Problem with WXP upgrade advisor

[sk]

Hi:
I want to upgrade from W98 to XP. When I run the upgrade
advisor, it hangs up when it is examining or checking
programs at "DVD Player". However, I do not have any DVD
player installed on my machine. I am hesitant to ignore
this problem and install as I do not know the hardware
software incompatibilities.
I see in the group that others have had the same problem
but I did not find any solution. If any one knows how to
fix it and suggest solutions, I would appreciate it very
much.
I have an AMD athlon, 500 mhz, 256 mb ram, 80 g harddrive
machine, with ATI 32mb all-in-one video card.
Sincerely,
SK

 

[Dublevay]

It is unlikely that the "core" parts of your system, as described below will
cause any issues.

The main culprits for incompatibilities with Win XP are peripherals. For
instance, scanners, older modems etc. Software is also another area which
can cause problems. I did fret about this problem for some time before
biting the bullet and upgrading. My scanner stopped working, and I cannot
run a few games these days, but overall, my computer is a better machine
than it used to be.

JW

 

[kurttrail]

"By the act of scrolling this post on your computer, and/or printing or
replying to this post, you agree that I am your everlasting Lord &
Saviour. Breach of this term will result in you burning in hell for
ever and ever! Amen!"

Hi:
I want to upgrade from W98 to XP. When I run the upgrade
advisor, it hangs up when it is examining or checking
programs at "DVD Player". However, I do not have any DVD
player installed on my machine. I am hesitant to ignore
this problem and install as I do not know the hardware
software incompatibilities.
I see in the group that others have had the same problem
but I did not find any solution. If any one knows how to
fix it and suggest solutions, I would appreciate it very
much.
I have an AMD athlon, 500 mhz, 256 mb ram, 80 g harddrive
machine, with ATI 32mb all-in-one video card.
Sincerely,
SK

Boy, will that run a lot slower with XP installed. The best upgrade for
that machine is 98SE.

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"

 

[Dublevay]

That all depends on what it's intended usage is. Office applications ...
fine. Modern games ... no.

JW

 

[kurttrail]

"By the act of scrolling this post on your computer, and/or printing or
replying to this post, you agree that I am your everlasting Lord &
Saviour. Breach of this term will result in you burning in hell for
ever and ever! Amen!"

That all depends on what it's intended usage is. Office applications
... fine. Modern games ... no.

Well since the guy can't even get the upgrade advisor to finish, I
wouldn't think that bodes very well for the upgrade to go smoothly, so
Office Apps may not run at all, after trying to do a blind upgrade.

Do you know how people have complained about a XP upgrade crapping out
in the middle of the installation? Or how many people had to do a clean
install after upgrading, because they upgraded without running the
Upgrade Advisor, and couldn't get rid of the conflicts any other way
after the upgrade?

You might like to play "Russian Roulette" with your computer, but this
guy is rightfully apprehensive to upgrade to XP. Personally, I wouldn't
upgrade without a full disk image of my harddrive, so I could go back to
what was working, if and when the XP upgrade went south.

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"

 

[Dublevay]

You might like to play "Russian Roulette" with your computer, but this
guy is rightfully apprehensive to upgrade to XP. Personally, I wouldn't
upgrade without a full disk image of my harddrive, so I could go back to
what was working, if and when the XP upgrade went south.

It's not Russian Roulette. Provided you have taken precautions to back up
your most precious data, there should be no real problems. It's a learning
experience.

JW

 

[kurttrail]

"By the act of scrolling this post on your computer, and/or printing or
replying to this post, you agree that I am your everlasting Lord &
Saviour. Breach of this term will result in you burning in hell for
ever and ever! Amen!"

It's not Russian Roulette. Provided you have taken precautions to
back up your most precious data, there should be no real problems.
It's a learning experience.

JW

LOL! You told the guy not to worry about not completely the Upgrade
Advisor. If he took your advice, blindly upgrading, it would be playing
"Russian Roulette." The older the machine, the more likely XP won't run
on it. So only backing up only the data would still mean hours if not
days to get back to a running computer with all programs reinstalled.
And the learning eXPerience the guy has is that he was a fool to proceed
with his XP Upgrade. Only a full disk image will save the OP from a
total Upgrade disaster.

