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Post by ironhold on Mar 31, 2014 14:44:08 GMT
Two steps forward, one step back.
I tried to get on in "Normal" mode this morning, only to find that Skype (what MSN Messenger is now) and GMail were both choking the system to the point that it was stalling out.
The latter worked just fine in safe mode, however; I haven't tried the former in safe mode to see if it works or not yet.
I'm hoping that once I get my next paycheck in (should be this Friday) I can mate it with some gift certificates I have coming in to pick up a 1TB (terrabyte) external hard drive I saw at the local Office Max. I plan to back up my iTunes downloads on to this, and then from there intend to back up any critical files that are not already backed up onto any other source.
If the external hard drive works, then I guess I'll start saving up for a new system.
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Post by OziRiS on Mar 31, 2014 17:38:15 GMT
I'd just try formatting and re-installing Windows before throwing money after a new computer if it was me.
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Post by GTCGreg on Mar 31, 2014 17:59:51 GMT
I'd just try formatting and re-installing Windows before throwing money after a new computer if it was me. And you think you have problems now, the last thing you want to do is get a new computer that runs Windows 8. |
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Post by kharnynb on Mar 31, 2014 19:52:01 GMT
Win 8 isn't as terrible as some people think, though it also isn't quite where 7 was. I'd run a memtest, it sounds more and more like you have some hardware issues. edit: link for memtest www.memtest86.com/ |
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Post by GTCGreg on Mar 31, 2014 23:30:45 GMT
Win 8 isn't as terrible as some people think, though it also isn't quite where 7 was. I'd run a memtest, it sounds more and more like you have some hardware issues. edit: link for memtest www.memtest86.com/Don't know what your are using 8 for, but I bought two new machines for my business that came with 8 and it's been a total nightmare. One is just barley useable now that I updated to 8.1 and the other hasn't been turned on since about 3 days after we got it. HP is now offering the option of preloaded 7 or 8 on a lot of their desktops. If they would have had that deal when I bought these machines around a year ago, I would have gotten HP's. |
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Post by the light works on Apr 1, 2014 4:31:27 GMT
Win 8 isn't as terrible as some people think, though it also isn't quite where 7 was. I'd run a memtest, it sounds more and more like you have some hardware issues. edit: link for memtest www.memtest86.com/basically the same issue as Vista - It is a major change, and it doesn't work the same as its predecessor. people who try to make it work like its predecessor have trouble, and people who are willing to adapt have less trouble. add onto that, the first major upgrade is usually buggy as heck. |
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Post by silverdragon on Apr 1, 2014 8:38:53 GMT
Win 8 will work for people who do not want to get "Under the bonnet", if all you want to do is tap tiles and get various apps to run, its fine.
But when you get serious, its NOT fine.
It is the original Windows for Dummies.
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Post by Cybermortis on Apr 1, 2014 9:36:36 GMT
Win 8 was really intended as a hybrid tablet/smartphone/PC OS. Rather than as a PC OS. I *think* this was the same basic problem with Vista as well - basically they have been trying to make a single OS that can be used on all platforms rather than making an OS for each type of platform.
This would be a fair and understandable decision if you look at it from MS's prospective, as it would mean only one development team. But it is a nightmare for those who have to use it in the real world.
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Post by silverdragon on Apr 1, 2014 10:57:11 GMT
Its a HUGE development, and it is split into many development teams, as the Win8 you get on a smart phone is totally unlike the one you get on a PC, or for that matter, the Xbox....
The idea behind the one-for-all UI, User Interface, was that tiles are a lot easier to navigate than the old icons and start menu start programs this-or-that choice inside menu's of WinXP.
"Hot swap" of tiles, moving them about the place... more than one screen to swipe...is this anything new?.. we have been able to customise the "Home page" and screen of Windows ever since ... well... since I remember.....
But it took a lot of code in Dos.
The idea is, and its not a bad idea, that you had the same looking interface whatever you use....
Therefore learning where everything is on a new device is not a head-scratching bewildering fortnight.... and then you got to ask tech support just where the configure blootoof is anyway....
The idea is that picking up any new device for the first time, because the opersting system is exactly the same as your old one, you KNOW where to look for your photo files right from the get-go.
And it works.....
The problem is the next word is sometimes...
As in, "And it works... sometimes..."
So, in actual life, I completely agree to the idea, the thought process, that made the plan to make all devices have the same basic operating system, so when you pick up a different phone, you know where everything is.
Having to spend that headscratcher fortnight working out where it works is also why some people do not change phones......
They stick to the same one, because, the know where everything is...
So putting in a universal operating system is good if you want to promote a NEW phone, and can say its easy to use, because you already know how...
But step away from that win8 tile screen, into the under-the-bonnet thing, and you have the problem that because windows is so cut-and-paste, it does everything reasonably.
