XP woes

mikim · Dec 27, 2001

I just prefer to build up and upgrade myself
In the past, so have I - but it's cheaper now to order the whole package than to build. --by several hundred dollars --
I priced out the parts at my local supply shop for the same config and it was over $300 more and that's w/o software. When I built my last one I saved that amount by building vs. buying. - go figger -
mike

Bird · Dec 27, 2001

You guys certainly scare me, since I don't understand half of what you're saying. Of course, I bought my new Dell before XP was available and ordered the XP on the 12th of this month. Their order status board still shows "Not Shipped." Good luck, Mike.

mikim · Dec 27, 2001

Roy -
I work around my buffer under run errors on the machine I have at the office by slowing down the copy speed to 4X - then I have no problem with direct cd -> cd copy --

RoyJackson · Dec 27, 2001

Yeah, my 'burner is 2 or 3 years old now...

 Roy Jackson
Windsor, PA 
[email]jacksonrm@suscom.net[/email]

glennmac · Dec 27, 2001

Macintosh: plug, play. My sympathies.

MossRoad · Dec 27, 2001

Your post smacks of a satisfied user. Shame on you. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 MossRoad

billboe · Dec 27, 2001

Hi Mike,

Unless you want to run lots of games (especially older ones) or DOS apps, personally, I'd stay away from ME... If you want to avoid XP, I'd go for 2K... If I was making the choice, I'd probably stick it out with XP. Then again, I enjoy self-abuse! /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Billboe

RPM · Dec 28, 2001

mikim,

Sorry to hear about your issues with XP - I have a new Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop and also a new HP Pavilion desktop both running XP with no problems whatsoever.

Key trick - before loading any software, go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ and get all the relevant latest patches. Do this before you start downloading updates for your individual applications. (I learned this on Windows 2000)

The laptop came with XP (Dec 2001) - and have had no problem with any of the functions - including CD burning. The desktop came with Windows ME (Summer 2001) - and I upgraded to XP (Dec 2001). I would see at least a couple blue screens of death a day prior to XP, but have not seen one since installing. This is all with home edition - haven't seen the need for professional yet.

I also have Adobe Acrobat 5 running on both, MS Office 2000, a whole bunch of kids games on the desktop, several development tools on the laptop - a whole bunch of stuff.

I don't even work for Dell, HP or Microsoft!! I guess I'm using up everyone else's good luck here - sorry about that!!

Best Wishes for the New Year to all anyway ...

Patrick

GlueGuy · Dec 28, 2001

XP is the up and comer but I'd bet I'd have fewer issues with ME

That's a bunch of hogwash. XP has been around for years. Last year it was called Windows 2000, and the year before that they called it NT. The only thing new about it is that it's the only OS that M$ sells these days. Oh, they also updated the drivers for some devices. Vendors that were with it wrote to the universal standard before this anyway and saved themselves some extra work.

It's about time that they trashed the old DOS workhorse.

The GlueGuy

DVerbarg · Dec 28, 2001

GlueGuy,

You have my curiosity going. If XP is just an updated version of Win2k and WinNT then why do drivers for that work with Win2k not work with WinNT? I'm specifically thinking of 2 way satellite systems that only support Win2k or Win9X but not XP.

DaveV

Bird · Dec 28, 2001

A computer with no problems whatsoever? I didn't know such a thing had ever been invented./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

GlueGuy · Dec 28, 2001

The biggest change between NT and 2K was the addition of plug&play, and support for USB devices (actually there is a lot of overlap between those two).

The major difference between 2K and XP is the explorer interface, and the way drivers are installed. I think there is not a lot of difference between the 2K and XP drivers, except that they are required to support plug&play and the new way of loading. The guts should be the same.

Also wanted to add that I'm no big fan of M$. They make it extremely difficult to wade through their smoke and mirrors and hype machine. One of the things that I've watched in amazement is the way they rename something and then trot it out as some amazing "new" product. Just amazing.

However, as much as I distrust M$, the XP OS is pretty darn good. The core of it is based on DEC VMS (circa 1990), although it has little resemblance any more.

The GlueGuy

RPM · Dec 28, 2001

We seem to be getting close though! Especially when I have managed to hijack all of your guys' good luck with PCs.

The only mild annoyance so far is the infra-red link between my two laptops - I get tired of all the chatty messages telling me "another computer is nearby" when I have both laptops on the same desk. It's a pain to turn it off and on again - I use the link quite frequently.

Next step - set up a wi-fi wireless hub for all the hardware in my house.

