I swear I just dont get it. I am hearing so much good stuff about this new OS and I have had nothing but problems with it.
I am running a basic shelf model Dell PIII 850, 768MB ram, 80 gig HD and I have had more blue screens with this OS in a few weeks than I have had in the 2 years I have been running Win 2K. Hell, I dont think Win 2K ever gave me any blue screens actually.I was told before I went with Win 2K that there would be compatibility issues with games and other hardware, but I have never had a game not work properly on Win 2K nor have I had any problems with any hardware I have installed, and I am a gadget junkie so I have alot of toys.
Win XP has given me tons o grief. First of all, after it gave me my first blue screen it brought up this notice asking me to send Microsoft an error report that it had generated. I went ahead and did it, but after that every time I cold booted the unit it would regenerate the same report and ask me to send it again. This slowed down the boot process DRAMATICALY. I finally had to go into the control panel or something to disable that feature of the OS. Then when I plugged in my compact flash reader it went tits up again. I also get frequently disconnected from the internet now but never get bumped in Win 2K. This has been a cluster and a half so far.
The thing is though that I like the new interface and most of the new features. Its very pretty. I just wish it would work nice for me. I have no strange hardware here, yet still have no luck.
I don’t have this OS yet. My PC is running Win98. I am hesitant to do a lot of upgrading. Heck, my computer geek friend is disgusted with me because I am hesitant to update to Win98 SE! (But I did download a lot of updates, so perhaps that’s about the same thing.) My friend told me that my PC would take XP, but I don’t want to risk it. (I’ll wait until I buy a new PC, whenever that is. I just got a new iMac, so I won’t be buying new computers for a while.)
So, you have my utmost sympathies. And your testimony here only further cements my reservations about upgrading to XP on my current PC.
It came installed on my computer, and the only problem I have had with it is that it has to go into Win98 emulation mode for me to play Civilization 3.
I’ve installed WinXP Pro on two computers with no problem. One was a Compaq 5000 series that came preloaded with WinME (yuck). The install went smooth and it even connected itself to my home network during the install. It seems to be working well except for the fact that I can’t defrag my hard drive. Every time I do it freezes at 1% and the disk starts thrashing something awful.
The other was a custom made little computer that was on running with a 350MHz PII chip and 128MB of RAM. Installation went smooth too and after I upped the RAM to 256MB the machine ran fine with no problems. I did have to down load some drivers for the printer and the company is not supporting the scanner for XP but that’s the price of progress. It was time to get new one anyway.
Your Dell might have a proprietary motherboard, which is not good. You want a retail motherboard from a company like Asus, Abit, Gigabyte, Intel or Tyan.
Name-brand PC manufacturers often build sub-standard proprietary motherboards that test okay with what they deliver on the PC, but that don’t “do” upgrades well at all. Even more annoying, it’s usually the one component they won’t specify by name in the specs, and that’s exactly the reason. Don’t buy any PC that doesn’t use all retail name-brand components. You can find reviews of name-brand components on the net, and avoid buying lousy ones.
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The reason PC companies build their own motherboards is that they want ensure a supply of the core electronic component during the model run and warranty period. The problem is that they don’t bother testing it with every other component and piece of software out there because it’s being delivered to customers complete already, and they figure that most customers won’t ever change any internal components anyway. - MC