Vista Upgrade - Oh Dear, Oh Dear, Oh Dear

I work in computers and know a lot about them. Did my first upgrade from XP
Pro to Vista Business today.

It was on a 15 month old PC that I built myself and that has run XP Pro with
no problems since I built it.

Ran Vista upgrade advisor and it said there were no problems.

Began the upgrade and it ran for about 2 hours and seemed to go fine.

On final reboot got blue screen of death with PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

Blue screen disappeared so quickly could not read any more.

Got screen where you can reboot in various safe modes, would not work. Tried
doing repair, would not work.

Tried all sorts of other things, but could not get Vista to boot at all.

Got the blue screen quite a few times, BUT IN ALL CASES IT WENT SO QUICKLY I
COULD NOT SEE ANY MORE DETAILS OF THE ERROR. VERY ANNOYING !!!!

After trying for about an hour I gave up. Luckily this was a "spare" hard
disk (and I have XP backed up with Ghost anyway) so was able to recover.

I feel sorry for anyone who gets a problem like this and has now trashed
their working copy of XP.

I shall not touch Vista again and stick with XP until Microsoft "finish"
Vista.

Good job Microsoft are not designing the software for the Nasa space launch
!!!

> Luckily this was a "spare" hard disk

Luckily? Luckily? You should have planned it that way from the beginning.

> I feel sorry for anyone who gets a problem like this and has now trashed
> their working copy of XP.

Special news alert! Changing an operating system is a major risk and a major
task that should not normally be conducted by anyone that cannot afford a
crash.

> I shall not touch Vista again and stick with XP until Microsoft "finish"
> Vista.

Vista is finished. Some computers/software are not ready for Vista.
Especially "homebuilts".

> Good job Microsoft are not designing the software for the Nasa space
> launch !!!

If MS was designing software for NASA (what makes you think they are not?)
they would not allow it to be run on anything but thoroughly tested
hardware.

-Frank

Did you run the upgrade advisor before trying the upgrade?

To me it sounds like a RAM problem. Vista uses different areas of RAM from
XP and is much less tolerant of marginal RAM. Systems that seemed fine in XP
may have RAM errors in Vista. This is quite common. It could also be a
legacy driver or program left over from XP. Here is my standard
recommendations for performing an upgrade to Vista. It sounds like you did
the first 3 steps but maybe not the rest.

1) Backup your PC.
2) Back it up again.
3) Test your backups.

If you skip the above steps please don't whine that the upgrade trashed all
your files. Any process that involves this many changes to the file system
is fraught with danger. If you don't have full backup of your pc before
starting the upgrade you are an idiot and shouldn't really have a pc to
start with :-) This may sound harsh but it is reality.

4) Run the latest version of the Upgrade Advisor and note anything it flags.
5) Uninstall (not disable) all antivirus, antispyware, firewall, disk
utility, and system utility programs even if the upgrade advisor doesn't
mention them. You will need to install Vista compatible versions after the
upgrade is finished.
6) Uninstall (not disable) all programs that the upgrade advisor flags as
possible problems. You will need to install Vista compatible versions after
the upgrade is finished.
7) If possible remove all hardware that the upgrade advisor flags as
incompatible.
8) Make sure you have Vista compatible drivers and software for all your
hardware devices burned to CD. Don't just look for drivers that the upgrade
advisor mentioned. If possible have drivers ready for everything.
9) Physically unplug any external devices like portable hard drives,
printers, card readers, flash drives, cameras, etc..
10) Run a chkdsk on all the partitions on all hard drives still connected.
11) Defrag the system and boot partitions.
12) Start the Vista upgrade process.


--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca


"Guilbert" <> wrote in message
news:...
>I work in computers and know a lot about them. Did my first upgrade from XP
>Pro to Vista Business today.
>
> It was on a 15 month old PC that I built myself and that has run XP Pro
> with no problems since I built it.
>
> Ran Vista upgrade advisor and it said there were no problems.
>
> Began the upgrade and it ran for about 2 hours and seemed to go fine.
>
> On final reboot got blue screen of death with PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
>
> Blue screen disappeared so quickly could not read any more.
>
> Got screen where you can reboot in various safe modes, would not work.
> Tried doing repair, would not work.
>
> Tried all sorts of other things, but could not get Vista to boot at all.
>
> Got the blue screen quite a few times, BUT IN ALL CASES IT WENT SO QUICKLY
> I COULD NOT SEE ANY MORE DETAILS OF THE ERROR. VERY ANNOYING !!!!
>
> After trying for about an hour I gave up. Luckily this was a "spare" hard
> disk (and I have XP backed up with Ghost anyway) so was able to recover.
>
> I feel sorry for anyone who gets a problem like this and has now trashed
> their working copy of XP.
>
> I shall not touch Vista again and stick with XP until Microsoft "finish"
> Vista.
>
> Good job Microsoft are not designing the software for the Nasa space
> launch !!!
>
>
>

On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 14:37:53 +0000, Guilbert wrote:

> I work in computers and know a lot about them. Did my first upgrade from XP
> Pro to Vista Business today.

