Windows Vista - 2 day old laptop fzzzzzt.

[S-Crow]

Can anyone give me some insight. Just purchased one of the latest HP laptops at Costco. Tried to boot the laptop this morning and it gave an error that it could not load Vista and could not automatically repair itself. I've tried to boot for over an hour and it just won't go. Outside of taking it back, any suggestions or is this not unusual for Vista?

Lovely. I just bought the thing 2 days ago.

[The Tim]

If it's only 2 days old, why wouldn't you want to just take it back? The process is quite painless at Costco.

[S-Crow]

I will. I've never run Vista so I wasn't sure if this is something to look forward to. I don't think it is a hardware issue, but just guessing.

[rose-colored-coolaid]

That's not a typical Vista issue. I don't like the OS very much, but in my experience it does boot.

If you want a Windows laptop, you might consider returning this one and waiting a few months until Windows 7 is released anyways. You'll end up needing that upgrade (since Vista will rapidly vanish) and you can save yourself about $100 if you wait.

[Markor]

After using Vista for many months, I'd like to change to XP. If I buy Win XP full product, I can flatten my Vista box (using Win XP install) and end up with XP only right? I have a 4GB machine; I understand XP will see only 3GB, right?

I don't want Win 7 because some stuff I use undoubtedly won't support it for a long time. I figure XP will be supported for a few years yet since it's on netbooks selling now.

[deejayoh]

[deejayoh]

[Markor]

[deejayoh]

[Markor]

Good report, thanks. Maybe I'll be an earlier adopter on Win7 then.

[perfectfire]

.

[Markor]

The program compatibility wizards looks nice. I liked XP from the get-go, despite some warts until SP2. I think that was a general consensus. Maybe it will be the same with Win7.