We have a laptop, HP Pavillion DV 9000 dating from 2008. It suffered some sort of hiccup last weekend where I got a blue screen on boot up followed by a lot of CHKDSK activity (ie about 3 hours...!) when I tried to re-boot it. Eventually come up, but we look to have had some sort of sector failure on the HDD as some progs will no longer run, and I had a right ball ache reinstalling Skpe last night. Also get periodic video crashes, but this may be due to the graphics chip falling off the MoBo, which is a design fault on these machines. Anyway thinking that a re-install of the OS is in order. Eeek! So, I could make a recovery disk of the Vista back up, but that will need to be patched up to SP2 which took ages. Or I could 'invest' in a Win 7 upgrade, or go Linux. Collective thoughts?
I haven't installed an OS for about 5 years, since I tried to update my previous machine from Win98 to Win2K - after spending all day trying I finally re-installed Win98 and found that the particular drive controller wasn't supported on the Win2K install CD!
Otherwise the laptop might have to fall off the table and I will get some value of out my expensive home insurance!
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What is the actual spec of machine - hard disk size, memory, CPU speed, etc.
Before you jump for Linux, try one of the Linux Live CD's to see what you think, e.g. Ubuntu. Probably find it runs better than Windows on the same hardware.
We can't really say use Vista (I wouldn't), upgrade to Windows 7 (better but costs) or use Linux without knowing what you use it for. If you need to use a Windows application that has no equivalent on Linux you're stuck.
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Vista is out, 7 is better on less peppy hardware, BUT
I would download and install a linux distro for free, just to make sure the hardware is working ok, then if need be and its all ok, think about a windows 7 install.
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Forget XP now, Microsoft are going to stop supporting it in the next couple of years.
Vista is just too buggy although I fixed all the issues on my main system, Vista is fine but it needs a lot of tuning to get working properly, something the average user can't do.
Personally I use Vista on my main system and Libuntu on my netbook. I must say out of all the operating systems I have used the one I am most impressed with is Libuntu. It is a very stripped down version of Ubuntu but it makes my Atom netbook seem much much more powerful than it is.
I am also getting much less systems with XP on now, Vista and WIndows 7 is a lot more common.
My own personal experience of using VIsta on my main machine for the past four years is it really isn't as bad as people make out. My PC is now four years old but it still boots into Vista in less than a minute.
Live CDs are ok but they will always run much slower than it would if it is installed to a hard drive.
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"My own personal experience of using VIsta on my main machine for the past four years is it really isn't as bad as people make out"
People like you, ya mean? :-)
"Vista is just too buggy"
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>> Live CDs are ok but they will always run much slower than it would if it is installed to a hard drive.
Then you've obviously never used a "Puppy Linux" live CD.
It runs in RAM, the whole thing.
Not everybody's cup of tea, but the preferred option is NOT to run it from the hard drive:
puppylinux.org/main/How%20NOT%20to%20install%20Puppy.htm
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I have but it is a little basic for a lot of peoples needs and it is still slow to boot. It is useful for when testing hardware though.
My comment about Vista was meaning that out of the box it needs a lot of tweaking and most users won't do that thus find it a bit buggy (buggy is one wrong word really).
Windows 7 just works a lot more smoothly but I am not going to upgrade as I would only do that when I upgrade the motherboard and processor.
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>> Forget XP now, >>
It is likely that there will be a service pack 4 for XP and MS will support it for at least two years after that, it could even end being supported longer than Vista.
XP is also more likely to be easy to run on a three year old plus machine.
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The Microsoft XP MSDST certification is being discontinued in June. I understand that XP was going to be no longer supported from 2013 and that SP3 was the last have things changed since then? I personally want it to be no longer supported as I will get a lot of work from it.
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>> I understand that XP was going to be no longer supported from 2013 >>
Wikipedia quotes 8th April '14 though this ...
support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?C2=1173
... says "Support ends 24 months after the next service pack releases or at the end of the product's support lifecycle, whichever comes first."
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I'd say Windows 7 but if you've got a dodgy hard disk and graphics chip is it worth the £100 for a new copy of Windows 7? I wouldn't go upgrading Vista to 7 but would do a clean instal. There are some very nice Intel i3 chip laptops out there with Windows 7 at reasonable prices.
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I'd go for XP or Ubuntu, I've used Vista for a few years without too many problems but I'm using Ubuntu now on my Core I5 Thinkpad and I'm very pleased with it. I might consider Windows 7 but only when I can get it cheaply because paying for an OS and Office package when free alternatives like Ubuntu with Open Office are around is hard to justify for me.
