Windows 7 Tragic Failure

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reckedracing

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I have a laptop dell inspiron 1525 that was OEM vista, then upgraded to Windows 7.
I believe it was not a clean install but an overwrite upgrade.

The computer worked fine on monday, wednesday comes and it takes 3 tries to open quickbooks, then it just would not open thursday. Quickbooks was uninstalled and attempted to reinstall but the install fails every time. I think there is an issue with the windows installer, or posibly registry errors. The machine has a couple different clean up programs and registry cleaners and shit.

I basically need something to douche windows 7 back to its OE running capacity so I can reinstall quickbooks and call it a day.

I ran the windows file checker using the cmd prompt and i returned numerous files that it could not fix. I am not really sure where to go next with this thing.

\\any help appreciated
 
How old is the laptop? Not when you bought it, but how old is the chipset it's running?

I would try a wipe the drive and full re-install with the hope that it glitched during the install/update process.

This is not uncommon - integration testing with new software is many times a hit and miss thing. Manufacturers can only do so much integration testing without driving the price of the software too high.

So, there are hardware combinations that it just won't run on. Sometimes, the issues get fixed in future patches such as SP1, SP2 etc.

This probably isn't much help - but, it's a fact. :)

Ask Calesta - he's pretty knowledgeable on this stuff.
 
First off, I NEVER upgrade to newer versions of Windows. There's always some garbage left behind. You CAN use upgrade media to do fresh installs of Win 7- Google it up. Look for something from the "windows supersite" or "paul thurott" (I think that's his name) and there are some pretty simple instructions for installing fresh.

That said, I haven't had any problems at all with Windows 7 other than driver issues- and all of those have been caused by hardware too new to have drivers yet, or hardware with crappy support from their manufacturers.
 
yea, the computer isn't mine and i would never do an upgrade
i know of the issues it can cause, i prefer a full format and start fresh and clean.

so i downloaded the latest version of the quickbooks and it seemed to install ok.
the computer is still slow as shit
i dont know how slw it was before, but the guy just got the ram upgraded from 2 to 4gig and i think he has been using the computer running windows 7 upgrade for quite a while

unfortunately there is no repair option on the win7 disc
i'm gonna have to look into it further and see if i can find some sort of cleaner because i still think all the shitty registry scanners and fixers fucked it all up

and this is what i'm working with
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T5450@1.66GHz
4.00GB ram
32 bit operating system
and windows 7 home edition
 
Couple things you can try.

1: tap F8 repeatedly while booting. When the boot menu comes up select "repair computer". Click through the menus till the repair console comes up, and select Startup Repair. It may or may not find anything, usually takes a few minutes to run.

2: From within windows, on an administrator account - open the command processor with administrator rights. Usually you have to go into start > programs > accessories then right click command prompt and click run as admin. Just running it from an administrator account won't work. When you get the command prompt up, use the following command:

sfc /scannow

or if you would rather it run on reboot,

sfc /scanonce

That command initiates an inventory of windows system files and repairs or replaces any corrupt or damaged ones when possible. It may ask for a windows disc during this part.

Those are the quick and easy tools that don't require additional software, that I know of.

Also, these registery cleaners and suchlike almost always cause more trouble than they fix. I have seen so many people try to use these programs that don't know what they're doing, and royally screwing over their systems in the process. People should know not to mess with anything that says registry if you don't know what it is, or how to edit it manually.

I also know that quickbooks has a tendency to just wig the fuck out occasionally. I support a business that uses it across 3 PCs and over the network, and it has shat the bed for no reason several times.
 
interesting observation on quickbooks
i've been at my firm for 9 years running every QB from 99 to 11 and i've found them to be fairly reliable and issue free
i may have had to uninstall and reinstall a particular year twice since i have been here
but we've always upgraded our PC's twice since I have been here so that only gives them a 3 3-4 year run on any individual machine, lol

i ended up running the scan disk/disk error checker 2x and it seemed to help it a little bit
C drive only frag'ed 2% so i didn't bother doing that
i also tried that sfc /scannow in the cmd prompt running as admin, ran it 2x actually and both times it gave me a log file with problems, but they don't really make sense to me
and it also is not supposed to change static files maybe? so it will always return errors?
not that familiar with the scannow

the laptop seems to run, although it is slow
i'm calling it good and giving it back at this point.
 
It only produces a log file if it finds errors, which it likely couldn't fix.

At this point I'd say it likely just needs a fresh reinstall of windows.
 
not gonna be practical
its almost cheaper for them to have just bought a new laptop at this point, lol
for me to backup all their shit, format, do a fresh install, then reinstall all the programs, and then put all the files back on... it would just be too time consuming and expensive

plus there is the little problem that it was a dell machine that came OE with vista
so i would be forced to install the factory dell discs to get back all their programs and drivers that came with the laptop, unless i wanted to try and find and DL them and do it one by one and now we're talking even more money

hopefully this pile of shit works for another year and they decide to upgrade

thanks for the advice everyone


obviously not how i would handle my own machine, but then again, i wouldn't be in this situation to begin with lol
 
Never said it was practical, lol. Just what would benefit the system the most.

Laptops are so cheap now that I am sure it is definitely more economical to wait it out.
 
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