?I hate Vista

allan gould · #1 03-06-2008, 09:14 AM

Just purchased a new mini-notebook and it had vista business pack on it. Looked fine but the first thing they said to do was to backup the o/s onto dvd. Ive tried twice so far and used 10-15 dvds each time and it just hangs. It said it would take 4-6 dvds to do it. Now in silly land trying to get HP to recognise that the o/s is buggy.
This will take a while!

Astrod00d · #2 03-06-2008, 10:10 AM

I've got a HP notebook as well, but with XP Pro. I'd heard too many bad things about Vista. Had to go through the same o/s backup to DVD at the start, but it went smoothly, 4 dvds as I recall. Don't know why HP can't just supply o/s dvds with the product and save their customers a lot of trouble.
Other than that my HP notebook has been a rock-solid performer.

Cheers,

Rob

RB (Andrew) · #3 03-06-2008, 11:00 AM

Neither MS (Vista) or HP's actions surprise me.

I refuse to buy another HP product, full stop !
Not a laptop or a printer or anything else made by them.
They use to include the OS discs, not surprised they don't any more.

Also extremely happy with XP SP3, I won't upgrade to Vista unless I really have to.
Typical MS though, now practically every new laptop sold has Vista pre-installed

Luckily I don't need to upgrade my lappy but it's very unfair for those that do want to stay with XP but have no choice but to buy new and get Vista.

If you want to load XP onto your new lappy, I'm sure it can be done once you find all the drivers off the net for it.
Maybe worth it.

Stephen65 · #4 03-06-2008, 11:04 AM

I got my laptop with XP instead of Vista for this exact reason, too many bugs and compatibility issues. Apparently no new computers were supposed to come bundled with XP after 1 January but MS were forced to extend that to 1 July because there is so much continuing demand from people who don't want to use Vista. So if you want a new laptop with XP you may have to move quickly.

leon · #5 03-06-2008, 11:51 AM

Dell still lets you choose which you want, either XP, or Vista, when you buy from them.

They are just the best business to deal with, super fast and efficient and helpful, I have now purchased, over time, 3 Lappys, and had them customised to what I wanted, online and they were here in no time.

Leon

edwardsdj (Doug) · #6 03-06-2008, 12:00 PM

I have a friend who purchased an HP laptop and it kept having hardware failures preventing it from even getting to load the OS. By the time she'd sent it back for the fourth time she had only had a couple of weeks of use out of it in the first six months. They still said they would repair it.

This taught me a valuable lesson about laptops. When I bought one for my daughter (obviously not HP after my friend had this experience) I got it from Myer and purchased the optional warranty. I normally wouldn't consider this but if you need to send it back for a third time, Myer will replace it for you. Otherwise you can find yourself sending the item back indefinately until the warranty period expires. My friends experience showed me that HP have no problem doing this to their customers.

Having to backup the OS onto DVD yourself sound ridiculous. Yet another scam to be aware of these days.

Best of luck getting it reparied.

tornado33 · #7 03-06-2008, 12:07 PM

I hate any PC that doesnt come with its o/s on a disc. It should be illegal to sell a computer without its o/s and drivers on discs. My Dell Inspiron laptop did come with both an XP CD and a driver CD. Its the only way to go. I dont bother with recovery partitions and the like. In fact as there was factory installed stuff like Mcafee antivirus and the like, I formatted the drive (going the whole hog , Write All Sectors to Zero) then installed XP from scratch. Now this is what I love about Dell. I didnt touch the driver CD, rather went to dells website, input the serial number, it took me to a page with ALL the necessary and up to date drivers for it. They were installed, including a bios update that was as easy to install as any normal bit of software. The laptop runs great.
Scott

RB (Andrew) · #8 03-06-2008, 12:16 PM

Hey I didn't know that about Dell, thanks for the info Leon and Scott.

Leon I agree Dell is great to deal with (but only dealt with them once so far).

BTW I noticed OfficeWorks started stocking Dell now, or has it always been so?

snowyskiesau · #9 03-06-2008, 12:19 PM

You're right, a copy of the OS on DVD/CD should be mandatory on all new laptops.

I bought an IBM laptop a few years ago and it didn't have any installation media. Instead, it has a separate partition that contains the OS images which you install from. While this does work, you end up installing a very old version of the OS and then have to jump through all the hoops to get up to the latest version.
It's an older model so the CD media is no longer available from IBM.
As I wanted to install Linux, I had to replace the hard disk so I could still run/install Windows in an emergency.

dugnsuz (Doug) · #10 03-06-2008, 12:44 PM

I've got Vista Home Premium(!) on my desktop, but it's so slow!!
If you need an OS that looks like a Mac, buy a Mac!!!!
Seriously considering downgrading to XP

snowyskiesau · #11 03-06-2008, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugnsuz

I've got Vista Home Premium(!) on my desktop, but it's so slow!!
If you need an OS that looks like a Mac, buy a Mac!!!!
Seriously considering downgrading to XP

Excuse me! It's not downgrading to XP, it's 'upgrading to an older, more familiar experience"

wasyoungonce (Brendan) · #12 03-06-2008, 12:55 PM

I purchased 2 of the lenovo's Lappys from BigW in the last 4 months.

