Wireless USB conflicts with Vista boot[moved from vista]

[Isabelle]

Hello there,

I just purchased an HP m8330f loaded with Vista Home Premium. This machine does not come withe wireless capabilities. I purchased a Linksys Wireless Network adapter, downloaded the drivers for Vista and was able to connect to the Internet without any difficulties. However, once I tried to reboot the machine, Vista would not load. As soon as I unplug the adapter from the USB port, Vista loads without a glitch. If the computer goes into sleep mode, it crashes as it cannot reload Vista.

Any idea why this is happening and what I can do to fix it?

Thank you!

Isabelle

[dai]

moved you to networking

[johnwill]

That's a driver issue, you probably should contact Linksys. Personally, I have a very low opinion of USB network connections, this is one of the many reasons why.

[L1Technician]

Try increasing the virtual memory of the computer...

[johnwill]

Originally Posted by L1Technician

Try increasing the virtual memory of the computer...

Where in the world did this suggestion come from? In any case, it clearly has nothing to do with the issue!

[L1Technician]

If the computer will not load if the adapter is connected basically there is not enough virtual memory for the adapter.

[Cellus]

This is most likely a driver issue. Why? Because this behaviour is consistent with there being an issue when Windows loads - device drivers, such as network drivers, are loaded with Windows, and if a fault occurs with the drivers while loading it can hang or crash Windows. Device drivers are not all made equal (nor should I say, is Windows) and you can have some atrociously designed and coded drivers, or the drivers may not have been installed correctly (even if you performed the install procedure correctly, it can still foul up).

Virtual Memory, and the page file system, is used to help facilitate and expand the capabilities of normal memory, in this case RAM. It is very common, especially given the size of software and its capabilities these days, for the system with all its software needing more space to do its work and play around than is available in just RAM. This is where Virtual Memory comes in. Virtual Memory is, in essence, "fake" memory, which takes space in a hard drive to help offload, move, and shuffle data to and from RAM. In a perfect world this would all be done in the area of blinding speed which is actual RAM, but in this imperfect world with too little RAM, Virtual Memory compensates by providing more space in the relatively snail-pace speed of a hard drive. You could say in this case, quantity is more important than quality, as something is better than nothing. This is more apparent when dealing with Windows Vista, which by itself takes a heck of a lot more memory than its predecessor Windows XP.

It is important to understand the mechanics of how Windows, or any OS for that matter, boots up (or "pulls its pants up by the bootstraps" as the term comes from) and how it gets from pressing the Power button to logging in to surfing the web and fiddling with spreadsheets. The whole process is more involved than what meets the eye and, if you know how it works, can troubleshoot more effectively.

[Isabelle]

Hi everyone and thank you for your answers,
As it turns out, if I wait a good 10 minutes, Vista will boot. Any idea why it is so slow, even though this computer has a a Phenom quad core processor???
Thanks again,
Isabelle

[dai]

in msconfig check what you have running on startup and disable anything you don't need

[Isabelle]

I have already tried booting with almost all start up items disabled - no difference.
Also, if there are 3 gigs of RAM, would virtual memory still be kicking in?

[dai]

there are some tools and a guide here to help find the cause of the problem
http://thinkabdul.com/2007/05/06/tut...windows-vista/

[johnwill]

The USB device is being seen as a possible boot device. You may be able to disable network boot in the BIOS and prevent it from timing out.

FWIW, I have two machines here that if I have any kind of USB disk plugged in, either a FLASH disk or a hard disk, they won't boot. Pull the plug on the external disk, and they'll boot right up.