# VERY frustrated Vista O/S user pleads for help!



## YerDugliness (Jun 2, 2008)

I bought this high $$, high powered H-P tower system, thinking that the 720GB of memory and twin processor would make a pretty good combination. It came equipped with Vista Home Premium O/S and I am about ready to place the tower on the freeway and let the semi's have their fun with it  !

The problem is how Internet Explorer works--I can open one window at a time, but not two. If I have a window open and minimize it to the desktop and open a second window, when I X-out of that second window I find that the computer has already closed out the first window. Naturally, you can imagine how incredibly frustrating this is.

H-P did their monthly diagnostic checkup today, a 45 minute affair b/c I expanded the scope to be the full checkup, nothing.....nada....zip!

Here's the model info--H-P Pavilion Elite PC, Model M9150f, Intel Quad Core-2 Q6600 processor, 3072MB memory, 720GB hard drive (that's two separate 360GB Hard Drives, not one 720GB). That's about all I can find on the packaging that is related to specs, the rest just relates to the features of the computer.

I'm hoping that there's just some setting somewhere that I can change that will remedy this problem, but I'm a computer murderer--I mean it, I can screw up a computer quicker than you can blink an eye and my previous employer will be glad to testify to that in any court of law :whistling2: !

Can anyone give me any advice on how to deal with this issue. I've taken the computer back to Fry's Electronics, where it was purchased, and was told that this was an issue related to software incompatability. Yes, I did install some software that was intended for XP Pro O/S, but I went back and uninstalled it all (not just deleted the shortcuts) and it still refuses to work right when using I/E.

Any help, anyone? If so, please be as specific as you can, I really am a computer dummy and please don't expect me to understand such terms as "open your control panel" and such :furious: ---sorry !

TIA for whatever help you can provide, you may be responsible for saving the tower's life!!

Dugly


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## retro (Apr 1, 2008)

Not going to like my answer. Download and use Firefox


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## YerDugliness (Jun 2, 2008)

*How about Safari?????*



retro said:


> Not going to like my answer. Download and use Firefox


I have Safari loaded, would that be as good an option?

Really, though, after spending the $$ on this computer that I did, I'd like to get it to work correctly, it's just the principle of the thing!!

Thanks for the tip on Firefox, though, with all this memory I will certainly give it a try!

Dugly


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## poppameth (Oct 2, 2008)

Safari isn't too hot on Windows. It's ported from MAC and works better there. Firefox is much better IMO. As for IE, I never use it but it does have built in Tab functionality now. You'd be better off opening new tabs instead of new windows.


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## YerDugliness (Jun 2, 2008)

I realized the limitations of Safari when I tried to use it instead of IE--a popup appeared telling me I needed some sort of "flash" program, so I attempted to follow the link. The program wouldn't load, displaying a yet another popup that said I needed to close all other applications while before the "flash" program could load. I did so, attempted again to download the flash program, and got the same popup over and over and over and over and on and on.

We've all heard about those gloom and doom predictions about what might happen if our computers ever develop their own form of intelligence, I swear I think this Visto O/S has done that--it has devised a way of preventing me from downloading a program that would enable me to stop using it's precious IE function. If you think back on psychology 101 you'll remember that self-preservation is one of the two strongest human instincts (the other is species preservation).....is it possible that we're nearing that (or, in my case, already there?) with out technologies.

....onward through the fog....this is infuriating!

Dugly


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## YerDugliness (Jun 2, 2008)

poppameth said:


> Safari isn't too hot on Windows. It's ported from MAC and works better there. Firefox is much better IMO. As for IE, I never use it but it does have built in Tab functionality now. You'd be better off opening new tabs instead of new windows.


...a bit of a computer dummy here :huh: ...would you please explain further these "tabs" and explain how I can use them...good lord, it's embarrasing to be so technologically *un*savvy in such a technologically oriented world!

TIA for whatever help you can provide!

Dugly


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## DangerMouse (Jul 17, 2008)

tabs are like the tops of paper folders, instead of opening a new browser window, it adds a 'tab' at the top of your already opened browser. this allows you to click between tabs as i do here all day from one post to another. no need to lose one to open another is all. just right click and choose 'open in new tab'
i've used Opera for years as it has email built in, and google without having to dl an addon, and many other features i've always found better than ie. tried firefox and others but they had no email internal and i hate outlook.

