Microsoft Vista Ultimate Edtion Rant.

[Chris Rosenberger]

I had heard all of the complaints about Microsoft Vista but in December I bought a notebook with Vista Home Premium on it. I had one blue screen crash in 5 months of use. Because of some upgrades to design software I use, I needed to update 4 year old my desktop computer. I first looked into making upgrades to the old computer. Instead I decided to build a completely new computer. I went with all Vista Certified parts. I got it all assembled without any problems. That is were the fun ended. This is the 6th computer I have built. The first build was when the second version of Windows came out. It was alot of trouble to get setup. The easiest build & setup was the XP Pro computer I am replacing. So I did not think I would have many problems getting the bugs worked out of the new Vista machine.

I wish I had never started this. The design software I use requires Vista Business or Vista Ultimate versions. I went with the Ultimate edition. It has been nothing but trouble from the time I put the disk in the drive. I install kept crashing because of missing file error messages. I got a different disk & finally got it Vista installed. Then I could not connect to the internet to get updates. After looking through settings I found I had to uncheck a box that stated the computer was connected to a business network.

Now I think I have it made. That was for about 2 minutes. I start the update process & Internet Explorer shuts down & restarts over & over again. I finally get to the Mozilla site & get IE to run long enough to get Firefox downloaded. Now I am rolling, for a few more minutes anyway. I now start getting blue screen crashes. I ended up getting all of the updated done.

Now I start to install software. More crashes & all kinds of error messages but I get everything installed. I have not used Firefox a lot so I go back to IE again. It seems to work OK now.

After 8 days & a number of hours I do not even want to think about. I believe I have the computer to a point that I can put it to work. Today I decide to get get some bookwork caught up. I do almost all of my bill paying online & Internet Explorer let me down again so I go back to Firefox & I am able to get the work completed.

I just cannot believe the amount of problem with this operating system.
I do not understand why I had no trouble with the notebook & nothing but trouble with the desktop computer.

Has anyone else had these kinds of problems?

If you read this far.
Thank you.

Chris

[Chuck Wintle]

Have you completely ruled out hardware problems with your new build? All the crashing and other stuff you describe sounds a lot like the memory may be bad. Try running memtest 86. It is a memory checking program that will tell you if any memory is defective.

[Jim Becker]

Both machines I have running on Vista have been flawless. One came with it (my new one) and one was clean installed with it. (my old one going to the girls) The new machine has 4gb ram and the old one (three, going on four years old) has 2gb ram.

Frankly, I wish I had it on my work machine, too...but the corporate powers to be will not allow it until they initiate a migration.

[Dennis Peacock]

I've been using Vista Business edition for a year now....I've really enjoyed it.

[Doug Swanson]

I've been avoiding vista like the plague...Just look at the memory usage it consumes with NOTHING else running....the thing is a pig...people don't realize that all of the "cool" features it has costs memory...it may be ok for people whose work/home consists of email/word/excel...maybe some small photo managment....but try and do some application development on a machine with vista and it crawls...I have a co-worker who has had it with his vista laptop and he can't wait to get rid of the thing...

ymmv
ds

[Mike Henderson]

I have Vista Home Premium running on two computers and have not had too many problems. But problems it has. I wish I had waited quite a bit longer to get my computers with Vista - long enough for MS to get the bugs worked out.

Mike

[Greg Peterson]

Chris,

Are there any entries in the event logs? System and Application?

[Chris Rosenberger]

Thanks for the replies & suggestions. I will check into those on a rainy day this week. I need to get away from it for a few days. Although, after I made the post, I removed Google Toolbar from IE & rebooted a couple of times. I then used the computer & IE for about 3 hours tonight without any problems.

[Ron Dunn]

Chris, how did you get Google Toolbar on a bare-metal install that was not connected to the internet?

I work for Microsoft. Vista isn't my product, but I'm happy to help you through any problems you might be having.

[Jim Becker]

Speaking of Google, rather than use the toolbar, just use iGoogle as your "home page" in your browser. And do not install the Google Desktop. It will really pig your machine out. My newest Dell interestingly had both Google Desktop and the Vista Sidebar enabled and the two really did not coexist very well! I got rid of the former when I was setting up the machine and it made a significant performance difference.

[JayStPeter]

I spent a lot of time and cash when I bought my new Vista laptop last September. I had to pay to upgrade most of my applications to run on it (especially office and visual studio). The office install was somewhat of a pain and the studio install was extremely painful. Yes, these were/are the latest and greatest versions that you'd think would run well under Vista. All of my non-MS software went smoothly with only one version upgrade since it was convenient.
I was enjoying it, but I think one of the recent OS updates is not good. I have been having problems for the last month or two with hangups. No BSOD, just everything stops. I've also been having way more application failures with the "Do you want to send a problem report to MS?" messages. I've investigated the temperatures and such and everything looks OK there and I don't appear to have any virus/spyware problems. The machine performance is also slower overall. I've been considering upgrading to XP.

[Chris Rosenberger]

Thanks for all of the replies.
I am somewhat embarrassed. Instead of following what I had learned over the years, I let Vista’s Solutions lead me astray. I stayed away from the computer for a few days & then I came back and reread the posts here. After reading Charles post about memory, I thought he was on the right track. After taking Greg advise about checking the event logs I knew it was a memory problem. The errors in the event logs were all over the place with very few duplications of errors. I ran memtest 86 & it showed problems with 1 stick. I removed the memory & swapped sockets. The computer has worked great since with only 1 auto restart & 1 additional entry in the event log. I requested an RMA number from my vendor yesterday. I have been able to load all of my software & try it out. Bootup is very fast.
Thanks again for the help.

Chris

[Chuck Wintle]

Chris,

Are there any entries in the event logs? System and Application?

Greg,
I never knew about the event log or how important it is. Since I started checking the logs I have uncovered several software problems and have corrected them. Thanks for the tip. Every day I learn something new. :D

[Chris Rosenberger]

I got the memory replaced. The computer has been working great. I am now very happy with Vista on this computer also. Thanks again for the help.