Compaq Presario F579WM Notebook

I recently fixed this laptop and it wasn't easy. It experienced spontaneous reboots, BSDs (blue screen of death)  and was generally possessed. The exorcism wasn't easy and took too much time. This was definitely one of the harder problems I've faced. Whats irritating is that it seemed to come down to a memory problem and I diagnosed this previously over the phone in January on a laptop from HP which owns Compaq! Memory issues are insidious because they are hard to track down and cause lockups and reboots which foul up the hard drive and make the problem worse. After removing the problem module and fixing the problems on the hard drive, I was able to run the restore program built in and recover the operating system (Vista) from the hidden partition designed for this event.

Dual booting Vista and XP

Today our episode begins with our trusty hero(me) and his hearty sidekick(Mutzi, sleeping) attempting to install windows vista with windows xp already installed hoping to arrive at a dual booting solution. Lets watch.

The scenario thus far:

• An existing windows xp install on an 80 GB hard drive (IDE) volume label: WinXp
  
• A free 80 GB hard drive (IDE)
  
• A 1.5 TB hard drive with data
• A 400 GB hard drive with data

Where I want to end up:

• An existing windows xp install on an 80 GB hard drive (IDE)
• An existing windows vista install on an 80 GB hard drive (IDE)
• A 1.5 TB hard drive with data (SATA)
  
• A 400 GB hard drive with data (SATA)
• The ability to boot into either operating system
• No loss of data

The steps taken:

1. I took the precaution of unplugging the two SATA drive data cables for safety.
2. I had to swap out the cd burner and swap in a DVD-Rom (Vista comes on a DVD).
3. After booting up, I put the dvd in the drive.
4. It asked if I wanted to do a compatibility check or install now. I chose install now.
5. Chose "go online to get the latest updates for installation".
6. Product activation time, type in the code.
7. I accept the terms
8. "which type of installation do you want? We chose custom(advanced)
9. Here's the reason why I labeled my xp install "WinXp". It wants to know which disk to install to. The one not labeled "WinXp"! Duh!
10. It's doing it's thing (the time is 2:55 P.M.)
11. Once, twice, three times the reboot (unless I counted wrong) and.....
12. And, Presto! Done! (the time is 3:20 P.M.)
13. Well, I thought we were done....
14. and presto, done, I guess (the time is 3:28)

The aftermath:

• In device manager, the only things with exclamation marks are the RAID controller and the SM Bus controller
• Vista works
• Upon, restarting, WinXP works!
• Problems: I'm using a DFI motherboard, it's old and there are no drivers for the Silicon Image 3114 SataRaid Controller.
• Silicon Image does provide a driver
• It still doesn't work right. When it does, I'll update
• Mutzi, still sleeping
  

The afterword:

This is not the first time I have installed Vista. I just never used it and didn't care for it. Still, I own it and should use it because lots of other people don't have the option not to own or use it. It came with the computer they bought and maybe at the time it seemed like a good idea. The old saying goes "you gotta dance with the one who brung ya". So I'm gonna suffer with you. Besides, Microsoft finally gave birth to Windows 7 so I'll end up installing that again too.

Updating Vista and Asking for Trouble

Forgive me Blogger for things have happened and I have not blogged for 4 days. But,then all at once, hell breaks loose. Well, computer hell! Let me explain.

Mary has a Toshiba laptop with Windows Vista on it. Nothing earth shaking there, I must admit. Or so I thought. Yesterday, I thought I'd go over it and run Windows update and do some scans. I never got past Windows update. I ran it and clicked on custom (never just blindly install anything, always click on custom) looked it over and, ho hum, just routine. I even went for Internet Explorer 8 because it's Vista, Mary just types stuff and plays games and goes online so no harm no foul.

Foul! Hell and damnation! Vista went into an infinite loop! "Vas ist das? 'infinite loop' "? I've dabbled a bit in programming and it's a bad thing. The computer just kept looping through a series of messages saying it's updating and restarting and this and that but it was never ending. You can feel quite powerless during something like this, let me tell you. I let it run all night to see if there was an end to it. Nope.

I tried some voodoo on it. Even though it said not to, I shut it off in the middle of it all just to see if I could shock it out of it's hypnotic state. Nope. I started it in "safe mode" and tried each one of the choices. Nope. Took the battery out and starved it for awhile to teach it a lesson. Nope. I opened and shut the DVD tray and opened and shut the lid several times (eerily reminiscent of mechanics looking under the hood, but not doing anything in front of you) but, nada.

At this point, I realized I had a real problem on my hands. One, a sputtering laptop that just wanted to loop the loop like an acid freak having some deranged flashbacks, and two, My wife kind of tapping her foot mentally as her genius "I got this" husband of hers looked kind of lost (She really wanted to play "bookworm" right then).

Okay, the one option I didn't use during safe mode was "repair your computer". Duh! I used that trump card and chose "system restore" to go to a prior restore point. The one I chose was made automatically by Vista just before Windows update started it's routine. Way to go Microsoft!! It's almost like they saw trouble coming from someone using their update service. Weird, huh? Update your computer, turns into a brick! Who knew? Maybe it's marketing. It's obsolete, go by a new one, with you know Windows 7 on it!

Well, anyway, it fixed it. Trouble with that, it took all the updates back. Another insult was that I checked with Microsoft and their advice was to run a file called "blah, blah, blah, kb 937287". The important part here being "blah, blah, blah" because that didn't work either. So, I made some notes to help anyone else having this fun experience with Windows update:

1. Run system restore
2. Try kb 937287 (search their website for this)
3. Go to update and choose custom then critical for Vista only (not I.E. 8)
   
4. Go to update and get the rest of Vista updates (not I.E 8)
5. Update, only Office 2003
6. Update, only Office 2008
7. Get the rest, always skipping Internet Explorer 8
8. The very last update, which I skipped would be I.E. 8

Here's why you have to do this in this manner. What probably happened during my computers episode was that it was to many updates all at once and some of those updates were life changing(I.E. 8) to an operating system(Vista). Sometimes you have to be gentle with your computer and I forgot that and paid for it. The reason you have to skip Internet Explorer till the end or not install it at all is it's indeed a huge file intensive update somewhat akin to a sex change on a human. Not a heart transplant by any means but once it's done, it's done and there's no going back. I mean, maybe, but it will be painful.