This is the blog of Adam Kalsey. Unusual depth and complexity. Rich, full body with a hint of nutty earthiness.
This is the blog of Adam Kalsey. Unusual depth and complexity. Rich, full body with a hint of nutty earthiness.
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4 Jan 2008
As good as Dell was with their customer service, Winaso is bad. Dell offered support for a problem when I didn’t even go to to them for help and when the problem wasn’t their fault. Winaso won’t even respond to support requests from a paying customer.
My grandfather was a computing pioneer. He was one of HP’s early employees. He started building electronic calculators and moved on to writing software. He’s been having a problem with his computer where it reboots when he attempts to print anything from Outlook Express. His hardware tests fine, and he can’t find a solution for the problem, so he works around it.
Then he finds the exact same behavior when he’s using a windows system utility from Winaso. It’s scanning his system and in the exact same place each scan, his computer spontaneously reboots. So he sent them an email and asked what could be done.
After a few weeks, he heard nothing and asked again. A few weeks later, still nothing and he asked again. Still nothing. So I told him to forward his next message to them to me. At least we can warn people not to buy their products.
It’s possible this is a problem they can’t solve. After all, Microsoft support has no idea why Outlook would cause a computer to reboot. But he’s a paying customer — the least that Winaso could do is reply and tell him they don’t have a solution.
Gentlemen: This is the fourth time I’ve sent you a request for help for the same problem. You have not answered my previous requests and since I have paid for the Winaso program, I expect to at least hear from you about this problem.
A copy of the last email (number three) is shown below:
Gentlemen: I’m running WIN XP and IE6.0.
Winaso License Key: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have e-mailed you about my problem twice and have not received a reply. I need to get this resolved.
When I’m in Outlook Express (6.0) and press the print icon or file/print keys, my computer reboots. I can print from the web, Microsoft Office, photo pgms, etc.
When I run Winaso Clean Registry the search will continue through each section until I get to either “Invalid ActiveX” or “Invalid Files Path”. The program starts searching, the screen goes black, and the computer reboots. If I bypass these two sections I get a “No Errors” found.
Is there a way to isolate the file or files that cause your program to abort and reboot. Please help me solve this problem.
He doesn’t think these reboots are their fault either. He’s hoping they can tell him what their program is doing at the moment it reboots. Apparently some text flashes on the screen near the progress meter in the moment before rebooting. He’s hoping that he can find exactly what part of his system is causing this, since it’s obviously not just Windows random instability.
OE (You should really upgrade him to something better! For shame!)
I know. I’ve tried. He likes OE. And he’s the unofficial tech support for most of his friends. They all use Windows and OE, so he does.
Well, you just can’t help people. But again, I’d be mad at MS for all of this - especially needing a program like WinASO to clean up their mess.
Adam Kalsey
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Email: adam AT kalsey.com
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Adam Kalsey
Jemaleddin
January 5, 2008 6:09 AM
I was really impressed with Dell in the previous post, but while Winaso’s lack of any response is inexcusable, I have a hard time believing that these reboots are their fault. Given that he’s getting reboots when printing from OE (You should really upgrade him to something better! For shame!), it’s most likely a driver conflict. I mean, when Windows reboots for no good reason it’s probably because it’s a day ending in “y”. Microsoft long ago traded stability for compatibility, and the answer to problems like this is to re-install windows and make sure your drivers are up to date.
And obviously your dad knows that - that’s why he’s running a registry optimizer in the first place, to forestall the inevitable re-install. At some point he’s going to make the same choice every other long-time geek is making: install Linux or buy a Mac.