OT for the IT guys - windows XP
Discussion
I've recently installed Windows XP. It seems to work well, generally runs a bit quicker than 98 (subjectively - haven't measured anything).
But ...
Major hassles with it failing ... first the IE gave up and wouldn't start. Cure: reinstall at 1.5hr+. Most recently something else has happened and it won't atart at all. Goes on about not closing properly (it's conceivable my 3 year old switched it off - but surely it should be able to cope with this?), tests the hard drives, and stops, or goes out for a pint, or something.
I'm unchuffed, and can't really be arsed reinstalling it again as 98 is pretty reliable (so far). But I can't uninstall it as the partition is formatted in something that 98 doesn't recognise, and I can't start XP to read it.
Am I going to have to install it again so that I can uninstall it?
Or is there any trick I've missed to make the f*king thing more reliable?
But ...
Major hassles with it failing ... first the IE gave up and wouldn't start. Cure: reinstall at 1.5hr+. Most recently something else has happened and it won't atart at all. Goes on about not closing properly (it's conceivable my 3 year old switched it off - but surely it should be able to cope with this?), tests the hard drives, and stops, or goes out for a pint, or something.
I'm unchuffed, and can't really be arsed reinstalling it again as 98 is pretty reliable (so far). But I can't uninstall it as the partition is formatted in something that 98 doesn't recognise, and I can't start XP to read it.
Am I going to have to install it again so that I can uninstall it?
Or is there any trick I've missed to make the f*king thing more reliable?
I'm no computer buff, but I when I bought a new PC last year with an AMD 1800+ XP came pre-installed and it seems to work well. I find the following site useful in helping to resolve issues - hope you can find some of the ways to sort out your problems.
www.computing.net then click on the XP support forum
www.computing.net then click on the XP support forum
Upgraded to XP last autumn computers not been right since. Plenty of friends have 'new' machins with XP installed from the off and love it. However, plenty of friends have also done the upgrade and most don't like what its done to their machines.
The list is endless so I won't go into too much detail, suffice to say XP and NVIDIA graphic cards are still not right and it p*sses me off, then again it got the kids back on the PS2 leaving me to browse PH alone
Moral IMHO DO NOT UPGRADE TO XP unless their is no other option.
Harry
PS I'm not a IT type, I just work for a living
The list is endless so I won't go into too much detail, suffice to say XP and NVIDIA graphic cards are still not right and it p*sses me off, then again it got the kids back on the PS2 leaving me to browse PH alone
Moral IMHO DO NOT UPGRADE TO XP unless their is no other option.
Harry
PS I'm not a IT type, I just work for a living
A couple of quick questions you need to ask. Apologies if you have already done this but it wasn't in your posting.
1. Did you upgrade or was this a clean install? Upgrades always carry a lot of unwanted baggage with them and usually have a few suprises in store. If possible start from fresh with a cleanly formatted hard disk.
2. Is your PC running with the latest BIOS. Always ensure that your PC is running with the latest BIOS before installing a new OS.
BTW I am running XP on a few PC's at work and it seems to be a pretty good OS so far.
Alistair
1. Did you upgrade or was this a clean install? Upgrades always carry a lot of unwanted baggage with them and usually have a few suprises in store. If possible start from fresh with a cleanly formatted hard disk.
2. Is your PC running with the latest BIOS. Always ensure that your PC is running with the latest BIOS before installing a new OS.
BTW I am running XP on a few PC's at work and it seems to be a pretty good OS so far.
Alistair
Okay, one possibility is that the registry is corrupted. I've found an article from M$ that states how to recover the registry for XP. Its a bit long, if you can enter DOS mode (sorry its called recovery console now 
) then check for the recovery files in the "c:\windows\tmp\" folder the best thing is to read the article below.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q307545
Good luck!
) then check for the recovery files in the "c:\windows\tmp\" folder the best thing is to read the article below. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q307545
Good luck!
It was a clean install into a new partition, freshly formatted. I kept Win 98 in its old partition.
Haven't a clue about the bios, how would I find out? The guts of the machine are perhaps 18 months old so I assume that's when the bios dates from.
I'll look into the registry.
>> Edited by JohnLow on Monday 20th May 23:33
Haven't a clue about the bios, how would I find out? The guts of the machine are perhaps 18 months old so I assume that's when the bios dates from.
I'll look into the registry.
>> Edited by JohnLow on Monday 20th May 23:33
John,
If it has been switched off rather than shut down, then I'm afraid you can expect random things to go wrong.
