[SamHthe]

Hi ive got a newish computer (got 27th may) running windows vista home premium, its a max data. I went off the computer shutting it down normally then the next day i switch on my computer, log in and i get errors for everything nothing will work, internet explorer, msn, system maintance, nothing at all. So ive ran it in safe mode, still the same. and i cant use a recovery cd because for some reason the disc they gave me is for XP... does anyone have any idea i could do to fix this..

[rgreen4]

1. What brand and model are the computer, or if it is a custom computer, who built it?

2. Did you buy it directly from the company, or a store?

3. Exactly what errors are you getting. Give us an example of the program you tried to run, and the error message you got.

4. What does the face of the Recovery Disk Say?

[SamHthe]

Okay its a max data im not sure what model but i got the website i bought it off and the product http://www.ebuyer.co.../product/128219
All the errors are different.. here is a example of OpenOffice... soffice.bin-Bad Image(this is the top of the window) C:/Program Filesopenoffice.org2.2programszbasedgfx680mi.dll is either not designed to run on widows or it contains an error. Try installing the program again using the orignal installation media or contact your system adminstrator or the software vendor for support.
this is basically what i get for everything...

And the discs i got is a Microsoft Windows XP professional... I also got a windows vista UPGRADE ANYTIME disc and a max data pc/workstation manual disc..

[Number3124]

well your biggest mistake was to by a vista computer use your restore disk then youll have a good not messed up XP Pro commuter and you shouldn't have any problems

[rgreen4]

When someone asks for help, it is the mission of these forums to assist, not question their purchase decision.

[rgreen4]

1. Were the restore disks in the original box, or were they separate?

2. There may have been a problem that has cropped up with the open office installation, have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling open office.

3. Have you contacted e-buyer and/or Maxdata.

4. Please check the Windows sticker on the computer case. It will tell you what OS was originally installed and it has the COA number.

5. Other than open office, have you had problems running any other programs?

[SamHthe]

1. yup
2.No but im trying it with another program which appears to be having the same problem, as many others do too
3.not yet waiting to see if there is anything i can do.
4.Windows vista home premium is the original

[rgreen4]

Ok, another round of questions while we try to figure several things out. The first thing we will work on is to diagnose what is wrong, then how to fix it. This is complicated by the set of disks you received.

1. Please post exactly what the label on the "Windows Vista Upgrade Anytime Disk" says. The reason I am curious, that that the Windows Vista Upgrade anytime program does not require a separate disk other than the install disc.

2. Some manufacturers put a "recovery" partition on their system drives now that have an image of the hard drive at the time it leaves the factory. There are various ways to access this recovery partition and also some have a program to burn recovery DVD's. I know that HP and Dell do this, as well as some others. The best way to tell is to go into Disk Management. After clicking the start button, you will note a which runtime box toward the bottom of the start menu, enter diskmgmt.msc and enter. This will open the disk management box and will show all partitions on your drive. Check an see if there is a small recovery partition.

3. You said you have a manual disk. Does it only contain the manual, or does it also contain the drivers.

4. This is not a question, but a very strong suggestions - please as soon as is possible, back up all data that you want to keep, including e-mails. Sometimes one forgets this little step and have a secure copy of data off the computer when going through recovery/restore/repair options is a comfort.

5. Please go into Internet Explorer and note any error messages you receive and post them back. I believe that you mentioned you had problems loading that program.

[SamHthe]

ive checked the anytime upgrade disc many times, it just allows me to upgrade from home premium to ultimate...

2.ill try that today

3.its just a manual disc no drivers

5. the error is just the normal "internet explorer has stopped responding" error.

Sorry for the slow response ive been very busy lately

[Number3124]

i wasnt questioning i was just saying that vista is very unstable and that the best thing to do would be to install XP Pro over it

[SamHthe]

there is no recovery partition

[rgreen4]

You will have to contact the OEM manufacturer and get either 1.a Vista Home Premium OEM install disk and driver disk or 2. Vista Recovery Disk from them. Under the license that they agreed to when they installed Vista, was to provide you with the disk. I have an OEM install disk for the machine I just built, and the package plainly states that the disk and documentation was to be delivered to the customer.

I do not know what Consumer Proctection is like in GB, but hopefully a call to their tech support goup will straighten out the situation. While many OEM manufacturers over here do not provide install disks, they do provide recovery partitions and the ability to burn one's own recovery disks.

What we call recovery disks are actually an image of the HD when it left the factory, and after recovery the software on the machine is just as it was when you took it out of the box, bloatware if any, and all. You would then have to re-initialize the machine, reinstall the software you want and remove that which you don't want.

The install disk is just that, the OEM install disk to install the OS. No drivers, no programs. You would then need the driver disk for drivers for the chip set, video card, sound card, wireless card, ethernet connection and etc.

If you cannot get either MaxData or ebuyer to supply the required disks, then you will have to purchase a Vista install disk yourself, and download all the drivers off the internet. There may be a computer technician available in your area can could do a re-install based on your certificate on the computer case itself.

