Vista Complete Wreck

Finally installed. There's a lot of stuff! Any idea what to look at?

I have to teach a class from six to eight or so.

Rebecca

 

Everest should give you a "Windows Explorer" type window, just click on Motherboard then Chipset. The info Halo is looking for will be at the top.

As an example, Halo's is Intel i975X, mine is Intel i810E. You will see it.

Steve

 

Found it! Mine says:

North Bridge: Intel Brookdale i845PE
South Bridge: Intel 8280 1DB ICH4

Sounds like the Civil War to me. I'll probably be here for another hour or so. I have a class first thing in the morning, so I won't be available tomorrow until ten or eleven.

Rebecca

 

OK, that's perfect. Halo will be on in the morning and he can have a look.

I have a link but do not see the i845PE listed. Better wait and see what he comes up with.

Steve

 

I've already tried the Update Driver and had no luck. At least you sound like you know where to start. You will not believe - the woman just called that left me this way. She said, "Your check bounced." I said, "I stopped payment on it." She said, "Why?" Can you believe it! They told me they could put XP back on it, but they would have to charge me for it. Isn't the first thing you always do make a backup? GGGGRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

So do you think I'm going to have to spend a bunch more money?

Rebecca

 

Do you have an XP cd Rebecca?

It looks like you might consider saving what important data you have, reformat and install XP, if possible.

Steve

 

I have an XP CD, but I really hate to do that. But I need to print. Do I just need to buy a new PC?


Rebecca

 

Well, getting a new pc is up to you. You could probably still find a new one with WinXP at a pretty good price. The one you have now is about 4 to 5 years old and you do depend on a computer for your business.......might not be a bad investment.

But, if you have the XP cd you can just "wipe" the computer you have now and after updates and drivers be ok. Think it over and let us know, we could certainly help you along the process.

As mentioned before, I would make sure I had some kind of backup system or plan in place since you depend on the computer for business.

Steve

 

I really don't have the money for a new computer. Could I upgrade this one? A new mother board or something?

Rebecca

 

Go to control panel, windows update and see if there are any updates for hardware, vista has done very well for me. ed

 

I would think so. I am not really that experienced in matching up hardware. Halo, or maybe another member could help you figure out what to look for.

If possible, post your hardware specs from Everest and see what kind of feedback you get. Or, you can also post them in the Hardware forum here, http://forums.majorgeeks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=22 and refer them to this thread. That way they know what you are trying to accomplish with the upgrade.

Steve

 

You won't believe what just happened! My mouse died. I know 20 years ago I typed in commends and wondered what a mouse was for; but 20 years ago I was a "main frame person." Today I was completely lost with out the mouse. It's an optical mouse and the little red light was off. I unplugged it and opened it up. I saw a tiny wire that was loose and didn't think I would be able to get it back together. Since I was recently digging through a big box of cales from forgotten hardware, I knew there were two mouses in it. I dug them out. I remembered that one quit working and the other I bought for 50 cents at a yard sale when the other one quit working. I never used it - after thinking about WHY it was in a yard sale, I bought a new one. That new one was the one that just died. It looked pretty hopeless, but I plugged the yard sale mouse in and managed to manuever around and shut down the PC using just arrow keys and the tab key and brute force. Then I pushed the power button and miracle of miracles the yard sale mouse is working! WHEW!

My aunt who claims to be psychic called earlier and told me that the computer would be straightened out today, so I hope it wasn't just the mouse she was "seeing." So I will go to the hardware forum and see if I can find someone to help. Don't leave me Matacumbie!

Rebecca

 

Yeah, I'm around.

I just think you will get better advice on what you need there. Good luck.

Steve

 

The plotter is actually working right now, but my printers, including a NEW printer aren't. And so far it is only the printers that don't work. I have heard of "dual boot" or running one in a partition (is that the same thing?) but I have no idea how to do it. Is it something that I can read instructions and do?

Rebecca

 

This is my first post in your thread and I'm sorry if I have a reputation for bluntly stating bad news.

Don't dual boot. You will almost certainly regret it.

Looking through the thread I see that your equipment is several years old. I can't see why you upgraded to Vista, or what you hoped it would do for you that XP won't.
Even Microsoft admits that Vista will run more slowly and hesitantly on older equipment, designed for XP. Vista will no more run well on your pc than XP would run on the mainframe of 20 years ago that you mentioned.

The best option for your business is to get back to a properly working XP as soon as possible and write this episode off to experience. Then perhaps save up for a new pc, properly designed for Vista if you really want it.

I would suggest you bought a new hard drive (extra). In under 90 minutes you can be up and fully running again, with the capabiliy to read off all your existing data from the old drive and with no danger to it. You can even continue to play with Vista this way, with some fiddling if you really want. Alternatively you will end up with a more useful and enhanced system because of the extra capacity - you can for instance use this for backup in the future.