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"

 

[Dublevay]

LOL! You told the guy not to worry about not completely the Upgrade
Advisor.

Where did I say that?

I said it is unlikely that the core parts of his system would cause any
problems. I.e. his processor is compatible, his memory is compatible, his
harddrive is compatible, and his videocard is compatible. That was all the
information proffered, and that is all I worked with.

I then proceeded to say that after upgrading to Windows XP MY machine has
been better than ever before.

I personally cannot be bothered with complete disk imaging. I back up what I
need to, and if Windows goes screwy, then I'll do a fresh install. Besides,
if upgrading to Windows XP it is not a good idea to actually "upgrade". It's
best to wipe the OS partition completely, set up your new partitions (if
required), then reinstall from scratch. Much cleaner, and much less prone to
problems.

 

[kurttrail]

"By the act of scrolling this post on your computer, and/or printing or
replying to this post, you agree that I am your everlasting Lord &
Saviour. Breach of this term will result in you burning in hell for
ever and ever! Amen!"

Where did I say that?

I said it is unlikely that the core parts of his system would cause
any problems. I.e. his processor is compatible, his memory is
compatible, his harddrive is compatible, and his videocard is
compatible. That was all the information proffered, and that is all I
worked with.

I then proceeded to say that after upgrading to Windows XP MY machine
has been better than ever before.

Except for your scanner and a few games. And this where you implied not
to worry about it.

I personally cannot be bothered with complete disk imaging. I back up
what I need to, and if Windows goes screwy, then I'll do a fresh
install. Besides, if upgrading to Windows XP it is not a good idea to
actually "upgrade". It's best to wipe the OS partition completely,
set up your new partitions (if required), then reinstall from
scratch. Much cleaner, and much less prone to problems.

But none of this takes into account that the OP can't even run the
Upgrade Advisor to completion, so what makes you think the OP should go
on ahead and blindly continue with the XP install? How do you know it's
not some hardware that's making it fail? Maybe you like starting from
scratch, but to most people it's more of a chore or even worse. It
takes me days to get my config back after starting from scratch, and I
know what I'm doing. With a disk image the OP would be up and running
within hours, if not minutes, depending on the size of the image. Your
approach is reckless, and it's OK with you, but most people just want a
computer that works without too much fuss.

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"

 

[John Whitworth]

"By the act of scrolling this post on your computer, and/or printing or
replying to this post, you agree that I am your everlasting Lord &
Saviour. Breach of this term will result in you burning in hell for
ever and ever! Amen!"

Except for your scanner and a few games. And this where you implied not
to worry about it.

You really should stop implying things in your own mind. Just because
YOU read something that way, it doesn't mean that everyone reads it
that way. It was never meant to imply that the OP should go ahead and
do as I said. I was merely offering my own experiences.

But none of this takes into account that the OP can't even run the
Upgrade Advisor to completion, so what makes you think the OP should go
on ahead and blindly continue with the XP install? How do you know it's
not some hardware that's making it fail? Maybe you like starting from
scratch, but to most people it's more of a chore or even worse. It
takes me days to get my config back after starting from scratch, and I
know what I'm doing. With a disk image the OP would be up and running
within hours, if not minutes, depending on the size of the image. Your
approach is reckless, and it's OK with you, but most people just want a
computer that works without too much fuss.

If you really "know what you are doing", then you would know not to
try and install Windows XP over a DOS-based operating system. It
creates a nasty mess. For a smoothly running "without too much fuss"
machine, a fresh install is the only method in my opinion.

And I certainly hope that once the OP finally goes ahead and installs
Windows XP from scratch, finds it works, and wishes to get their old
documents back, that they will be able to extract individual files
from the disk image? Surely standard back-ups are a lot easier in this
scenario?

Has it occurred to you that the Upgrade Advisor might be failing
because of some existing problem with the current OS installed? I had
problems with the Upgrade Advisor, which were not founded when I
finally installed the OS. OK, so my scanner didn't work for a couple
of months until Mustek provided an XP compatible one, but then again,
I did have Windows XP within the first month of it being available.
Such problems should not be as widespread now.

By the way, it takes me around 4 hours to restore my system from
scratch, with all of my settings, and around 20 'most-used'
applications. Games I install as and when required. So either:

i - your computer is a lot slower than mine
ii - you are a lot slower than me
iii - both.

