windows 7 Nightmare

D.P.

D.P.

D.P.

Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
32,769
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?
 
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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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.
 
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?
 
Update:
So I ran a load of HD and memory diagnosis programs (mostly microsoft ones0. no problems found.

I downloaded a new copy of windows from the university and managed to install it.Took a long time for it to complete but the actual installation was fast.

Bots up fine so I tried to get the wireless dongles working and I get the exact same problem. I cannot get them to enable and windows explorer eventually just hangs when trying to enable the Edimax dongle. Enabling the d-link dongle gives a message that it is enabled but form viewing the network adapters it is still shown as not enabled.

Thus I think I will either install winXP for my basic windows need or will properly route some CAT5
 
SiriusB said:
Go CAT5e :D

I would never consider going to XP over 7 if there was the slightest chance of CAT5e being an option.

Have you tried contacting the manufacturer of either dongle? Have you tried either dongle in another Windows 7 machine. If your Uni gave it out for free, one of your mates should have it installed. If possible, try it on a installation not provided by your Uni. A bit of a faff but it takes 2 minutes to find out.
Click to expand...

I think it would make sense to try the dongles in another machine, however almost no one I know uses windows, if they do they use XP and/or it is in a virtual machine under linux or setup on bootcamp on a Mac.

I have been on the forums of the dongle manufactures. It really seems i am not a lone. searching on google returns thousands and thousands of hits. The problem is, there is seemingly no pattern to the errors and none of the fixes i've tried have worked.I've about firewalls, virus scanners, disabling under WinXp before installing win7 so using linux to-enable the dongle, re installation of windows, purchasing new dongles. Tried almost all of them now.
 
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