Windows Vista

aidanki

Morning everyone,

Small bit of a Windows Vista problem on a relatively old laptop its 2008 but still going strong, used every day for browsing primarily. Lots of rubbish on the hard drive at this stage actually.

Its an Advent 6411 laptop, given great service over the years actually.

Its Running Windows Vista with all the updates to date installed.

Yesterday it refused to boot up, it told me it couldn’t log me on as it couldn’t find my profile, so I fixed that by restarting in safe mode and editing the registry as per instructions which can be found online.- All good after that.

I also ran the Vista Recovery CD which I had created a few years ago, however that didn’t find any errors.

Recurring 2 problem for the last 6months which Im not sure how to fix and could do with a bit of help with.

• 10% of the way into bootup the whole machine just stalls and I have to press Enter for it to continue to the logon page
• When I arrive at the logon page the window where you type in password is full of “

---

“ however the “-“ button isn’t stuck. Delete the “

---

“ and type in proper password and away it goes. The “-“ button on keyboard is the only key that doesn’t work.


Maybe I need to reinstall Vista ? how do I create a Vista install CD as that Recovery CD I created doesn’t work for this job. Should I do a clean Vista install or Windows 7 for that matter will I lose all the programs installed on the laptop such as word and excel ?

Also got a bit slow over time so maybe the time has come to do a clean Install,

Any thoughts.

mp22

The boot up issue may be windows seeing damaged hardware ie the keyboard.How hot dose the laptop get while running,put your hand near the hd.

aidanki

mp22 wrote: »

The boot up issue may be windows seeing damaged hardware ie the keyboard.How hot dose the laptop get while running,put your hand near the hd.

it seems to run fine

ED E

Its quite likely that the failed boot was due to read fails, at 6yrs the disk is at double its warranty period and well into the danger zone. First step is make sure you're backed up.

Zeroing the disk a few times then reinstalling vista may give it a short lived new lease of life. Its probably not worth SSD-ing so a lknger term repaid would be a new disk, 500GB 2.5"s are dirt cheap now. Wouldn't bother replacing a keyboard on a machine of that vintage for one failed key.

aidanki

ED E wrote: »

Its quite likely that the failed boot was due to read fails, at 6yrs the disk is at double its warranty period and well into the danger zone. First step is make sure you're backed up.

Zeroing the disk a few times then reinstalling vista may give it a short lived new lease of life. Its probably not worth SSD-ing so a lknger term repaid would be a new disk, 500GB 2.5"s are dirt cheap now. Wouldn't bother replacing a keyboard on a machine of that vintage for one failed key.

interesting comment on the lifespan as I like the machine, it has a fine big screen if nothing else

what else is to wear out in the laptop

easy for me buy a new harddrive and keyboard a second 2GB of RAM, Ill have the 3 for €100 & reinstall Vista or even Ubuntu, neighbour has one and says Ubuntu is excellent.

anyway what else is to wear out the screen is obvious risk, what about motherboard and graphics card and chipset ?

Skerries

have you tried using the onboard keyboard to see if you can use the - key to rule it out or an external keyboard?

ED E

aidanki wrote: »

interesting comment on the lifespan as I like the machine, it has a fine big screen if nothing else

Its worth noting here I was talking specifically about the drive. The HDD and fan are the only moving parts in your laptop and the only ones prone to "wearing out".

The rest of the components can go on indefinitely if you're lucky and caring but after a while they aren't worth keeping. At 6yo its old but not euthanasia old if you don't want to.

Alanstrainor

If you reinstall you will lose your programs, but you can backup your files to another hard disk or USB or whatever way you wish.

Tbh, it sounds like your issues are pretty minor, although I can appreciate that they are annoying. If I were you I would back up all my important files to some external drive and consider the possibility of getting a new laptop.

Replacing the hard drive, and upgrading the RAM will get some more life out of the machine, but tbh it will not last forever, so this may be a good time to consider a replacement.

riclad

You can backup your data ,reinstall vista .
You may need a new hardrive,
you could install linux mint ,its faster than windows .
I have old toshiba laptop ,
dual core 1.7ghz cpu.2gig ram.
It still works fine .
laptops can last a long time ,if they are kept cool .
Linux is much more secure than vista .
If you are just using a browser, playing music,watching online video ,
linux is a good os to use .
Motherboard,s ,chip,s ,cpus can last for 10 years ,
the only moving parts in a laptop are the hardrive ,and the cd drive ,the cooling fans .

https://linuxmint.com/rel_rosa_cinnamon_whatsnew.php.
If you do a full os reinstall windows might work fine .
IF you do a reinstall , you,ll lose all programs ,
apart from the windows os.
Backup all files ,music, photo ,s to a usb drive .
A linux live cd ,can acess any files on the drive ,
before you do an os installation.
Try reboot ,.tap f8 key .,
see does safe mode load up.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ie/windows/start-computer-safe-mode#start-computer-safe-mode=windows-7