This solution would be easier, quicker and more certain than motherboard or other hardware upgrades, with a guaranteed fallback path, and one you can easily carry out yourself.

I'm sure the Geeks will help with this.

 

What would be the best hard drive to get? I could maybe take out the older CD drive that is read only, that would leave me the read/write CD drive and replace it with a new hard drive. I could install XP (I have the CD) on the new one and move what I need from the old hard drive onto the new one. Maybe use the old one for back up of my business files so if one drive fails I still have the important stuff on the other. I really need to be doing glass instead of computer! I'll need help...

Rebecca

 

You cut the cookie exactly right.

Please post what details of the system in question. From the age I would guess that you have IDE drives for both CD and hard drives? You can recognise this from the flat ribbon cables feeding the drives.

Most motherboards have two IDE channels, each of which have the capacity for two drives.

Modern hard drives require the thinner 80 wire flat cable, CD and DVD drives are all ok with the older 40 wire cable or the new 80 wire. Drives usually come with a new cable.

Some older motherboards have to have a bios upgrade to recognise drives that are greater than 137 Gigabytes capacity. Do you know what your motherboard is? Otherwise go for a drive in the 80 to 120 GB range to avoid the problem.

You can also get PCI boards to add extra IDE channels very cheaply. So you probably won't need to remove the second cd drive, just go for two hard drives on the primary IDe and two CD drives on the secondary.

Check also that you have a spare power connector for the new drive, otherwise you will also need to order a power doubler adapter (again very cheap).

Is this enough to be going on with?

Post again when you are ready for the next step.

Did you say doing glass?

I'm sure we'd all be interested in some pics of your work.

 

You kinda lost me, there, although I do remember wide flat cables when I got the read/write drive. I downloaded Everest teh other day and it gives information abotu the motherboard. It's a Biostar. Wait, let me see if I can cut and paste.

--------[ EVEREST Home Edition (c) 2003-2005 Lavalys, Inc. ]------------------------------------------------------------

Version EVEREST v2.20.405
Homepage http://www.lavalys.com/
Report Type Quick Report
Computer REBECCA-PC
Generator Rebecca
Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Professional 6.0.6000 (WinVista Beta)
Date 2007-10-26
Time 19:56


--------[ Motherboard ]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Motherboard Properties:
Motherboard ID 04/18/2003-i845PE-8712F-6A69VB0PC-00
Motherboard Name Biostar P4TPT

Front Side Bus Properties:
Bus Type Intel NetBurst
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 133 MHz (QDR)
Effective Clock 533 MHz
Bandwidth 4267 MB/s

Memory Bus Properties:
Bus Type DDR SDRAM
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 133 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 267 MHz
Bandwidth 2133 MB/s

Chipset Bus Properties:
Bus Type Intel Hub Interface
Bus Width 8-bit
Real Clock 67 MHz (QDR)
Effective Clock 267 MHz
Bandwidth 267 MB/s

Motherboard Physical Info:
CPU Sockets/Slots 1
Expansion Slots 5 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 CNR
RAM Slots 2 DIMM
Integrated Devices Audio
Form Factor ATX
Motherboard Size 190 mm x 300 mm
Motherboard Chipset i845PE

Motherboard Manufacturer:
Company Name Biostar Group
Product Information http://www.biostar.com.tw/products/mainboard/index.php3
BIOS Download http://www.biostar.com.tw/support/bios/socket.php3?socket=775

I have a small stained glass shop in Kingsport, Tennessee. I started it after being laid off from several mechanical engineering jobs. I worked as a "Systems Engineer" for IBM, but was a VM, VSE, CAD and a little MVS specialist. If you are really interested, I'll post some pictures of my glass on Picture Trail. This year I have been inundated with repairs. Making the old glass new again fascinates me.

I gotta get a new keyboard, too. I eat at the PC too much and now the enter key sticks. I'll try not to post a whole page of empty lines.

Rebecca

 

I am so sorry your going through this mess. Once you have your computer up and running and just the way you want it. I really can not stress enough to back it up to both dvd and a partition on your harddrive. That way things go bad you can restore and if your harddrive dies, you have the dvd!

When your ready these guys are supper and will walk you through it. Myself I use norton ghost 2003 imho the best there is. There are plenty of other fine choices as well. Not sure if you will keep vista or go back to xp. Myself I would stay with xp. Never get a new operating system til its been out atleast a year better if you wait 2 years. Give the system time to work out the bugs.

I am really sorry about my fellow geeks doing what they did to you. You paid to have vista installed and they failed. They should of restored your computer back to xp, returned it to you and said they were just unable to.

