Update Issue w/Vista?

Hopefully someone will be able to help out since Dell tech cant. My daughter
has an Inspirion 1525, running Vista Home Basic. It has an Intel Celeron 2
GHZ, the vista version is 32 bit.

Now the problem.....as soon as you put any updates on including SP1 it has a
very slow bootup time and sometimes it may not boot up at all. When all
these issues occur from the updates, the only thing that shows is a black
screen, the microsoft copyright and the bar with the meter going from side to
side. Lots of hang time which never results in getting anywhere to which you
have to either remove the update, restore back to an "ok" point, but more
often than not you have to use advanced config.... and that doesnt always
work either.

I have restored, talked to Dell tech to which they sent out another restore
to get back to factory settings and once again, to no avail does it fix the
above. One tech support persons idea was to simply disable updates (which I
have already done out of sheer frusteration) but that only bandaids the
situation temporarily.

Thanks!

Hi, Raivin.

> Lots of hang time which never results in getting anywhere

Please define "lots". The process of installing updates can take a lot
longer than we expect. Let it run overnight and see what you find in the
morning.

With many updates, only part of the job can be done before rebooting. After
the reboot, the update installation continues. During this time, there may
be several stages where it seems nothing is happening - but things ARE
happening "behind the curtain". Just give it enough time. I'm sure you've
heard that "the watched pot never boils". :^}

How much RAM does her computer have? The update process may be spending a
lot of time swapping from RAM to HD and back again. I'm not familiar with
Dell's numbers, but a Celeron with Vista Home Basic might have come with too
little RAM to perform up to her expectations. It might run with 512 MB, but
1 GB would be a more reasonable minimum and more is much better.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

"raivin" <raivin@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:2B076F86-D90F-42BF-AED1-82BF35F6060B@microsoft.com...
> Hopefully someone will be able to help out since Dell tech cant. My
> daughter
> has an Inspirion 1525, running Vista Home Basic. It has an Intel Celeron
> 2
> GHZ, the vista version is 32 bit.
>
> Now the problem.....as soon as you put any updates on including SP1 it has
> a
> very slow bootup time and sometimes it may not boot up at all. When all
> these issues occur from the updates, the only thing that shows is a black
> screen, the microsoft copyright and the bar with the meter going from side
> to
> side. Lots of hang time which never results in getting anywhere to which
> you
> have to either remove the update, restore back to an "ok" point, but more
> often than not you have to use advanced config.... and that doesnt always
> work either.
>
> I have restored, talked to Dell tech to which they sent out another
> restore
> to get back to factory settings and once again, to no avail does it fix
> the
> above. One tech support persons idea was to simply disable updates (which
> I
> have already done out of sheer frusteration) but that only bandaids the
> situation temporarily.
>
> Thanks!

Hi R.C.,

Thank you for the reply. I thought that too about the updates and waited at
least 30 minutes and we have even let it run overnight.... only to be on that
same blank screen like its attempting to do something and never does.
You will hear the HD spinning and active but than you hear the spinning stop
for a little bit, maybe 3-4 mins and than will start spinning again but still
nothing happens.

My daughter's laptop says 550 @ 2.0 GHZ and for RAM it says 1014MB.

Now, again I spoke to a Dell tech and they looked through the system trying
to discover why its doing what it is via remote access but were unable to
find a cause, once again they had me manually reinstall Vista; right now it
boots up A-ok but I have yet to put on any updates..... which is when I'm
sure problems will arise. The tech thinks it could be a HD issue and wants
to replace it.

---Raivin



"R. C. White" wrote:

> Hi, Raivin.
>
> > Lots of hang time which never results in getting anywhere
>
> Please define "lots". The process of installing updates can take a lot
> longer than we expect. Let it run overnight and see what you find in the
> morning.
>
> With many updates, only part of the job can be done before rebooting. After
> the reboot, the update installation continues. During this time, there may
> be several stages where it seems nothing is happening - but things ARE
> happening "behind the curtain". Just give it enough time. I'm sure you've
> heard that "the watched pot never boils". :^}
>
> How much RAM does her computer have? The update process may be spending a
> lot of time swapping from RAM to HD and back again. I'm not familiar with
> Dell's numbers, but a Celeron with Vista Home Basic might have come with too
> little RAM to perform up to her expectations. It might run with 512 MB, but
> 1 GB would be a more reasonable minimum and more is much better.
>
> RC
> --
> R. C. White, CPA
> San Marcos, TX
> rc@grandecom.net
> Microsoft Windows MVP
> (Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)
>
> "raivin" <raivin@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:2B076F86-D90F-42BF-AED1-82BF35F6060B@microsoft.com...
> > Hopefully someone will be able to help out since Dell tech cant. My
> > daughter
> > has an Inspirion 1525, running Vista Home Basic. It has an Intel Celeron
> > 2
> > GHZ, the vista version is 32 bit.
> >
> > Now the problem.....as soon as you put any updates on including SP1 it has
> > a
> > very slow bootup time and sometimes it may not boot up at all. When all
> > these issues occur from the updates, the only thing that shows is a black
> > screen, the microsoft copyright and the bar with the meter going from side
> > to
> > side. Lots of hang time which never results in getting anywhere to which
> > you
> > have to either remove the update, restore back to an "ok" point, but more
> > often than not you have to use advanced config.... and that doesnt always
> > work either.
> >
> > I have restored, talked to Dell tech to which they sent out another
> > restore
> > to get back to factory settings and once again, to no avail does it fix
> > the
> > above. One tech support persons idea was to simply disable updates (which
> > I
> > have already done out of sheer frusteration) but that only bandaids the
> > situation temporarily.
> >
> > Thanks!
>

Hi, Raivin.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm sorry the problem is not fully fixed. yet.

> sure problems will arise. The tech thinks it could be a HD issue and
> wants
> to replace it.

That sounds like a winner to me! Please post back and let us know the
outcome.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

"raivin" <raivin@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BE18C214-CDB2-40D5-B840-23070901AC01@microsoft.com...
> Hi R.C.,
>
> Thank you for the reply. I thought that too about the updates and waited
> at
> least 30 minutes and we have even let it run overnight.... only to be on
> that
> same blank screen like its attempting to do something and never does.
> You will hear the HD spinning and active but than you hear the spinning
> stop
> for a little bit, maybe 3-4 mins and than will start spinning again but
> still
> nothing happens.
>
> My daughter's laptop says 550 @ 2.0 GHZ and for RAM it says 1014MB.
>
> Now, again I spoke to a Dell tech and they looked through the system
> trying
> to discover why its doing what it is via remote access but were unable to
> find a cause, once again they had me manually reinstall Vista; right now
> it
> boots up A-ok but I have yet to put on any updates..... which is when I'm
> sure problems will arise. The tech thinks it could be a HD issue and
> wants
> to replace it.
>
> ---Raivin
>
>
> "R. C. White" wrote:
>
>> Hi, Raivin.
>>
>> > Lots of hang time which never results in getting anywhere
>>
>> Please define "lots". The process of installing updates can take a lot
>> longer than we expect. Let it run overnight and see what you find in the
>> morning.
>>
>> With many updates, only part of the job can be done before rebooting.
>> After
>> the reboot, the update installation continues. During this time, there
>> may
>> be several stages where it seems nothing is happening - but things ARE
>> happening "behind the curtain". Just give it enough time. I'm sure
>> you've
>> heard that "the watched pot never boils". :^}
>>
>> How much RAM does her computer have? The update process may be spending
>> a
>> lot of time swapping from RAM to HD and back again. I'm not familiar
>> with
>> Dell's numbers, but a Celeron with Vista Home Basic might have come with
>> too
>> little RAM to perform up to her expectations. It might run with 512 MB,
>> but
>> 1 GB would be a more reasonable minimum and more is much better.
>>
>> RC
>>
>> "raivin" <raivin@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:2B076F86-D90F-42BF-AED1-82BF35F6060B@microsoft.com...
>> > Hopefully someone will be able to help out since Dell tech cant. My
>> > daughter
>> > has an Inspirion 1525, running Vista Home Basic. It has an Intel
>> > Celeron
>> > 2
>> > GHZ, the vista version is 32 bit.
>> >
>> > Now the problem.....as soon as you put any updates on including SP1 it
>> > has
>> > a
>> > very slow bootup time and sometimes it may not boot up at all. When
>> > all
>> > these issues occur from the updates, the only thing that shows is a
>> > black
>> > screen, the microsoft copyright and the bar with the meter going from
>> > side
>> > to
>> > side. Lots of hang time which never results in getting anywhere to
>> > which
>> > you
>> > have to either remove the update, restore back to an "ok" point, but
>> > more
>> > often than not you have to use advanced config.... and that doesnt
>> > always
>> > work either.
>> >
>> > I have restored, talked to Dell tech to which they sent out another
>> > restore
>> > to get back to factory settings and once again, to no avail does it fix
>> > the
>> > above. One tech support persons idea was to simply disable updates
>> > (which
>> > I
>> > have already done out of sheer frusteration) but that only bandaids the
>> > situation temporarily.
>> >
>> > Thanks!