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8098
January 3rd, 2001 19:00
Strange OS Behavior
All
This may seem strange but here goes.....new Dell Dimension 4100
On our system we upgraded from windows ME to Win2k by using the win2k upgrade feature - note we did not reinstall. The reasons for this is because of the extremely poor performance (and this is been documented, not just our experience) with graphic applications (photoshop). Well now Win2k will "hang" when minimizing applications or when switching between applications. It looks like it pegs (100%) the processor, but the video does freeze. It usually takes 15 seconds for the system to "unfreeze itself". We got the latest video driver for win2k as well as the latest win2k service pack.
This is for my wife's work machine, so needless to say this is a major annoyance. When contacting tech support they mentioned that they CAN NOT support the machine because we installed Win2k. This is somewhat understandable, because the machine is now in non-standard dell configuration and would be difficult to support. Unfortunately the tech did not handle this situation well and really really really upset my wife. Sadly he did not offer any suggestions or even attempt to help. And has possibly made our next PC vendor choice for us, or at least eliminated a choice. Choice != Dell.
So now I am over with my rant...Has anyone seen this behavior with Win2k? Shoud I format the hard drive before installing Win2k? Could this be a HW issue or a SW issue.
Thanks
Jack
This may seem strange but here goes.....new Dell Dimension 4100
On our system we upgraded from windows ME to Win2k by using the win2k upgrade feature - note we did not reinstall. The reasons for this is because of the extremely poor performance (and this is been documented, not just our experience) with graphic applications (photoshop). Well now Win2k will "hang" when minimizing applications or when switching between applications. It looks like it pegs (100%) the processor, but the video does freeze. It usually takes 15 seconds for the system to "unfreeze itself". We got the latest video driver for win2k as well as the latest win2k service pack.
This is for my wife's work machine, so needless to say this is a major annoyance. When contacting tech support they mentioned that they CAN NOT support the machine because we installed Win2k. This is somewhat understandable, because the machine is now in non-standard dell configuration and would be difficult to support. Unfortunately the tech did not handle this situation well and really really really upset my wife. Sadly he did not offer any suggestions or even attempt to help. And has possibly made our next PC vendor choice for us, or at least eliminated a choice. Choice != Dell.
So now I am over with my rant...Has anyone seen this behavior with Win2k? Shoud I format the hard drive before installing Win2k? Could this be a HW issue or a SW issue.
Thanks
Jack
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Bob11
2 Intern
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1.6K Posts
0
January 3rd, 2001 20:00
Cowboy Wisdom:
"Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance."
- Bob -
7XDB8
Jim Hardin
2 Intern
•
2.1K Posts
0
January 3rd, 2001 21:00
The last time I looked at a W2K Upgrade box (only looked) it did not mention ME. I would guess your problems are self inflected.
Dell won’t support it, but MS will. If you can’t get anything from Bob 11’s suggestion, give MS a try.
There is no excuse for your wife’s experience with Dell. I would post that in Customer Support – General and see what develops there.
TallMikey
13 Posts
0
January 4th, 2001 11:00
http://www.ita.sel.sony.com/support/pc/w2kcleaninstall.html
Be sure that you have downloaded the necessary driver updates from Dell for your system.
Installing WIN2K takes some effort to sort out the driver support (video, modem, sound card, etc.), but once you get it working it is a very stable system.
Ronfutrell
7 Posts
0
January 4th, 2001 17:00
TallMikey
13 Posts
0
January 5th, 2001 16:00
The install is often successful when used to upgrade NT4 to W2K, less successful if you chose another path other than Dual-boot.
If you decide to do a non Dual-boot "clean install" using the W2K upgrade CD, then you may need to provide proof of ownership of a prior version of WINDOWS.
In other words, you can upgrade your current environment if it is NT4 (and your NT4 drivers are compatible with W2K), or you can install W2K from scratch if you choose (and not carry your currently installed software forward, as you would normally expect when you upgrade).
In short, you don't have to spend extra money for the full version of W2K when the upgrade version will suffice.