How stable is your PC? | The Coffeehouse

the-laughing-man

I always abuse my PCs quite a lot, I'm constantly installing freeware apps that I download to trial with almost no knowledge of them what so ever etc and this can have an adverse affect on stability as you can guess. I kept my old XP PC running for 17 days once and it was the longest I ever managed to keep it stable.

I've just hit the 32 day mark with Vista SP1 and think it speaks quite a bit about the stability of Vista SP1. I'm still installing all sorts of random programs and abusing it just as much as my XP machine if not more.

I know Linux/UNIX machines are going to have Uptimes of years but...

How long have you guys managed to keep your PCs running?
Do you find Vista noticably more stable then XP?
How badly do you abuse your PCs?

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

I shut my desktop down every night, but besides that it never crashes (not counting my recent period of hardware troubles, of course).

My laptop goes into hybrid sleep when I'm not using it and only reboots for Windows or driver updates, so that's roughly once a month.

Both are running Vista.

CannotResolveSymbol
{insert caption here}

My laptop's not that stable, but that's because I've got a couple components that will either keep my computer from going into standby (and leaving the computer stuck at the "Preparing for standby" screen, necessitating a reboot) or keep my computer from resuming from standby (staying stuck at a black screen forever and requiring a reboot).

My parents' desktop, however, has been going for 29 days and is still kicking. It pretty much only gets rebooted for updates and shut down when there's a thunderstorm or they leave town. It'll probably go for another two weeks until they leave town for memorial day, unless automatic update reboots it sooner.

Both are on XP (my laptop on SP3 and the desktop on SP2).

Shining Arcanine

the-laughing-man wrote:
I always abuse my PCs quite a lot, I'm constantly installing freeware apps that I download to trial with almost no knowledge of them what so ever etc and this can have an adverse affect on stability as you can guess. I kept my old XP PC running for 17 days once and it was the longest I ever managed to keep it stable.

I've just hit the 32 day mark with Vista SP1 and think it speaks quite a bit about the stability of Vista SP1. I'm still installing all sorts of random programs and abusing it just as much as my XP machine if not more.

I know Linux/UNIX machines are going to have Uptimes of years but...

How long have you guys managed to keep your PCs running?
Do you find Vista noticably more stable then XP?
How badly do you abuse your PCs?

My media center PC (my desktop) runs for months on end. It runs Windows Media Center Edition 2005 (i.e. XP). Recently, it has developed an issue with its PSU where its PSU will overheat if it is on for more than few hours, which is strange considering that its PSU is fanless and did not overheat under several months of continuous operation.

YearOfTheLinuxDesktop
Seven of Niner! Resistance is Futile!

Shining Arcanine wrote:

My media center PC (my desktop) runs for months on end. It runs Windows Media Center Edition 2005 (i.e. XP). Recently, it has developed an issue with its PSU where its PSU will overheat if it is on for more than few hours, which is strange considering that its PSU is fanless and did not overheat under several months of continuous operation.

dirty heatsinks?

DigitalDud

I honestly haven't had any issues with stability since the Win98 days.

WillemM

I too download loads of freeware and it does slow my PC down, but it does stay stable and I can still work with it without crashes or anything.

The problem is however, how do I get my PC back up to it's normal speed without reinstaling Windows Vista? It's a lot of work to reinstall windows, because I also require Visual Studio 2008 and some other tools that take quite a bit of time to setup correctly.

lothan

the-laughing-man wrote:
How long have you guys managed to keep your PCs running?
Do you find Vista noticably more stable then XP?
How badly do you abuse your PCs?

I have to say one of the first things I noticed after installing Vista Ultimate x32 on my notebook is the improved stability. I was never able to get sleep or hibernate to work reliably with Windows XP, but both sleep and hibernate Just Work with Vista on my notebook and the only time I reboot is when required to do so by various updates.

I've experienced much the same stability running Vista Ultimate x64 on my desktop computer, although I don't typically use sleep or hibernate with the desktop.

