, only 61 updates on this list...

[opinionated ow]

My brother's education revolution farce (don't ask unless you want a long lecture on idiot Australian politics) laptop comes with Windows 7. It seems to work ok, but you can't do anything with it so brother has christened it Windows Kevin...

[Cam]

My brother's education revolution farce (don't ask unless you want a long lecture on idiot Australian politics) laptop comes with Windows 7. It seems to work ok, but you can't do anything with it so brother has christened it Windows Kevin...

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

[extramundane]

My brother's education revolution farce (don't ask unless you want a long lecture on idiot Australian politics) laptop comes with Windows 7. It seems to work ok, but you can't do anything with it so brother has christened it Windows Kevin...

OK, I'll bite: what exactly can't be done with it?

[SurfaceUnits]

this website www.XXXNotSafeForWifeVideos.com (http://win.softpedia.com/) pegs my CPU and I can't find any active content on it that would cause it.

[opinionated ow]

OK, I'll bite: what exactly can't be done with it?

It's restricted in what it can access so that the kids use it for educational purposes in class (they don't anyway...). But that restriction isn't lifted when they're at home so even when they're mucking around at home they can't hit up any of the popular website-Facebook, youtube etc.

So basically it's like our PM-all image and no content. Hence Windows Kevin

[dando]

but you can't do anything with it so brother has christened it Windows Kevin...

Excuse me? :irked: :saywhat: :gomer: :p

-Kevin

[opinionated ow]

Excuse me? :irked: :saywhat: :gomer: :p

-Kevin

Aussie Prime Minister (can't ascertain who voted for him, because I found nobdy but anyway) Kevin Rudd...or as Americans tend to call him Kevin Rude..

[grungex]

Well, bought myself a new PC over the holidays, loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. So far so good, though I can see where drivers might be an issue -- e.g. my old but reliable HP Scanjet 2200C. It's freakin' fast, though -- i7 920 w/ 12 gigs of RAM. Whee!

Has anyone had luck running 32-bit WinXP drivers in a virtual machine in Professional? It is supposed to support USB.

[indyfan31]

Well, bought myself a new PC over the holidays, loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. So far so good, though I can see where drivers might be an issue -- e.g. my old but reliable HP Scanjet 2200C. It's freakin' fast, though -- i7 920 w/ 12 gigs of RAM. Whee!

Has anyone had luck running 32-bit WinXP drivers in a virtual machine in Professional? It is supposed to support USB.

12Gs? Does 7 actually use all of it?

[grungex]

Apparently it can, at least in the 64-bit version -- the motherboard can accommodate up to 24 gigs. It will probably be most useful when running virtual machines.

[KLang]

I'm running Windows 7 now, sorta. Wife and I bought a pair of iMacs the day after Christmas. Running Windows 7 in a VMware Fusion partition for a couple things not available under OS X. Already bumped up the memory from 4 GB to 8 GB.

[ChampcarShark]

Thought I gave you guys an update. Had problems at the beginning, but after installing one gig of ram, most problems where gone. Other than that just hp not having drivers ready for my pc.

Way more stable than vista and a bit faster too.

I was surprised that my one gig ram desktop performs better than my two gigs ram laptop. both are compaq branded.

Time for a new pc.

[SteveH]

GodMode (http://gizmodo.com/5440159/understanding-windows-7s-godmode) - anyone try it?

[dando]

Started having crashes and bad startups the past couple of days. Laptop less than 4 mos. old and nothing new installed. :saywhat:

-Kevin

[grungex]

GodMode (http://gizmodo.com/5440159/understanding-windows-7s-godmode) - anyone try it?

Seems fairly useful, saves hunting around for some things...

[dando]

OK, anyone gots any ideas here? On the odd occasion I can get the laptop to boot, it dies after a few minutes (10-15 minutes). Reboots into repair mode work every couple of tries, but then result in a lockup. I've tried booting from the Win 7 disc and into repair mode, but the system restore and repair options result in errors. I had one lockup late last week and then this weekend it became hell on wheels. :saywhat: :irked:

-Kevin

[WickerBill]

OK, anyone gots any ideas here? On the odd occasion I can get the laptop to boot, it dies after a few minutes (10-15 minutes). Reboots into repair mode work every couple of tries, but then result in a lockup. I've tried booting from the Win 7 disc and into repair mode, but the system restore and repair options result in errors. I had one lockup late last week and then this weekend it became hell on wheels. :saywhat: :irked:

-Kevin

Sounds like it could be hardware -- likely your HDD. No guarantees of course, but if you're erroring on repair, it is having trouble writing data. That could also be the reason you crash and lock up.

Is it hotter than before? Is it louder than before? Are your fans running constantly? Are your fans running at all?

[JLMannin]

OK, anyone gots any ideas here? On the odd occasion I can get the laptop to boot, it dies after a few minutes (10-15 minutes). Reboots into repair mode work every couple of tries, but then result in a lockup. I've tried booting from the Win 7 disc and into repair mode, but the system restore and repair options result in errors. I had one lockup late last week and then this weekend it became hell on wheels. :saywhat: :irked:

-Kevin

I'm going to guess bad memory. Once the system stores something in a bad memory location, it's all over. Can you enter your bios and turn on memory checking? If so, check with one memory module installed at a time to see which one(s) are bad. If they are all good, then WB may be right with the bad HDD.