The 1st, a 14 inch, had Vista home. I tried... I really did but I gave up and put on XP home.

The 2nd, a 15 inch had Vista Business... but it also had a downgrade disk to XP pro...which is exactly what I did. Sweet!

Vista is the Spawn of Satan!

[1ponders] (Paul) · #13 03-06-2008, 01:15 PM

Quote:

I refuse to buy another HP product, full stop !

Hear Hear!!! Dell have certainly done right by me. My desktop was 3 years old on the 19th of Feb. Of course it dies on the 26th of Feb. Fortunately my extended 3 year warranty had a free year attached to it.

Dell were out to my place (Coolabine....definately off the beaten track) as soon as a compatible day between us both was available. 3 Days on the door. Cant' get much better than that.

Oh and Vista????

allan gould · #14 03-06-2008, 01:35 PM

Well HP knew thaT SO MANY WERE upgrading/downgrading to XP that they have a special disc that they are sending me to make the 2133 have an XP o/s. They were quite good about it but only after I said I knew about the option and that they were offering it to customers (in the States). I just want XP on this UMPC so that i can get compatability with all my gear I use in the field.

acropolite (Phil) · #15 03-06-2008, 05:49 PM

I have to agree with you about Vista, I had a friend bring around a laptop with a few things that needed sorting out. Crappiest OS I have ever seen, I spent a frustrating couple of hours in a dog slow environment trying to peel back the layers of crap that prevented me from seeing what I already knew was there. The PDA sysnc was dodgy and simply didn't work despite saying the transfers had been done but the files simply weren't there. Nice work by Microsoft, they've turned a silk purse in to a sows ear....

Ian Robinson · #16 03-06-2008, 06:00 PM

I made the BIG MISTAKE of accepting a HP desktop as the settlement when my older generic desktop got fried in a storm.

Came with XP Home SP2 (wanted HP Pro SP2 but wasn't prepared to pay the extra to get it , I've XP Pro SP2 on my trusty Dell Inspirion ), came with NO OS disks , so first thing I did was to back it up on to DVDs.

I've had nothing trouble with the HP , the modem died (5 times in as many weeks) , the mother board died within 3 months , the video card stopped working the same time as the mother board dying.

I've never used the TV tuner card that came with the package , didn't want or need it .

HP has very poor quality control , and are not a patch on Dell .

I will never ever buy another HP anything , more bother than they are worth.

I point blank refuse to buy and downgrade to VISTA , XP works , and I will think long and hard about Windows 7 when it is released in a year or two.

GrahamL · #17 03-06-2008, 07:19 PM

I was talking to one of the sales guys at hardly normal the other day
regarding a new laptop for my son .. although they all had vista
installed he mentioned many would have xp in the box if needed

.
Many tradesmen who use quotation type software can't run it on
vista apparently ? .. Is this true ?

Astrod00d · #18 03-06-2008, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian Robinson

I've had nothing trouble with the HP

Now you've got me worried! My HP 6710b notebook has been OK, and it'll run on it's travel battery all night. It gets bounced around in the car, frozen and covered in dew, and hasn't missed a beat. I had a HP printer years ago which was a dog, but that applies to several other IT brands I've owned as well.

Cheers,

Rob

danielsun · #19 03-06-2008, 08:55 PM

Well I was just about to start a thread about Vista but you beat me to it.
I have Vista business with 2gig processor and 4gig ram which I think is more than capable but I can't understand why my laptop after extensive problems getting my laptop to finally run my mount and cameras it ran perfect for one night only.Then last night with out doing anything different my laptop decides to freeze and stall again and then tell me I have ASCOM driver errors and it swicthes the com ports.
Now I my planetarium software is doubled over and I now once again have to uninstall everything and reinstall to get it all going again.

I am pretty sure it's a Vista issue because my camera software has no problem on my Mrs XP.

I can't take much more of these crashes!!
I am also seriously considering UPgrading to XP pro.

toetoe (Peter) · #20 03-06-2008, 10:39 PM

With vista on my sons new laptop, he has asked "can i put xp on it". Is it as easy as putting your xp disc in the drive and installing or are there problems with doing this as some people have told me you just can't do that, if there is a sure and simple way to put xp on his laptop i would sure like to know.