The reason is "write caching", which is where a bunch of hard disc write operations are queued up until such a time as there's enough of them to squirt to the hard disc without incurring major inefficiency. The write is triggered either when there's enough data ready to go, or some amount of time has passed since the last write.
Now, the lengths of time and amounts of data we're talking about here are quite small, but by randomly turning the machine off (or having it randomly turned off for you
) you risk catching the machine mid-write, which can leave files in an inconsistent state.
Chances are, if this happens enough, it'll be something important that gets screwed.
(Any Unix people watching? It's 5.30, you're dying to get home, but there's this Unix box to shut down. Quiz: (a) shutdown -y now, or (b) sync;sync;POWER SWITCH?
)
If it has been switched off rather than shut down, then I'm afraid you can expect random things to go wrong.
The reason is "write caching", which is where a bunch of hard disc write operations are queued up until such a time as there's enough of them to squirt to the hard disc without incurring major inefficiency. The write is triggered either when there's enough data ready to go, or some amount of time has passed since the last write.
Now, the lengths of time and amounts of data we're talking about here are quite small, but by randomly turning the machine off (or having it randomly turned off for you
) you risk catching the machine mid-write, which can leave files in an inconsistent state. Chances are, if this happens enough, it'll be something important that gets screwed.
(Any Unix people watching? It's 5.30, you're dying to get home, but there's this Unix box to shut down. Quiz: (a) shutdown -y now, or (b) sync;sync;POWER SWITCH?
)I'd check your bios, my 18 month old Dell Lattitude hated XP when it first went on, Dell released a bios patch for it and it runs perfectly now, in fact I never even switch it off, just drop it into standby mode when I take it between home and the office.
If you don't want to bugger about with the reg you could get your hands on a copy of Norton Utilities, it is quite good at getting things right.
Good luck.
D.
>> Edited by davidd on Tuesday 21st May 08:07
>> Edited by davidd on Tuesday 21st May 08:07
If you don't want to bugger about with the reg you could get your hands on a copy of Norton Utilities, it is quite good at getting things right.
Good luck.
D.
>> Edited by davidd on Tuesday 21st May 08:07
>> Edited by davidd on Tuesday 21st May 08:07
quote:
The list is endless so I won't go into too much detail, suffice to say XP and NVIDIA graphic cards are still not right and it p*sses me off, then again it got the kids back on the PS2 leaving me to browse PH alone .
Harry
I have XP on my new laptop, was XP Home now XP Pro and I also Have NVidea graphics (GeForce 4 440Go) and I have not had any problems at all. The graphics are the best I have ever seen on a PC or laptop!.
I'm running XP and have no problems with it. A lot of problems are caused by very similar things. The main reasons why it would fail are:-
1. Your BIOS is out of date
2. You are overclocking your components (XP is sensitive to overclocking, more so than 98)
3. Your power supply isnt up to it (not likely in your case)
4. Faulty hardware or drivers (most common)
Also, make sure your disk is functioning correctly as this can give unusual errors. Certainly update your BIOS and get the latest drivers for all your hardware. Failing that, run some diags on your hardware to make sure its functioning correctly.
The last possibility is that your machine may just not "agree" with XP. My mate has a machine like this - and it was set up perfectly cos I did it but he still has problems 
Paul
1. Your BIOS is out of date
2. You are overclocking your components (XP is sensitive to overclocking, more so than 98)
3. Your power supply isnt up to it (not likely in your case)
4. Faulty hardware or drivers (most common)
Also, make sure your disk is functioning correctly as this can give unusual errors. Certainly update your BIOS and get the latest drivers for all your hardware. Failing that, run some diags on your hardware to make sure its functioning correctly.
The last possibility is that your machine may just not "agree" with XP. My mate has a machine like this - and it was set up perfectly cos I did it
but he still has problems Paul
If you have to use Micro$oft then bin XP and use Win2K. I put XP on my machine and I havent seen so many blue screens in all my life. One of the main culprits is Office XP. Using it in Win2K was brilliant and I had no trouble at all. I wouldn't use XP until at least one service pack has come out for it.
quote:
quote:
(Any Unix people watching? It's 5.30, you're dying to get home, but there's this Unix box to shut down. Quiz: (a) shutdown -y now, or (b) sync;sync;POWER SWITCH?
C) sync, sync and halt
Works for me
Cheers,
Paul
Or good old Haltsys (SCO System V) if you are really in a hurry and don't care if your users are ready to get off
ErnestM
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