windows 7 Nightmare

D.P.

D.P.

D.P.

Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
32,733
Is it is me or is windows 7 the most unstable, least user friendly, bug ridden, malfunction piece of software ever written?

In the last 9 months I have had nothing but problems, wasted countless ous trying to fix issues to no avail, purchased new hardware to try resolve issues, and are constantly bugged by stupid warnign messages.


For serious work I always use linux, which performs flawless on the same machine. However, I like to use windows for photo editing (Lightroom, PS) and for the odd game.



I have been trying to get wirelss internet working for 9 months now and still cannot get any hardware to work. I have tried 3 different USB wireless dongles, all of which work fine in linux. Just what the **** am i supposed t do in order to get windows to work with a wrless dingle?? I have clocked up over 100 hours of my ltitle spare time reinstalling drivers, changine hardware, fiddling wth settings, searching for help online. Nothing works.
I always get to the same point, trying to enable the hardware causes windows explorer to hang, fiddling around with settings will eventually lead to a kernel panick and a reboot. I have been using a long thernet cable for the last 9 months when using windows. If I don't solve this issue soon then I will properly duct in some CAT5 through the apparment - a day spent cabling is much less time than trying to sort out this windows nightmare.



another major issue is getting a second monitor to work. Got my GFs old LCD to use, handy for programming in linux and in windows I would like it for photo editing. No amount of coaching will get windows to find this monitor, dspite multiple driver changes and days of fiddling with settings.


I'll stop there for now, but I could spend all afternoon writing about my horrific windows 7 experience!

Any possible way that I can get basic things liek wireless working?
 
Well from my experience, it is indeed, just you.
Perhaps if you listed your hardware and driver versions, people might be able to attempt to work out what you are doing wrong.
I've never had an issue with dual monitors either.

What versions of windows7, and how are your installs setup?
 
there has been a few i have noticed, there usually fixed with a fresh install, something i have noticed is mainly on the network side of things, its funny with network disks. VPN's ect
 
I might be your wifi hardware. I have a wifi card which regardless of driver works in W7/32bit but not in W7 64bit. Browsing the web found others with the same problem with the same card.
 
I would have got back sooner but guess what, windows crashed twice: the first time was after it was installing some windows updates, the 2nd time after trying to uninstall AVG (maybe it has a firewall blocking wirelss access). The truble is, then when windows reboots it tries to recover and repair , but it normally take 3 or 4 attempts and rebbotts as windows repair hangs... You see the nightmare I have?

Anyway this is my computer spec:

Intel Core i7 860 BOX, Quad Core, 2.80 GHz, LGA 1156

Corsair CMPSU-650TX, 650W, SLI/CF, ATX2.2/EPS, 80Plus

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12, 7200rpm, 16MB, 500GB, SATA-II

Gainward GTX-260 GS 896MB DDR3, 216SP, 55nm, HDMI

Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2, Intel P55, LGA1156, mATX, CFX

Kingston HyperX, 2x2GB, DDR3-1600, [email protected]

All hardware has been stress tested and works fine in intensive games etc. All crashes and fialures and system hangs occur when trying to make changes to window settings (enabling wireless dongle, installing some programs like AVG, windows updates).


I am running windows 7 enterprise 64bit (Free from university, which brings me to another problem. To activate this version i am supposed to connect via VPN to the uni and it should autmatically activate after 2 hours - 9 months later and I am still waiting.)

All updates have been installed, except the above mentioned update which keeps crashing the windows. All drivers are the latest official.


I have 3 wireless dongles that all work in linux. 2 x Dlink DWL-G122, HW version C1, FW version 3.1. Both should work although 9 months ago there was no windows 7 driver supposedly the vista 64 would work).

I also have an edimax EW-7711UAn.

I have an old IIYama CRT which does work fine through VGA connector. The 2nd monitor is an old HP LCD (w19) connected through DVI (since for some reason the monitor has female VGA connector and my cbale is a male to female), this isn't recognised by windows.


I have tried lots of fixes. There seems to be hundred of people online who have experienced similar wireless issues. However, none of the fixes posted online solves my issue.
 
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D.P. said:
Is it is me or is windows 7 the most unstable, least user friendly, bug ridden, malfunction piece of software ever written?
Click to expand...

Nope, for the vast, vast majority of the 175 million Windows 7 users it works wonderfully.

In the last 9 months I have had nothing but problems, wasted countless ous trying to fix issues to no avail, purchased new hardware to try resolve issues, and are constantly bugged by stupid warnign messages.
Click to expand...

What warning messages?


I have been trying to get wirelss internet working for 9 months now and still cannot get any hardware to work. I have tried 3 different USB wireless dongles, all of which work fine in linux. Just what the **** am i supposed t do in order to get windows to work with a wrless dingle?? I have clocked up over 100 hours of my ltitle spare time reinstalling drivers, changine hardware, fiddling wth settings, searching for help online. Nothing works.
I always get to the same point, trying to enable the hardware causes windows explorer to hang, fiddling around with settings will eventually lead to a kernel panick and a reboot. I have been using a long thernet cable for the last 9 months when using windows. If I don't solve this issue soon then I will properly duct in some CAT5 through the apparment - a day spent cabling is much less time than trying to sort out this windows nightmare.
Click to expand...