DM


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## YerDugliness (Jun 2, 2008)

MdangermouseM said:


> tabs are like the tops of paper folders, instead of opening a new browser window, it adds a 'tab' at the top of your already opened browser. this allows you to click between tabs as i do here all day from one post to another. no need to lose one to open another is all. just right click and choose 'open in new tab'
> DM


Thanks, DM, I think I'll give this "tabs" issue a try--watch the computer outsmart me again  !!

Dugly


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## DangerMouse (Jul 17, 2008)

not a problem, we're here to help each other, aren't we? =o)

DM


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## fw2007 (Jul 11, 2007)

retro said:


> Not going to like my answer. Download and use Firefox


YES! a great solution!
Firefox is a far superior browser. You will not regret, and it will import all of your favs from IE.

FW


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## fw2007 (Jul 11, 2007)

YerDugliness said:


> Thanks, DM, I think I'll give this "tabs" issue a try--watch the computer outsmart me again  !!
> 
> Dugly


I was just going to ask the same question: Sounds like you're opening multiple tabs, then closing the main app, which closes all tabs. There is a setting that will warn you if you are going to close multiple tabs.

I still prefer Firefox though.

FW


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## YerDugliness (Jun 2, 2008)

fw2007 said:


> YES! a great solution!
> Firefox is a far superior browser. You will not regret, and it will import all of your favs from IE.
> FW


Faves? I can't figure out how to save favorites using this Vista program :furious: !

It was SO easy with Windows XP Pro......:yes:

Firefox, here I come!! (just don't let this computer know, it'll find a way to sabatoge the deal for sure).

Dugly 8)


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## DangerMouse (Jul 17, 2008)

ummm, if yer typing on it, you don't think it already knows? hehehehe

DM


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## YerDugliness (Jun 2, 2008)

MdangermouseM said:


> ummm, if yer typing on it, you don't think it already knows? hehehehe
> 
> DM


OOOHHH....not quite clear on the concept here, eh :laughing: ????

"Not Quite Clear on the Concept" is my favorite single pane cartoon--visualize a standard living room, a TV, recliner, couch, coffee table and end tables with lamps on them, the sort of thing we all live in. There is a man in the recliner reading a newspaper and his wife is standing behind him with the days' mail in her hands and she has one open...she says to her husband "Look, honey, it's from the IRS! Let's see what we've won this time!!!"

Yep, not quite clear on the concept here, eh :yes: !!!!

GoofyDugly :wacko:


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## poppameth (Oct 2, 2008)

MdangermouseM said:


> tabs are like the tops of paper folders, instead of opening a new browser window, it adds a 'tab' at the top of your already opened browser. this allows you to click between tabs as i do here all day from one post to another. no need to lose one to open another is all. just right click and choose 'open in new tab'
> i've used Opera for years as it has email built in, and google without having to dl an addon, and many other features i've always found better than ie. tried firefox and others but they had no email internal and i hate outlook.
> 
> DM


Ever tried Thunderbird, Mozilla's equivalent to Outlook? I far prefer Thunderbird to Outlook 2003 I have at work. It handle's Google's IMAP interface so much better plus it has a bunch of extensions just like Firefox. There is also a browser called Seamonkey which is based off of Firefox. It's got the Thunderbird Email client built in much like Opera has it's email client built in. Seamonkey is pretty much what Netscape use to be.


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## Wildie (Jul 23, 2008)

YerDugliness said:


> I bought this high $$, high powered H-P tower system, thinking that the 720GB of memory and twin processor would make a pretty good combination. It came equipped with Vista Home Premium O/S and I am about ready to place the tower on the freeway and let the semi's have their fun with it  !
> 
> The problem is how Internet Explorer works--I can open one window at a time, but not two. If I have a window open and minimize it to the desktop and open a second window, when I X-out of that second window I find that the computer has already closed out the first window. Naturally, you can imagine how incredibly frustrating this is.
> 
> ...