But any laptop will wear out at some point .
my laptop is 8-9 years old .

aidanki

riclad wrote: »

You can backup your data ,reinstall vista .
You may need a new hardrive,
you could install linux mint ,its faster than windows .
I have old toshiba laptop ,
dual core 1.7ghz cpu.2gig ram.
It still works fine .
laptops can last a long time ,if they are kept cool .
Linux is much more secure than vista .
If you are just using a browser, playing music,watching online video ,
linux is a good os to use .
Motherboard,s ,chip,s ,cpus can last for 10 years ,
the only moving parts in a laptop are the hardrive ,and the cd drive ,the cooling fans .

https://linuxmint.com/rel_rosa_cinnamon_whatsnew.php.
If you do a full os reinstall windows might work fine .
IF you do a reinstall , you,ll lose all programs ,
apart from the windows os.
Backup all files ,music, photo ,s to a usb drive .
A linux live cd ,can acess any files on the drive ,
before you do an os installation.
Try reboot ,.tap f8 key .,
see does safe mode load up.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ie/windows/start-computer-safe-mode#start-computer-safe-mode=windows-7

But any laptop will wear out at some point .
my laptop is 8-9 years old .

does linux mint work with MS Office & Adobe ?

Alanstrainor

aidanki wrote: »

does linux mint work with MS Office & Adobe ?

Linux is an option, but practically none of your Windows applications will work. Generally there will be a different version that will run, but it is not the same.

riclad

You can install libreoffice free on linux mint,
I don,t think windows vista is safe to run on a laptop in 2016.
If you are using it for business or online banking.
or online shopping.

https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/

linux does not run ms word or excel.
You can buy a laptop with windows 7 on adverts.ie

And then download a free upgrade to windows 10.
If you want to be more secure online .
Some laptops have a hidden partition which allows you to reinstall windows vista .

. http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/775946-reinstall-vista-from-partition/

yoyo

Mod: If anyone has a problem with any poster or posts please report the post.

unkel

riclad wrote: »

I don,t think windows vista is safe to run on a laptop in 2016.

What a load of bull. Of course it is safe to use. Vista is supported by Microsoft until some time in 2017 (so will get security updates, etc. until then)

davo2001

unkel wrote: »

What a load of bull. Of course it is safe to use. Vista is supported by Microsoft until some time in 2017 (so will get security updates, etc. until then)

riclads answer to ever problem is to install linux :rolleyes:

PropJoe10

riclad wrote: »

You can install libreoffice free on linux mint,
I don,t think windows vista is safe to run on a laptop in 2016.
If you are using it for business or online banking.
or online shopping.

https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/

linux does not run ms word or excel.
You can buy a laptop with windows 7 on adverts.ie

And then download a free upgrade to windows 10.
If you want to be more secure online .
Some laptops have a hidden partition which allows you to reinstall windows vista .

. http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/775946-reinstall-vista-from-partition/

As someone said, Vista is supported til next year. You shouldn't be scaring people off using it when there's no need.

riclad

Even if Window vista is still supported ,
till 2017,
linux is a much more secure OS and runs much faster on older pc,s ,laptops
I,d be wary of giving my credit card info to a company that was using
windows vista to run its websites or handle its customer data and online sales .
I find linux 2-3 times faster than windows 7 on a laptop with 2gig ram.
cpu 1.7ghx dual core .
I doubt that google or amazon run windows vista on their main online servers
.
They probably use windows 7 or 10 or some version of linux server software .

davo2001

riclad wrote: »

Even if Window vista is still supported ,
till 2017,
linux is a much more secure OS and runs much faster on older pc,s ,laptops
I,d be wary of giving my credit card info to a company that was using
windows vista to run its websites or handle its customer data and online sales .
I find linux 2-3 times faster than windows 7 on a laptop with 2gig ram.
cpu 1.7ghx dual core .
I doubt that google or amazon run windows vista on their main online servers
.
They probably use windows 7 or 10 or some version of linux server software .

80% of this statement is simply not true.

PropJoe10

riclad wrote: »

Even if Window vista is still supported ,
till 2017,
linux is a much more secure OS and runs much faster on older pc,s ,laptops
I,d be wary of giving my credit card info to a company that was using
windows vista to run its websites or handle its customer data and online sales .
I find linux 2-3 times faster than windows 7 on a laptop with 2gig ram.
cpu 1.7ghx dual core .
I doubt that google or amazon run windows vista on their main online servers
.
They probably use windows 7 or 10 or some version of linux server software .

That's your opinion, and I personally much prefer running Linux than Windows, but not everyone wants to run Linux and running Linux is not the answer to everything!

yoyo

Hi folks. Can we get back on topic please. Use the report button to bring posters/posts to moderator attention. Thanks

homingbird

You can make a system image & restore it on too new harddrive with one of these :http://lifehacker.com/5303067/five-best-free-system-restore-tools