New PC......

[forthbridge]

Hey guys....

A little advice needed. Plumped at the weekend for the system I was mulling over and am happy with specs and price. I went for a 22" LG LCD, which is very impressive and suits my needs....

...anyway... now to the problems.......!

Purchased from Comet BTW....

It's Vista premium OEM, and as usual you need to create your own restore disks. First off, I disabled auto updates and set about removing all the rubbish that comes preinstalled, particularly Office trial, Mcafee etc....

Anyway..... I had this complete last night, and before I turned updates on, I intalled a Belkin dongle to connect to the network - A-OK.

I then stuck a coupld of installers in to install some utility programs I already use on 'tother machine - only to find NOTHING would install at all.

I turned updates on, and almost immediately started getting 'failed' messages. Eventually stuff went in but three updates would not install out of about fifty.

I then restored the machine back to original settings, and found I could then install anything, but the same three files from Windows update kept refusing to install with 'unknown error'. (80070570) - however, I can't see any reasonable reason for this.....

The question being (I am starting afresh once more) - I am not intending to waste money on support helplines that will go through a list of default questions with me, and since windows update is automatic (and all these updates are present on a Vista premium laptop and this PC) - does anyone have any advice?

[forthbridge]

UPDATE:

I am 99% sure McaFee has something to do with this. If I leave it on the system, everything seems OK. If I uninstall it, I cannot install anything and get a stopped working message. Even with it in, it seems to be interfering with Windows update... BUT..... I have found a removal tool from McAffee - HOWEVER, it says to uninstall the program then run the tool - if I do that, I cannot run the bl**dy installer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAARGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

So, I'm going to try once more to run the tool only and see if that works!

[RAF_Quantum]

Hi Jim,

Hope you don't mind but i've moved this topic into 'The Virtual Spanner' where it is more appropriate.

Regards

John

[forthbridge]

oops.. soz John - I thought I'd put it there

UPDATE: Still getting update failures, but I think I've stripped mcafee out successfully - I'll wait til it settles down and try and run a program and see if it's playing ball!

[TSR2]

Hi Jim,

Right... what Service Pack level is the new machine at? basicly there are a few updates that have been superceeded and will not install. Have you done a search on the error message... or better still, what are the 3 updates that wont install... including KB number please. My mind reading skills are poor

[forthbridge]

HI Ben

Still at SP1.

What is really confusing is this:

The new machine will not run any file I download - it says 'xxx has stopped working' as soon as I try to click

it DOES run ANY program installer (Avast, Firefox) which I download on another machine and transfer over via USB stick.

I managed to get Firefox on using this method (the file downloaded onto the new machine would not run, the transferred file did)

I then downloaded Avast from Firefox on the new machine, and got an error 1006 message extraction failure when I tried to run it

(Avast does run if transferred from another PC) - I'm really confused!

[tonymadge]

Not sure if this will be of help, but when you bought it from Comet did they include an upgrade to Win7 voucher? if so that would be the best way to go, I know that means rest of Sept to suffer but it gets rid of Vista??

[TSR2]

HI Ben

Still at SP1.

What is really confusing is this:

The new machine will not run any file I download - it says 'xxx has stopped working' as soon as I try to click

it DOES run ANY program installer (Avast, Firefox) which I download on another machine and transfer over via USB stick.

I managed to get Firefox on using this method (the file downloaded onto the new machine would not run, the transferred file did)

I then downloaded Avast from Firefox on the new machine, and got an error 1006 message extraction failure when I tried to run it

(Avast does run if transferred from another PC) - I'm really confused!

First thing is first. Don't try to install anything untill you have fully run your windows update.... no Avast, no firefox, nothing. The upgrade to Windows 7 will only confuse things further (in my opinion) as an upgrade from a pre installed Vista does not work as well as a fresh install... particularly on Windows 7 as a fresh install does some clever partitioning of the drive.

Anyway... restore the machine to as it was when it came from the shop... plug it in and put on all your windows updates (including SP2) If any of the windows updates fail to install, list the KB number here... but bare in mind thatyou will need to run windows update a few times as some updates will depend on others already being installed.

Why you'd take off McAfee to put on Avast, I'm not intirely sure. I know McAfee isn't to everyones liking, but its infintely better than Avast.

[forthbridge]

HI Ben

I'm running a (third) restore. I'll post up KB nos as and when. Another issue - on trying Office trial 2007 (preinstalled), it does not load. On clicking the shortcut, you get a notepad window full of hex code, and a script error message on the main screen. I know windows update takes time, but I don't know if McAfee hinders it (it attempts a scan and needs registered). My instinct tells me it may just be a dodgy image of windows..

[TSR2]

You might be right Ian. Mcafee won't interfere with windows update, don't worry. Windows update has been around for over 10 years and the Antivirus manufacturers know how to deal with it by now.

As I said, start from a clean machine, restored to factory settings using the restore process. Even before trying Windows update, try to launch off ice and see if you get that same error. If you do, then I'd suggest something is up with the image or the machine and I'd take it back. If not, run windows update... it WILL take probably a few hours as it will take probably about an hour to put on SP2 and then including the various reboots for the other updates. What is strange is that it doesn't have SP2 preinstalled, its been out for some time now... 6 months or so, so strange that the PC manufacturer hasn't included it. What make of machine is it matey?