windows vista

beechy · 03-07-2007, 17:57

any pc buffs got report back
on windows vista ?
im fed up of pop ups telling me
surrogate not working
explorer not working
and so on
any similar

entwisi · 03-07-2007, 20:04

My first attempt at installing Vista was an absolute joke. when I did get it installed it ran like a dog, to the point of being hopeless. I know my way round PCs, Different OS's etc and there was nothing I could do to fix it. Speaking to a Microsoft phreak I know who has MSDN even he was surprised just how badly it was running. He lent me one of his disks which I used to reinstall from scratch. Its now useable but slow. This is not a low spec laptop and it feels like I've gone back about 3 years in how it responds i.e. it runs like a P3 700 or so.

You could try a completely fresh install, it may help a bit.

for anyone considering upgrading, I wouldn't just yet.......

beechy · 04-07-2007, 05:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by entwisi

My first attempt at installing Vista was an absolute joke. when I did get it installed it ran like a dog, to the point of being hopeless. I know my way round PCs, Different OS's etc and there was nothing I could do to fix it. Speaking to a Microsoft phreak I know who has MSDN even he was surprised just how badly it was running. He lent me one of his disks which I used to reinstall from scratch. Its now useable but slow. This is not a low spec laptop and it feels like I've gone back about 3 years in how it responds i.e. it runs like a P3 700 or so.

You could try a completely fresh install, it may help a bit.

for anyone considering upgrading, I wouldn't just yet.......

thanx tech god
all i know is wndows xp
and this was installed on my pc when bought recently
progress doesnt always work for the better

entwisi · 04-07-2007, 07:17

what spec of PC is it? you realistically need 1 gig RAM min. if you haven't then you need to get a RAM upgrade, I would personally recommend Crucial

Memory upgrades, graphics cards, flash media, and usb storage at Crucial.com

Aim for as much as you can afford, 2 Gig seems to make it a lot better than 1 gig from people I have spoken to.

You should also consider turning off all the crap that Microsoft set to start as default. There are about 15 or so services that are set to run that 90% of people don't need(they are eating memory/cpu). have a google I found a decent article that tells you which ones, if you can't find it let me know I'll have a quick look

Splinter · 04-07-2007, 07:47

I tried installing it. Gave up with all the stuff not working. Sent the software back to Amazon, got my money back. Took the computer down, removed all the eBayerble stuff. I then took the computer down the end of the garden and kicked the **** out of it. I then went out to get a new one, with Vista already loaded. Works fine, but we still cannot find a printer to work with Vista. We send everything we need printing the XP laptop.

entwisi · 04-07-2007, 09:34

from a h/ware side, my Bluetooth dongle doesn't work, it didn't like the motheroard chipset (winged about teh co-processor when it was actually teh northbridge chip)

It refused to connect to the Orange livebox yet julies XP laptop and mine running linux works fine. no error message or anything.

As I mentioned, copying files from digital camera is painful (1 gig of data took ~20 mins in Vista, ~2 in Linux on same laptop with same cable/camera)

Don't even think about viewing thumbnails as my PC locks up with 95% CPU hardward interrupts

IMHO it offers no real benefits over XP, the AERO interface is nice but I've had the same under linux for > 1 year and it runs a darn site faster in linux.

blazey · 04-07-2007, 21:37

I installed vista, world of warcraft kept messing up, i uninstalled vista.
Boyfriend installed vista, world of warcraft messed up, he is stupid and still runs vista because he wants to have the new system.

Vista runs on double the spec aswell, if u look on the back of new games, the new games run on half the spec that vista requires and its a load of crap. Would rather reinstall windows 95 for what its worth.

entwisi · 04-07-2007, 22:35

Apart from win 95 won't install on any AMD CPU over a certain speed as it screws up internal counters

oh and you can't run IE > 5.5 on it, oh hang about as you were, its a great idea!

carpon · 05-07-2007, 13:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Splinter

I tried installing it. Gave up with all the stuff not working. Sent the software back to Amazon, got my money back. Took the computer down, removed all the eBayerble stuff. I then took the computer down the end of the garden and kicked the **** out of it. I then went out to get a new one, with Vista already loaded. Works fine, but we still cannot find a printer to work with Vista. We send everything we need printing the XP laptop.

Bought my p.c. with vista already installed and up to press it's behaving itself ! if its a decent printer you're after then I got mine ( a HP Photosmart C3180 Printer-Scanner-Photocopier) from Soft Sell ( Darwen St. Blackburn) for £50. Decent piece of kit, only drawback is having to download the drivers from the HP website to get it to run with vista.

Splinter · 05-07-2007, 14:33

We have a Canon Smartbase M600, pinter, scanner, fax, copier which cost nearly £300, which is lying in the garage because it won't work with Vista. We also have a brand new HP all in one, that should work with Vista, because HP say the drivers I downloaded work, but they don't and it doesn't.

entwisi · 06-07-2007, 07:35

Splinter, if your PC has a parallel port use that or pay ~£40 for a USB print server that plugs directly into your router and use that(this way completely bypasses Windows).

Splinter · 06-07-2007, 07:46

Ok thanks. Now tell me about networking. Do we need a switch as well as a router?

entwisi · 06-07-2007, 08:07

Nope

A router wil take packets and broadcast them down all 'ports', a swicth is an intelligent router that learns where an ip address is allocated and only sends data to teh relevant port.

Buy the usb print server, plug it in and your printers will be available to anyone on your network (and the internet if you make a mess of the firewall

)

this will do teh job just fine Broadbandbuyer.co.uk | Linksys PSUS4 USB Print Server w/4 Port Switch

Splinter · 06-07-2007, 08:17

Now you have started somthing. How do we make XP PC's 'see' Vista machines? I have dowloaded LLTD but we just can't get it working.

entwisi · 06-07-2007, 09:24

LLTD???? Unless I'm being particularly thick today

do you mean "Link Layer Topology Discovery Protocol"?

what do you mean by 'see', file share, remote desktop, shared resources, (printers, scanners etc) or something else?