So Apparently The Tech-Gods Scorn Me [Archive]

Skane

2011-12-07, 12:09

I'm an active gamer. A PC gamer at that. I don't, however, upgrade frequently unless my current rig starts becoming obsolete.

I was happily running a 32-bit WinXP with Quad-Cores, but with all these newdangfangled 64-bit stuff and DX-11 drivers, I felt it was time to change the rig to something more... end of the line.

So I heard good stuff about Win7, and Intel i7 was apparently one of the latest CPUs. Sounds like lucky sevens right? The Hell it is. I haven't had this much agony setting up a rig since Win95.

I set up the tower all nice and easy, and quickly ran into trouble trying to install the OS. Well... I be damned... All the parts were new, whatever could be the problem? A quick google search on my Android and when I read the cause of the problem, I didn't know whether I wanted to laugh at the engineers who made the OS, or punch them in the face.

I had to unplug all the USB ports first (minus the keyboard) before installing the OS.

What?

You're serious? I never had this issue with Win98 SP or WinXP Pro and the so called newest kid on the block (Win7 Ult) stumbles on something so basic?

I didn't want to believe it, but lo and behold, after unplugging the ports, it actually installed. End of the problems right? Riiiight? I so wish it was the case.

Put it this way... not since the days of yore when Win 3.1 and Win95 inhabited our PCs have I ever, EVER, seen this many BSoDs. Restart CPU after installing motherboard drivers, BSoD. Install VGA drivers, BSoD. Install Google Chrome, BSoD. Scream obscenities at the Gods of Tech, BSoD.

I think one of the more priceless ones was finding out that my Windows Update was corrupted, and I had to google for a solution for it to work. The scary thing is that it is a common problem. Oh, and I encountered another 5 BSoDs just from running Windows Update alone.

At one point, I had to imagine the mewling of boiled kittens to amuse myself and keep my spirits up. Upgrading a PC should be a joyous event, not a Hellish one. I'm f***ing amazed my Internet Connection worked on the first try, really.

Just so upset at how much time I have lost just configuring the thing, and I haven't even re-installed the games yet, or installed Office, or transferred my backup data from the external harddisks (speaking of which, another BSoD when I plugged in one).

The system is more stable now, ever since I completed the Windows Updates, but oh man... is Win7 really suppose to be this nightmarish? I want to chew the manual that mockingly tells me, "Welcome to your PC, simplified."

Urgh!

LoweGear

2011-12-07, 13:03

I can't speak for Windows 7 Ultimate, but my Windows 7 Home Premium has been quite the dream compared to XP or Vista. Also, I use an external USB DVD-Rom to reformat this PC, so I don't have the USB port problem you seem to be having.

Either it's a problem with your hardware, or Win7 Ultimate is just incredibly fickle (I stick with Home Premium because I don't need all the features for Professional and Ultimate).

Gamer_2k4

2011-12-07, 13:26

I use W7 Professional, and I've never had a problem with it. It's a huge step up from XP.

Paranoid Android

2011-12-07, 13:34

I use Ultimate on my laptop and that came with it. It works fine after installation, but I 've never had to reinstall it.

I've only installed home premium on my PC and like LoweGear said, I haven't had any issued with the installation whilst usb port was plugged-in

I've never had a BsoD since I changed from XP SP3 to 7 Home prem. It was actually unbelievably easy for me since I just ran the install disc with my windows xp already booted. and everything was automatic from there.

Endless Soul

2011-12-07, 13:38

I use Win 7 Home Premium that came with my laptop and I have had no problems. I've also never had to re-install it. I still have Win XP on my personal desktop and my destop at work (the one I'm on right now)

Endless "Problem Free" Soul

papermario13689

2011-12-07, 13:40

My physical laptop broke so I had to get a new one with Windows 7 built-in. Win7 itself is quite nice for me and hasn't attempted to kill me yet, but nothing ever beats the reliability and simplicity of Windows XP for me, ever.

Vista's an ass though, did absolutely nothing wrong to it and it KSoD'd on me just one day. Sorry to hear about your complications, is it all go at the moment at least?

