What Is My Problem, Besides Vista?, page 1

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Topic started on 5-6-2009 @ 11:57 PM by TheLoony

Can't keep cursor. Takes forever to type just a few sentences. Also I have eternal crashing browser syndrome. It's a Acer Aspire from Wal-Mart - they wouldn't let me return it. Bastards.

Anyway, besides a funeral pyre, what can I do? What the hell is my problem? Vista? It's pissing me off and has for a few weeks now and I don't know how much longer I can go before I really do just break the thing so it will not work at all, ever.

That's how pissed off I am, ready to take a sledgehammer to it. It's not right and I know of no one in real life who can help, so I am asking here.

reply posted on 6-6-2009 @ 12:12 AM by Kaifan

reply to post by TheLoony

Well, first, don't break it, send it away, to me!

Really, it is not the computer by itself, most probably the Vista OS, if you can get a copy of WinXP try to install it and then see if that fixes everything, also, if you are able to do a clean install of Vista, don't install all the extra software that comes with your laptop, instead, just install the OS and then see if it works ok, then just install what you really need, this means, nothing from the original cds, download firefox/chrome, use that for browsing, and get free applications from the web, open source of at least things like winamp or similars.

Media player classic for video/dvd/divx, Firefox/Chrome for web browsing, winamp for mp3 player/ipod/whatever.

Chances are that some big dumb software was installed by default on your pc and is taking all the system resources by using a background task, some service that you may never really need but it was installed anyway.

If nothing works, then install XP and try again, if that still doesn't work, then use Linux, if also that doesn't work, then you know what to do

Get a Mac next time

reply posted on 6-6-2009 @ 12:21 AM by TheLoony

May be able to get a copy of XP. Have to see. How do I install it and take out Vista?

I may get a Mac next time. I have a friend who has some problems with his but they are nothing like this crap.

reply posted on 6-6-2009 @ 12:50 AM by Kaifan

reply to post by TheLoony

Well the thing with the Mac is, it is not perfect, but since the hardware is specially selected for the OS, there is a lot less that can go wrong than with PCs, but they do have their share of problems as well.

If you make a backup of all your files and data on a cd/dvd or usb drive, firs try with the Vista cd that came your pc, if this is a laptop as i believe it is, then you may need to use the restore cd, because some laptops need a special partitioning scheme on your drive that only the restore cd can do, its ok, but don't use the applications cd if you have one.

Maybe it will be better if you take it to some pc shop so they do a clean install, with the xp cd is very easy to remove the old installation by just deleting all the partitions on the hard drive and creating a new one where you can install xp, is as easy as that, the setup app is not really hard to use, but you may want to go with the pc shop or geek friend instead so that everything goes smoothly.

The thing is, get rid of your current Vista installation, start with a fresh install and don't install anything you won't need, that should help a lot.

reply posted on 6-6-2009 @ 01:02 AM by TheLoony

Not a laptop, and no cd came with it.

So basically I'm screwed. Cannot buy anything due to not working. Cannot get help without money.

Thanks for the help, anyway.

reply posted on 6-6-2009 @ 01:37 AM by Kaifan

Originally posted by TheLoony
Not a laptop, and no cd came with it.

So basically I'm screwed. Cannot buy anything due to not working. Cannot get help without money.

Thanks for the help, anyway.

Then its even better, just get a copy of winxp and wipe out everything on the hard drive, but first remember to backup your data.

You need the drivers for sound card/video card etc, if you don't have those you can get them on the net, just use something like

driveragent.com...

Save that list, then search for the drivers on the net, if you have the drivers on a cd or maybe on a folder on your hard drive, back them up and then do a clean install with xp and there you go!

Get the drivers first before doing anything else, otherwise nothing will work after installing xp!

Without direct access to the pc, there's not a lot i can do to help you sorry, but if you get the winxp cd you can do it yourself, is not that hard.

Good luck

Kai

reply posted on 6-6-2009 @ 01:42 AM by cybertroy

No, even if it didn't come with a CD, there is a fair chance that you have a restoration partition on the hard drive, since it is a fairly recent machine.

It is many times listed as "D," in "My Computer," in XP, or "Computer," in Vista.

If you see this partition, which may be labeled as something like "restore," then that may be the restoration partition.

What you need to do is restart the machine. Start pressing an "F" key while it is first starting up. It may be F9, F10, or F11 for starters, but keep trying, some manufacturers may use different keys. You may have to reboot several times to get it right. Anyway if the partition is there, you should be taken to some screens that allow you to reformat the machine to factory fresh condition. And you may have a choice between destructive and non-destructive reformatting. Non-destructive backs up your data. You should back up your data anyway, before you start, just in case.

After you finish the re-install you can weed out the unnecessary programs by uninstalling them.

Troy

reply posted on 8-6-2009 @ 03:15 PM by ipsedixit

You may have to re-install Vista or XP but from the description of your symptoms I would suspect some kind of virus or trojan infection.