It COULD do it a lot better....
You have an 16mp camera, but, because the windows was built for an 8mp camera, what you are taking photographs with is software "upgraded" from 8mp, and not doing it to the best of the hardware's capability...?...
Whereas, if they had just scraped the old code, instead of cut-and-paste it in, and re-written it completely, it would have worked a lot better.
Sometimes you HAVE to just stop, and start again, from fresh.
Windows didnt.
Win 8 is therefore a collection of what worked on one machine re-written to work on another....
When in fact what you should have done is write something that gives you the same result from the stance of a fresh machine.
Its where you start from.
If you start from the result and write backwards, as Win8 has done, you get miles and miles of buggy code patched beyond belief.
And then there is the security issue.
Because Windows is the most hacked operating system ever, half the code in the device is there to stop someone else abusing the code.
So you have a twin core machine where one core's worth of processing power is dedicated to checking its YOU asking for the process and not someone trying to hack you....
Slight exaggeration there?...
Ok, take the latest of any decent anti-nasty full security suites....
Take that, and two identical devices, now install it on one device.
Now set a few tasks....
Which runs faster?...
The one without anti-virus, obviously, but you may be surprised by the results of how slow the protected machine is.
If you really must, take any other internet security suites, and repeat.
So you think you are safe with Android?...
I have internet security on my android pad.
Its defeated three attacks in the last week.....
So, a one-for-all user interface.
Brilliant idea, and exactly where Android came from, all smart phones with Android are easy to use...
So windows copied that.
Epic Fail.
But good effort lads, keep at it, one day you will get it right....
Maybe you could re-name it to something else?...
Like Linux perhaps...
Seeing as what you have right now is your attempt at copying all the good ideas Linux had in the first place.
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Post by silverdragon on Apr 1, 2014 11:00:43 GMT
Do I sound a bit bitter in my last post?...
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Post by ironhold on Apr 1, 2014 13:05:54 GMT
Win 8 isn't as terrible as some people think, though it also isn't quite where 7 was. I'd run a memtest, it sounds more and more like you have some hardware issues. edit: link for memtest www.memtest86.com/So how does it work? I just stick it in and go? As it is, I tried to do a system restore to this past Friday (when I got the last critical update in for Windows) but it didn't do any good. I'm debating whether or not to just do a system restore; all I need is an external hard drive in which to back up iTunes and perhaps a few other things. |
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Post by GTCGreg on Apr 1, 2014 13:51:26 GMT
Microsoft could have made 8 a success very simply. All then needed was a switch to go between desktop mode and tile mode. They did that. Sort of. Except in desktop mode, they eliminated a lot of the basic functions that were needed to operate. No start button was one. The other, and this was the deal breaker for us, was the inability of opening two windows at the same time. How basic is that? We used that function all the time. Just copying files from a thumb drive to the hard drive became a major ordeal with 8. We often search government documents on the web and then cut and paste the parts we need into a word document. That use to be simple. Just open Firefox in one window, and Word in another. Then copy and paste from one window to the other. This isn't "getting under the bonnet" as SD mentioned. This is a basic use that almost all business users do. And for Microsoft not to realize that shows a blatant disregard for their corporate user base.
Sure, you can do everything with 8 that you can with XP or 7. It just takes a LOT longer. And in the business world, time is money.
The outgoing CEO of Microsoft said that Vista was their worse mistake. No, their worse mistake was not learning anything from Vista and releasing an even worse OS with Windows 8.
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Post by kharnynb on Apr 1, 2014 14:08:26 GMT
just install classic shell, and i've never had an issue with copying between 2 windows, or opening 2 windows at once.
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Post by the light works on Apr 1, 2014 14:21:05 GMT
Do I sound a bit bitter in my last post?... other than the interwebz security (because there was no such thing as interwebz back then) you're not saying anything that my brother didn't say about the first version of windows he ever loaded onto a computer. |
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Post by GTCGreg on Apr 1, 2014 16:48:55 GMT
just install classic shell, and i've never had an issue with copying between 2 windows, or opening 2 windows at once. So I'm supposed to install a third party add-on to make the OS do what the OS was supposed to do in the first place? I think not. MS half fixed the problem with the release of the 8.1 update. Hopefully they'll finish the job with 8.2 and give us something we can use. |
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Post by kharnynb on Apr 1, 2014 19:37:57 GMT
Memtest is basically a small program that creates a bootable cd-rom/memory stick.
Then you just use that to boot and run it from there.