NorthernFallout

2011-12-07, 14:46

Contrary to you, my experience with W7 Ultimate 64-bit has been pure. It installed faster and easier (3 times I've done it since I format sometimes), and it has run for a year and a half without any BSOD whatsoever.

Perhaps you managed to get that one-in-a-thousand configuration that will, totally, not work easy.

Kokukirin

2011-12-07, 14:47

Only problem I have with Win7 is when I try to play 10 year old games. Sometimes it is tricky to get the right configuration. Other than that Win 7 has been a good experience.

Flower

2011-12-07, 15:15

Same here - win 7 ultimate and win 7 pro on my two laptops ... never had a problem with either to be honest.

But I must admit that almost all the pcs at the office still use win xp pro. I have seen many small businesses still doing this too.

iceyfw

2011-12-07, 15:38

sorry to hear for your first experience of installing W7. i have installed W7 Ultimate x64 countless times on multiple computers via DVD or usb flash drive and all of them installed successfully without a problem. and no BSOD has occurred so far on any of them.

DonQuigleone

2011-12-07, 15:39

I've built my own rig before, sounds like you're having compatibility problems between your motherboard and hardware. My first guess is that your BIOS might be the problem.

When I built my rig (with an XP install), I had constant random crashes and restarts and BSODs, turns out it was the BIOS that was the problem.

Though it's a real pain, you probably need to flash and replace your BIOS. If that doesn't work, look at your hardware compatibilities and drivers.

This reminds me of that "How do I patch KDE2 under FreeBSD? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_does_one_patch_KDE2_under_FreeBSD%3F)" meme.

-- Hello, is this an anime channel?
-- Yes.
-- How do I patch KDE2 under FreeBSD?

blaze0041

2011-12-07, 16:41

The current desktop PC I use now used to have Windows XP SP3 on it, packing a rather shoddy Nvidia 9800GTX. Installed Windows 7 Ultimate the day it came out, and I haven't looked back since (well, I still use Windows Virtual PC + Windows XP Mode, but I honestly don't use it that often). Like Kokukirin, I find that playing some older games is a hassle on Windows 7.
I've since abandoned the 9800GTX for a GTX560 (mainly for BF3)- you might not be able to immediately tell the difference between DX9, DX10 and DX11, but the games that do take advantage of it generally look alot nicer (sorry I can't be more specific about this).
Upgrading from XP to 7 does require to reformat your PC, I believe.

Larthak

2011-12-07, 16:53

Urgh!
Skane, you are the unluckiest person I know about, when it comes to Win 7 experience. :)

Good thing you skipped Vista. Now, THAT was a disaster.

Reckoner

2011-12-07, 17:10

Wow, what a horrible experience. I went for win7 with an i5 when i decided to upgrade myself sometime ago, and my computer building experience went completely smooth unlike yours so that really sucks. I think there could be some hardware related issue, otherwise it doesn't make much sense to me. Windows 7 has been oh so much better than vista and offers the same stability as XP for me.

Flower

2011-12-07, 17:18

....Good thing you skipped Vista. Now, THAT was a disaster.

:heh:

Lets not even go there. :D

chikorita157

2011-12-07, 17:31

I have used Windows Vista and 7 (on Bootcamp) and I don't really have problem with either nor I'm really frustrated by UAC. On the other hand, I haven't used Windows as my main operating system since 2006 since I got sick of maintaining Windows, having to check for spyware and all that jazz. I haven't have many problems with alternative OSes, most namely Mac OS X and Linux. I only use Windows now to play Windows-only games and that pretty much it.

From the looks of Windows 8, i'm avoiding it like the plague... the tablet interface is horrible on desktops/laptops and there is no option to turn it off yet.

Rising Dragon

2011-12-07, 17:33

I didn't get any BSoDs when I installed Win7 Ultimate onto a new computer I've built, though I did get a faulty update that seriously slowed down the other update installations and made shutting down impossible. Once I got around that, though, I haven't had any problems with the OS itself.

Ironically, my old computer can't run the install DVD. The same one that worked just fine on my new computer.

