Dell Inspiron 530S & Vista - still no network drivers

Microsoft's procedure resulted in another evening wasted in installins and backing out sp1. Given that I sent them the config information from the machine I was surprised that they asked me to install drivers that were the same as the ones I had.

Also the procedure I was given did not work.
Uninstall the driver
Reboot
Install the driver from the new file.

Vista installs the old driver (which it insists is the best option) before I have a chance to say no.
The network card is:
Intel(R) 82562V-2 10/100

I'm now waiting for a response, interestingly there are some people using SP1 with this network card and having other problems.

Now Vista takes longer than XP to both boot up and shut down.

Dell Inspiron 530S & Vista - DVD Drive is back

Vista SP1 support sent me a long procedure, which is better than anything I'd found on the web:

Step 1: If you have installed any CD/DVD-burning software, please temporarily remove them from "Control Panel"-> "Programs and Features".

Step 2: Modify the Registry

====================

1. Click the Start Button, type regedit in the "Start Search" text box and then press ENTER.

2. Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

3. Right click the {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} entry, choose "Export", select Desktop in the Save in box and type backup in File Name. Click Save.

Please Note: The backup file is on the Desktop and named backup.reg. We can simply restore the registry by double-clicking the backup.reg file.

4. Highlight this key ({4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}), on the right pane, and then check if Upperfilters and Lowerfilters value are present. If so, please right click on the values and select "Delete" to remove them.

5. Restart the computer

Step 2 fixed it - onwards to the Network card. Strike while SP1 support is free.

Dell Inspiron 530S & Vista - the nightmare continues

Still no DVD drive, but that's for another time.
Today's problems are all around the display. My display is a NEC MultiSync LCD 2070WNY, and has worked with 5 or 6 other computers without problem.

• My display settings are set to 1680x1050 @ 60Hz on this account, but on the administrator account the best I can get is 1480x1050 @60Hz. When I try for the higher settings the monitor reports "Out of Range", and the settings drop back to what was previously defined.
• The "Out of Range" message sometimes appears in mid-flight. The next boot "Out of Range" is all you get. Then I have to use the F8 key at start up and select "Start in low resolution", the settings then (miraculously?) correct themselves and I can re-boot again.

I have recovered my cruzer readyboost 4Gb USB memory stick from my son (it wasn't helping his XP system). I want to use it for the regular backup of the important files.

• Now the Inspiron 530S will not boot at all with it plugged in. Unplug it, boots fine, plug it in - just a cursor on the display about 3 lines down.

Dell Inspiron 530S + Windows Vista

The CPU fan mount broke on my Evesham (running XP/SP3) - not the worlds greatest machine, but not quite two year old.

So as an emergency replacement I bought a Dell from PC World. It has Vista Home Premium. I've spent a few days building my fairly complex environment, and moving setting and files from the old machine (which will run, but only if its flat on its side).

Already I hate Vista.

• My start-up programs are blocked - because they are not registered with microsoft
• I am constantly asked to approve what I've just told the computer to do
• I cannot always get onto the network when I logoff one user and logon as another - DHCP wont get an address (why does it need to?)
• I have put all my personal shortcuts in the usual place (in a folder under the start menu for all users) but I'm not allowed to create shortcuts there. Shortcuts have to be created on the desktop, and moved.
• Once the Shortcuts are there they can be found by the search, but the folder will not expand.
• While importing address books for thunderbird, the import dialog showed only 3 of the four file in the folder. Typing the name worked, and the addresses were imported.

So I thought I'd let SP1 install - BAD Move!!!
After SP1 my network driver is blocked and my DVD drive doesn't work

• System restore to the rescue? - No - as usual!
• After system restore the system starts to install SP1, which this time fails and is backed out (as part of the process)
• The list of applied fixes says it was successful!
  
• Now I have a network - great, but no DVD - "This device cannot start. (Code 10)" - Very helpful.
• A fix recommends deleting a registry hive and re-booting.
• I cannot get access to all of the registry hive (access denied AGAIN!), and the piece I can't see doesn't get exported - so no backup if I do this.
• The solution to the problem according to Microsoft - apply SP1!

Does it remind you of "There's a hole in my bucket"?

Where now - Linux maybe?