I know I've had both the notebook and the desktop running over 30 days continuously, but it's difficult to go much beyond that because of the number of updates that require a reboot. As for abuse, I've tried to keep both systems as stable as I can. The majority of my system changes are in SDK updates (ASP.NET MVC, Spring, NHibernate), plugins (TortoiseSVN, VisualSVN, ReSharper), and the occasional new application (most recently Skype, Paint.NET, Notepad++).

As far as driver updates, I usually give a preference to drivers from Microsoft Update rather than install the bloatware from the manufacturer. I've found in some instances this can make a huge difference in stability and usability.

AW
The 01.

At the time I had my desktop, I somehow managed to keep it stable for 9-12 months (Windows XP).

Now my laptop runs Vista SP1. I have some issues with Vista going to sleep as there is some time period (like a minute or two after sleep) at which, if I try to wake my laptop up, it just doesn't work (tm). I mean it begins to do something (I can hear hdd starting to spin up and all those PC noises), but screen is left blank. The only solution is a hard shutdown )-. So now I have to wait like ~5minutes to try to do something after laptop went "to bed". The situation is a little better after I installed SP1 as no I don't have a random BSOD after closing lid down (this was annoying in pre-SP1 Vista as I couln't determine why it was happening).

As a whole, I do like how stable Vista is after 4 months of use.

Ah, I forgot to mention it is Vista Home Premium x64.

phobox
The Ancient Geek

My current and primary workhorse these days is a Mac OS X system and unsurprisingly uptime and stability on this system are excellent. I have my machine running 24/7 for various scheduled services and operations I run and the only time Ive had to reboot is when Ive made some core modifications to the hardware or OS or Ive had a power cut. The system just doesnt crash, at all. In terms of Windows systems, I run Windows XP and Windows Vista via virtual machines on the Macintosh, both run 24/7 and are very stable, however it must be said I dont use them for anything too taxing either. I used to run a Windows Server based machine some time ago and that was running for years without any stability issues, until the hardware itself blew up lol. Overall all my hardware is very stable, regardless of operating system. However if I had to choose the least stable OS I use regularly it would be Windows Vista, but its not enough to cause serious headaches.

PerfectPhase
"This is not war, this is pest control!" - Dalek to Cyberman

Shining Arcanine wrote:

My media center PC (my desktop) runs for months on end. It runs Windows Media Center Edition 2005 (i.e. XP). Recently, it has ...

I have A vista PC next to my TV that I just use media center on and I sleep it every night, honestly can't remember when I last did a full reboot. I leave it on some nights so I guess it must have patched it's self but I've never notice, really does work just like an appliance rather than a PC.

The only Vista machine I have issues with is my laptop and Dell have been out and changed the M/B today so fingers crossed it will be better now.

intelman

WillemM wrote:
I too download loads of freeware and it does slow my PC down, but it does stay stable and I can still work with it without crashes or anything.

The problem is however, how do I get my PC back up to it's normal speed without reinstaling Windows Vista? It's a lot of work to reinstall windows, because I also require Visual Studio 2008 and some other tools that take quite a bit of time to setup correctly.

I install a bare copy of Vista, with no drivers and the programs I need. I include Visual Studio, Expression Suite, and Office 2007. I then do a full PC backup with Vista, which creates an image file. If I need to restore my PC due to the slowness, I do it in ~10 minutes.

the-laughing-man

WillemM wrote:
The problem is however, how do I get my PC back up to it's normal speed without reinstaling Windows Vista? It's a lot of work to reinstall windows, because I also require Visual Studio 2008 and some other tools that take quite a bit of time to setup correctly.

IntelMan beat me to it, I was gonna say make a backup too!

took me 6mins to restore 20GB and my PC was perfect again, in fact that is the install I'm running off atm Big Smile

SlackmasterK
I write my OWN blogging engines

I hate to sound like one of those "Give Vista a Chance" fanboys, but I gotta. Since I installed SP1 RTM, I haven't had a single crash on any of my systems. I personally have 5 systems, and none are even on XP anymore.

No blue screens. No "Close programs to prevent information loss" balloons. No fatal exceptions. No silent fails in the event log. Nothing. Thank you, Microsoft.