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I've used Vista for the last couple of years without any problems whatsoever.
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its an old laptop that needs an operating system installing so why pay fortunes for the latest offerings
as said linux is free and only takes 35 minutes to download from the internet for free im using linux 10 and its superb
or try puppy as mentioned from the ram to confirm everything firing on all cylinders
or good ole xp its a robust operating system and lets be honest you aint going to be drawing plans for a world invasion on an old laptop so im sure this will suffice and will well be cheap if you can find a seller of a disc,i paid $85 for my copy
So OP confirm laptop is tickety boo amnd the internet is your fried supper..............
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What you've got to remember is I got 9 years out of may last (desktop) PC before the HDD finally died, so 2.5 years life out a laptop does not make it 'old' in my eyes - I also repair (or try to) everything - spent a happy hour on Sunday afternoon fibreglassing the bottom of a water butt that froze and split in December....! It's running an AMD Turon 64 bit processor and 4Gb of RAM, on board N-vidia graphics - light useage for 'net and a bit of office applications, and the occasional i-player or DVD. No heavy duty gaming or any such nonsense.
Vista has been OK, but as it looks like a new OS is required I wondered about an upgrade since Vista gets pretty universally panned. I'll try a Linux distro on CD perhaps to see what happens. Apparently the graphics chip can be re-flowed onto the board wihtout too much drama - if it gets to the terminal stage I will have a go at that - got nothing to lose!
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The main issue with 32-bit operating systems is rootkits. 64-bit versions of Windows (which Windows 7 mostly is now) don't seem to be as badly affected by it.
Most virus removals on Windows 7 take me less than hour no matter how bad the symptoms.
I am sure as the criminals get more advanced with their 64-bit operating system skills this will change.
I personally would not pay for Windows 7 for my current system either but if I was to upgrade my motherboard/CPU then I would buy it.
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>>
>> Most virus removals on Windows 7 take me less than hour no matter how bad
>> the symptoms.
>>
Rattle, do you ever find "unhealthy" stuff on people's hard drives?
Last edited by: Robin Regal on Mon 18 Apr 11 at 21:45
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Never but then I don't look. Sometimes I know exactly where certain viruses have come from and the site might be a porn site but it is none of my business.
I know certain people are up to their neck in it downloading copyrighted stuff but that seems to be getting rarer now Limewire has been shut down but again all I can do is advise them why it is not a good idea.
Never knowingly come across anything which is cause for real concern though. I think after Garry Glitter nobody will make that mistake.
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"spent a happy hour on Sunday afternoon fibreglassing the bottom of a water butt that froze and split in December....! It's running an AMD Turon 64 bit processor and 4Gb of RAM, on board N-vidia graphics"
That's one helluva water butt you have there... :-)
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>> "spent a happy hour on Sunday afternoon fibreglassing the bottom of a water butt that
>> froze and split in December....! It's running an AMD Turon 64 bit processor and 4Gb
>> of RAM, on board N-vidia graphics"
>>
>> That's one helluva water butt you have there... :-)
>>
You'd think the heat from all that processing power would stop the water freezing.....
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>> >> "spent a happy hour on Sunday afternoon fibreglassing the bottom of a water butt
>> that
>> >> froze and split in December....! It's running an AMD Turon 64 bit processor and
>> 4Gb
>> >> of RAM, on board N-vidia graphics"
I have seen water cooled Intel cpus, but never an AMD turon.
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Working from memory...says TurIon 64 x2 on the sticker.....
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RichardW you do realise they are joking about you having an AMD CPU (water cooled) in the water butt. I assume you are playing along straight faced with your reply ;-)
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Regarding puppylinux.
Just to see what the current state of play with it is I downloaded the current version (5.2 Lucid)
The ISO was about 127mb
Burnt to disk, installed and configured it, set up the wireless (once I found the key), chose a web browser as I didn't fancy the default, saved settings back to CD.
30 odd minutes from start to finish.
Run it up again from CD - about 3 minutes, with a comment at shut down that the next boot would be quicker.
Second was about 2 minutes.
Posting this using it, but will pass for full time as I have a screen flicker (on this laptop - Acer Aspire 5738Z) which I can't be bothered to get to sort out.
Your mileage may vary
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Vista / Win 7 or Linux? - rtj70
