Vista makes life easier? OEM a warning...

howiepoohs said:
I have been running Vista 64 bit a week or so now and have desided to return it to overclockers for a number of reasons:

1 Product is OEM and being sold seperatly breaks Microsofts Liecensing
2 Product is not of Merchantable quality, please see the start of the thread for details.
3 No support from anywhere.

I have tired contacting overclockers on all their numbers this morning but I cant get through as the line is perminantly engaged, both lines. Hmmm
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csmager said:
That's utterly absurd:

1. It doesn't break licensing, this has been gone over many times

2. Yes it is. Your hardware's lack of drivers is at fault. It's working fine on three of my PCs

3. One of the major points of the OEM license is that you don't get any support.

And finally, by breaking the seal on the CD, you accept the license. There is no way you can return it.
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I couldn't of put it better myself csmager.

howiepoohs have you tried running a hard disk diagnostic tool from the manufacture as if your running chkdisk your hd could be the issue as your getting corruption problems, I'm sure you've got a hardware problem somewhere along the line:

Faulty IDE Channel on the board
Faulty IDE Cables
Failing hard disk

Those possible issues above could explain your problems in your opening post. Have you looked at any of these?
 
bfar said:
As a footnote, I wouldn't worry about Microsofts "support". You'll get more help in a forum like this.
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And within the time that it takes for someone to answer the phone at MS.
 
bfar said:
As a footnote, I wouldn't worry about Microsofts "support". You'll get more help in a forum like this.
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This is true. I actually don't know of anyone that's used Microsoft's own support with the retail versions of any Windows product. And I believe you get a limited number of free calls anyway - 2 is it?
 
howiepoohs said:
1 Product is OEM and being sold seperatly breaks Microsofts Liecensing
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Nope, as a sytem builder OcUK is entiled to sell you an OEM copy of Windows.
howiepoohs said:
2 Product is not of Merchantable quality, please see the start of the thread for details.
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Like everyone else has said, it's most likely a hardware issue, not the OS that is at fault.

howiepoohs said:
3 No support from anywhere.
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As a system builder you are responsible for supporting yourself. You can register and get support from Microsoft through their OEM site though (oem.microsoft.com)

OEM software is meant for competant system builders and as such you really should have bought retail.

Burnsy
 
burnsy2023 said:
OEM software is meant for competant system builders and as such you really should have bought retail.
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To be honest he probably shouldn't have bought Vista this side of the year considering he expected it to "just work" :p
 
Mate, The fact that you said your HD wasn't detected by the BIOS after your OS crashed tells you that there is a HW problem with your PC. You can't blame vista for that. You've also got no chance of taking it back and getting a refund if you've opened it.
 
I still feel awful for the OS tho. I haven't installed mine yet cause I'm sure there will be problems - hopefully not as serious as above :p

I'll be keeping my XP install for a few months thank you very much! That still has it's problems and annoyences too by the way!!

I'm gonna have 3 OS's cause I'm looking into Linux/Ubuntu aswell (all that freeware is very tempting)
 
I think not enough research on Vista was done before purchasing this copy.

Before I bought Vista it took me literally weeks to decide on whether to get 32, 64, retail, OEM, Premium or Ultimate. I also checked to see which drivers were available for my hardware and if I was comfortable installing betas.
 
howiepoohs said:
2 Drivers are "supposed" to be supported by OS. Vista advisor gave me the all clear, so how the hell am I supposed know I would have these serious problems:
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drivers wont drive anything if they're not installed/working correctly

you're already stated that the HD isnt detected in the Bios. If your motherboard doesnt detect the HD, how can windows ??

this is a hardware fault, and nothing to do with windows.

All of the Hard Lockups / Blue Screens / Crashing out while accessing the file system / IDE problems/ Hard Drives not being reconized in bios etc..

point to this being a HD problem. Not Vista

have you got another HD you can try ?
 
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MrLOL said:
drivers wont drive anything if they're not installed/working correctly
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Thing is you shouldn't need to install drivers at all, what is good about winxp pro is that when it came out it had almost all drivers for all hardware of that time installed, any card upto geforce 4 installed automticly, i expected vista to include drivers like xp did too at launch...
 
snowdog said:
Thing is you shouldn't need to install drivers at all, what is good about winxp pro is that when it came out it had almost all drivers for all hardware of that time installed, any card upto geforce 4 installed automticly, i expected vista to include drivers like xp did too at launch...
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It does, wi-fi, ethernet, nvidia. bluetooth, more.....
 
I was the first person to be helpful and inform the OP he has hardware issues and others have said the same.
The advice has been obviously ignored so I would love to be the OC'er employee that takes the call from him (no, I don't work for OC'ers)
 
hashcake said:
I was the first person to be helpful and inform the OP he has hardware issues and others have said the same.
The advice has been obviously ignored so I would love to be the OC'er employee that takes the call from him (no, I don't work for OC'ers)
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Thanks for your input. The hard drive was brand new and error free when I installed vista on it. Why should I buy another new drive? Vista BSOD caused damage to the harddrive sectors which I fixed with CHK disk. Vista shuts down IDE controller which kills it completely and several reboots will clear the issue and allow it to show in BIOS again. Vista Readiness tool said there was no issues with my hardware, all fully supported in Vista, now some people are saying this is wrong, that the vista tool is incorrect. Who should I believe? Microsoft? Or forum users? The advise has not been ignored, I agree, the issue is likely to be with device drivers for this popular hardware, I am very suprised the out of the box drivers are causing such woes. I hardly think a 9 month old motherboard would not be supported? Hey ho, off to XP I go
 
bfar said:
Honestly, it sounds like a hardare problem or a corrupt installation. I sympathise with the OP, what a nightmare.

In your case I would recommed sticking with XP until better driver support is available.
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Thanks, it been hell! I might just try a re-install. There are new NVidia drivers out (beta) I might try those first to see if it makes a difference. :D
 
howiepoohs said:
. Vista shuts down IDE controller which kills it completely and several reboots will clear the issue and allow it to show in BIOS again.
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sorry that's just plain wrong

Vista cannot "shut down" your IDE controller. The OS can stop recognizing it in windows, or its drivers can stop working properly

but Vista in no way has any influence over whether a HD shows in the bios or not. The IDE controller is hard wired and cannot be "shut down"

seriously. why not just vape Vista and Try XP and see if your problems vanish ?
 
I've got windows Vista home premium 64bit OEm installed and since installed the 7.1's all my problems are gone. All i need now is another gig of ram to take me upto 3 gig. It sure likes its Ram.
 
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