windows has a short lifespan

[otispunkmeyer]

man, i have had this install of XP SP2 on for about 8 months and its gone from spritely to just dog slow.

ok so i have done the usual stuffs, installed uninstalled programs, downloaded files, etc etc but seriously its like after so long windows just drops apart like a badly made car, all the trims fallen off and now its coughing an spluttering on the hard shoulder with a busted head gasket.

everythings starting to flake out, i get a failed boot every other time i turn on, and when it does work, all USB inputs just might just die.

its gonna need a fresh install, and i just cant be arsed. hopefully i can make it hold out 1 more month before i buy a new computer.

is vista like this? will it be like this? what about OS X?

if i sayill be using the following pretty extensively...which OS is best for me? 32bit, 64bit vista, or OS X

web browsing,
word processing
spread sheets
photoshop CS2
video encoding
Unigraphics NX3/4
Solid Edge
Matlab
Video watching
bit-torrent
the odd game maybe though i do use my 360 for that really

i wouldnt really wanna buy a mac and then run windows on it most of the time...how much of an exercise in the pointless is that?

 

[Robor]

The only time I reload Windows is for a major hardware upgrade like a motherboard. My current install is 12-18 months old and rock solid in stability. If your Windows install chugs or bombs after 8 months you've got a hardware problem or you're doing something wrong.

 

[bsobel]

everythings starting to flake out, i get a failed boot every other time i turn on, and when it does work, all USB inputs just might just die.

This doesn't sound like Windows, this sounds like hardware with someone who simply wants to blame Windows.

 

[Smilin]

Stop putting sugar in the gas tank and remember to change your oil.

I ran a single XP install for it's entire lifespan through several motherboards and other upgrades and never had the issues you're describing.

Note that sporadic failed boots are the sign of hardware problems, often power supply. Not the OS. The same set of instructions are running in the OS each time you boot. They do not simply behave one way one time and another some other time.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

yeah its a crummy pc, but its all i have and i dont wanna spend money on it if im buying a new one.

i guess by failed boot what i meant was, every other time...it'll get to the login screen then just freeze.

do you think always using hibernate ****** things up? hibernating stops the every other boot up freezing, and every third successful boot up the wifi doesnt work so it stops that too, but by hibernating all the time does that knack things ?

 

[Smilin]

hehe

Otis, why are you bashing XP when you admit you know that your hardware is broken?

geez.


If you are having hardware problems at boot, don't boot. Leave the box up and running.

Resuming from hibernate is just about the same as a boot as far as hardware is concerned. The difference from a hibernate and normal boot occurs during the ntldr phase of boot which is after a normal boot post has completed. So if wifi or some other component is failing to properly initialize during a normal boot it would do the same during a hibernate resume. Hibernate is just a way to speed up the OS portion of the boot since everything is just dumped back into memory then started.

Sleep may offer some relief though. Drives must spin up and such but many post tasks are skipped. Avoiding a reboot altogether may be the workaround (the fix is to replace hardware). Put drives and video to sleep but otherwise leave the box running until the next day when you need it.

Some more clues though: At the logon screen, start type 3 (automatic) drivers and services are loading. Since we know there is something hardware related going on, and an automatic device/service is failing you can use services.msc and msconfig to find out what drivers/services are set to an automatic start type. From that list then look to see which ones interract with hardware and disable them one at a time. This won't fix the hardware problem but it could mask it enough that you can boot cleanly.

 

[Skeeedunt]

I remember the olden days when a fresh windows install every 6-12 months was a welcome opportunity to ditch bloat and random bugs. I'm not sure if I'm just getting old or if windows is just vastly more reliable (likely both), but I've been running the same XP install for years without any problems.

 

[spherrod]

XP should run happily without needing a reinstall to keep it fresh - given the hardware issues you've described it might be a good idea to change the title?

Follow Smilin's advice to try and isolate the issues

 

[Mavtech]

If you think your OS is bogged down, I recommend CCleaner. Great app. I use it all the time at work.