What does the Event Viewer say about the cause of the crashes? Have you checked the dongles are compatible with Windows 7 and/or 64bit. Have you tried them on someone else's Windows 7 machine to rule out a problem with the hardware?

Have you tried a reinstallation of Windows 7? A new install would only take a short amount of time and would help rule out a corrupt installation of the OS.

another major issue is getting a second monitor to work. Got my GFs old LCD to use, handy for programming in linux and in windows I would like it for photo editing. No amount of coaching will get windows to find this monitor, dspite multiple driver changes and days of fiddling with settings.
Click to expand...

Not sure what to suggest here, never had an issue with Windows finding an LCD, though I don't think any I have used with 7 have been particularly old.

I'll stop there for now, but I could spend all afternoon writing about my horrific windows 7 experience!

Any possible way that I can get basic things liek wireless working?
Click to expand...

If someone came to me with your list of woes the first thing I would suggest is a fresh install of Windows 7. Utterly pointless spending so much time with an issue when 7 is so quick to install.

That is of course assuming the hardware you are having issue with is normally compatible with 7.
 
It's just you. Have you tried reinstalling Windows? If it's crashing while installing applications or using windows update (and you're sure you don't have faulty hardware), it sounds like you've seriously messed up some settings/drivers.

I've heavily used Windows 7 (for game development) on a spec almost identical to yours about 9 hours a day for the last 12 months and I've only had it crash once (which was my fault). For Wifi I've used a USB d-link dwa-140 and a netgear WG111T, both of which Windows automatically installed the drivers when plugged in. Used dual screens mixtures of old crts/lcds with several connections dvi/hdmi/vga, all I've ever had to do is plug them in and press Win + P -> Extend, done.
 
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I haven't tried reinstalling windows because it took me 3 weeks (3 weekends) to get it installed in the first place - my only sucess came when I left the computer for 8 hours trying to install with what I assumed to be a hung installation program.
 
OspreyO said:
tbh it sounds like theres a hardware problem with that machine.

Try those dongles on another machine.
Click to expand...

The dongles work fine in linux.
As does all the hardware that I can test. Stress testing in benchmarks and games doesn't cause crashes or the system to hang.

Only times the system hangs is when trying to do something like enable the wirless connection- after 30 minutes it is still trying and then windows explorer will crash, aftwards windows wont shut down.
 
D.P. said:
I haven't tried reinstalling windows because it took me 3 weeks (3 weekends) to get it installed in the first place - my only sucess came when I left the computer for 8 hours trying to install with what I assumed to be a hung installation program.
Click to expand...
...well that obviously isn't normal for a start. It should take about 15-20 mins maximum, are you even sure it even installed correctly? It definitely sounds like you either have faulty/misconfigured hardware, or a bad Windows disc.
 
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D.P. said:
I haven't tried reinstalling windows because it took me 3 weeks (3 weekends) to get it installed in the first place - my only sucess came when I left the computer for 8 hours trying to install with what I assumed to be a hung installation program.
Click to expand...

That might suggest there is something wrong with your system, not with windows7.
If you couldn't install it in the first place/

Have you run memtest, and run a full HDD sector scan? I'd start with those, then reinstall windows 7, see if you have more success.
 
D.P. said:
I haven't tried reinstalling windows because it took me 3 weeks (3 weekends) to get it installed in the first place - my only sucess came when I left the computer for 8 hours trying to install with what I assumed to be a hung installation program.
Click to expand...

That suggest a serious problem with either the hardware, or the software. Not windows itself, but the installation.

Have you tried a different hard drive? Yours could be corrupting files.

The problem here is your installation, not Windows 7. Which I have never had a crash on yet. Even Vista I only had 1 or 2, with XP I get at least 1 a month on my laptop.
 
I ran HDD checks and no problems (and never had one reported). never checked memory but I haven't really had a reason to beleive in memory.

SO it could be a faulty installation some how. What is the best way to go reinstalling windows without having to spend days reinstalling all the software?
 
I dunno what you are doing mate. it takes me only about 30 mins to install W7. Maybe 40~50 on a really slow machine. As for your apps that depends on what you are installing. I have all my apps on an external drive to make installing them easier.

You have a hardware problem somewhere.
 
As already said it should not take so long to install Windows 7. Hell, XP only took a couple of hours on a reasonably fast machine way back when it was first released!

Memory could be worth looking at. Linux may be more forgiving of dodgy memory, I am not sure. Worth the few hours checking. Run something like Memtest86 overnight and see what the results are in the morning.

If the memory checks out, simply reinstall Windows 7 and see if goes any better. Is the disc an official MS installation disc, or something the IT tech at your uni burned? If the latter, I would ask for another!
 
SiriusB said:
Is the disc an official MS installation disc, or something the IT tech at your uni burned? If the latter, I would ask for another!
Click to expand...

I second this. You could do with verifying the disc. If it's a frankenstein build from your IT department then that's where I'd be pointing the finger at the moment, because your hardware sounds ok and this is not normal for Windows.

edit - also try redownloading and reburning it. I've had strange problems that have gone away by doing this.
 
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