Sometimes these sorts of things will run multiple instances of some small .exe file and hog all the resources of the computer leading to extreme sluggishness. I remember years ago having to spend about a minute pushing my cursor across the screen to reach a distant icon.

It's a good idea to have a copy of HijackThis on your computer. There are websites that will help you interpret it's diagnosis.

If you are not going to fight from your current beach head, make sure that you have HijackThis installed on your machine after re-installing your OS and be sure to maintain System Restore points and have a decent anti-virus installed. System Restore has saved me numerous times.

reply posted on 8-6-2009 @ 05:20 PM by scraze

I know someone has mentioned it before, but as a linux banner waver, I'd like to give you this suggestion to fix your pissed-off-edness: burn a Ubuntu CD, reboot. Voila - linux without installation! Now you can try whether you like it better than Vista or not. If you do, you can install it on your harddisk - although the system booted from CD is quite fully functional, so it's entirely up to you.
Also, if you do install it on your harddisk, it can be easily installed next to Vista so you could still switch by rebooting.

Can't help you with those problems specifically, at least not as good as the previous posters - most sensible I can say is to use Firefox when you don't need IE. You could try removing some browser plugins to see if they are causing the crashes, or install (for Firefox) the NoScript plugin which disallows _javascripts to run from pages - default settings are quite paranoid, but at least the browser won't run _javascripts that crash your browser (some exist). Of course you would need to disable it for abovetopsecret.com (T&C, ads, etc.).

Good luck!

reply posted on 9-6-2009 @ 09:53 PM by mrmonsoon

Loony,

lets start with you giving the exact model of computer you have.

I mean I want ( I have an acer aspire 5610).

Most new computers don't come with a restore disk, they come with either a full restore partition or a partition that will burn 2-3 disks that would become your restore disks.

With the full model you have, I can help show you the recovery process.

The problem with XP is if the unit never came with XP, there may or may not be drivers for it.

I also don't recommend linux as it is not really ready for prime time, major issues with video/sound drivers and more.

reply posted on 9-6-2009 @ 10:18 PM by PrisonerOfSociety

I have WinXP (it's soooo stable, no hitches ever), and one thing you could try is click start, then run. In box type "msconfig". Click startup tab and unslect EVERYTHING, then reboot; see what that does. Not sure how this is different in evil Vista, but it may be very similar.

Also, try pressing ctrl + alt + del(just under insert button on right). Then click performance tab and see how much memory is being used. Also, try the 'processes' tab and click the "mem usage" column so it shows highest first. This will show you which process/thread is killing your resources.

Also, if you have McAfee or any crap virus software pre-installed, they needed to be uninstalled. Try "Revo Uninstaller", it's a free program to get rid of those pesky programs.

I use zonealarm, avg, crap cleaner, Defraggler, SpybotSD, Malwarebytes, Ad-Aware. One of these should find any virus', especially malwarebytes.

Also, you could torrent windowsXP under a fair use of copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you like it, you could make a 'donation' to M$.

[edit on 9-6-2009 by PrisonerOfSociety]

reply posted on 10-6-2009 @ 10:02 AM by scraze

Originally posted by mrmonsoon
[..]
I also don't recommend linux as it is not really ready for prime time, major issues with video/sound drivers and more.

I tried so hard not to reply, but I really can't let mrmonsoon get away with a statement like this!

So anyway :p while some hardware does not get linux support from the companies that makes the hardware, drivers are all around for common chipsets (sound/video/motherboard/etc).
Yes, it may not work - but this should only occur with rare hardware - either very new, or just very weird.

Meanwhile, Vista apparently has problems of it's own, so why not try a free OS with in this case probably less problems than Vista? Especially when all it takes is burning a CD.

mrmonsoon, I understand your caution; you don't want to put someone in the position of having to use a terminal or compile source. But I argue it would be easier to try whether Ubuntu works without a hitch (i.e. from the first time it's tried), than to try to fix Vista with a thousand and one anti-spyware/adware programs or service disabling tutorials.
To advise someone not to try an option like this..

reply posted on 10-6-2009 @ 10:24 AM by mrmonsoon

reply to post by scraze

Based on the original post, I would say the OP is "NOT" a power user or better.

I stand by my statement that linux is not for the average user.

BTW, I have an nvidia 8800GT and there was no direct video driver to get.
In fact, to have the proper driver required working with line-item driver installation.
This is a very common video card, same applies to my X_Fi extreme music sound-card.
I also have a Asus P5Q, Ubunti did not like any of it.

Linux is not ready for the average use, it requires a power user or better.

That said, Vista IS a nightmare.

The only reason I said for him to not try it is I believe he does not have the required skill set to fully load and use Linux and I stand by this.

reply posted on 10-6-2009 @ 10:29 AM by scraze

reply to post by mrmonsoon

Well, I have a Nvidia 8800 GTS (a lower version if i'm right) and it runs _perfectly_ with Nvidia's own driver installation (from their site) - since the moment I bought it (brand new at the time).
X-Fi Xtreme has been supported since January 2008 and implemented in main-stream repositories a few months later. May I ask you which version of Ubuntu you tried?