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Post by OziRiS on Apr 2, 2014 9:26:01 GMT
just install classic shell, and i've never had an issue with copying between 2 windows, or opening 2 windows at once. So I'm supposed to install a third party add-on to make the OS do what the OS was supposed to do in the first place? I think not. MS half fixed the problem with the release of the 8.1 update. Hopefully they'll finish the job with 8.2 and give us something we can use. And I'm happy to stay with Win7 until they get it right  They've done this with pretty much every version of Windows for as long as I can remember, making one that works, screwing up the next one and then getting it right again. Windows 95 was okay. Windows 98 had some bugs. Windows 98 Second Edition was okay. Windows Millenium was a complete bust. Windows 2000 was great. Did anything come in between 2000 and XP or did they actually succeed twice in a row there? Then came Vista, which just sucked and after that came Windows 7, which I believe to be the best version yet. In comes Windows 8 and it sticks to tradition, making almost every previous version look better by comparison (except Vista, which just sucked!), so if history is anything to go by, Windows 9 or whatever they're gonna call the next version should be a lot better. |
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Post by silverdragon on Apr 2, 2014 9:40:40 GMT
I have two screens open right now.... two PHYSICAL screens, Both are identical Samsung.... On one, I have this page, on the other, at the moment, is a search engine, process explorer, and a couple of other bits, as whilst I am writing this, I am updating certain software that I am beta testing.... To tell me I can ony ever open one screen at a time is death to my whole reason for having more than one screen. I know Terry Pratchet has a computer system with six physical screens in place... He has a somewhat dubious relationship with his computer. He started to talk to it. It now often answers back..... Multi-Screen operating is the whole reason-for-being behind the WINDOWS..... Note the name... WINDOWS.... More than one?... So to say "There can be only one". Is that an epic fail?... Yes, I know that trick, and it does actually negate what I just said, But. Its an Add-On?.... PHWATT?  ?? To make such a monumental [male chicken]Cock-Up FAIL on the first release.....?.. Message Microsoft. Dear Sirs; (If that is what you are?...) Look, sit down, I have a few things you should know. When you "Welease" a new operating system, its kind of important that it works... Preferably from day one. Thats kind of rule one... and preferably is perhaps the wrong word, it should be mandatory that it works from day one. You break all "Fit for purpose" rules that are used by trading standards world wide. If your product was a dishwasher, and what it did was only wash the top rack, how many people do you think would bring it back and demand a refund?... Well, why then do you think so many people line up to have a pop at you at how useless your latest operating system is when you release something that hasnt even got as far as "Sunset" on the beta testing?... To find that the first users of your operating system we doing the sunset beta testing for you, people that had paid good money for the software were being used as guinea pigs, and you were fixing problems on the fly that should have been done before release..... Unforgivable. To find that you are now buying out software companies to prevent them suing you for "Cut and paste" using their code as your own and trying to make out that its your work?... To actually sue another software company for copy-write infringements when everyone knows you stole that code from them in the first place?... To deny access to your code to internet security firms such as Norton(Symantec) Kaspersky and others to FORCE people to use Micro-bodge code as internet security from day one which quite freely breaks many countries laws on monopolies and the like.... Here is a message. You are no longer the one-and-only maker of operating systems, stop thinking you are above suspicion, we KNOW you are corrupt, and we are starting to avoid you. And lastly.... I know I am dyslexic. For that reason, I use a spell checker. Spell checkers can be taught to recognise "new" words. Mine even recognises miss-spelt Java code.....I taught it that myself.... Seriously?.. with al the technology available you cant run your OWN code through a spell-checker before you find out its not working?....because one "word" is wrang?.... |
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Post by ironhold on Apr 2, 2014 13:56:58 GMT
Here's the current situation.
I went ahead and uninstalled Firefox. For reasons unknown, I have never been able to completely purge my cookies and browsing history from Firefox. Given that I'm with a number of paid survey sites (et al), this risked the prospect of someone getting into my accounts.
I tried to uninstall that survey app in normal mode, but the system choked. When I went to uninstall it in safe mode w/ networking, I got an error message saying that the Windows installer service could not be accessed, and that this could occur if it was not correctly installed.
I tried to run a defrag in safe mode w/ networking, but the defrag program would never come up. Is this something that I need to try and run in normal mode?
Thanks.
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Post by memeengine on Apr 2, 2014 22:07:22 GMT
I tried to run a defrag in safe mode w/ networking, but the defrag program would never come up. Is this something that I need to try and run in normal mode? Thanks. If you're running Windows 7 SP1, then defrag won't run in safe mode. So if you want to run it manually, you will need to run it in normal mode. However, the question is to whether you actually need to run it at all. The defrag process in Windows 7 is designed to run in the background automatically, with the aim of keeping fragmentation low all of the time. So run the analysis tool first to see if it's needed. From the description of your problems I doubt that a drive defrag will make much of a difference anyway. From what you've said about the applications that are slow (or stalling completely), it would seem that this is a networking problem rather than a local disk access problem. |
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