I'll be BACK - again!

[BobHegwood]

Dear folks,

Having attempted almost EVERY device, solution, problem-solver, company
and Microsoft help system available in order to make sense of this piece of
crap operating system (Just MY opinion, I'm sure...) I have decided to wipe
everything OFF of my system and start over again with Windows XP.

Just thought I'd let you know about it on the off-chance that you think
I'm in the hospital again.

One other note for those of you who may be interested... I have gone from
Windows 3.1 ALL the way through each upgrade and each new version
of the Windows OS. I have NEVER experienced such frustration,
irritation or plain old damned ANGER as that which I have right now for
Microsoft. They really ARE attempting to take over the world you know.

I will be back.

Thanks, Bob

[selden]

Bob,

have fun!

[ElChristou]

Bob,

have fun!

Beuh... I would say... good luck!

[bh]

I hope you get your probs sorted soon Bob... Chris is right though... I haven't looked back since I got the Mac... finding the upgrade to Leopard a bit daunting though!

I'll probably get round to it AFTER the ISS and Fridgers textools.

[Adirondack]

Bob,

I can't confirm all your troubles with Vista.

I'm running Celestia on Vista out of the program files directory
(mine is: D:\Celestia) and I can modify any files without any problems.
Not using the default installation directory probably is the trick.

Nevertheless have fun with XP.
I hope you did not lost your warranty for your system by wiping out Vista.

Adirondack

[BobHegwood]

Okay,

I'm back - AGAIN - and I ain't happy about it...

I too, am now stuck using this piece of crap because of all of the
built-in firmware which I simply cannot get HP to revise for me.
A word to the wise: If you buy a new PC, make CERTAIN that it does
NOT have the O.S. already built in to it. Man, oh man...

Built-in toolbars and advertisements out the Wazoo. Apparently, all of my
troubles with Vista occurred because I was trying to use it in the XP
mode. This, apparently, is another thing not to be done. Although you
can run individual programs with XP-compatibility, you are asking for
trouble if you try to run the whole system in XP mode.

Hey, no one explained ANY of this to me prior to buying the thing. On
the plus side, however, HP did offer support and condolences when I
explained that I wished to place XP on my machine. "Sorry," they said,
but they DID get me back up and running after I tried EVERY trick in
the book to get XP installed. Oh well... You all can learn from the
Brain-Dead... See? I'm useful for something. Hee, hee.

Thanks all, Bob

[ElChristou]

Okay,

I'm back - AGAIN - and I ain't happy about it...

Bob, one word... Mac!

and really, now that you can run a Micro$oft system natively, I see no reasons to not switch for people who need peace!

...I haven't looked back since I got the Mac... finding the upgrade to Leopard a bit daunting though!

I'll probably get round to it AFTER the ISS and Fridgers textools.

Perso I won't update my Tiger before the first update of Leopard is released... (in all case, seems better to backup your data and do a totally new install instead of just an update...)

[selden]

Bob,

I'm very sorry to hear that you're stuck with something you really don't want. Hopefully there are some other Vista users who can help you with some of the problems you encounter.

As for your issues with the OpenGL v2 render path, you'll also not be happy to know that's the path that Chris plans to make a lot of use of. Most of Celestia's new eye candy requires it -- shadows cast in a multi-star system, for example, smooth shadow edges (especially noticable when cast on planetary rings), and, as you've already learned, shadows cast by clouds. I'm sure there are others i'm forgetting.

One can hope that the specular highlights that you find so objectionable can be improved. It might help if you could provide screengrabs of the worst cases.

[BobHegwood]

Well, I showed you the first one... i.e. the ISS, but my main problems
occur with Mars' surface. I'm going to try a different approach this time
though, and we'll see if I can get a better result.

As far as screen grabs go, I also had to get a website, figure out how to
use it, then post a shot on it for use in downloading to this site.

Good thing I ain't dead yet... Got a LOT to learn still.

[ANDREA]

Okay, I'm back - AGAIN - and I ain't happy about it. A word to the wise: If you buy a new PC, make CERTAIN that it does NOT have the O.S. already built in to it. Man, oh man..... Bob

Bob, I use both XP and Vista 64 Home Premium, in two different partitions, so at the system start I can choose what OS I wish to use.
I think you have one partition only on your HD, and that your Vista is an OEM licence.
Don't worry, I had Vista on my HD, decided to have both of them, so I formatted the HD, partitioning in one 200 and one 100 GB, and installing XP on the bigger partition.
Then installed Vista in the second, and I validated it by phone call, where a man asked me if I had already installed that licence.
I replied yes, explaining the reason why.
There was no problem, so my licence is still valid, all upgrades working, etc.
I know very well that Vista has many problems, but with the next SP1 many or most of them will be solved, as MS says.
But at the same time it has advantages, e.g. the possibility (due to its need for this, IMHO) to have up to 128 GB of RAM (and this is important, because the 4 GB it can use for Celestia give me the same results of the 3 GB that can be used by XP).
XP simply cannot.
My next expense will be probably the increase to 8 GB RAM, I?€™m sure that things will be much better this way.