SaintessHeart

2011-12-07, 18:57

Where did you get your parts from? Sim Lim?

If so, you should have let the shop owner do it for you while you enjoy your lunch/dinner at the basement level's hawker centre.

Also, apparently there is a rumour of imbalance issues (buying an i7 with a cheapo GPU can cause crashes more frequently due to wide disparity in computing power), so you might want to post your rig specs here. Hopefully you haven't maxed out your 7-day exchange warranty. :heh:

I used Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit only for one reason :

t1MtA5vtVVo

:D

Kyuu

2011-12-07, 19:13

I don't mind using Windows 7; and I have yet to see the BSoD on my laptop.

sa547

2011-12-07, 21:07

@skane: first off, can we see what's the specs on your rig?

Make sure that the rig has all the plugs properly stuck in, the CPU bolted flat and straight with a thin application of thermal compound, and the memory modules seated in firmly. Then download, burn and run Memtest86 to check if there's a problem with the RAM.

And yeah, I hope the PSU is a good brand, not some cheap, nameless generic box from Guandong; for starters, FSP is great for both your money and stability.

Finally, have your dealer go over and check the rig.

@ontopic: I use both WinXP and Win7, but because my rig's specs are slightly lower than what's needed, I'll install Win7 only when I have enough bank for a full-blown system upgrade.

But when it comes to stability, I like Win7 better in that like most of the guys here, I rarely had a BSOD while it was installed in my Pentium 4 2.4Ghz rig for evaluation and testing (did installed Adobe Type Manager 4 and it worked; installed the XP-only SB Live! drivers and that also worked!).

DonQuigleone

2011-12-07, 21:25

I haven't upgraded to Windows 7 simply because I haven't needed to.

My computer can pretty much play almost every game out there at max graphics with few performance hickups. In fact, it's done really well for me.

Especially when I consider that it's 4 years old now, and when I built it, I wasn't using top of the line parts (though they were above average parts).

8 years ago a computer wouldn't have lasted so long and still have been able to do everything.

If there's one thing I'd upgrade, it's probably the memory and CPU. The computer isn't as fast as it used to be. However on memory I'm maxed out as it's a 32 bit OS.

Right now on the very newest games I can get maybe 2nd best graphics levels, so I'd say within a year or two I may need to upgrade. Still, 6 years will have been a pretty good length of time.

Vexx

2011-12-07, 22:58

Windows 7 has been a godsend for me in the MS world (gaming, officework, etc) *as* long as the hardware component vendors did their part in the driver development.

XP64 and Vista were disasters in comparison.

My only complaint is that there's less and less *I* can do to fix problems with each new release... more and more the only solution is "cold reboot" or "re-install" or "run repair repeat til it gets tired and works" or "start replacing hardware starting with most off-brand or oldest".

Irenicus

2011-12-07, 23:26

I remember having a similar if far less stressful USB problem with my Windows 7 installation process.

Just things being very slow in general, which creeped me out, and then after the first automatic restart step Windows didn't seem to have installed successfully (it went back to the very first install scene, asking me to install again, despite this being an automatic setup restart). I was quite incredulous, but did what it ask me to do, and realized things were getting messy (Windows installation over installation). I wiped the HD again and instead on a whim after the restart unplugged the Win7 live USB and just let the PC did its thing, and it happened to have successfully installed Windows 7 after all.

To this day I still can't really grasp what the hell was going on, and I'm usually pretty decent at troubleshooting. At least it runs at near-perfect stability since. It is indeed a far superior OS to its immediate shall-not-be-named predecessor, and quite as functional as XP except for a few retardedness (Win7 search & indexing is mental).

DonQuigleone

2011-12-08, 07:58

I actually once met some Microsoft Fanboys, who insisted that Vista was a great OS, and that it was the User's fault when they had problems.:uhoh:

Paranoid Android

2011-12-08, 08:24

I actually once met some Microsoft Fanboys, who insisted that Vista was a great OS, and that it was the User's fault when they had problems.:uhoh:
Except a great OS would be something that everyone and anyone can use without having ridiculous glitches, blue screens and meaningless latency. Having a masters degree in software engineering will not help the user with the problems Vista throws out. The User also needs a PhD in Microsoft Fandom.

