Wednesday, I decided that I wanted some of the pre-installed apps on my machine. Also, my nieces really liked one of the screen-savers. It was my duty as an uncle to get that screen-saver back! Plus, that bug with file selection was annoying.
Installing XP Media Center Edition was easy. Dell System Restore did not work. Thankfully, the discs did.
Upgrading ran into the blue screen problem I originally had. Performing a clean install also had the blue screen problem. I tried the method originally used to get Vista to install, but it also blue screened.
I spent the day removing and formatting partitions. I ended up removing them all, even the diagnostic and restore partitions. That didn't work. The computer still blue screened.
With a call into Dell Support, the nice tech got me to change the RAID setting on my computer to auto detect. It made sense since I don't have a RAID setup. That appeared to fix the install problem.
Having spent way too much time installing Vista, I went with the clean install. The applications and the screen-saver were never installed, in the end. Hopefully the nieces won't be disappointed.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Wasn't this feature in the product since 1.0?
I've continued to track down solutions for the multiple file selection problem. The solution to delete the Bags and Streams registry keys did not work on my computer.
Also, this problem is on all user accounts.
Also, this problem is on all user accounts.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Update
I have sent an e-mail to my local Better Business Bureau about my problem with the Dell Vista Upgrade program.
Rude people at Dell
If you were planning on the Vista Express Upgrade, don't bother. You don't get all the options in the full version. My own beef was with the lack of 64-bit version being available. I spend a couple of hours on the phone trying to figure out how to get the 64-bit version.
Calls between Dell and Microsoft resulted in absolutely no satisfaction. In fact, the last person I chatted with at Dell, Lara, was absolutely rude. Her supervisor was "administrative only" and didn't take calls. Dell employees even said that Vista Home Premium 64-bit edition didn't even exist! Microsoft was puzzled.
Do I recommend upgrading to Vista: Hell no! The only time I'd even recommend upgrading to Vista is in a few years and if and only if you get the exact version you wanted.
Calls between Dell and Microsoft resulted in absolutely no satisfaction. In fact, the last person I chatted with at Dell, Lara, was absolutely rude. Her supervisor was "administrative only" and didn't take calls. Dell employees even said that Vista Home Premium 64-bit edition didn't even exist! Microsoft was puzzled.
Do I recommend upgrading to Vista: Hell no! The only time I'd even recommend upgrading to Vista is in a few years and if and only if you get the exact version you wanted.
Dell Vista Troubles
I got my Dell Vista Express Upgrade package on Friday, 16 March 2007. The upgrade process was... interesting.
The upgrade process with the Dell Upgrade Assistant DVD went smoothly up until Vista Express Upgrade DVD was going through its process. After the first reboot, blue screen of death (bsod). Tried it again. Same error, same numbers. Consistency is usually good. But not in this case.
Switching to a clean install, by booting the Vista DVD, produced a bsod immediately after clicking the "Custom (Advanced)" (i.e. clean install) button. Tried it again. Same error, same numbers, but different addresses than the upgrade process. Again, consistency is usually good. But not in this case.
After an hour on the phone with Dell support (thankfully I still have priority support), the tech remembered a trick they had to use once before: delete and format the partition. Of course, the Vista DVD wouldn't get to the partitioning. My old XP Pro CD, oddly enough, also blue screened. My Linux Knoppix CD came to the rescue.
So here I am in a clean install of Windows Vista. My only other disappointment with moving to Vista is that the Express Upgrade Vista DVD contains only the 32-bit edition. I originally had planned on moving to the 64-bit edition of Windows Vista with this upgrade. From what I was reading, both 32- and 64-bit versions were bundled together. Now I've decided that unless I get a DVD free (free shipping, too), I won't move to a 64-bit version of Windows until it's necessary to upgrade. I'm thinking another couple of versions of Windows.
Vista looks nice. The clean install appears to have slightly better performance than XP MCE. Application compatibility is the only drawback. I'm only installing applications that have been shown to work with Vista.
I'm still waiting for that "wow" moment I'm supposed to get with Windows Vista.
The upgrade process with the Dell Upgrade Assistant DVD went smoothly up until Vista Express Upgrade DVD was going through its process. After the first reboot, blue screen of death (bsod). Tried it again. Same error, same numbers. Consistency is usually good. But not in this case.
Switching to a clean install, by booting the Vista DVD, produced a bsod immediately after clicking the "Custom (Advanced)" (i.e. clean install) button. Tried it again. Same error, same numbers, but different addresses than the upgrade process. Again, consistency is usually good. But not in this case.
After an hour on the phone with Dell support (thankfully I still have priority support), the tech remembered a trick they had to use once before: delete and format the partition. Of course, the Vista DVD wouldn't get to the partitioning. My old XP Pro CD, oddly enough, also blue screened. My Linux Knoppix CD came to the rescue.
So here I am in a clean install of Windows Vista. My only other disappointment with moving to Vista is that the Express Upgrade Vista DVD contains only the 32-bit edition. I originally had planned on moving to the 64-bit edition of Windows Vista with this upgrade. From what I was reading, both 32- and 64-bit versions were bundled together. Now I've decided that unless I get a DVD free (free shipping, too), I won't move to a 64-bit version of Windows until it's necessary to upgrade. I'm thinking another couple of versions of Windows.
Vista looks nice. The clean install appears to have slightly better performance than XP MCE. Application compatibility is the only drawback. I'm only installing applications that have been shown to work with Vista.
I'm still waiting for that "wow" moment I'm supposed to get with Windows Vista.
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