After a bunch of frustrating rooting around for help, I managed to get into a cheesy online instant-messaging help session with a Gateway representative named "Lance_GWER9067". It was very slow and silent, like Lance was talking on the phone and eating a burrito and taking lots of trips to the bathroom and checking the sports scores while he "conversed" with me. And he never really did help, he just gave me a weblink to follow that had instructions on how to reinstall Windows Vista. Which I did.
The reinstallation process took 2 hours, and, of course, it didn't fix anything. But it did cause the sound on my computer to completely stop working. "No Audio Output Device is installed". Ha ha.
First thing tomorrow morning I'm taking this godforsaken piece of CRAP back to stupid Walmart and getting my dang money back. I don't know if I'll get a new computer right away, so this blog might go on hiatus.
Here's a final picture I made to express my frustrations.
go back to XP?
ReplyDeleteYea, avoid Vista at all costs!
ReplyDeleteEspecially Vista Home which ships with most standard new PC purchases (especially when bought at large retailers such as Walmart). Vista Home has a track record similar to Windows Millennium, if you remember that OS garbage from a few years ago.
Order a PC online and get it with XP Professional installed, or if you definitely need Vista (DirectX 10 is pretty groovy if into high end gaming), I recommend definitely getting Vista Ultimate.
Well, the last thing I want to do is give MORE money to my abusers at microsoft...
ReplyDelete...But after I return this lemon, I might get a cheaper computer that comes with XP already installed. Then I will have money AND xp.
or -- to truly spite micro$oft you could steal xp :-D
ReplyDeleteI definitely don't want to bring up old, tired arguments, but have you considered a Mac? You could use it and install a Boot Camp partition. This will allow you to run WIndows natively whenever you need it but use the Mac OS for surfing, MS Office, or any other daily tasks. I'm on a four year-old Mac laptop now, a cheap one. The only trouble I've had with it are dead keys, and that's because of me pounding on it. Yeah the games suck and there are some applications not written for the Mac, but if you need Windows, just use the Boot Camp partition. That will require a copy of Windows, but if you're retiring a PC, you probably have a copy of XP lying around anyway.
ReplyDeleteMacs are a little more expensive, but not too much, especially when you compare a similar computer with the same features and software. The Genius Bars at the Apple Stores offer free technical support (but not free repairs).
Sorry to sound like a fanboy (guilty as charged), but at least give it consideration.
-Ian
www.hudsonwindsurfer.blogspot.com
Ian- I dig where you're coming from and am happy to report that yes, I WILL be getting a Mac for my next computer.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, I'm bringing a laptop home from work for evening blog updates and such.
You get what you pay for at Wal-Mart. Cheap computer usually means cheap components.
ReplyDeleteVista still sucks.
ya don't buy vista dude that operating system sucks. It only runs good on a top of the line computer, which most people don't have. I would recommend getting a computer with xp on it like the rest of the guys
ReplyDeleteJames, I used to be a Mac tech. Let me know if I can help you with any questions.
ReplyDelete-Ian
peekskillteach@verizon.net
Dude, I feel your pain. Vista is definitely to be avoided - too much hassle for too little benefit.
ReplyDeleteBTW, if you want XP, you now have to pay around a hundred bucks or so to "downgrade" from Vista when you order a new machine from the manufacturer. Funny how they manage to wring money from having released a completely flawed product.
In your particular situation, you've got some choices:
Buy a Mac (great consumer machine, just works, plus you get to do shell scripting if you're so inclined - not that you need to for anything most people would want to do with their computers).
Keep the cheap laptop from Walmart. Download Ubuntu Linux. Install Vista in a virtual machine (using your recovery disk). Do most thing you might ever need to do on Ubuntu (super stable and pretty neat OS). Run Vista when you absolutely have to; easily restore your Vista VM to a last-known-good config if something goes wrong with it.