General Vista Issues

[Love_again]

Hello everyone
With every passing day, I am becoming more and more annoyed with vista, laptops, and all the complications that come along. Problems seem to be cropping up all the time, and there's nothing that i seem to be able to do

a) My drivers crash after 15 min of gaming, whether it be on CSS or UT3. It seems that there is no current fix available (after hours surfing on Nvidia forums, but a way to decrease the frequency of the error would be to install Service pack 1

b) Problem is, service pack 1 doesn't bloody show up on my windows update, So i think it is time for me to do a fresh format (after only 6 months of usage. I remember being able to keep XP fresh for over 1 year and a half)

So my questions go as follow.

1) Since the jolly fellows over at my IBM store didn't give me any CDS, How do I proceed to a complete format and reinstallation of windows? I believe my computer has a hidden partition with the install files on it, but i'm not entirely sure how to come about to install windows in a completely clean fashion (I.E thourough formatting)

2) Which is more important to do. the "ThinkVantage Update System" updates, or the "Windows Updates". This is especially important for my Video Card drivers as I want to be able to download the newest ones, in hope to avoid any further Glitches.

Thanks alot for reading my rant! The help provided by you folks is always much appreciated
Nick

[icantux]

You realize all your questions have been asked and answered a few dozen times already on these forums - yes?

If you've never made Restore Disks, well, it's easy enough to do. In Vista:
- click the start (orb)
- click "all programs"
- scroll down to "ThinkVantage"
- select Create Restore disks.

.... there's enough additional info in these forums by doing a quick search to get all the details.

Next, you can do a clean install of Vista if you please, follow these instructions found HERE

Obviously, make sure you backup all your important information before doing a clean install. Same applies to restoring your system to factory settings.

Also, if you do decide to install XP or Vista from scratch, I'd suggest you download all the drivers for your laptop from Lenovo before going ahead with the installation.

Cheers

PS: on a side note... why would you consider buying a business laptop for gaming?? LOL!!!!

[jdhurst]

As icantux notes, questions have already been addressed.

I downloaded SP1 and installed it without issue (although I didn't see it Windows Update). Service packs are better downloaded and installed separately. It took several hours for SP1 to fully install.

I bought the CD's (Vista and XP Pro) and they are cheap enough for most people to purchase and get on with it.
... JDH

[DAH]

You can try this link to down load Vista Service Pack 1 There are currently 5 languages that this link supports. It your computer is set to one of these you should be in luck, if not you will most likely need to wait until Microsoft gets around to releasing a version in your language. You may also want to try googleing on microsoft and service pack 1 if the above link does not work for you.

[Love_again]

The reason I got this was because there was a massive discount where I was buying it (from an IBM shop in Geneva, Switzerland) And for a modest few hundred francs, the hardware upgrade was much much better. This laptop isn't exclusively for gaming anyways.

Thank you for the link to that website icantux. It is prooving to be really useful. So what does the Lenovo community suggest. Windows XP service pack 3 or Vista?

P.S Sorry for the repetitive questions. I am a new user and have just found the "search" button on the forum

[Kyocera]

Before I installed sp1 I did a massive google "search and read" mission to see the issues others were having with sp1. Then after determining it "was" worth the risk to give it a shot, I went ahead and did the install. No problems at all yet. You may want to hold off no yours as there are some issues with certain graphics drivers and OEM softwares.

[icantux]

The reason I got this was because there was a massive discount where I was buying it (from an IBM shop in Geneva, Switzerland) And for a modest few hundred francs, the hardware upgrade was much much better. This laptop isn't exclusively for gaming anyways.

Thank you for the link to that website icantux. It is prooving to be really useful. So what does the Lenovo community suggest. Windows XP service pack 3 or Vista?

P.S Sorry for the repetitive questions. I am a new user and have just found the "search" button on the forum

Hi - glad it helped.

Regarding Vista v. XP ... It really comes down to your needs. Additionally, regarding laptops, most will agree that battery life and performance on their ThinkPads are better running XP. The other advantage of using XP, of course, is legacy software/hardware support.

Secondly, there are some other factors to keep in mind while making the choice - there are hardware and software issues that may arise as a result of migrating from XP to Vista.

As for hardware, there is a number of hardware apparatuses that will simply not work with Vista, no matter how you install the drivers. A case in point are some older (a year old!!) scanners, printers and other peripherals - the manufacturers of many such devices simply refuse to code vista-ready drivers for their "older" products, thus you're left with the choice of purchasing new items that are "Vista ready". A bitter pill for me to swallow, as I have enough $$ invested in hardware that still serves me very well in XP but will not work in Vista (flatbed SCSI scanner, Slide scanner, other hardware)...

As for software, the same may apply. To be fair, Vista does offer users to install programs in "XP SP2 compatibility" mode, much like XP offers users to install older programs in "Win98SE compatibility mode". This, however, is not a cure-all. I've found many instances that software intended for use in XP will not work as well in Vista - one of the reasons being Vista's "security" features (UAC, Defender, etc..) Sure, a user can turn those "features" off, but then that opens up a different can of worms. Additionally, Vista can still block some programs from running even though some of this new software is (supposedly) "Vista ready"!! Go figure. If the program is not digitally signed and such signature certified by Microsoft, then Vista will "block" the program from running, until you, the user, specifically indicate that you want to run it. Problem is you have to "unblock" the programs every time on every start - gets extremely annoying!! You have no control over what Vista deems "unsigned", therefore, "digitally unsecure", therefore blocked by Vista. You may try to circumvent that by running a program in "Administrative" mode, but that won't fix Vista's desire to "block" programs.

Thank you Microsoft for telling us plebes what we should and shouldn't be running on our computers.

In short - if you're starting from nothing, then Vista could be an avenue to pursue. However, if you're migrating from long-time previous use of XP, then you have a number of things to consider - the compatibility of your existing hardware and software among them.

Personally, I view Vista as a nice operating system, more refined than XP, however, with all the unnecessary bells and whistles (which do slow the system down) coupled with this trend of all these "digital" restrictions that Microsoft introduced in Vista tends to put me off and push me away from Vista altogether. Again, this is a personal view. For all its faults, I prefer XP over Vista.

Tried to be objective though in explaining the differences from a user perspective. Hope this clarifies things.

All the best!

[bill bolton]

Thank you Microsoft for telling us plebes what we should and shouldn't be running on our computers.

[snip]

Tried to be objective

You failed!

Cheers,

Bill B.