 

They weren't your fellow geeks, they were crooks! Even I knew when I tried to install it myself to have a restore point to go back to. And when it didn't work quite right, I went back to the restore point because I didn't have time to work on it. That's why I let them do it - I didn't have time. So I have spent even more time trying to undo what they did. But they were crooks.

I would like to try to get this straightened out this weekend. If I get some feedback as to what hard drive would work and how to go about it, I could pick one up tonight and install it tomorrow. I don't know if that's possible, but it is good to have goals.

Rebecca

 

First thing to do is to open up your pc and look inside.
Compare with the uploaded photos.

The first shows a general inside of a pc with two hard drives and two cd drives fitted. Note the finer texture of the flat cable feeding the hard drives at the bottom right, compared to the coarser texture of the flat cable feeding the cd drives at the top right.

You need to find out where the second hard drive will fit. It may well not be in the same sort of bay as the cd drives.

The last photo shows closeups of the cabling to help this process and also the power connector you will need a spare of. Also shown is the data connector there are two on each cable. Some have a small bump on the side as my photo but not all do.

To assist in plugging things in the right way round I've labelled the centre photo. The left hand drive had the cables plugged , the right hand one does not.

The centre photo also shows the jumpers for these hard drives. You must have one master and the second as slave on each cable. Each hard drive should have a label showing how the jumpers go. The master goes on one end of the cable, the slave in the middle and the motherboard on the other.

I would get your new hard drive, disconnect the existing one whilst you install Windows XP from your CD. Use your XP key and when asked to activate you will have to ring Microsoft and explain that your hard drive has died and this is a new one. This is a very smooth process.

Remember to keep to new hard drive to 80 to 120 GB.

Have a good weekend I shall be away until late Sunday.

 

It would be a lot easier if I could PRINT! LOL!

Ring Microsoft? What's the number?

Rebecca

 

Okay, I opened it up. I didn't mention that I have a 3 1/2-inch floppy drive. I can't remember the last time I used it, but the kids had to have it for school. This is the way it is now:

There are three wide plugs in the board. One goes to the floppy. One goes to the read/write CD drive. One goes to the hard drive, with one going from the hard drive to the Read Only CD drive.

So which drive should be master and which slave? And when do I reconnect the existing drive?

Rebecca

 

I have been looking around and it looks like I'm not going to find an IDE 120 GB hard drive that I can run by and pick up tonight. I had another idea. I don't know if it is a good idea or an even worse idea. I have another PC at home that hasn't been plugged in for awhile. Maybe I could scavange the hard drive off of it until I can find a solution. It has Windows on it, maybe Windows 98.

Rebecca

 

Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Professional 6.0.6000 (WinVista Beta)
Date 2007-10-26

Did they charge you for a beta/ OR JUST THE LABOR?

 

If you want to print stuff from the thread, can you not copy them to a floppy and use your old win 98 pc to print them?

Do you have any old printers around that connect to the (parallel ) printer port?
If you can connect one of these you can print from Vista by typing the file name into a command prompt.



You can disregard the floppy cable it is different.

You should end up with two CD drives on one cable and two hard drives on the other.

It doesn't matter which cd is the master.
The Windows hard drive should be the master. This is why I said to temporarily disconnect the old hard drive.
Set the new drive to master (look at its label)

If you need to reactivate a toll free number will come up on the screen.

Once you have printed out, there is no reason why you couldn't temporarily use an old hard drive to install XP to. 4G is the very least you can get away with, 8G would be better. Anything more is a bonus.

If you do this XP will work for 30 days before activation is required, so will not affect your licence if you change it within this time.

If you need help over the weekend I'm sure other geeks can take you through the installation process itself.

 

Beta! I hadn't even read it. I already had the software - it is right here in my hand and says it is "Windows Vista Business." Did they take MY software and copy it and NOT install it on my machine?

Rebecca

 

I brought the old PC to the shop, but I'm not going to work on it today. My son's mother-in-law's very close cousin was found dead in her apartment so we spent some time at her (mil's) house helping her get ready for the long drive and we are baby-sitting her pets while she is gone. It put me behind today. I do have an old hp printer. I had it hooked up here for awhile and it gave me less trouble than the two new ones. I will find it, too. I need to move the two printers and put the two computers in their places so I don't have to crawl around on the floor. Then tomorrow I will be ready to start. First I have to try to install some lead rosettes on a historical house's windows.

Rebecca

 

I don't have a class to teach tonight, so at 6:00 when I shut down the shop, I am going to see what I can do with these 'puters. This one is my "cash register" so I can't really shut it down as long as the shop is open. I don't know why I didn't bring the old keyboard and display here, too. I could go ahead and turn on the old one and see what it does. I might try to do a quick check between customers anyway. I know the old one never had Quick Books or any of my business stuff on it, but it should have some version of Windows and Microsoft Office.

