This time around, it's a brand spanking new Dell (yes, I like the word spanking) and the task was to format the machine which has Windows XP Home Edition installed and have a fresh new copy of Windows XP Professional installed along with Visual Studio .NET 2003 and a number of other apps.
You see, the task of reformatting, the installation of apps and device drivers are very common events in the life of a person who is in touch with his / her computers. Occassionally, these machines can drive you crazy due to strange and unknown circumstances. This was exactly what the Dell did.
The machine was beautiful. Nice and WIDE WXGA screen, nice specs, bluetooth, wifi, multimedia buttons and such. Built quality is perhaps one of the best I have seen in notebooks. At least when you start opening and closing the lid, you don't get squeeks like what I get on my Compaq - all you get is a smooth, light, yet solid feel. Before I digress further, making myself sound like some Dell salesman, let's get into the meat of this post.
The installation
There were a fleet of applications waiting to be installed into this baby. All went in smoothly, it started with Windows XP Pro, a service pack upgrade to SP2, installation of the various device drivers, Microsoft Office, Symantec Security / Antivirus solution and finally came Visual Studio .NET 2003 - this is when everything halted.
For those who are familiar with the installation of Visual Studio .NET 2003, you would recall having at least 6 CDs for the installation. The first one is the requisites disc, this is then followed the application itself (2 discs) and another 3 for the MSDN Library.
I popped in the Requisites Disc, clicked install and the process halted - indefinitely. I tried many things, restarting the machine, reinstalling - but still to no avail.
So after all those hours (4 hours approximately) spent on the prior installations, the last resort was to reformat the machine go through all that installation again.
So here I am, Visual Studio .NET 2003 has finally been installed (this time, I got the application installed before upgrading Windows to SP2). Approximately 2 hours down, 2 more to go? :) I've been staring on that machine for almost 6 hours... let's just hope I don't get those funny glitches anymore.
Update - the following day Sunday (1340hrs)
I'm awake. Just got up from bed. Yesterday (erm or shall I say this morning?) was quite an experience. The installation lasted all the way until 11:20pm and that's a total of 9 hours staring at the Delll. Progress? Mixed. Everything went well until I installed Symantec's Internet Security Suite 2005. 11:20pm, just minutes away from my long anticipated movie (yes, I forgot to mention that I was doing this instsallation at 1 Utama - Dome Cafe, simply because I reserved tickets for a movie called War of the Worlds; more on the movie later).
After installation of Symantec's suite, everything slowed down, internet applications started to act funny, further installation of software halted. This was BAD.
Since I paid a pretty hefty price for my movie tickets (RM 70 - 2 tickets for the Gold Class), I told myself, I'm going to enjoy this. I bid my friend good bye, told her that I'll be taking custody of the notebook for the night and promissed that her notebook will be ready before her flight at 10am today.
Stella and I left for the movie and yes, Gold Class was certainly Gold Class. It was comfortable, clean, plenty of leg room, you could literally lie on the leg room they have for you. Let's just say, it's like a First Class airplane experience with more room and certainly a MUCH LARGER screen ahead of you.
Since this post wasn't really meant for a movie review, I shall just give a super short take on the movie. Fantabulous sound effects, visual effects and plenty of exciting scenes. There were mixed reviews of this movie. The friend (Sylvia) whom I am fixing the notebook for, claims that it wasn't great. In my opinion, it was erm... perhaps not the best Steven Spielberg movie I have watched but certainly worth the money.
Anyway, back to the notebook. Movie lasted till about 2+. Got home and started troubleshooting. The problem? It was a no-brainer, "Symantec Internet Security 2005". This Symantec thing is actually a suite of Symantec's applications which include Norton Antivirus, Norton AntiSpam, Norton Firewall and so on - intergrated into one application / interface called Symantec Internet Security.
I uninstalled the application and the machine literally came back to life again. No more hiccups, smooth installation of applications, Internet applications started working again. I was telling myself, there has to be something I can do to fix this. A big company such as Symantec couldn't have created such a CRAPPY software.
Since I had quite a bit of Windows Updates to perform and a number of other apps to installed, I went through all the updates, installations and re-installed Symantec's app last.
IT WORKED!
It was almost 5:30am. Stella and I delivered the notebook to our friend's place, she thanked us profusely, we said our "all the best's", "take care's" and off we went for BREAKFAST!
The meal? Best porridge in Malaysia's China Town. The streets were clear, traffic lights were green and it was smooth sailing all the way to our destination. We had porridge with pork balls, century eggs and raw fish. It was great. Arrived home at approximately 7am
Took a shower and hit the bed.
As Yoda would say : "A long day, it has been
and I would reply : "indeed, indeed"
To my friend in Australia - Saliva Binti Mohd Dewi (not her actual name) have a GREAT TIME IN the land of Kangaroos and Koala Bears! Study hard, play hard and have plenty of FUN! See you back here in exactly 15 weeks!
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