[unijaw]

Hello!
Recently my SONY VAIO laptop with Windows vista 32bt has been most disagreeable. It takes forever to boot up, forever to start up (although i have cleared startup programs),
Programs take forever to load and crash often.
Recently the computer started freezing/crashing more often so I decided to do a system restore to factory settings. I have had to do this twice in the last week as the computer promptly broke down several days after the first restore.
Now I am at a loss at how to fix this computer. I know the basics of computer care, and have "looked after" it for the short time I have had it.
But this computer was my first experience with Vista (bought two years ago) and I must say I have never liked vista one bit. While checking computer forums and listing to various conversations I deduced that Vista is a load of crap.
What I simply want to know is would spending £100+ on a windows 7 upgrade be worth it? Now I don't really care about all the extra things that windows 7 can do. I just want to know if windows 7 will crash less than vista.
I ran a hardware diagnostic check before and that came back clean so I am pretty confident I can install a new OS.
However I'm a cheapskate and really do not want to spend money on a windows 7 upgrade certainly not when I do not know if this would actually improve my computers condition - Is there any programs that I can download to troubleshoot/repair my PC? Or at least run a diagnostic program to figure out what the problem is.
Thanks in advance for any replies and help offered - I would phone up sony support but I have had a veery bad history with them. A month after I bought my computer the power adapter just broke... I phoned them up and they said that they were currently out of stock of power adapters (which suggests theres something up with my model) and that they would send one as soon as possible...
It took two months. I had to buy my own one off Amazon in the end

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Hi,

In my opinion Windows 7 is a great improvement over Vista and the overall computer does run "quicker". However, I'm sure you could improve your current PC's performance without necessarily upgrading. Also, have you ran any virus scans recently because it does sound like a virus could be the culprit. Viruses are notorious for slow PC's. Or have you installed anything that is using a lot of CPU time. Try going to the task manager by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc at the same time and having a look at the processes tab to see anything running using a lot of CPU.

However, if you want to learn more about windows 7 compared to vista the following article may be of interest:

http://www.techradar...ta-vs-xp-615167

In the end if you do wish to upgrade to windows 7 first you should run the windows 7 upgrade advisor from Microsoft. This checks your hardware is compatible and warns you if anything will be not compatible with the upgrade. The link is below:

http://www.microsoft...&displaylang=en

Thanks,

[hendaz]

Hi,

In my opinion Windows 7 is a great improvement over Vista and the overall computer does run "quicker". However, I'm sure you could improve your current PC's performance without necessarily upgrading. Also, have you ran any virus scans recently because it does sound like a virus could be the culprit. Viruses are notorious for slow PC's. Or have you installed anything that is using a lot of CPU time. Try going to the task manager by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc at the same time and having a look at the processes tab to see anything running using a lot of CPU.

However, if you want to learn more about windows 7 compared to vista the following article may be of interest:

http://www.techradar...ta-vs-xp-615167

In the end if you do wish to upgrade to windows 7 first you should run the windows 7 upgrade advisor from Microsoft. This checks your hardware is compatible and warns you if anything will be not compatible with the upgrade. The link is below:

http://www.microsoft...&displaylang=en

Thanks,

[MilesAhead]

Hello!
Recently my SONY VAIO laptop with Windows vista 32bt has been most disagreeable. It takes forever to boot up, forever to start up (although i have cleared startup programs),
...

My first Vista PC was pre-SP1 and I had a similar experience. It's an HP desktop dual core. However I bought another PC with Vista Home Premium 64 bit SP1 and it was a world of difference. I would try to apply the service pack if possible. My first Vista PC would not take the service pack no matter what I did. I upgraded to Windows7 32 bit. But I'm very happy with my Vista64 SP1 machine. I would attempt the free service pack before buying another OS. If you get the service pack to "take" then you can back up the working image to an external USB drive so you have a means to restore with the SP already on. These days with USB 3.0 coming in, you should be able to find some deals on the USB 2.0 externals.

