Posted on 02/01/2009 10:21:40 PM PST by Spacetrucker
I jsut yesterday purchased a Dell Studio 17 (S1737) laptop computer with Windows Vista(x64)Home Premium factory installed. Upon starting it for the first time, I went through the usual info entry bits and pieces, and Windows Update wanted to install a bunch of updates... It went through the process quite normally; however, upon restart, Windows BSOD'ed me and the system went through an extensive attempt to do a startup repair... I had to restore Dell factory settings and such and it will now still not allow the updates to work without the BSOD reappearing and having to do the whole process over again... I AM AT A LOSS. Dell Support line is almost quite useless, they just tell me to do what I have already done...
How much RAM does it have?
3gb - it’s a 2.0 ghz intel core duo
I had a similar problem with a Dell desktop - yanked Vista and installed XP Pro - been happy ever since...a lot of my software wouldn’t work with vista and it is notoriously unstable...
Apply the updates one by one until you find the one that BSODs the box. Then, restore, and apply updates except for the ones the cause the BSOD.
Wish I could use a desktop but, alas, the new comp travels with me as my old one did... I bought two of them at the same time, one was for my brother, and he had the exact same problem...not sure what causes it, but Dell customer support line doesnt seem to do any good with it
Only thing I know to do is type in msconfig {if Vista allows such} and start shutting down programs in the start up till you find the culprit. If it started up out of the box then it sounds like a program conflict that happened during update.
After it finished all the updates, I went back and unloaded the crapware.
Simple fix
take the Dell back to the store and get a refund
then, go and buy a Toshiba or a MAC even.
Go to either a Apple store or MacMall and get yourself a MacBook Pro Intel and a copy of Parallels and XPpro (you can get a deal from MacMall on both) and although you may have small issues with MS your system won't fail you like Dell, MS.
Now you may think this is facetious but after suffering with Windows for 14+ years I went to Mac and never have issues that I did with MS.
Does it reboot before you can see the error report? If so disable the auto reboot so you can get the error it reports.
.NET Framework 3.5 causes a lot of problems for laptops and there is a fix, but you need to make sure that is what is causing it first.
Take it back and get a Mac.
Get rid of it. Refund now. Life is too short for this kind of frustration and there are tons of options. Good place to get started http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/
Does the Mac run VMWare??
I think they just put out a 248 MB update on it too. A royal pain to download on dial up. I have a Dell Laptop and like it but I'll sure wait on doing that update now if ever. Actually I put a thread up asking about if it was necessary a few days ago. I put it in my Dell Desktop OK though.
I believe it does.
Download a linux distro like Fedora or Ubuntu. Say goodbye to Windows forever.
I love XP Pro too. FWIW, I’ve been running Windows 7 beta for about a month now. I like it so much that I have replaced all my Vista and XP installations with it. Everything works like a charm. Even on a 6yr old 1GB P4 box. MS may have gotten something right for once.
This really an issue you need to go one on one with someone who has the Vista experience in order to trouble shoot it.
Really, it would all start with the event viewer, and go from there.
OTOH, if you want to shortcut it, try, as someone else mentioned, allowing only one update at a time, then rebooting till you find the offender, and eliminate that.
Lastly, Microsoft does offer free tech support on new machines. I’m sure they would want to know about this issue.
Forward looking: Putting on my Karnac hat, I see an issue with a non 64 driver for the chipset, a known Dell weakness. If so, you can dl them here: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2753
Good luck.
This is not the right place to get serious computer help. The best suggestion here was to attempt to return the product. Maybe that will get Dell’s attention.
Just give Microsoft a copy of your product key:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/2057/ordermedia/default.mspxAnd they will ship you a DVD without all the crapware on it.
PS: Before starting this process, make sure that you have all the most up-to-date drivers for each piece of hardware on your laptop [ethernet chipset, sound chipset, video chipset, etc etc etc].
The drivers which come on the Microsoft DVD will be older, and, while they might be "adequate", you usually will have the best luck with the very latest drivers.
Return it.
Get a different brand, model, whatever.
If they start out as a problem, they don’t magically get better.
And your box is still under warranty.
Yes, but I would return this machine just on principle.
VMWare sells Fusion for the Mac. http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/. It's supposed to have some pretty cool stuff available.
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