Rebecca

 

Well, I got it more or less (less for sure) swapped. The hard drive is physically in the new location. Windows XP is installed. The Lexmark 2480 works. The Lexmark X63 says "Printer is busy." I even managed to connect to the internet and download Windows Update.

It didn't go smoothly - all of the problems were my fault! When I first put the hard drive in the case, it didn't see any CD drive, so how was I supposed to load the software? I had unplugged the CD drives. Shut down, plugged them in, I didn't have a product key for XP! Started to call the people I got the PC from four years ago because the package said it should be fixed to the case. Oh, wait, it's on the side panel thrown in the floor. And so it went. I think I'm at the end of my abilities now, so I am going to shut down and go back to the Vista hard drive because my Quick Books is there. When you get a chance, somebody tell me what to do next!

Rebecca

 

I'm back on the Vista drive. When it came up it was looking for a SONY CD-ROM CDU5211 driver. Didn't find it. Always something!

The XP drive downloaded a lot of updates, but is still at Service Pack 1. I couldn't upgrade the Windows 98; had to install. It registered okay, I think. There is no Office software on this drive. The Lexmark X63 isn't working. The Lexmark 2480 tried to eat the whole pack of paper and choked. I couldn't pull the paper out, so I looked in "help" to find out if there was a doohickey to let some pressure off of the roller to be able to pull the paper out. Looked under "How to clear paper jam." It said, "Firmly pull out paper." Finally managed to force the paper out. Then that printer worked okay.


What am I doing next?

Rebecca

 

Check in the control options of the Lexmark x63 and see if the 3 options below look familiar.

0
ready

lexmark x63
0
offline

Microsoft
office document
image writer

Steve

 

Had to unplug and replug to get back to the XP drive. There's no "Microsoft office image writer," but there is no Microsoft Office installed on that drive. I tried to test print from Properties and got the same old error:

Printer Not Ready.
Device is busy.
Try again later.

I went through the troubleshooter and still the same. I unplugged the printer power cord (the only way I know to turn it off) and plugged a different USB cable in, and plugged the power cord back in. Then I restarted just for good measure. Tried to test print again. Didn't get the error message, but still didn't print. This printer has always been this way. If it doesn't get what it wants it refuses to play. That's part of the reason I have two printers.

I'm back on Vista now. It's lonely over there on XP without any other software. Everything is fine on Vista EXCEPT printing.

I have tried Microsoft support to see if I can get the Vista Office back. It's been days and I finally got a return email. It just restated the problem.

Rebecca

 

You probably checked this during the troubleshooting, but make sure you don't have a build-up of "unfinished" printing tasks.

Steve

 

Some printers a very sensitive to the order in which you switch things on. in particular, they often need to be switched on before the pc. So if you restart the printer you have to restart the pc as well.

 

There's no unfinished printing because the XP drive is a brand new (old) blank slate. But I did look.

What I need to know now is how to get back and forth between the drives without having to shut down and switch plugs. The thing that convinced me to install both hard drives was that I could back up my business stuff to both drives in case one died.

Rebecca

 

You should be able to have both drives connected at the same time, using the XP drive as the boot drive and the old drive as a source of data. Look back through the thread the instructions and pics are there.

Post again if you need more setting it up.

 

I think I need more help. I have the jumpers set for the XP drive to be master and the Vista drive to be slave. I have them both plugged into the cable - the XP drive is at the end and the Vista drive is in the middle. When I hit the power on, it stops and asks if I want to start in safe mode.

Rebecca

 

Start in safe mode and if this works restart in normal mode.

You may have to go to your bios (del or F2 or something at power up) to get the system to recognise the slave drive properly.
Then save changes and exit bios to let windows XP start

 

I'll try it in the morning.

Rebecca

 

I'm trying to ignore the printer for now, but it has started telling me that the printer unplugged!

Rebecca

 

Today I double-checked the jumpers and checked that all of the cables were in solid and hit the power button, and it came up without stopping and asking to start in safe mode! I don't know what was different today, but it did wake up and the Vista hard drive is shown as F: drive. Now how do I get back and forth? I can't copy anything from one to the other or run any software on the Vista drive. I'm beginning to feel like a BIG dummy.

Rebecca

 

Of course you won't be able to run any of the software on your new slave drive (F). You will have to reinstall this to your new XP ssytem drive.

You should be able to read the file names and copy your data with windows explorer/mycomputer or open it from the F drive with the appropriate program however.

 

I'll try again tomorrow. I have been installing the software, but I'm worried about getting all of the Quick Books (my business) data over there. What's the best way? (This means, "What will I mess up?")

Rebecca

 

Is there a way to get my internet favorites from one to the other? There is a "Windows.old" file.

I'm feeling better. I found the download to get "tabs" in Explorer.

Rebecca