Skane

2011-12-08, 08:37

Paranoid Android

2011-12-08, 08:41

Err those are fairly common components and if there's something wrong with it, there'd probably a lot of people who have similar problems on the internet complaining, which I haven't really heard from. I have no idea why it's pmsing on you =(

Have you tried bribing your computer? Maybe try to establish a peace treaty.

Did you have any of your hardware unable to automatically install a driver and you had to manually dl it from a selection on the internet? I've heard of Radeon giving blue screens if it can't find the driver and you install the wrong one and try to load something that involves 3D shading.
*Yes I know that example has barely anything to do with your case, but it's the closest thing I know.

SaintessHeart

2011-12-08, 08:48

Okay, judging from all the responses so far, it would seem that I am an abnormal case. I must have forgotten to offer a sacrificial lamb or something.

Specs, for those who were interested-

Casing: Cooler Master 922 HAF
Motherboard: ASUS P8 P67 Pro
Power Supply: Cooler Master GX 750W Bronze
CPU: Intel i7-2600K LGA1155
Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 612
RAM: x4 4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3
DVD-ROM: SONY DRU-880S
Video Card: ASUS GTX550 Ti 1GB GDDR5

It's running relatively stable at the moment. I just have a morbid fear of it suddenly BSoD-ing now.

Meep.

Do you run it on overclocking? From what I see, it seems that your stuff is pretty overpowered.

Now we need your BSOD error message. Turn off "auto-shutdown upon freezing/hanging" in your BIOS and run something to make it crash.

Either that or you have yet to register your Windows 7......when I format and reinstall, Windows 7 likes to crap on me before I put up my registration code.

Paranoid Android

2011-12-08, 10:07

Do you run it on overclocking? From what I see, it seems that your stuff is pretty overpowered.

Now we need your BSOD error message. Turn off "auto-shutdown upon freezing/hanging" in your BIOS and run something to make it crash.

Either that or you have yet to register your Windows 7......when I format and reinstall, Windows 7 likes to crap on me before I put up my registration code.

I thought incorrectly overclocked computers just crap out and shut down on you rather than stay powered and display a blue screen.

DonQuigleone

2011-12-08, 11:06

Okay, judging from all the responses so far, it would seem that I am an abnormal case. I must have forgotten to offer a sacrificial lamb or something.

Specs, for those who were interested-

Casing: Cooler Master 922 HAF
Motherboard: ASUS P8 P67 Pro
Power Supply: Cooler Master GX 750W Bronze
CPU: Intel i7-2600K LGA1155
Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 612
RAM: x4 4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3
DVD-ROM: SONY DRU-880S
Video Card: ASUS GTX550 Ti 1GB GDDR5

It's running relatively stable at the moment. I just have a morbid fear of it suddenly BSoD-ing now.

Meep.

Run Memtest and get back to us.

If that doesn't reveal any memory problems, I'd definitely update your Bios. Make sure you do it carefully though, you don't want to go bricking your machine...

Dhomochevsky

2011-12-08, 11:56

The first thing I'd do in that case, would be booting some Linux distro from a Life CD and see if that runs stable.
If it crashes as well, it would be faulty hardware.
If it passes that test, I'd install that distro to hdd, just in case the hard drive had anything to do with the problem.

Win7 runs smooth for me, I installed it with all usb devices plugged in btw. ;)
The only time I ever had problems, was when I tried to install a vista XBCD driver. That completely wrecked my system, so it would not boot anymore.
Good thing this happened on a 1h fresh install, so I just redid it without that driver.

Rising Dragon

2011-12-08, 12:51

I actually once met some Microsoft Fanboys, who insisted that Vista was a great OS, and that it was the User's fault when they had problems.:uhoh:

To be honest, I had little in the way of problems with Vista while I used it.

Vexx

2011-12-08, 14:37

I actually once met some Microsoft Fanboys, who insisted that Vista was a great OS, and that it was the User's fault when they had problems.:uhoh:
Frankly, I hope you had a Dokura-chan large club with spikes on it to handle them appropriately. Even the Microsoft Premier Partner types wouldn't spew *that* nonsense...

