It started last night around midnight. My personal computer started running in slow motion after a reboot. I knew what it was. After all, it wasn’t the first time its happened. The last time it took most of the day to work out. To say the least, it was not a good time for it to happen, because I had work to do. I was working on two other computers a fresh install of a Windows XP onto a Windows ME era notebook with only 188MB of RAM (yikes) and an upgrade to Windows 7 from XP on a desktop PC. My computer would have to wait.
The Notebook needed RAM and permission for it came that afternoon. RAM wouldn’t arrive until tomorrow morning. The owners were leaving town and wouldn’t be back until Tuesday. The notebook tested my patience in that it took two days of periodic monitoring to install Windows XP SP1a and fully update it to SP3. Windows XP SP1 only needed 128MB of RAM to run, but SP3 needs more than 256 MB. So, as you can imagine, the system ran painfully slow. The system was to be used for basic web browsing, music, DVD and Video playback. I configured the system with the software required to meet their needs and provided security protection to ensure a safe Internet experience. Once the memory arrives, the system will be ready to go. I may choose to install additional software such as a word processor or photo editor, depending on how the RAM improves the system.
The desktop, on the other hand, defied logic. I had already backed up the customer’s data and installed 2GB of DDR333 RAM, the system’s maximum, and a 256 MB AGP video card. However, when I attempted to install Windows 7, the system refused to boot up from the DVD. I booted back into Windows, and started the installation from Windows. The installation completed successfully, but during the first boot the system crashed. Every attempt to boot to the DVD, where repair utilities would help me get the system operational again, failed. I spent several hours swapping DVD drives in and out of the system, cleaning them, and trying to get the Windows 7 DVD to boot. I wasn’t going anywhere with Windows 7, so I pulled out a Windows XP Home disc and it booted up immediately. I performed chkdsk on the system, but it didn’t resolve the problem preventing Windows 7 from installing. I booted up again and dumped the entire volume. I reinstalled Windows XP and upgraded to Windows 7 from there. The installation was good. I suspect that various aspects of the system were damaged, corrupt, or infected with something that prevented Windows 7 from booting up normally, after the system was wiped clean, did the installation complete successfully.
The DVD issue, I suspect was a result of an older motherboard that didn’t support the boot to DVD option, since a Windows XP CD was able to boot every time it was tried. After that, the installation went very smoothly. I provided security, Internet, and productivity software. Then, I installed all of the software the customer provided to me except the printer, since the hardware is required for installation. I updated Windows and restored the data I had backed up. Finally, I optimized system performance. The system is now ready to deliver first thing tomorrow morning.
Once that was finished, I turned my attention to my own PC. After uninstalling my video driver software and restarting the system several times, the proper video driver was installed. The system began to run better. I continued on with my work when it happened again. I had been using Office 2010 each time, I experienced the problem today. I will be reporting this bug to Microsoft with the hopes of making Office 2010 a better product.