That said, while I agree our OP probably is not a power user and having linux driver problems would require him to be, I stand by my original statement that if Ubuntu works the first time (again: burn on cd, reboot - that's all), his quest could be over. It's crazy to deny that option.

P.S. I'm willing to help you btw, although it sounds like you dropped Ubuntu

[edit on 10-6-2009 by scraze]

reply posted on 10-6-2009 @ 10:36 AM by mrmonsoon

reply to post by scraze

I have no doubt that you would be willing to assist the op, but I still don't see that as the answer.

ALSO, we need to have him find his restore partition and or create restore disks before he does "ANYTHING" potentially wiping his restore partition.

reply posted on 10-6-2009 @ 10:50 AM by scraze

reply to post by mrmonsoon

I meant helping you - like I said, the OP could try whether Ubuntu works 'like magic'. If not, too bad. Of course I would like to help the OP, but I figure (like you did) that it would be too much, in that case. Most people don't like to fiddle with their OS, right..

By the way, booting from a CD does not touch any partition table or MBR. If our OP decides to install Ubuntu, then it would be the time to worry about those things (although I have never ever backed up my partitions and never ever lost even one bit, in 20+ linux installs). So burning a CD and rebooting - really no problem. Install should be fine by default (as Ubuntu checks for Windows versions and resizes partitions by itself, if you want), but again this is only necessary when our OP likes Ubuntu. In other words, the 'danger' you're speaking of can only occur when our OP is happy with Ubuntu (and even then, sparcely). But how could our OP even find out about this when you tell him not to try it?
Basically, you're trying to avoid him trying Ubuntu at all, because you had some bad experiences. I get that, I really do .. but I think we only need to limit his suffering, which at the time is: having no choice.

reply posted on 10-6-2009 @ 10:58 AM by mrmonsoon

reply to post by scraze

Actually, you are incorrect.

Since I have loaded the linux os, I do know.

It can't use windows fat or ntfs partion's.

Linux uses it's own proprietary formatting/partion's

Thanks for the offer,personally, I like win 7.

reply posted on 10-6-2009 @ 11:10 AM by scraze

reply to post by mrmonsoon

No, I'm not incorrect.

Linux uses ext2 or ext3 by default. You are correct in stating that this is different from FAT16, VFAT, and NTFS; the default partition types of Windows.

However, what OS you're on is trivial for reading a partition type and changing it's size.
All OSes can read all partition types, by definition. Your OS needs to be able to read the harddisk's partition table for those types. The partition type code (simple hexadecimal) stands for the filesystem to be used; it needs to know the filesystem to be able to resize the partition, for instance (anything related to files really). This took a while for NTFS (because MS would not release the filesystem details) but we got read&write all done now.

For Linux you can use gparted (which is free, of course), and this is also the program that runs on installation discs to resize your Windows partitions. In Windows, you could use something like "Partition Manager" (although they seem to be asking your money). Those are the same type of thing. Note that you can create and resize Linux partitions (ext2, ext3) in Windows as well.

I myself have resized many Windows partitions (and created them, it's all the same). If you really want more proof, I'll record my desktop while creating a Windows partition.

[edit on 10-6-2009 by scraze]

reply posted on 10-6-2009 @ 11:23 AM by mrmonsoon

reply to post by scraze

try loading windows on a linux partion (one formatted for linux)

Windows can't use it.

Windows can only use fat and ntfs (client os's)

In fact, i have a brother-in-law who formated a ntfs partion, from a mac rig.

Windows would not load until it was destroyed and a new partion created inside of windows.

reply posted on 10-6-2009 @ 11:40 AM by scraze

reply to post by mrmonsoon

What? Loading Windows on a Linux partition? That doesn't make any sense at all..

Yes, partition types are not interchangeable for use by OSes using different filesystems (does work for same filesystems). That is why Linux needs it's own partition (normal distributions); otherwise you could just install it on C:\ (using a MBR program like grub to decide whether to boot Windows or Linux). Because Linux needs its own partition, nowadays the install CD's include a step in which other partition types can be resized, so that room is created for the Linux partition (two actually, storage and swap).

When you said "you are incorrect" - what did you think I said? That you can run Windows from a Linux partition? Or Linux from a Windows partition?
Now that I'm wondering about what you think I said (!), when you said "Linux can't use Windows partitions" you were right in 1 way: the Linux filesystem is not VFAT/FAT16/NTFS, and it can't work properly on it. But the only thing I pointed out is how Linux can change those partitions - it's the only thing it needs to do, in order to make room for itself. (Which, again, is something you would do after booting from a CD, test it for a few hours..etc)

Edit to add: Btw, what is my problem besides loving Linux? I apologize for the many off-topic posts and in particular any rudeness towards mrmonsoon. Sometimes I get a bit worked up when people shoot open source projects down - we need you ;] but I guess I should've kept my mouth shut in favor of the thread. I'm sorry!

[edit on 10-6-2009 by scraze]

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