Windows Vista Problem

[Danny99]

My girlfriend's four year old Dell Inspiron laptop was getting so incredibly slow, even after all the Disk utilities, that I had a friend of mine reload Windows Vista onto the computer.

He did so, no problem, until he tried to run the Windows Updates. The computer would ask to restart and then not get past an error screen when it tried to reboot.

It's usable right now, but without updates, it's good for playing solitaire and that's it.

Any suggestions how I could fix it?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Uh, it might help to know what error it's getting?

 

[Transk53]

Could be an illegitimate disk or a Licensing issue with the pre loaded OS installed by Dell, which is more likely. Dell should have supplied a recovery disk. If you have one, you should be able to recover the original partition with that. If not, take it to a Dell athorised dealer. No updates or borked ones, usually indicate that a license issue. Just an educated guess, being a Dell, could be anything.

 

[Sparky]

Windows Vista, there's your problem!

Seriously though. We need more info to be able to help you.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Windows Vista, there's your problem!

Seriously though. We need more info to be able to help you.

I was gonna say, Vista is only good for playing solitaire even when it's running "right".

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Windows 7 is to Vista what Windows 98 was to Windows 95.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Windows 7 is to Vista what Windows 2000 was to Windows ME.

Fixed it for ya.

Though 7 came after Vista, it's the same in most ways, just better.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

That's why I used the comparison I did. Windows 98 fixed most of what was wrong with Windows 95.

Windows Me and Windows 2000 don't even share a common codebase. I think it's inappropriate to speak of them in the same breath.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

As much as everyone is correct that Windows Vista sucks, with respect to offering helpful advice to the OP, it's important to point out that the problem Danny99's girlfriend's Inspiron is experiencing may have nothing to do with Vista. That problem might still manifest itself were they to upgrade to Windows 7, in which case it's likely a hardware problem. (Based on what little we know, it could in theory also be a driver issue too.) Without the specific error/diagnostic messages we just don't know, can't know, and can't really offer helpful advice, as has been said.

Upgrading to Windows 7 would be worth a try were money no object, but an overall more cost-effective solution than buying Windows 7 shrink-wrapped might be simply to get a new laptop, or acquire a working used one (which I don't recommend, unless you know you can wipe its hard disk and get it working again).

Paying someone to fix it is something I won't recommend unless it's cheap to diagnose and guaranteed to fix it if you pay for a full repair. Otherwise, I'd see it as throwing good money after bad, as the money would better be spent towards a new computer. I never pay others to fix my computers, so I don't know what the going rates and guarantees are these days. Perhaps others can comment on that.

 

[Transk53]

I agree with everything you have said. I just jumped on this. With the Dell, well their just ****, hence.

Oh for anyone who think W7 is way better than Vista, Vista was the beta.

 

[Danny99]

Sorry about that, I'll have to start it up when we get home from vacation and have a look!

 

[Transk53]

When you say reload, was it a attempted System Restore, An attempted recovery using your OS Disc, or a reinstall using a different OS Disc?

I would be tempted to say that the Hard Disk would be in need of a Defrag ( Disk Utillitys tend to glance the HD) it could simply be a piece of Malware that is eating System Resources. Personally I still think it is an OS Build problem.

 

[Deks]

When was the last time you or your girlfriend cleaned up that laptop of dust?
If the answer is 'never', then get to it.
dust has a tendency to clog laptops over periods of time, and various problems can occur due to this.

That's one possibility.

Second one is linked to potential licencing issues, or just a plain bad install.
Vista had a tendency NOT wanting to install various updates.

What you could try doing, is downloading a Vista with slipstreamed SP2 (32bit or 64bit - depending on which one you had) and an edition that originally came with the laptop (Home Premium, Ultimate, whichever -though in case of computers, I think they usually ship with the Home version).

Anyway, you can use the OEM key on the back of the laptop (which is interchangeable between 32bit or 64bit versions, but not between editions - Home Premium, Ultimate, etc) to register your installation and that's it.

By installing Vista with slipstreamed SP2 (you will get majority of updates onto your computers), you avoid the hassle of downloading the service packs and individual updates on your own, and merely will have to install some updates post SP2 (but that's it).

Keep in mind that Vista by default CAN act slower than say Windows 7... although it may also not (because, in most of my experiences, a clean install of Vista isn't that much slower from clean Win 7 install).
It varies from system to system, but I would surmise that some of the slowness stemmed from the DELL preinstalled bloatware programs.
You would be surprised just how many programs will be starting up with Windows on a pre-installed system....
And even if a program doesn't have a startup entry, it may still create additional services which will inherently slow the system down.

A clean install of Vista with SP2 slipstreamed onto it would probably work very close to Windows 7 in terms of speed, though the latter will likely end up more responsive (and is inherently more optimized).

Finally, I wouldn't completely discount the option that your gf's hardware might be dyeing.
The HDD could be the one that is on it's way out... but even if it is, replacing it shouldn't be difficult as you ony need to tell us which model is that Inspiron and we can track down compatible (and probably faster) HDD's for you.
:-)