New Dell Vista Problems Vista Bugs and Problems Discuss New Dell Vista Problems in the Windows Vista forums; Hello! I bought a Dell desktop pc about three weeks ago and have noted several problems at this time. I've followed advice that I've researched to no avail. ...

[LindaJean]

Hello!

I bought a Dell desktop pc about three weeks ago and have noted several problems at this time. I've followed advice that I've researched to no avail. The problems are as follows:

1.) Pages take a LONG time to load, oftentimes a "web page cannot be found" pop up appears.

2.) Anything I try to download (i.e. winamp, avg, avast, or anything at all will show a ridiculous time frame in the download manager for the download to occur (i.e. 5 hours or more). Then, it NEVER downloads. I either get a "files corrupt, try download again" (which never works either), or "blah blah (whatever the program is) is not a valid win 32 application....etc."

3.) WinMedia 11 buffers terribly, the drop out is several minutes long every 5-10 seconds, despite the corrections I've made as advised. This applies even to archived radio shows, not live streaming programs.

Even though the pc is only a few weeks old, the tech had me wipe the OS and return it to factory status. This accomplished nothing, and for the usual reasons I'm reluctant to call India again.

I have a Toshiba laptop Vista that is one year old, and Snuffy and Felix were very kind to help me with it's quirks. I hope I can be helped again with these problems with my new Dell.

I sincerely thank any and all in advance who may help. Whatever questions/advice are offered I will attend to as time permits, so please don't think I'm not interested if I cannot promptly reply.

Some facts:

I'm on dial-up (and do NOT have these problems with my laptop).

My ISP is MSN.

My pc is a:

Dell Inspiron 530S Vista Home Basic

E2160 Processor @1.80 GHz Intel Pentium Dual

250 GB HD

2 GB memory (2037MB)

32 bit OS

CD/DVD RW

As an aside, what ISP would be suggested? Sometimes I have more problems with MSN ....they sent me the MSN 9.5, but admitted they have problems with Vista. I've had it for years and am reluctant to switch to something that may be just as troublesome.

[airman]

I would ask no Broadband available were you are or cannot afford it and you are using IE or Firefox for a browser or the MSN browser which when I had dial up I never liked at all. What kind of speed are you getting with this dial up as I remember dial up is suppose to be 52kbit/s which is never seen but your lucky if you get 34kbit/s -45kbit/s as I recall were are you in this range. Years ago I used PC Pitstop to tell me what kind of problems i had with dial up that maybe a thing you could try they have a full test procedure and it tell you what is wrong with you PC in general. What type modem do you have and are you plugged into a good phone conncection.

[LindaJean]

Hi Airman! Thank you for responding. I haven't had a problem with dial-up before the advent of Vista. I could get broadband, but the cost is prohibative at this time. My needs are very simple. I read the news and listen to certain programs on the net. Even my win 98SE functioned well.

My speed is 56K, my modem is Conexant, my phone line is good since, as I said, I don't have this difficulty on my Toshiba Vista laptop.

BTW, the message "A cable is unplugged......" doe this refer to those with broadband?

As Isaid in the previous post, this desktop pc isn't even a month old yet. I set it up myself, perhaps I made an error somewhere along the line?

I may have given the impression in my previous post that I only have drop out when listening to archived shows; not true. It also happens when listening to live shows.

[LindaJean]

After several unsuccessful attempts with other Dell techs, the problems were resolved with the efforts of a senior Dell hardware tech. After listening to the recitation of my pc problems, he immediately knew what was wrong. (It turns out he had experienced the exact set of problems with his own home pc).

The problems listed were caused by a corrupt OS on a brand new pc. A CLEAN reinstallation was done, several drivers reinstalled, then a follow-up call was needed to reinstall a graphics driver.

During this experience, I learned that a reinstall, without the cd, as an earlier tech had me do, simply takes the mirror image of the OS, then reinstalls it again. Thus, it's simply reinstalling the corrupt OS.

The OS needed to be "wiped", then a clean reinstall from the cd needed to be done, instead.

* I never would have considered that I had a brand new pc with a corrupt OS installed.

I'm posting my experience in the hopes that it may help someone else who might experience these same problems. The people on this forum have been quite kind to me in the past (Toshiba Vista laptop, one year ago), and I appreciate the assistance.

Hopefully this info may help someone else. Thank you.

[Znod]

I would use the Dell 30-day return option and return the machine. Alternatively, maybe you can get a restore DVD from Dell. You can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.