[10068]

This recent Christmas, I bought my girlfriend an HP laptop at a steal ($600USD for DualCore @ 3Ghz, 3GB RAM, webcam, 5-in-one reader, DVDRW/CDRW, etc etc). It has Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 installed.

Now, let me first say that I am coming around a bit to Vista. Instead of a sheething hatred of it, I now just have a smoldering mistrust, doubt, and moderate anger. Occaisional hatred but not constant, seething like before. I really do like the new UI and the near-instant Search function is flipping awesome. The new GUI isn't necessary but some of it's additions are pretty cool.

Constant HDD activity pisses me off, as does UAC and others but that's another story.


This thread is specifically about an experience from about a week ago. I inserted a CD with some old data of mine -- mp3s, pictures, documents, etc. I also had many mod music files on this drive (.xm for example). Well, I inserted the disc and Explorer halted to analyze it's contents or whatever. Lame, but whatever. Moving on. So I pull up the root directory, and open the "Phatty Beats" folder I had created back when I burnt this CD -- many electronica song files of the aforementioned format(s). I was going to add them to Foobar2k, but lo! The window and Explorer itself hung again. This time, it never came back. The CD thrashed for a while, then went silent. Explorer crashed and never came back. Really lame. From the looks of things it might have been trying to make Thumbnails of these music files which is even more ridiculous. So I try to quell my anger, and End Task explorer.exe -- closing and trying to End Task it the normal, "Windows Vista" way didn't prove useful at all. It kept asking to troubleshoot the issue but wouldn't even allow me to continue in that process. lol.

Unfortunately, unlike XP, I could not re-start the explorer.exe process. Well, I technically could, but I didn't get functionality back like I should have. Did I mention that the CD was now completely innaccesible? I had to restart the system. I shouldn't have to mention that this would never happen in XP.

Bleh.


EDIT: Oh! I also forgot to mention my hilarious USB Flash Drive experience. I had a flash drive (4GB) formatted in my Windows XP Professional XP3 system, to NTFS @ 512bytes per cluster, Compressed. After doing that, roughly 40mb on the drive were used. MFT and all that. When I inserted the drive into her Windows Vista laptop, not only did it take about 10 minutes to even become usable (I think I had to restart for this as well IIRC), but now there was about 200mb of additinal drive usage. No files or anything, just misteriously missing storage space. On a Compressed drive with 512bytes per cluster no less! dumb.

 

[TheMarchingMule]

If there's one thing everybody should know, it's that they should not form strong opinions of any OS based off of pre-built/pre-loaded computers.

 

[Kirosia]

First thing you should do when buying a new computer is getting rid of the bloatware (or if possible, do a clean re-install of the OS). Then update to the latest service pack/drivers/etc.

I got an old laptop from a friend, and once I removed most of the bloat, it worked fairly well.

 

[mark2410]

very strong recommendation, wipe the hdd and do a fresh install and use proper up to date drivers not the ones that are necessarily on hp's website.

i had similar issues with a laptop that had vista on it, was the biggest pile of crap until i stopped using the driver the manufacturer provided on their site. has run fantastically since them

wipe reinstall hit windows update and install everything then do the newest drivers (note make have to hack the gpu drivers to get them to work) oh actually disable UAC too its a pain in the bum when starting with a blank machine but its im told far less anoying once you have everything set up (i never bothered to reenable it)

 

[MD1032]

Sounds like that computer might have something wrong with it, possibly a bad hard drive. Reformat it, but proceed with caution and knowing that your efforts might very well be in vain.

 

[mark2410]

oh also check the in built defrag isnt running, prob best to turn it off from auto running

 

[Suntory_Times]

I must be one of the odd ones, who prefer vista to xp and have had nearly no problems with it, but had a lot with XP.

 

[UncleDavid218]

All of your arguments make you sound like a n00b.

I'm first wondering how you got a dual core CPU @ 3GHz as neither Intel or AMD currently support such high frequencies in mobile processors.

I've also never heard of UAM. I've heard of UAC, but never UAM. If it's UAC you're referring to, turning it off is as simple as going to User Accounts -> Turn User Account Control on or off. Of course, you'll probably bitch when you get infected with something and then realize that UAC would have prompted you if you wanted to run that particular executable (thus deterring the malicious code from running).

The constant HDD activity may be due to the caching that Vista does when first used. It will learn your tendencies and load those kinds of things in RAM for faster access. After a month or so things will even out and you'll begin to not notice it.

 

[Al4x]

my laptops cpu can be set to 3.12 ghz, but it sends the fans crazy! [but i suppose this is overclocking, but it is a stock on my model from dell]

i found that the hdd thrashing is from indexing for fast searches, soon as i found the service that went off,

UAC went off on mine, because i like ZAs progrrm control much better, its stricter and more effective but easy to change once applied

 

[UncleDavid218]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Al4x /img/forum/go_quote.gif my laptops cpu can be set to 3.12 ghz, but it sends the fans crazy! [but i suppose this is overclocking, but it is a stock on my model from dell] i found that the hdd thrashing is from indexing for fast searches, soon as i found the service that went off, UAC went off on mine, because i like ZAs progrrm control much better, its stricter and more effective but easy to change once applied

What kind of CPU do you have?

And sorry, I misspoke. You can get the X9100 Core 2 Duo that runs at 3.06GHz. But that's a $1,000 CPU so it most certainly was not included in a $600 POS HP laptop.

 

[Al4x]

its the t7600G

i paid a bit mor for the G

its normally at 2.33ghz but u can put it up to 3.16, but 2.83ghz is the best spot, the fans are off and only on when they are needed, anything higher and they are constantly on slow speed

the overclocking is still within warrenty too this way

 

[UncleDavid218]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Al4x /img/forum/go_quote.gif its the t7600G i paid a bit mor for the G its normally at 2.33ghz but u can put it up to 3.16, but 2.83ghz is the best spot, the fans are off and only on when they are needed, anything higher and they are constantly on slow speed the overclocking is still within warrenty too this way

Ahh ok. Well that CPU costs $700 at retail and is an older Core 2 Duo which would not be sold in laptops today.

I take it you have an XPS M1710?

 

[Al4x]

yes, thats mine, and yeah it is an older version, i love the laptop tho, it really has lasted, being dropped down the stairs whilst on,
still seems fast, its maxed out now tho

 

[chesebert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Al4x /img/forum/go_quote.gif yes, thats mine, and yeah it is an older version, i love the laptop tho, it really has lasted, being dropped down the stairs whilst on, still seems fast, its maxed out now tho

what's your core temp running 2 prime95? and what's your VID?

 

[panda]

sounds like you just got a bunk unit. return it for another one. vista is great, i never have any problems with it. i purchased a value sony vaio and i didnt even do a fresh install, just removed the bloatware and havent crashed once in over a year.