Alchemist007

2011-12-08, 15:54

To be honest, I had little in the way of problems with Vista while I used it.
Me too, I think I'm one of the few in existence that saw only the gadget interface as the biggest change from Vista -> 7. :heh:

Random32

2011-12-08, 16:30

Okay, judging from all the responses so far, it would seem that I am an abnormal case. I must have forgotten to offer a sacrificial lamb or something.

Specs, for those who were interested-

Casing: Cooler Master 922 HAF
Motherboard: ASUS P8 P67 Pro
Power Supply: Cooler Master GX 750W Bronze
CPU: Intel i7-2600K LGA1155
Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 612
RAM: x4 4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3
DVD-ROM: SONY DRU-880S
Video Card: ASUS GTX550 Ti 1GB GDDR5

It's running relatively stable at the moment. I just have a morbid fear of it suddenly BSoD-ing now.

Meep.
Have you prayed to Microsoft recently? You need to do that every few days or crap will start happening.

What message is the BSOD giving you?

Also:
-Set everything back to stock clocks/volts if you are overclocking (I sure hope you are considering you paid good money for that 2600K).
-Memtest86. Especially if your RAM is old or has been overclocked/overvolted.

Skane

2011-12-09, 08:27

Turns out it was a memory problem. :eyespin: Maybe I trapped an angry spirit into the slots when I inserted the RAM modules during the initial setup. I basically stripped the machine apart and set it back up again, from scratch. This time though, I just pieced together the basics, nothing extra.

Went without a hitch this time.

You can't see it, but there are tears of joys streaming down my weary heart.

From there, I added additional components individually before doing a reboot to double-check that it installed properly. Very time consuming, but I didn't want to take any chances.

Then the outer casing on my External Harddisk decided it was a good time to die. The one with all my saved data from the previous rig.

"Oh Lord, Why Have You Forsaken Me?" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=t-3qncy5Qfk#t=78s)

I must vented a lot of rage ripping the outer casing apart to extract the harddisk inside. Well, I now have two internal harddisks in my new rig. Will probably transfer all the data from the "formerly external" harddisk to my primary harddisk before formatting it and turn it into a secondary harddisk instead.

I am starting to achieve a level of Zen I never knew existed before.

Oom... ...

SaintessHeart

2011-12-09, 08:32

DonQuigleone

2011-12-09, 08:48

Hey, you could have figured all that out with memtest! Still, good to see you've got things working again!

A computer you build yourself is like your baby, you cherish it, and feed it, until you get another one 5 years later to replace it.

Wait, what?

sa547

2011-12-09, 22:38

About that thing with unplugging the USB ports, all devices stuck into those ports (except for the disks if they're being used as the installation source) have to be done or the installation will not continue properly.

Ledgem

2011-12-10, 09:39

My only complaint is that there's less and less *I* can do to fix problems with each new release... more and more the only solution is "cold reboot" or "re-install" or "run repair repeat til it gets tired and works" or "start replacing hardware starting with most off-brand or oldest".
It seems like all computer systems are going this way, Linux aside. It's a bit unnerving, but it's also a bit more consumer-friendly in a way. It also shows how far computing has come. I remember crashing and burning with Windows 95 and Windows ME, having to edit system files in DOS to get it bootable again. Windows XP was fantastic, and systems in general (Mac OS X, Windows) have only gotten better since then.

Even though I have less control, I can't say that I miss it. Back when I had the time, I didn't mind researching the files and commands necessary to make changes. Can't spare it now, and the idea of screwing something up and having to work to get everything back to normal is even worse.

SaintessHeart

2011-12-10, 10:08

It seems like all computer systems are going this way, Linux aside. It's a bit unnerving, but it's also a bit more consumer-friendly in a way. It also shows how far computing has come. I remember crashing and burning with Windows 95 and Windows ME, having to edit system files in DOS to get it bootable again. Windows XP was fantastic, and systems in general (Mac OS X, Windows) have only gotten better since then.