Twice I've been hit with bad memory. Both times, I did not realize it was bad memory until I could not even do a clean reinstall the OS.

Good Luck.

[KLang]

Started having crashes and bad startups the past couple of days. Laptop less than 4 mos. old and nothing new installed. :saywhat:

-Kevin

Where did you buy it? Sounds like it is ready for a warranty repair or replacement. Hope you have your personal data backed up.

[dando]

Sounds like it could be hardware -- likely your HDD. No guarantees of course, but if you're erroring on repair, it is having trouble writing data. That could also be the reason you crash and lock up.

Is it hotter than before? Is it louder than before? Are your fans running constantly? Are your fans running at all?

No. No. No. Yes. I've had plenty of experience with Dell toaster ovens @ work, so I'm familiar with HDD and mobo failure signs. :saywhat: This is puzzling since I've run the memory and HDD checks and it passes, but the system restore fails. :confused: I also assumed an HDD issue when the restore failed, but it passes chkdsk and it still boots ~one of four times.

I also booted from the Win 7 CD last night to do a repair install (no luck) and then a reinstall (which then requires a reboot to complete, and then fails on restart).

:irked:

One thing I have noticed is that when FF has crashed, it loses the default start page option, which leads me to believe that something is corrupted on the HDD.

-Kevin

[dando]

Where did you buy it? Sounds like it is ready for a warranty repair or replacement. Hope you have your personal data backed up.

It's a Dell refurb Insprion 1015. Luckily there isn't much on it since it's so new. Unfortunately warranties on refurb units are much shorter than new units. I've never had any issues with any of the several Dell refurbs I've bought in the past (and they are usually more reliable than new units).

-Kevin

[dando]

I'm going to guess bad memory. Once the system stores something in a bad memory location, it's all over. Can you enter your bios and turn on memory checking? If so, check with one memory module installed at a time to see which one(s) are bad. If they are all good, then WB may be right with the bad HDD.

Twice I've been hit with bad memory. Both times, I did not realize it was bad memory until I could not even do a clean reinstall the OS.

Good Luck.

Usually when I have a memory issue, I see something @ startup rather than a hang. In any case, Win 7 has a memory check in it's repair suite, and that shows the memory is OK. :confused:

-Kevin

[dando]

Good to know they still have a BSOD in Win 7:


Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033


:shakehead :saywhat:

-Kevin

[Cam]

Good to know they still have a BSOD in Win 7:



:shakehead :saywhat:

-Kevin

From a quick google? Ya gots Norton on there?

[dando]

From a quick google? Ya gots Norton on there?

Nope. Just AVG 9. When I can get her to boot (1 of 5 times or so), it seems to run fine, but then just locks up (but still keeps time :gomer:)...even if nothing is running (like FF or IE). If it were memory or HDD, I would expect it to fail consistently. :confused: :saywhat:

-Kevin

[Cam]

Nope. Just AVG 9. When I can get her to boot (1 of 5 times or so), it seems to run fine, but then just locks up (but still keeps time :gomer:)...even if nothing is running (like FF or IE). If it were memory or HDD, I would expect it to fail consistently. :confused: :saywhat:

-Kevin

OK. Does a reinstall go on clean or does it reload all the crapware? I'd be leaning this way then try to find all the latest winblows7 drivers.

[dando]

OK. Does a reinstall go on clean or does it reload all the crapware? I'd be leaning this way then try to find all the latest winblows7 drivers.

Attempts to reinstall require a restart, which ends up hanging. :irked: Gonna try that again today. :(

-Kevin

[dando]

OK. So I booted into safe mode just now and it displays the files being loaded. It gets to \windows\system32\drivers\classpnp.sys, which it shows it loaded and then hangs.

-Kevin

[dando]

Finally got a full reinstall to work....now the damn thing runs like crap. :saywhat: :irked: Takes several seconds between clicking on icons before they respond, etc. :mad: Never had an issue remotely like this on 98 or XP. :shakehead

-Kevin

[WickerBill]

Finally got a full reinstall to work....now the damn thing runs like crap. :saywhat: :irked: Takes several seconds between clicking on icons before they respond, etc. :mad: Never had an issue remotely like this on 98 or XP. :shakehead

-Kevin


Put XP on there. Eliminate the OS. You have a hw problem.

[dando]

Put XP on there. Eliminate the OS. You have a hw problem.

For whatever reason, it started operating normally shortly afterwards. Not sure what hw issue I could have, the memory checks out as does the HDD. I'll try booting with Ubuntu later to compare. Perhaps the laptop was inspired by the greatest QB ever. ;)

-Kevin

[nrc]

Does your maker have a diagnostic disk that you can download? With it dying on something related to PnP you may have an internal (assuming you've disconnected it from everything else) peripheral device acting up. Something like your glidepoint, card reader, etc.

You should also try the memtest86 memory diagnostic which is more comprehensive than most: http://www.memtest.org/

[SurfaceUnits]

Just bought a nice little AGP video card, 29 bucks, for a 6 year old P4 machine, runs W7 grate.

VisionTek Radeon HD 2600 Pro Video Card - 256MB DDR2, AGP 8x, Dual DVI, HDTV, Video Card

http://images.tigerdirect.com/SkuImages/gallery/large/V261-2603-03.jpg