Need help with a New XP Dell

[SiliconAddict]

This is a classic example of why you don't buy a PC! PC=Pile of CRAP!

Speaking of Windoze locking up....This past week, Bill Gates was demoing a new version of Windows and it kept crashing on him!!!! LOL HAHA LMO!!!!!!

You mean like what happened to Jobs when he was demoing OS X back in 99 or was it 2000?

Oh bull****. If you know what you are doing a PC is a perfectly fine computing environment. But the average user is NOT a tech head. They don't know enough to stop using Internet Explorer and use FireFox. They don't know enough to enable a Firewall and why its important. They simply treat their PC like a toaster when its more like a car that requires some maintenance from time to time and you need to know how to drive before you get behind the wheel. That being said I know more then a handful of users who this applies to. Who I would recommend getting a Mac if it wasn’t for their price. You can go on all you want about TCO and such but at the end of the day $1200 is a $1200. (For an iMac. eMac sucks.) Hopefully the $500-$600 iMac is true. If so Apple is going to sell a **** load of those things.

 

[Fredstar]

Cheers Silicon Addict,
And tbh OSx is hardly that stable on my new imac G5 (which i love to bits btw) and i usually get 2 'unexpectadly quit' apps every week - usually ical/Safari and other 3rd party stuff. ichat has to be force quite sometimes too. To be fair i use my imac a lot. Although the biggest advantage is that the whole system doesn't lock up and i can easily force quit the misbehaving app. And before anyone says i DO run Macaroni and Onyx that takes care of all the scripts and repair permissions.
With the Dell - Haven't been connected to the internet because the broadband company sent a disc with the wrong drivers. So you seriously think i should only install Norton's anti-virus solution and just download that free firewall? On our Dell at home the firewall does a fine job.
Also i have uninstalled and removed all the useless programs that came preinstalled and slows start up.
And yup will download Firefox as i tell everyone it is miles better than IE.
One last thing, until Apple release the cheap headless mac Dell represents a market that meet a huge majority of the population needs, a computer that is cheap and works and can be used to do simple stuff and browse. It also has more power than any of the regular users will ever need.
And if Apple do release the headless mac i might consider it for the friends but again (and this applies to most of the consumer market):
1) They have been brought up on Xp/98/95 and know how it works and are not technophiles and can't/won't learn on a new system.
2)They are not bothered about the fancy things that Apple have - the fancy gui/stabality and free apps that they won't know how to use or can't be bothered or just don't have enough time to use
3)They are happy enough and ACCEPT the XP unstabality and simple gui, they know no better.
4)They don't really care for beautiful computers, a Black Dell tucked away is just fine

 

[BornAgainMac]

XP Unsafe?

What exactly is "Safe Mode"? So by default, XP will boot up into a unsafe mode? Can I make my Mac boot up in unsafe mode by default?

(Don't answer, I know the answer. But I would think a normal PC user should stand in the corner of a room and look at the wall and think about this for a few minutes)

 

[SiliconAddict]

Cheers Silicon Addict,
And tbh OSx is hardly that stable on my new imac G5 (which i love to bits btw) and i usually get 2 'unexpectadly quit' apps every week - usually ical/Safari and other 3rd party stuff. ichat has to be force quite sometimes too. To be fair i use my imac a lot. Although the biggest advantage is that the whole system doesn't lock up and i can easily force quit the misbehaving app. And before anyone says i DO run Macaroni and Onyx that takes care of all the scripts and repair permissions.
With the Dell - Haven't been connected to the internet because the broadband company sent a disc with the wrong drivers. So you seriously think i should only install Norton's anti-virus solution and just download that free firewall? On our Dell at home the firewall does a fine job.
Also i have uninstalled and removed all the useless programs that came preinstalled and slows start up.
And yup will download Firefox as i tell everyone it is miles better than IE.
One last thing, until Apple release the cheap headless mac Dell represents a market that meet a huge majority of the population needs, a computer that is cheap and works and can be used to do simple stuff and browse. It also has more power than any of the regular users will ever need.
And if Apple do release the headless mac i might consider it for the friends but again (and this applies to most of the consumer market):
1) They have been brought up on Xp/98/95 and know how it works and are not technophiles and can't/won't learn on a new system.
2)They are not bothered about the fancy things that Apple have - the fancy gui/stabality and free apps that they won't know how to use or can't be bothered or just don't have enough time to use
3)They are happy enough and ACCEPT the XP unstabality and simple gui, they know no better.
4)They don't really care for beautiful computers, a Black Dell tucked away is just fine

