Vista killed my Laptop?

For over 1 year I used to operate a HP Compaq nx6110 Notebook PC running a preinstalled Windows XP Home Edition. Not a problem at all during all this time. Today, I decided to upgrade it, and that turned out to be a bad move it seems.

What I did was:
- add an extra 512Mb of RAM, and replace the CD-RW with a DVD-RW drive
- upgrade to Windows Vista Home

Mind that it says HP recommends Windows Vistaâ„¢ Business on this particular laptop guide page.

It took me about 1 hour to configure the laptop under the new Vista, and then all of a sudden the screen froze. I had to force a reboot, and then it would not start again. The power led lights up, I hear noise, but no reaction on screen at all. I suspect that it's the Vista that has blown the graphics card and since it is an integrated one, I might have to get a new motherboard. Could I be wrong?

 

maybe it's the upgrade you've done, the hardware upgrade

 

Took the extra RAM off, and unplugged the dvd drive for change but no difference..

 

Is the extra RAM no-name? If not, does it have the same clock speed as the existing RAM module(s)? Does HP actually support the extra RAM you added to your laptop? It might be a problem with the RAM or the graphics cards, but that's not said yet.

 

It used to have a 256Mb and I added an extra 512Mb stick, make seems fine...

Thanks for your input, sebastianrs

 

I must have missed to further look at new posts of this thread. Anyway, in case the problem does still exist... what I was referring to was the clock speed of the RAM, not the capacity. For example, you might have had a PC2100 DDR RAM module and added a PC2700 to it. I doubt that this might have caused the problems, but I wouldn't exclude it at all.

 

Thanks for coming back to this, Sebastian.

My laptop is not at the service guys for diagnostics. I kind of do not feel fantastic about that but hopefylly they will come up with a clear answer to what has caused the crash. If it was the Vista then I'm going to contact Bill and ask if he hasn't got a spare laptop to give away to me

Will keep you posted, once again thanks.

 

I dont think its vista. It might be the Ram you added. Check again all the hardware you added/upgraded.

 

It was just the RAM and the DVD RW drive replacement. Yes I will check that when I get to talk to the service people..

 

don't buy vista lol. waste of money, wish i hadn't bought it

 

maybe you did not install vista correctly??

this guy has a good video of his installation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU7UhLNyigg

did you run your PC with the new mem & DVD prior to the U/G?? adding too many things at once is never a good idea

 

lol, of course i insalled it directly. it is a just a flawed operating system produced by the epitome of an overly capitalistic company.

 

The DVD RW, the 512Mb RAM and the Vista. Well I guess the Vista was too much, wasn't it

 

It might be the RAM you added. Unless I read your posts wrong and missed something, when you were adding stuff to your laptop, you might have fried the motherboard with static electricity, gotten dirt/dust somewhere where it should not be, or anything else that can happen when the case is open. The last time I replaced RAM in my desktop, the motherboard was fried since I forgot to release my static electricity on something beforehand.

 

Well, I lost my Dell XPS GEN 2 laptop to Vista as well. During a visit to MS Update site, the auto-download of the newest NVIDIA drivers incorrectly installed GeForce 6800 Go ULTRA drivers for my GeForce 6800 Go. Basically, I got artifacts all over the screen and in short order, my graphics card was dead and the computer wouldn't even boot anymore. Just power on and a dead, black screen. Now its off to Dell for a replacement (and probably very expensive) graphics card.

Vista was very nice to use (for the short time I spent with it), but the graphics drivers aren't even close to stable, MS update sent me drivers which incorrectly identified my card and caused me not only crashing, but inevitably the death of my laptop.

As long as I ran in standard VGA or "classic theme" I could at least boot into the system for a while.

Check your drivers and make sure that the correct ones are installed. It's common knowledge on the web that Vista graphics drivers (NVIDIA mostly - and ATI to a lesser degree) are pretty flaky.

 

stories like this make you want to run right out and buy it!!

 

There a lot of consumers who are complaining about vista having read some negative reviews about it I decided to stick with xp some articles you can check if vista could've been the problem http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2104022,00.asp
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/andrewkantor/2007-03-02-vista-problems_x.htm hope this helps