Regardless, at this point, it is probably best to contact MaxData's customer support and see what their response is. Otherwise we would be conjecturing about possible solutions we might not need.

[rgreen4]

There's an old adage about newpapers - believe only 10% of what you read. In the case of the internet and general discussions, it's more like only 1%.

From my own personal experience of having XP Home, XP Pro, XP Media Center and two installations of Vista Home Premium on 4 machines, the one I have had the most trouble with was XP Media Center. It came on the machine that would become my first Vista machine. Turning that machine on was like playing dice - you never knew what error message you would get next.

The initiation of XP into the mainstream Windows community was no bed of roses either and basically for the same reason. Many people just grabbed an upgrade disk popped it into their machine and installed it. Then the problems and inconsistencies cropped up. Windows 98 drivers wouldn't work in XP, many programs that did not adhere to the windows specification but had discovered "shortcuts" especially in video handling wouldn't run. Suddenly a great hue and cry arose and then the lemmings all ran back to 98 declaring XP unstable and too much trouble. Those who took the time to do a clean install and downloaded all the necessary drivers beforehand, had few problems, but then those who don't have problems don't raise a hue and cry.

Microsoft, trying to forstall that process this time, put out a nice program, the Vista Upgrade Advisor, that would scan your computer and advise you on the steps necessary to make sure your computer was ready. But, the lemmings ignored the advisor by either not running it, or believeing it wrong and of course they knew better. The results were the same as in 2001, people came home with an upgrade disk and popped it in and upgraded, and blamed MS for all the drivers that wouldn't work, and the programs that wouldn't run.

If you watch the community discussions long enough, you will notice that XP users have a lot of the same problems. In fact not long ago there was a posting form one who had the exact problem (with XP), but the machine was a little older, out of warranty no discs at all. They had to purchase a full install package to the machine back on line. .

I do find it interesting that in the commercial end of the business where there are professional IT personnel, if there is a problem, they look first at the software. In the consumer market, if there is a problem, they first blame the Operating System. Of course people with 8 tracks complained when 8 track players disappeared from cars, and now the cassette tape owners complain because the cassette decks have disappeared from cars. Now it's either CD's, or hook up your audio player.

Life is about change. You have three choices, stand by the side and watch the train go by, get on the train with the others, or stand in front of the train and get run over. We can't stop the train and we can't stop change.

[ChillerBaggins]

Number3124 said:

i wasnt questioning i was just saying that vista is very unstable and that the best thing to do would be to install XP Pro over it

Saying that vista is very unstable is a very untrue and misleading statement, I'm sure that was said about XP, ME (never had a problem), 98 and 95.

I purchased a retail upgrade of Vista Home Premium (Academic) from Day 1 at 9:30 and wiped XP, did an install of Vista without activation, then did an upgrade of Vista with activation. Vista will upgrade as long as there is an OS present, be it Vista upgrade, or whatnot. Gift from the MS programmers and not the money. (I would not advise doing an upgrade over XP, as it just shoves XP into a folder called 'Windows old' or something. And that's everything, don't know if it updates the Reg.)

Never had any serious problems apart from minor bugs that come with any OS.

There is one known bug in Windows Mail that sometimes stops you from deleting a message. Most people have it from the 'outbox', but I had one in the 'drafts' folder. There is a fix patch available from Microsoft and it's likely to be included in any upgrade.

Have you used Vista? What part do you find unstable? On what are you running it?

Also, good luck trying to install XP over it .. ;)

[Number3124]

{quote}Have you used Vista? What part do you find unstable? On what are you running it?{quote}

yes i have have the misfortune of using a vista computer not my own but it was a new one with vista ultimate ever thing was unstable nothing worked right and I couldnt get any games to work on it sens it doesnt have a compatibility mode

[ChillerBaggins]

Well your profile indicates you are using Windows XP Home SP1, but I see by your VERY BIG sig. that you no-e-like Steve and Bill.

Also as you are going back to school, you will have plenty of time ahead of you for them to make Linux user friendly. Allow 25 years. Unfortunately, I cannot wait, as I'll be dead by then :(

And, at your age, I take it you are not satisfied just with 3D chess.

I did see a video on Beryl/Uoooobuntyu Linx that may set you on fire! Really neat :)

[rgreen4]

How ironic. The main offenders of violation of Windows programming standards - games, is being blamed for Vista instability. Games took shortcuts in video handling because it was faster. The programs are responsible for the instability not the OS. These shortcuts were closed to improve security. The fact that a short cut the game wants to use is closed, causes the program to crash.

In the pre-Windows NT days, it wasn't just the program that crashed, but the program would take the computer down. The BSOD which is a rare event in XP and Vista (I have yet to see one in Vista) were a common occurance in 98. Sometimes they would be triggered by closing programs in the wrong order. If you opened 4 programs and closed #3 before you closed #4, you could create a hole in the memory map if the programs weren't well written. Then the computer would crash. One got in the habit of saving all open files before closing any programs. I still have the habit at work of opening and closing programs in sequence.

[Number3124]

yeah i have to use XP for to reasons 1) i couldnt live with out video games 2) my parents wont get a 2nd computer