Patrick

Bird · Dec 28, 2001

I'm just getting used to the fact that this darned thing works erratically, so I never know what it's going to do. I have a dial up connection and when I dial in, everything shows normal; dialing, verifying user name and password, etc. and connected at the usual speed, but about 75% of the time, that's as far as it gets. I have to just disconnect and dial in again; frequently 3 or 4 times before it starts working. I've called my ISP about 3 times, they've had me change settings, and try a number of things, but nothing's changed./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif And how many of you use http://www.iwon.com? I liked their "offbeat" news and some other features, but it gradually got very, very slow downloading, and some pages wouldn't load at all. I sent them an e-mail and they said everything is fine on their end, and if I continued to have problems, contact my ISP. Well, now I can't get into that URL at all, so I spent an hour last Sunday on the phone with my ISP; tried lots of different things, but still no way I can get into that URL although the folks at my ISP said they have no problem with it. And as far as I KNOW, that's the only URL that I simply cannot get into to./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif Gotta be those darned gremlins again./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

TerryinMD · Dec 28, 2001

A few years back we had a term for the smoke and mirrors - Vaporware. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif All major computer companies use this to hype their product. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

What is truely amazing is the fact that these companies do not explain what the real benefits may be. In other words, most of the "features" and "enhancements" are nice toys to have. Are they necessary? Not really. Did a marketing guy do a survey to find out the real customer needs? Are you kidding!!!!! Marketing KNOWS what the customer needs. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

However, XP is pretty solid as OS's go. Not as quirky as the the previous Windows offerings. A combination of the best parts home edition and professional software.

As mentioned earlier, the user needs to verify that their older hardware and applications work with the newer OS. It really does save you a lot of time.

I forgot to mention in an earlier post that I had to buy new modems for our machines. I cannot blame Microsoft for this issue. They were Diamond MM modems. Diamond MM basically stated that they weren't going to upgrade their drivers and supporting software. Fixed that problem. Bought US Robotics and plugged them in and was off running in no time using the MS supplied drivers.

Terry

Anonymous Poster · Dec 28, 2001

...Diamond MM modems...

Another great company that went downhill over the last couple years...

Used to sell ton's of S3 cards by them... until nVIDIA ruled...

MossRoad · Dec 28, 2001

Same deal with my scanner. Its the end of the line for software development after Win98, so by a new scanner(NOT).

Same deal with my CD burner. Support ended after Win95.

I still have my old Cyrix P166 with 2Gig HD and 256Meg of RAM scanning and burning away. That is also what I use to upload my videos to my web space with FTP.

Keep that old hardware!

 MossRoad

RoyJackson · Dec 28, 2001

Hi Bird,
Do you have problems with e-mail as well as the internet connections? This is especially pertinent if you use a different software e-mail (Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora) then your browser.
If your e-mail works OK, what browser are you using? And, what version of the browser (if Internet Explorer, click on HELP, then ABOUT INTERNET EXPLORER...the version number (5.0..., 5.50..., 6.0...) will be there.
If you're using a version older then 5.0, it's time to upgrade.

If newer, try clearing out the cache (TOOLS, INTERNET OPTIONS). If you delete the caches (FILES), your browser may slow down initially while it builds certain cached files again. Also, consider deleting the cookies...you may have some that are corrupted. If you delete the cookies, your saved usernames, passwords etc. may have to be re-entered...so make sure you note your usernames and passwords...and which site they apply to!

This should get you started...if you're using Netscape Navigator, it's a similar process. I've not used Navigator in a few years, so I don't know all the ins and outs.

I did just try the Iwon site (using your link) worked OK for me.

 Roy Jackson
Windsor, PA 
[email]jacksonrm@suscom.net[/email]

mikim · Dec 28, 2001

it's the only OS that M$ sells these days.
That's fer sure ... I just came back from a little shopping and every single pc out there had XP loaded. Ill stick with it - probably just another learning curve. I think I just got a bad 'un made on a monday or somethin' .. I've had good luck with Dell in the past so ... maybe I'll just tell 'em to replace it with the same .. I did see a nice hp system though that had a lcd monitor ... more $$$$ that I don't have right now /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif and for $400 there was a nice all-in-one printer -- flat bed scanner, fax, direct from media pictures, ...hp950 ... all that would mean $1000 though. The wife did see an lcd at her office though and was really impressed by it - but impressed enough to spend an additional $1000 ?? doubt it
mike

Chuck52 · Dec 28, 2001

MossRoad and others with driver woes....
There's a site devoted to drivers for old hardware and various OS's. I've got it on my machine at work and will post it next time I have to go earn my daily bread. It came in real handy when I upgraded from Win98 to Win2000 on my HP Pavilion computer. I'll never buy another of these pretty home-type computers again. It's not designed for much upgrading, and the sound and modem functions are on a single card. I figured I'd have to buy a new modem and maybe a sound card too, but I found the drivers and all is now well. Win2000 is much, much, much better than '98. The sound card driver even has supposrt for the volume control on my cutesy keyboard, though that wasn't even promised. Apparently there are folks out there who actually like trying to modify drivers to support hardware/software combinations the manufatureres don't wish to support. Seems to me the site name is ALLDRIVERS or something.

Chuck