Why? Because it was there? Didn't you read this group for a while first?
There seem to be a LOT of issues. Most consultants advise not installing
vista until, at least, SP1.

>
> I shall not touch Vista again and stick with XP until Microsoft "finish"
> Vista.
>
> Good job Microsoft are not designing the software for the Nasa space launch
> !!!

Nasa and the scientific community in general usually has the good sense to
use something that works - *nix.

Basically, don't upgrade.
Clean install only.

"Kerry Brown" wrote:

> Did you run the upgrade advisor before trying the upgrade?
>
> To me it sounds like a RAM problem. Vista uses different areas of RAM from
> XP and is much less tolerant of marginal RAM. Systems that seemed fine in XP
> may have RAM errors in Vista. This is quite common. It could also be a
> legacy driver or program left over from XP. Here is my standard
> recommendations for performing an upgrade to Vista. It sounds like you did
> the first 3 steps but maybe not the rest.
>
> 1) Backup your PC.
> 2) Back it up again.
> 3) Test your backups.
>
> If you skip the above steps please don't whine that the upgrade trashed all
> your files. Any process that involves this many changes to the file system
> is fraught with danger. If you don't have full backup of your pc before
> starting the upgrade you are an idiot and shouldn't really have a pc to
> start with :-) This may sound harsh but it is reality.
>
> 4) Run the latest version of the Upgrade Advisor and note anything it flags.
> 5) Uninstall (not disable) all antivirus, antispyware, firewall, disk
> utility, and system utility programs even if the upgrade advisor doesn't
> mention them. You will need to install Vista compatible versions after the
> upgrade is finished.
> 6) Uninstall (not disable) all programs that the upgrade advisor flags as
> possible problems. You will need to install Vista compatible versions after
> the upgrade is finished.
> 7) If possible remove all hardware that the upgrade advisor flags as
> incompatible.
> 8) Make sure you have Vista compatible drivers and software for all your
> hardware devices burned to CD. Don't just look for drivers that the upgrade
> advisor mentioned. If possible have drivers ready for everything.
> 9) Physically unplug any external devices like portable hard drives,
> printers, card readers, flash drives, cameras, etc..
> 10) Run a chkdsk on all the partitions on all hard drives still connected.
> 11) Defrag the system and boot partitions.
> 12) Start the Vista upgrade process.
>
>
> --
> Kerry Brown
> Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
> http://www.vistahelp.ca
>
>
> "Guilbert" <> wrote in message
> news:...
> >I work in computers and know a lot about them. Did my first upgrade from XP
> >Pro to Vista Business today.
> >
> > It was on a 15 month old PC that I built myself and that has run XP Pro
> > with no problems since I built it.
> >
> > Ran Vista upgrade advisor and it said there were no problems.
> >
> > Began the upgrade and it ran for about 2 hours and seemed to go fine.
> >
> > On final reboot got blue screen of death with PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
> >
> > Blue screen disappeared so quickly could not read any more.
> >
> > Got screen where you can reboot in various safe modes, would not work.
> > Tried doing repair, would not work.
> >
> > Tried all sorts of other things, but could not get Vista to boot at all.
> >
> > Got the blue screen quite a few times, BUT IN ALL CASES IT WENT SO QUICKLY
> > I COULD NOT SEE ANY MORE DETAILS OF THE ERROR. VERY ANNOYING !!!!
> >
> > After trying for about an hour I gave up. Luckily this was a "spare" hard
> > disk (and I have XP backed up with Ghost anyway) so was able to recover.
> >
> > I feel sorry for anyone who gets a problem like this and has now trashed
> > their working copy of XP.
> >
> > I shall not touch Vista again and stick with XP until Microsoft "finish"
> > Vista.
> >
> > Good job Microsoft are not designing the software for the Nasa space
> > launch !!!
> >
> >
> >
>
>

Would YOU fly on a shuttle with software designed and thoroughly Tested by
Microsoft? I worked at Microsoft and I wouldn't get near the shuttle!



"Frankster" <> wrote in message
news: ...
>> Luckily this was a "spare" hard disk
>
> Luckily? Luckily? You should have planned it that way from the beginning.
>
>> I feel sorry for anyone who gets a problem like this and has now trashed
>> their working copy of XP.
>
> Special news alert! Changing an operating system is a major risk and a
> major task that should not normally be conducted by anyone that cannot
> afford a crash.
>
>> I shall not touch Vista again and stick with XP until Microsoft "finish"
>> Vista.
>
> Vista is finished. Some computers/software are not ready for Vista.
> Especially "homebuilts".
>
>> Good job Microsoft are not designing the software for the Nasa space
>> launch !!!
>
> If MS was designing software for NASA (what makes you think they are not?)
> they would not allow it to be run on anything but thoroughly tested
> hardware.
>
> -Frank

On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 08:48:44 -0600, "Frankster" <>
wrote:

>> Luckily this was a "spare" hard disk
>
>Luckily? Luckily? You should have planned it that way from the beginning.
>
>> I feel sorry for anyone who gets a problem like this and has now trashed
>> their working copy of XP.
>
>Special news alert! Changing an operating system is a major risk and a major
>task that should not normally be conducted by anyone that cannot afford a
>crash.
>
>> I shall not touch Vista again and stick with XP until Microsoft "finish"
>> Vista.
>
>Vista is finished. Some computers/software are not ready for Vista.
>Especially "homebuilts".
>
>> Good job Microsoft are not designing the software for the Nasa space
>> launch !!!
>
>If MS was designing software for NASA (what makes you think they are not?)
>they would not allow it to be run on anything but thoroughly tested
>hardware.
>
>-Frank

You trying to be as "smart" as Justin?

Today, Guilbert made these interesting comments ...

> I work in computers and know a lot about them. Did my first
> upgrade from XP Pro to Vista Business today.
>
> It was on a 15 month old PC that I built myself and that has
> run XP Pro with no problems since I built it.
>
> Ran Vista upgrade advisor and it said there were no problems.
>
> Began the upgrade and it ran for about 2 hours and seemed to
> go fine.
>
> On final reboot got blue screen of death with
> PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
>
> Blue screen disappeared so quickly could not read any more.

set your BIOS to stop on all errors, that way you'll at least be
able to see what it says, not that it is likely to be of much
help

> Got screen where you can reboot in various safe modes, would
> not work. Tried doing repair, would not work.
>
> Tried all sorts of other things, but could not get Vista to
> boot at all.
>
> Got the blue screen quite a few times, BUT IN ALL CASES IT
> WENT SO QUICKLY I COULD NOT SEE ANY MORE DETAILS OF THE ERROR.
> VERY ANNOYING !!!!
>
> After trying for about an hour I gave up. Luckily this was a
> "spare" hard disk (and I have XP backed up with Ghost anyway)
> so was able to recover.
>
> I feel sorry for anyone who gets a problem like this and has
> now trashed their working copy of XP.
>
> I shall not touch Vista again and stick with XP until
> Microsoft "finish" Vista.
>
> Good job Microsoft are not designing the software for the Nasa
> space launch !!!
>
if this is a retail product, why not call the friendly folks in
Redmond for help?

btw, what prompted you to upgrade a working XP system? were there
special features of Vista you were hoping to use?

--
HP, aka Jerry

Today, Kerry Brown made these interesting comments ...

I would agree with all of this AND never do another "upgrade"
again, only a clean install even though that means reinstalling
all the apps. Besides a clean registry, you guarantee no legacy
crap left over as you talk about. Now, when it finally does get
done, one could find any number of things that may not load up
without an upgrade to a driver or other things, or so I've read
hereabouts.

> Did you run the upgrade advisor before trying the upgrade?
>
> To me it sounds like a RAM problem. Vista uses different areas
> of RAM from XP and is much less tolerant of marginal RAM.
> Systems that seemed fine in XP may have RAM errors in Vista.
> This is quite common. It could also be a legacy driver or
> program left over from XP. Here is my standard recommendations
> for performing an upgrade to Vista. It sounds like you did the
> first 3 steps but maybe not the rest.
>
> 1) Backup your PC.
> 2) Back it up again.
> 3) Test your backups.
>
> If you skip the above steps please don't whine that the
> upgrade trashed all your files. Any process that involves this
> many changes to the file system is fraught with danger. If you
> don't have full backup of your pc before starting the upgrade
> you are an idiot and shouldn't really have a pc to start with
> :-) This may sound harsh but it is reality.

Maybe it should say this on the box:"warning, may trash your
entire system without warning! read EULA carefully"

> 4) Run the latest version of the Upgrade Advisor and note
> anything it flags. 5) Uninstall (not disable) all antivirus,
> antispyware, firewall, disk utility, and system utility
> programs even if the upgrade advisor doesn't mention them. You
> will need to install Vista compatible versions after the
> upgrade is finished. 6) Uninstall (not disable) all programs
> that the upgrade advisor flags as possible problems. You will
> need to install Vista compatible versions after the upgrade is
> finished. 7) If possible remove all hardware that the upgrade
> advisor flags as incompatible.
> 8) Make sure you have Vista compatible drivers and software
> for all your hardware devices burned to CD. Don't just look
> for drivers that the upgrade advisor mentioned. If possible
> have drivers ready for everything. 9) Physically unplug any
> external devices like portable hard drives, printers, card
> readers, flash drives, cameras, etc.. 10) Run a chkdsk on all
> the partitions on all hard drives still connected. 11) Defrag
> the system and boot partitions. 12) Start the Vista upgrade
> process.
>

--
HP, aka Jerry

Today, =?Utf-8?B?bWhvbnplbGw=?= made these interesting comments
....

> Basically, don't upgrade.
> Clean install only.

That's my view on ANY Windows "upgrade"

[snip]

--
HP, aka Jerry