Ray's new PC

Ray, FWIW...my older sister bought a Dell PC for home, and SWEARS she will never buy another one! Her biggest complaint (there are others, but I can't remember all of them) is lack of tech support when she needs it. She spends a very L-O-O-O-N-N-G time on the phone, trying to get help, and ALWAYS ends up with somebody who speaks English so badly that the time spent waiting is not worth anything, since she can't understand them and they can't understand her. Of course, this may not be solely a "Dell" thing, there are probably more companies who have their tech support being supplied out of other countries...

Many, if not most, manufacturers are again offering XP as an option on a new computer.  You may have to ask, it may not be advertised.

Ned said:

Although a computer may not come with an authentic Windows CD, insist that you be furnished one.  They are usually available from the manufacturer on demand if not from the dealer.

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Ned, unless HP changed their policy, they won't provide an OS disk even if you request or demand it. Been around that loop too many times with HP, which is one reason this HP diehard will no longer buy HP products.

Another reason to avoid HP.

I have only bought one HP ever and that was for soembody else.  However, the OS disk was included but then that was back in the nineties.  I have no clue what the do after tying up with Compaq.  But if no OS diisk is provided then I take them off my recommended list.

I always here about Dell support but IMHO good good product needs very little if any tech support.  I have never had a reason to call Gateway and we have two of them. ;D ;D

Interesting Ron. I bought numerous HP products before the Compaq acquisition and non of them came with an OS disk, only HP recovery disks. The OS is on there, but can't be accessed directly (no way to bypass the reformat). OTOH I have bought my own copies of Windows and installed them on HP PCs, but that meant I was paying for the OS twice.

Ron said:

.... good good product needs very little if any tech support.

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Having supplied components to the PC industry for a number of years, it was very apparent that there's little difference in the hardware; They all use essentially the same components from essentially the same suppliers. At one company, we had a separate division that supplied components to the clone brands to (apparently) avoid upsetting the big guys, but I'm not sure that distinction exists any more.

The HP I bought was purchased at a HP outlet store.  They sold new and used computers that had been used or like in the case of the one I purchased prepared for a companies use.  Now that may have had something to do with the OS disk being included.  It also had a recovery disk but the Windows disk was there too.  That is probably why I never thought about HP not including the OS.

Now if I were going to buy a new computer today and I had the minister of finance approval I would get a Chembook like Jerry Ardra's.  Now that is a fine computer, a bit pricy comparded to many but worth it. ( Ardras is newer and has more later things to offer.)

I have to agree with Ned - Vista SUX!

Bought a new Toshiba laptop with it installed, and put XP on it. Hardest part was finding the proper XP Drivers for some of the newer hardware, but most will be available HERE; others directly from the manufacturer.

Now I don't have such complex problems such as deciding between several brands.  I only get to decide whether to get a a 15 inch or a 17 inch display.  The good news is that Apple support is always rated among the best.  The other good news is that I never seem  to need it.

Robert, thanks. Honestly, while I have heard almost nothing but good, about Apple, I am going to avoid having anymore new complications for the time being. Gotta admit, it's tempting.

New question. With XP, can I make a boot disk - a floppy? I don't have one. Used to make them for prior computers. This is my first, to not have one. Don't remember how.  ???

Booting up, the computer looks for a floppy, first, and that is a drive I am not having trouble with. YET!

Ray D  ;D

Floppy Boot: My CD/DVD drive no longer recognizes a CD. I am using an external CD drive. It appears that the system does not recognize the external drive, until it boots up. Need a way to boot to the point that the system recognizes the external drive.

:  UMMMMM - Am I in trouble, yet?  :

Don't blame HP for the OS disk issue it is the way Microsoft Licenses the OS to OEM's.  Microsoft does not provide the CD /DVDs to OEM's for each computer that thy manufacture. Microsoft only provides the OEM master license key and a copy of the OS. Because of the way that Microsoft licenses it to OEMs the OS that you got with the computer is only good on that computer. As far as HP not wanting to send you a XP OS disk they don't have them to send as Microsoft does not provide them to HP. And HP cannot copy and distribute them with out breaking Microsoft's copyright. I guess it is just Microsoft's way to try to restrict software Piracy. I'm not condemning or condoning just trying to tell it the way that it is.

If you want to just reinstall the OS and have an XP OS disk from another system or a friend. You can use it to reinstall just the XP OS. The Code key that you will need to license it for use can be found on the green Microsoft sticker on the side of your computer.

A couple things to remember:

Reinstalling the OS, Depending on how old the DVD  is you may need to do a lot of OS patches that will take a substantial amount of time. You will need to run and re-run the Windows Update until it does not recommend any more patches.

Reinstalling the OS without re-formatting your hard drive will leave all your data and applications intact. However you applications may not work correctly or at all with out reinstalling and patching them also.

As far as Vista goes it probably licensed the same and can probably be re-installed the same as XP. Although, I have not had any experience with it and I will avoid it until they get the bugs worked out.

Ray D
As far as Booting from Floppy you can do this if you have a floppy drive and any DOS disk or by formatting the disk with a boot system. However, most manufactures stopped putting floppies in the computer systems a couple years ago.

No, XP does not support a floppy boot disk.  You can always boot from the Windows CD if necessary.  About the only thing you can do from a CD boot is run the recovery console if your boot.ini file is damaged so the computer won't boot at all.  If boot.ini and the other few boot files are intact, you can usually boot to a command line via the F8 menu.

Booting from a DOS floppy probably won't help you anyway as your XP system should be formatted with NTFS and DOS can't access an NTFS partition.

If the BIOS doesn't recognize the external CD then you will have to boot from the HD or fix the internal CD drive.

IIRC, a USB external drive (or any other USB device) will not be recognized by the BIOS, and cannot be made bootable.

Some external USB devices can be recognized by the BIOS (keyboards for instance) but most require a driver be loaded by the operating system.  I believe there are some BIOS that will recognize an external hard drive but don't know if it would be bootable.  Same for an external CD-ROM.  These would be fairly recent BIOS however.  Even my 2 year old BIOS doesn't recognize any USB devices.

robfogle said:

Don't blame HP for the OS disk issue it is the way Microsoft Licenses the OS to OEM's.

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Hi Rob, that suggests that different OEMs have different licenses with Microsoft, given that other OEMs (at least some of them) provide the OS disk. My Gateway came with the OS disk and bootup doesn't first load their shell, which is what happens with all the HPs I've owned. My pre-HP Compaq also didn't load a shell.

MLCBFarrell said:

... biggest complaint (there are others, but I can't remember all of them) is lack of tech support when she needs it.

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Have a Dell laptop. After 2,5 years I had graphic-trouble. Called Dell and the next day a technician came to me, changed the graphic card for 0,00 US$. Have a warranty which makes that possible. So I can't say anything bad about Dell.

Ron said:

Now if I were going to buy a new computer today and I had the minister of finance approval I would get a Chembook like Jerry Ardra's.  Now that is a fine computer, a bit pricy comparded to many but worth it. ( Ardras is newer and has more later things to offer.)

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Ron

We had a Chembook 3 laptops ago and weren't thrilled with factory service. It also had a recovery disk rather than an OS.

BernieD said:

Ron

We had a Chembook 3 laptops ago and weren't thrilled with factory service. It also had a recovery disk rather than an OS.

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I know that the OS disk is one of Jerry's must have and so far they have really liked them I thin they have had Chembook in the past too.  Hopefull Jerry will jump in with some details.  So far it would be my first choice.
  If coourse IMHO a good computer shouldn't require factory service.  Jerry and Ardra's hasn't yet nor has my Gateways.