Our laptop is dead. Guess why? Vista.

[Bertha Venation]

Now I know why everyone says Vista sucks. Mrs. V. did her best but she couldn't resurrect it. Off to the Geek Squad tomorrow.

:banghead:

[NJmaverick]

1. What is happening to it?

[Bertha Venation]

8. Okay, here's the deal.

First it was just booting up slowly. Then it took forever for a profile to load. Then it started taking a long time for a browser or Word or whatever to load.

Mrs. V. is the resident computer, well, boss. She knows way more than me. She couldn't get any updates to download. The whole time - from the first slow boot-up until yesterday - she had been trying to download updates.

Yesterday she reloaded Vista. The computer got to "completing installation" and died. Now, I wasn't here; I don't know exactly what "died" entails.

It's now (as of 7:20 PM ET) been sitting on "Startup Repair is checking your system for problems" for I don't know how long. Since before I got home at 6:30, at least.

So that's what's wrong with it. Like I said, Mrs. V. would know how to describe it, and she uses it a lot more than I do.

[hobbit709]

2. For God's sake, don't go to Geek Squad

Take it anywhere but there. Find a local computer place or something.

[Bertha Venation]

9. I'll report your concern . . .

. . . but I think she's had good reports from other people.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

3. What makes you believe Vista killed it? Did it leave a note?

[Lost in CT]

6. LOL

:applause:

[Bertha Venation]

10. LOL

I should ask Mrs. V. to look for a suicide note. "I KNOW, I KNOW I suck! Quit TELLING me I suck! I can't take it anymore! Tell Microsoft to fuck off! Goodbye, cruel world!"

[Gidney N Cloyd]

4. ...

[MineralMan]

5. Give more information. We may be able to help.

Start with the brand.

[Bertha Venation]

11. It's a Dell Inspiron 1720.

See my first reply upthread for how it's acting.

[racaulk]

7. I'm sooooo glad I downgraded from Vista to XP.

I haven't had any problems laptop since. :)

Sorry to hear about your laptop, Bertha.

:pals:

[Bertha Venation]

12. Is it possible to do that on a computer that came preloaded with Vista?

But we'd have to buy it . . . :(

thanks, racaulk :)

[racaulk]

14. Yep!

My Dell laptop came preloaded with Vista. It was one of the first builds of the OS, so I had many problems - some of the preloaded drivers were incompatible with Vista, Outlook would freeze up periodically for no apparent reason, the icons in the sidebar would rearrange themselves at startup, Windows Update gave me a critical update that would NOT install, setting up a VPN connection caused me to get a BSOD and I had to reinstall Vista, and on and on and on. Vista was an absolute nightmare for me.

Yes, you can downgrade your computer to an earlier Windows OS, and I had no problems installing XP on my laptop. XP was a little expensive (about $300), but it was totally worth the investment. After backing up my data files and downloading all of the drivers I would need, I popped in the installation CD-ROM and the OS installed like a dream. I haven't had any problems since. :)

Good luck! :hi:

[ConcernedCanuk]

13. Still running win 98SE here - almost ready to try XP - Vista? - no frickin way

.
.
.

AND

the only reason I'm considering XP is because a lot of programs don't like Win98 anymore

sad situation

I drive a 30 year old truck that can be fixed cheaply

now I'm being driven by a 10 year old OS that CAN'T be fixed

and Bill Gates is a Billionaire

thanx Bill

[madrchsod]

15. my friend bought a new dell with vista 1 1/2 years ago...

and the hard drive is dead. she wants to sell the it because she can`t stand vista and the hard drive is shot..about a 1000 dollars down the drain ....