[unijaw]

Hello!
Recently my SONY VAIO laptop with Windows vista 32bt has been most disagreeable. It takes forever to boot up, forever to start up (although i have cleared startup programs),
...

My first Vista PC was pre-SP1 and I had a similar experience. It's an HP desktop dual core. However I bought another PC with Vista Home Premium 64 bit SP1 and it was a world of difference. I would try to apply the service pack if possible. My first Vista PC would not take the service pack no matter what I did. I upgraded to Windows7 32 bit. But I'm very happy with my Vista64 SP1 machine. I would attempt the free service pack before buying another OS. If you get the service pack to "take" then you can back up the working image to an external USB drive so you have a means to restore with the SP already on. These days with USB 3.0 coming in, you should be able to find some deals on the USB 2.0 externals.

Thanks for the advice!!!
But theres another issue!!!
Ive decided that my computer only crashes after I update Windows updates. VAIO updates all install perfectally but Windows seems to make my PC crash.
A hour after turning off my machine with auto updates i turned it back on and before any programs loaded the blue screen popped up!!
First time I have ever seen on this laptop! any more advice? D:

[C1B3R5NYP3R]

If you decide to go with 7, get the full version. If you ever have to do a clean install you will be on the phone with M$ for an hour. The upgrade is only allowed to be activated once then you have to call. Believe me when I say its worth the extra money.

As for the blue screen, did you happen to get the BCCode?

Edited by C1B3R5NYP3R, 25 August 2010 - 01:20 PM.

[MilesAhead]

Hello!
Recently my SONY VAIO laptop with Windows vista 32bt has been most disagreeable. It takes forever to boot up, forever to start up (although i have cleared startup programs),
...

My first Vista PC was pre-SP1 and I had a similar experience. It's an HP desktop dual core. However I bought another PC with Vista Home Premium 64 bit SP1 and it was a world of difference. I would try to apply the service pack if possible. My first Vista PC would not take the service pack no matter what I did. I upgraded to Windows7 32 bit. But I'm very happy with my Vista64 SP1 machine. I would attempt the free service pack before buying another OS. If you get the service pack to "take" then you can back up the working image to an external USB drive so you have a means to restore with the SP already on. These days with USB 3.0 coming in, you should be able to find some deals on the USB 2.0 externals.

Thanks for the advice!!!
But theres another issue!!!
Ive decided that my computer only crashes after I update Windows updates. VAIO updates all install perfectally but Windows seems to make my PC crash.
A hour after turning off my machine with auto updates i turned it back on and before any programs loaded the blue screen popped up!!
First time I have ever seen on this laptop! any more advice? D:

I don't multiple update my machine in one shot. I update manually if it's something I need. If you put 10 fixes on the machine at once and it goes south how do you know which one is the culprit? The only time I do multiple updates is putting on a Service Pack. I try to buy my machines with the OS and SPs on as I'll use it. But that's just my superstition.

At least with 32 bit Windows, I've had pretty good luck with Custom Installs. Really bad luck with Upgrades. A Custom Install can be worth trying. Worked for me going from Vista 32 bit to W7 32 bit. But it didn't work out so well going from Vista64 to W7 64 bit. That's why I'm still running Vista64 on my quad core. It works fine and W7 didn't seem to do anything for me. I have mixed feeling about SuperBar. It look really cool at first but I don't miss it at all on the 64 bit Vista machine. I just kludged the Taskbar to look like a W7 Superbar.

Edited by MilesAhead, 25 August 2010 - 04:35 PM.

[phillipcorcoran]

Windows 7 is better than Vista by a long, long way. I didn't upgrade my old PC to Win7 because there were several hardware-related incompatibilities as highlighted by the online check on the Microsoft compatibility website. Some of the hardware upgrades required were not compatible with my motherboard so I bit the bullet and and had a new Win7 PC built to order. Everything is compatible of course from the outset, so no problems there. Never looked back.