Even though I have less control, I can't say that I miss it. Back when I had the time, I didn't mind researching the files and commands necessary to make changes. Can't spare it now, and the idea of screwing something up and having to work to get everything back to normal is even worse.

By locking up the system, it prevents curious people from messing up the files, thus less complaints to the helpdesk.

This allows them to cut the cost of running the helpdesk. ;)

Vexx

2011-12-11, 14:55

It seems like all computer systems are going this way, Linux aside. It's a bit unnerving, but it's also a bit more consumer-friendly in a way. It also shows how far computing has come. I remember crashing and burning with Windows 95 and Windows ME, having to edit system files in DOS to get it bootable again. Windows XP was fantastic, and systems in general (Mac OS X, Windows) have only gotten better since then.

Even though I have less control, I can't say that I miss it. Back when I had the time, I didn't mind researching the files and commands necessary to make changes. Can't spare it now, and the idea of screwing something up and having to work to get everything back to normal is even worse.
Frankly, my interest in getting under the curtain started waning when the registry became the clusterfsck of stuff it is now. Microsoft has never gotten a good handle on separating applications from OS and now that my freaking *games* sit in the same registry as critical OS functions, meh! (I actually miss INI files, simple, straightforward and resided in the same folder as the application for easy copy/archive)

SaintessHeart

2011-12-12, 00:54

Frankly, my interest in getting under the curtain started waning when the registry became the clusterfsck of stuff it is now. Microsoft has never gotten a good handle on separating applications from OS and now that my freaking *games* sit in the same registry as critical OS functions, meh! (I actually miss INI files, simple, straightforward and resided in the same folder as the application for easy copy/archive)

I thought at your age you should be yelling at your neighbour's kids to gt off your lawn instead of messing with the windows registry. :D

Honestly speaking, the windows registry has always been that messy. Sometimes I wondered if it is an abandoned project with a critical function that the board of directors mandated that "If it ain't broke, don't fix it. "

Vexx

2011-12-15, 04:27

I thought at your age you should be yelling at your neighbour's kids to gt off your lawn instead of messing with the windows registry. :D

Honestly speaking, the windows registry has always been that messy. Sometimes I wondered if it is an abandoned project with a critical function that the board of directors mandated that "If it ain't broke, don't fix it. "
You have this really odd opinion of old people.. probably aggravated by the problem that so many of them exactly match your opinion :)

SaintessHeart

2011-12-15, 08:15

You have this really odd opinion of old people.. probably aggravated by the problem that so many of them exactly match your opinion :)

Well, the silver tsunami caught up with us the way it did with Japan in the early 2000s. And their behaviour irks me whenever I take public transport with them - I seem to always get scolded for giving up seats not to them or lugging a big bag of my work items around.

But I should apologise for being so general and critical - most of them grew up in the Cold War period, met the PC revolution in their middle-age and then couldn't cope with the increased pace of digitisation in society; their discontent lies with that they couldn't cope with the newer generation.

Maybe one day I would be outpaced too when I am deemed too old and physically frail to have a Matrix-like cyberjack installed into me. :heh:

Vexx

2011-12-15, 12:26

Well, the silver tsunami caught up with us the way it did with Japan in the early 2000s. And their behaviour irks me whenever I take public transport with them - I seem to always get scolded for giving up seats not to them or lugging a big bag of my work items around.

But I should apologise for being so general and critical - most of them grew up in the Cold War period, met the PC revolution in their middle-age and then couldn't cope with the increased pace of digitisation in society; their discontent lies with that they couldn't cope with the newer generation.

Maybe one day I would be outpaced too when I am deemed too old and physically frail to have a Matrix-like cyberjack installed into me. :heh:

Fifteen years ago, I cut people my age a lot of slack when it came to the modern world... my sympathies have completely evaporated since then, for either old people or anyone else who doesn't have basic tech skills. Even my luddite loli-wife can fix most of her own computer problems anymore (though she's still not quite clear on why launching a browser isn't "do you have the internet on?"). And yeah, I stand up usually on the light rail, its good exercise dammit :) :)