 It seems that you have 3 gig of memory and its my understanding that this the maximum that Vista can support. 
So memory shouldn't be problem.
I and my daughter are running HP machines with Vista Premium with 2 gig and things are running well.
However, I made a point to make sure that only the stuff that is necessary to run in back-ground, does in fact startup.
HP does include lots of crap, including Norton and care should be taken that these do not startup. In fact, its a good idea to remove it completely.
Open the TASK MANAGER (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and click performance to see how much of your memory is being used.
I use CCleaner to keep things tidy and START UPS can be managed with this program.
If this doesn't improve things, you may have to resort to doing a re-install using the repair DVD's that you made when you first started up your computer.


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## poppameth (Oct 2, 2008)

It's always a good idea to run PCDecrapifier on a new rig to get rid of factory installed junk. 2 GB or RAM on a Vista rig should be fine. Around 3 is the most any 32 bit Windows OS will support. You have to step up to 64 bit to use any greater amount of RAM.


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## artist082483 (Oct 7, 2008)

I hate to say this but I think its all crazy. LOL JK Every1's opinions are great. But heres the thing. He is used to useing Internet Explorer. You can go into your internet options and simply set the tab settings to allow a new window to open everytime he dbl clicks it on his desktop or simply clicks a link within the web browser to open up a new window. It is easier to walk someone through the setup on verbally than on here cause it take so long to wait for someone to reply and it makes it more frustrating. Firefox is a good browser and you can tweak it to load pages faster "You can find those tweaks avail. on the net." Safari has it querks on windows OS's cause its ment for Mac & Apple users but made avail for Windows Users. Thunderbird is nice too.


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## YerDugliness (Jun 2, 2008)

Well, things may be getting better......here's the latest. Maybe I'm using tabs, I don't know.......

Let's say I want to post a photo from Photobucket on, say, Gibson Guitar's user forum. If I use the shortcut to the forum that I have on my desktop, I lose the link when I open Photobucket in a second "window" by clicking on a second shortcut icon.

However, if I just go to Gibson's main webpage and click on the link to their forum, that seems to open a second link on my desktop. If I then miniminize the forum link to the desktop and go back to Gibson's main webpage, bring that up, I can then use the browser at the top of that link to access Photobucket and the discussion forum link remains.

Is this what is meant by using tabs? I'm minimally familiar with navigating through some of the setting functions on the computer and remember how the pages each had a "tab" like the tab on a file folder, but I see nothing on my screen that resembles this.....

It is entirely possible that this Vista O/S is working correctly and that I just don't know how to use it. I have read that it operates differently from previous Windows O/S's, so my SO and I decided I need to go to a bookstore and get one of those "Vistas for Dummies" books---I really hate to give up the Vista O/S b/c I've heard so much about how it really is an advancement for those who attempt to manage a lot of music and visual images.

As for Control + Alt + Delete, I've tried to use that many times to restart the computer or to get it out of a "frozen" state, it does absolutely nothing.....other than increase the volume and magnitude of my cursing.

The computer does on startup display an indication of how much memory is used up on each of the two 320GB hard drives. One of the hard drives is untouched, the other has about 270GB of memory space unused. 

I'm beginning to think the problem is me, not the computer--that would be the usual situation!

Dugly


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## artist082483 (Oct 7, 2008)

*Vista Is complicated lol*

When you have your Internet Explorer browser window open. Below the address bar where you type in the website name appears a tab similar to divider labels. Lets say you are on Gibson's website. Some links once clicked will open another tab and each tab will have a discription of what is on that tab, or the link may open another window. You can actually Right Click the link and tell it what you prefer. *Open in new window. *or *Open in new Tab.* 

Photobucket has been changing format and sometimes when u copy the link using shortkeys as (*Ctrl+C.*) You can dbl click the link and it will automatically copy it to your clipboard and you should never loose that link unless you copy something else.

Vista has an interface that makes every1 go (WOW, SWEET, THATS NICE) and they know it. It may look great but using it for your needs can be complicated. Everytime I want to download something it ask's me twice If I am Sure I want to Download it. LOL now that can get annoying. As far as your (*Ctrl+alt+Delete), *if for some reason it keeps not working try (*Alt+F4*) That will close out the window that you are currently viewing which could be causing the issue. Also I have noticed on my buddies HP Media Center PC to many windows opened can lock up what your doing. 

