Terrible experience with installing Windows 7

[Chai]

I had a very tough time installing Windows 7. It is by far the toughest OS I've ever installed. I have installed all kinds of OSes from Windows 3.1 to Windows Server 2003 to OpenSUSE.

By right, Windows 7 should be a piece of cake, very few user interaction needed during installation, all Windows default drivers worked right out of the box. At least that's what most users should experience.

But for me, I had a horrid time with the installation. After numerous tries, I got a black screen after completing the installation. I have tried all sorts of methods. Booting into safe mode, enable VGA mode, unplug all USB devices etc. I've searched google for solutions. None of them works.

And finally, by chance, I managed to boot into Windows. After doing some changes, I rebooted again, and I get black screen again after the "Starting Windows" splash screen. Thankfully I have 2 monitors, and all I need to do swap the monitor, and no more black screen problem. I have 2 monitors, Dell 2001FP and BenQ G2400W. Dell was the cause.

After installing Catalyst, the problem disappeared. So who shall I blame? Microsoft? ATI? Dell? Since this is an isolated problem, and no one had this problem, I have no idea who to blame. But it seems like the default ATI drivers that came with Windows 7 is causing this problem.

[zy]

Originally Posted by Chai

I had a very tough time installing Windows 7. It is by far the toughest OS I've ever installed. I have installed all kinds of OSes from Windows 3.1 to Windows Server 2003 to OpenSUSE.

By right, Windows 7 should be a piece of cake, very few user interaction needed during installation, all Windows default drivers worked right out of the box. At least that's what most users should experience.

But for me, I had a horrid time with the installation. After numerous tries, I got a black screen after completing the installation. I have tried all sorts of methods. Booting into safe mode, enable VGA mode, unplug all USB devices etc. I've searched google for solutions. None of them works.

And finally, by chance, I managed to boot into Windows. After doing some changes, I rebooted again, and I get black screen again after the "Starting Windows" splash screen. Thankfully I have 2 monitors, and all I need to do swap the monitor, and no more black screen problem. I have 2 monitors, Dell 2001FP and BenQ G2400W. Dell was the cause.

After installing Catalyst, the problem disappeared. So who shall I blame? Microsoft? ATI? Dell? Since this is an isolated problem, and no one had this problem, I have no idea who to blame. But it seems like the default ATI drivers that came with Windows 7 is causing this problem.

All three of them.

I forgot which Windows, my screen will be blank after logging in (not all the time), and my wifi keeps dropping and the wifi light turns off (have to restart).

[DarKSeeD]

I had same problems with Ati (4670) card so the default drivers are crap. But with Nvidia (GTX260) worked without a problem. That was my case on 2 systems with build 7100.

[goldfries]

Chai, same boat la me and you.

It's been more than 12 hrs since i started placing the Windows 7 DVD to my system and it doesn't install........YET!

ok la. well in the afternoon it shows WINDOWS LOADING, then the starting thing, then left me at a blank screen with a cursor. WTH!?!?

i went out for the evening, still no luck. did a little search, then thought about USB matters. so ok la unplug my Gigabyte Odin GT USB component............. an voila! it's installing.

then the % stopped at 23. the .... thing was still moving. WTH!??! At least la tell me formatting or what but it doesn't. sheesh, i thought reset la.

After reset, guess what? LOL. worse, the DVD loaded but stop at the windows animation. WTH!?!? k. bad. so loaded my Vista, deleted all partitions of the disk and all .............. stupid right?

I mean Windows 7 should be able to do that mah, but it doesn't. sheesh. end up loaded Vista. what a joke.

Just now i switch back to the rig...........WTH!?!? P55-GD65 boot up screen? but phew, luckily it was part of Windows installation process.

Now it shows "Starting Windows" and I hope I do get to see something.

[zy]

Why windows 7 hate you all so much

I didn't have any problem installing it. Went smoothly.

But I guess my components are much older

[goldfries]

donno la. now initializing and such.

let's see if i face such issues with my drivers. only need to install GC driver.

I'm using Windows 7 Enterprise 64bit on i5-750 with 8GB RAM. After settling the USB part and the drive partition part.

now i use full 250GB instead of my earlier partition of 50GB / 200GB which somehow it doesn't seem to move.

[Chai]

Why can't they stop including default drivers, and let us install after finishing the Windows 7 installation? I think that's the biggest problem most of us here are facing.

I know GC drivers are quite problematic.

[zy]

I use default driver

[Chai]

Originally Posted by zy

I use default driver

Printer, network drivers are usually fine, which I've been using since Windows 2000. But graphics card, sound card are more sensitive and I don't like the idea of having default drivers for those 2, and most tech savvy people will know that it needs updating anyway. (That's the problem, W7 is supposed to be more "user friendly" than ever...)

[zy]

Originally Posted by Chai

Printer, network drivers are usually fine, which I've been using since Windows 2000. But graphics card, sound card are more sensitive and I don't like the idea of having default drivers for those 2, and most tech savvy people will know that it needs updating anyway. (That's the problem, W7 is supposed to be more "user friendly" than ever...)

I used to update drivers very often but I got lazy updating graphic driver.

The current problem I am having now is printer driver Other pc's (vista 32bit) can't find the correct driver the printer on windows 7 64-bit pc.