You certainly IMPLY option (iii) in your posts. Option (ii) is
demonstrated explicitly.

OK. I can't be bothered to go round and round in circles anymore with
you. We did it all before over activation - remember? Your newsgroup
reply header shows that you are a bit of a muppet, so I'm going to
place my efforts elsewhere.

See ya!

JW

 

[kurttrail]

"By the act of scrolling this post on your computer, and/or printing or
replying to this post, you agree that I am your everlasting Lord &
Saviour. Breach of this term will result in you burning in hell for
ever and ever! Amen!"

You really should stop implying things in your own mind. Just because
YOU read something that way, it doesn't mean that everyone reads it
that way. It was never meant to imply that the OP should go ahead and
do as I said. I was merely offering my own experiences.

Your rather limited experience, upgrading one computer. Anyone with any
sense would tell the OP to be very wary of upgrading, if they can't even
run the Upgrade Advisor to completion.

"I did fret about this problem for some time before
biting the bullet and upgrading. My scanner stopped working, and I
cannot
run a few games these days, but overall, my computer is a better machine
than it used to be."

When I do something with my software setup that might be potentially
hazardous to it's well-being, I don't have to "fret" one bit, I just
back up my OS partition beforehand, and if something screws up, I boot
up into another OS, and am back and running in minutes. The only people
that have to "fret" over doing things with a computer are those not
fully prepared for disaster recovery, before disaster happens.

If you really "know what you are doing", then you would know not to
try and install Windows XP over a DOS-based operating system. It
creates a nasty mess. For a smoothly running "without too much fuss"
machine, a fresh install is the only method in my opinion.

Then MS should stop making their OS's upgradeable. As long as people
can
do upgrades of OS's, they will. Most people don't want to spend more
than an hour to upgrade to an OS.

And I certainly hope that once the OP finally goes ahead and installs
Windows XP from scratch, finds it works, and wishes to get their old
documents back, that they will be able to extract individual files
from the disk image? Surely standard back-ups are a lot easier in this
scenario?

Yes, if he can install it and get it running. But, if like some people
with older hardware, he can't find a way to successfully install XP,
he'll have to spend a lot of time and effort to get back to a working
computer. With a full disk image, he'll back and running that same day,
with no hassles about where's this driver, where's that product key.
Rebooting 50 million times.

Has it occurred to you that the Upgrade Advisor might be failing
because of some existing problem with the current OS installed?

Yes it did, but I think the more likely candidate is his old ATI AIW
card. All the multimedia functions, except the basic video driver,
aren't supported with XP.

I had
problems with the Upgrade Advisor, which were not founded when I
finally installed the OS. OK, so my scanner didn't work for a couple
of months until Mustek provided an XP compatible one, but then again,
I did have Windows XP within the first month of it being available.
Such problems should not be as widespread now.

Not all old hardware works with XP. XP is the flakiest OS MS has put
out for the PC, when it comes to running older hardware. I've seen
computers that will run various flavors of Linux, W2k Server, W2Kpro,
NT4, W98, Win95, but XP just craps out during the installation. And
that would be clean installs. To me it is reckless advice to tell some
one that can't even run the Upgrade Advisor to completion, not to have a
full disk image before trying to install/upgrade to XP on older
hardware.

By the way, it takes me around 4 hours to restore my system from
scratch, with all of my settings, and around 20 'most-used'
applications. Games I install as and when required. So either:

i - your computer is a lot slower than mine
ii - you are a lot slower than me
iii - both.

Or I have a lot more friggin' software than you, and I do my setups more
methodically, so I run a more stable setup, so I don't reinstall from
scratch as often as you do, so there! LOL! So now do you want to
compare penis size?!

You certainly IMPLY option (iii) in your posts. Option (ii) is
demonstrated explicitly.

How? You are the one that is basing your opinions on one OS upgrade.

OK. I can't be bothered to go round and round in circles anymore with
you. We did it all before over activation - remember?

No. There is nothing all that memorable about you. There are many
idiots around here that give out bad advise based on their own rather
limited eXPeriences.

Your newsgroup
reply header shows that you are a bit of a muppet, so I'm going to
place my efforts elsewhere.

"Why are there so many songs about rainbows . . . ."

See ya!

Wouldn't want to be ya!

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei!"