The Harddrive space is nothing but storage. That will not affect computer usage. Is it possible you can tell me what video card you have?


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## YerDugliness (Jun 2, 2008)

artist082483 said:


> The Harddrive space is nothing but storage. That will not affect computer usage. Is it possible you can tell me what video card you have?


I'd love to be able to do that, but I don't know how to check that....everything I know is what I copied from the outside of the box the tower came in.....is it something that I can decipher from the "All Programs" link?

TIA!

Dugly


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## artist082483 (Oct 7, 2008)

YerDugliness said:


> I'd love to be able to do that, but I don't know how to check that....everything I know is what I copied from the outside of the box the tower came in.....is it something that I can decipher from the "All Programs" link?
> 
> TIA!
> 
> Dugly


When you open up your control panel and click on system. It should show if not you would have to look in your device manager. I found something for you. Print it and keep it. You should save it also. It make speak a different language to you but its valuable.

This should be the data sheet on your Desktop.
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press_kits/2008/ces/ds_m9150f.pdf


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## YerDugliness (Jun 2, 2008)

artist082483 said:


> When you open up your control panel and click on system. It should show if not you would have to look in your device manager. I found something for you. Print it and keep it. You should save it also. It make speak a different language to you but its valuable.


Thanks, artist. I've copied it off and will keep it with the other data on the tower system....not that I understand any of it! I did try to check on the system in the control panel, it didn't mention what kind of video card I have....and although I would absolutely love to get my shovels and rakes and sledge hammers and other implements of destruction and attempt to conduct some delicate surgery on this absolutely infuriating machine, I do have some good news to report.

I finally found a phone number where I could actually call and speak to someone in HP's support department (it was on page 1 of that data sheet you included in your last post). I made the call, got hold of one very hard working tech (probably in east Asia somewhere, judging by his accent), and although it took an hour of him experimenting in my computer by remote control, he was able to fix the problem....it was a simple check mark in "Internet Settings" that did it. 

Now, that doesn't seem so hard, does it, but to a computer dummy like me it might as well have been rocket surgery  ! Now, however, every time I use one of the shortcuts on my desktop, it opens an entirely new window and they actually stay on the desktop while I am working in others and closing others out.....just like I suspected they ought to do.

So, I was RIGHT, it was the dumbie computer operator, not the computer all along (now, why didn't that seem like the victory it started out to be? :wink: ).

Thanks to all for the help! It's running fine now, in fact it's 2:30 AM and I can't seem to shut it down.....*somebody STOP me*!!

Dugly


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## Kap (Jun 20, 2008)

retro said:


> Not going to like my answer. Download and use Firefox



Amen to that.


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## nayslayer (Oct 17, 2008)

ha, http://www.mozilla.com/products/download.html?product=firefox-3.0.3&os=win〈=en-US


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## DangerMouse (Jul 17, 2008)

or Opera... www.Opera.com

DM


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## steel dude (Oct 26, 2008)

Firefox is free, makes the computer somehow faster, develops tabs at top of screen that you can keep or delete; I have only used it a few months and really like what it does. I am 70-year-old, non craputer savvy person, but I am learning.


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## DangerMouse (Jul 17, 2008)

Opera is free, makes the computer somehow faster, develops tabs at top of screen that you can keep or delete, AND has internal email and google bar attached. =o)
to each his own though, we all like what we like. ANYthing but IE!!!!! roflmao

DM


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## steel dude (Oct 26, 2008)

I forgot to mention the Google bar attached and FF has free Hotmail. Not sure if it is internal though.


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## poppameth (Oct 2, 2008)

Mozilla has free separate email clinet, Thunderbird. Or you could use Seamonkey, the community build of Firefox with Thunderbird built right into the browser. It's the continuation of the old Mozilla Suite that Netscape was built off of. I never could get use to having the email client right inside the browser. Opera never appealed to me much in that respect. Opera is still a good browser though. My second pick. 

I've tried Google Chrome. It's okay but it logs every keystroke you make so Google can advertise to you more effeciently. Safari is not too great on Windows.


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