*shrugs* This is all opinion. Since I can't sit down with the system so I can't really say anything with 100% certanty. For Norton. I'm just telling you my experience. I received Norton Security with my Linksys router in fall of 2002. The software made my system buggy. What I would suggest is start slow. By and large even Microsoft's built in Firewall software in SP2 is good enough for most people. One of the biggest things about Norton and their software is that when MS comes out with a new OS Norton has a propensity to break the system. It’s so integrated into Windows that it can cause crashes. While XP is by and large still the XP that was release back in ’01 SP2 makes enough changes under the hood that this software could be causing issues. So after installing Norton I would HIGHLY recommend running the update feature on it.
One thing to know about XP is its rollback feature. There are two components to this:
System Restore (Can be found in START -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Restore.)
And driver rollback (This is under the Device manager that I mentioned in my previous post. Where I mention where you can see the driver version and date? Well you also have a button to rollback to the previous working driver.)

System restore is a dang good tool to have around. Before installing an application run this app and create a restore point. What this does is for all intents and purposes it backs up critical system files and the registry. So in the even of something bad happening to your system you can restore to that point in time. Note that when you install MS patches a restore point is always created "just in case"

I would use that app and start playing around with your choices. I really think the best thing you can do at this point is literally start from scratch. Format and blow the whole system away. As they say in Aliens – “Nuke it from orbit” “It’s the only way to be sure”

 

[garybUK]

Here's my two pence take it or leave it...

XP Pro and XP Home are the same OS, no stability difference, the only difference in them is the networking kernel. XP Home is a cut down version of MS's TCP/IP Stack and doesn't allow integration with Domains.

Things I do when instaling a Clean XP OS: Do not use Microsoft's Windows Update Drivers, they are very bad and should not be used. Get the latest WHQL drivers from the manufacturers website or off the Dell CD.

Turn off that stupid rollback thing (right click my computer) it just wastes disk space, cpu & memory and doesn't work all the time.

If in doubt contact dell and ask for the restore cd's to be sent out (about £20) and just restore it using their images.

 

[jaromski]

Here's my two pence take it or leave it...

...

Turn off that stupid rollback thing (right click my computer) it just wastes disk space, cpu & memory and doesn't work all the time.

Yeah I agree here, the system restore isn't the greatest. I found a better program from PowerQuest called DriveImage. It allows you to make a snapshot of any drive in your system. Very useful for making an image of your C: after you have everything perfect. (e.g. drivers installed, apps installed, etc.) I have been hosed a few times (by myself twic and a virus once) and it sure is nice to have my system back online in less than 15 minutes. Since it is a work machine there are apps I need that are WindowsOnly. YMMV depending on how many apps and stuff you need on your C: drive. But I would recommend a 10GB partition for C: and the balance of your hard drive on D:

The software costs about USD $75.00 but it doesn't take too many **** ups before that $75 investments makes a decent return. I figure in the 3 screw-ups I've had in the past year or so that is about 3-5 hours per reinstall * 3 = 9-15 hours of time. So it is definately worth it. And it will be worth more in the future the next time I screw up something and want to rollback.

My only recommendation is to keep all your documents on a separate partition, like the D: drive. Then if you have to revert to your backup image you won't hose any of your music, documents, etc.

Plus get AVG7free from www.grisoft.com. That will keep the bugs out of your system and it lighter than old resource hog Norton.

jaromSki