From an aesthetical point of view, even if this sucks memory, the Aero system is very nice (and useful, IMO), so as the new Explorer 7.
Probably it?€™s only my opinion, but I?€™ve seen many people in the Web that think the same.
Moreover, Vista is the OS that will be used more and more in the next future, and more and more stuff will be produced for it, and probably not working under XP.
This to say... Bob, take care, Vista is our future, and I'm sure that some time from now we?€™ll laugh together saying "..do you remember when Vista was such a piece of crap, almost unusable? Hehehe, look it now!".
All new things, from cars to OS, need some time to be fully functional, but I agree that Vista is taking a bit too much time to do it.
Be patient, Bob.

Andrea

[BobHegwood]

Appreciate the kind words, Andrea, but I'm getting angrier and angrier
over this crap. I'm going to have to go through the whole restore
scenario again, because no one HP could tell me how to repair a user
account (for myself) when I had the ill fortune to mis-spell my name the
first time I logged on with an administrative user account..

So now, my whole PC is called BOBHEWOOD-PC rather than BOBHEGWOOD-PC, and there is NO way I can change it. At least not
yet.

The friendly HP lady who was supposed to call me back to see how I was
doing with it tonight, DID'T call me back as promised and I'm PISSED.
American vernacular - not British.

Once more into the fray go I...

[selden]

Bob,

There's no reason to reinstall from scratch.
Google is your friend

search for
vista set computer name

the very first page it found for me has pretty pictures and explains how to do it.

See http://www.home-network-help.com/settin ... -name.html

Does this help?

[Hungry4info]

I'm sure that some time from now we?€™ll laugh together saying "..do you remember when Vista was such a piece of crap, almost unusable? Hehehe, look it now!"

I agree, but until then, I'm satisfied with XP. I don't believe in getting a new OS until it has at least a service pack out, so that the bugs are worked out.

[ajtribick]

The "get a Mac" advice is interesting... I always found Macs to be FAR more expensive than a PC of comparable specs. Maybe Macs are much better to use (I personally don't have much experience with current Mac technology, but there's a System 7 box lurking around at home somewhere), and don't have so many problems, but fact is the prices drive me out of the market.

My advice is get a PC without a preinstalled OS, that way you don't have all these OEM/hardware vendor lockin hassles. It's what I did because I knew I didn't want Vista (at least not at this stage), but you can't get a PC with XP installed these days as far as I can tell. You have to install the OS on your system yourself, but that's a small price to pay. I now have a Ubuntu/XP dual-boot setup.

Of course, that doesn't help you now you've actually got stuck with Vista.

[Johaen]

My advice is to build your PC from individual parts bought off the internet (newegg). It will almost always be cheaper, and you know what kind of quality is inside it, because you built it. And you can make it look badass if you choose to. Like this...





The inside is actually a little cleaner looking now. These are old pictures. You get the idea.

[selden]

Johaen,

Building your own computer is more complicated these days. You need to understand the hardware and the operating system software. And you need to be prepared to waste time sending things back if they don't work as they're supposed to -- I mean when they don't work as they're designed to do, not when they fail to work as you think they ought to work. Determining which type of problem It is is not something that can be done by novices without wasting a lot of money.

The advantage of purchasing a packaged system from a reputable dealer is that they'll provide all the help you need to make it work as specified. I took the middle road and had a local company assemble the system I wanted. It's more expensive, but avoids the hassles and makes sure the system actually works as desired. (e.g. in my case, they installed a 3rd party fan control at no additional charge when it was discovered that the motherboard did not actually control fan speeds as specified: the fans were always running at maximum speed and were very loud.)

Cutout panels and glowlights can be added to any system, of course

[LordFerret]

I see absolutely no reason why XP can't be loaded. I've several people I know who were also fed up with Vista and have done it (gone back to XP). I'd like to know what "firmware" HP claims works for Vista only... I think you've been handed a line of crap... and if not, HP is once again tempting suicide.

Blow away the Vista partition with FDISK, reformat and install XP... better yet, install Debian.

My 2-cents.

[selden]

Lord Ferret,

The HP model that Bob purchased is a VIIV system. That's a specially licensed Intel configuration which is legally required to run either the XP or Vista version of Windows Media Center. The HP variant that Bob got can only run Vista. It's enforced in the firmware.

[BobHegwood]

Selden - as usual - is correct in what he's saying above...

I CAN install XP, but the computer I'm using cannot then access the
special features of my new monitor (2' rotateable screen) nor can it
connect me to the internet via the on-board Ethernet schema.

That's okay though. It was worth a try AND I learned a lot about
my new system. Since I've installed/recovered the O.S. four times
now, I almost know what I'm doing on it.

At any rate, I'm using it in the Vista mode, and I am now having a
lot better time with it. I do absolutely hate the way that this O.S.
works though. Every time you try to view a DVD, or play a simple
midi file, Vista just HAS to connect you to the net so that it can try
to sell you something. This pisses me off to no end, so I have
disabled the Microsoft Windows player, and I've installed the Media
Player Classic.

Much better now, and I have control over the machine once again.

I just really HATE it when the machine tells ME what to do.
Supposed to be the other way around, ain't it?

Selden? Thanks once again for all of your help. I'm just about back
to the place where I can contribute again. I do still have to
install Celestia once more. This time, so that I can use it like *I*
wish to use it, rather than the way Windows says I *have* to
use it.

Thanks ALL for your advice and comments. Much appreciated here.

Take care, Brain-Dead

[LordFerret]

Selden, I'm aware of Viiv, though I wasn't aware Bob's particular machine had an actual limitation to Vista only. I must have missed that. Sorry, my bad.

Bob, I feel for ya. Were it me, I'd be drop-kicking it through their front window right about now.