Dell and Vista together killing me…

Posted on February 17, 2008 by Sushubh Mittal

So my Vista installation died on me. It died after I installed the latest released patches which the system was practically forcing me to install asap. I gave up despite facing issues with them in the recent past.

After rebooting, Vista showed the famed BSOD. Like last time I tried fixing the problem with System Restore. It failed on me. Doomness.

Now, there is just one way to get the data from the system considering it is a laptop. I tried using the Ubuntu Live CD. The 7.04 version failed on the Dell machine. Luckily 7.10 version worked and I was able to retrieve most of my data.

But, the Dell machine started giving me trouble now. It just would not boot using the three different media discs I have of the Vista operating system.

Strangely, the same discs worked fine on my desktop.

This is weird considering the system booted well with the Ubuntu Live CD…

So, I used the system’s own recovery option to get the default boot stage. Luckily it worked and I got a clean Vista installation with none of my settings and software.

I tried testing the DVD Drive with the Dell’s own tool and it reported some problem with the drive. I have the screenshot here.

It took me around 15 minutes to find out a way to send the Dell Customer Care an email with the problem. I cannot call them as the support only works on week days. I am hoping to see some positive response from Dell though I have my doubts.

This laptop would become a very crippled version if it continues to give me problems with media discs. I need it to boot through the Vista installation discs and I cannot get it to. I see no future for this machine.

Windows Vista Explorer Crash Problem

Posted on February 16, 2008 by Sushubh Mittal

I just might have to reinstall my system to hopefully get rid of the frequent Vista Explorer crashes. The problem is widespread as I found out through Google searches. And no one has any definite answer. The crashes are pretty random and happen a lot when you are in a folder with media files. I have tried disabling icon thumbnails. Even that does not help. Totally frustrating.

Patch Tuesday killed my Vista!

Posted on February 13, 2008 by Sushubh Mittal

Installed the latest Microsoft updates released yesterday. When I rebooted the machine, all I got was a BSOD.

Luckily System Restore is very usable in the Vista and I am back online.

Services in Windows Vista

Posted on December 10, 2007 by Sushubh Mittal

I hate it when you install a firewall application. It install some services and a front end application.

When I exit the front-end application manually, I expect the firewall to stop completely. But it does not. The service is still running in the back end disabling any infringing online access.

Disappointing.

openSUSE Experiment

Posted on December 1, 2007 by Sushubh Mittal

Dr. Puri… What can I say about him… His love for Linux is driving me nuts right now. His laptop on the other hand seems to be made by people who totally hate Linux.

And the problems it suffers from are incredible and impressive. The latest mess is that the DVD drive is not reading recordable CDs any more. As a result, I cannot install downloaded ISOs of Linux.

He is tired of using Ubuntu so he decides that I should install openSUSE for him. Alright… How do I install openSUSE for him when the idiotic drive would not take any recordable CD?

Managed to find out an Internet installer version… And after almost 10 hours of pain… I finally managed to get him a working Dual Boot system with Vista Home Basic edition and openSUSE 10.3.

Problems? Touchpad is not working in Vista. Yeah, you heard it right. Touchpad with all the drivers properly installed is not working in Vista. It works alright in Linux though.

Wireless never worked in Ubuntu and it is not again working in openSUSE. DVD drive continues to have issues with recordable discs which is a major hassle… But it’s a good feeling that I finally managed to install Linux on a machine without using a CD Disc.

If only I could have found a way to install Linux on his machine from my machine through local FTP.

PS: I do not like openSUSE… Yast is pretty disappointing compared to the similar thing in Ubuntu!