[Espy]

I finally gave in and "upgraded" to Win10 a couple days ago, and I've been having problems galore ever since. The worst is the entire screen (?) just freezing, and I can only "fix" this problem by rebooting.

Which really, really sucks.

What seems to be the problem is that NVidia and Win10 aren't exactly the most compatible, and the screen will randomly freeze from time to time, too frequent for my liking... I'm suspecting the screen hanging and not the entire system itself because 1.) I can't move the cursor, 2.) I can't access the task screen with ctrl-alt-del, and 3.) the sound also seems to hang.

Due to how many programs I need to restart every time I reboot, this has become kind of a serious...inconvenience.

Anyone else have/had this issue?

[Coda]

Make sure you go get the latest driver for your chipset. Video drivers have a lot of moving parts and major upgrades always have a tendency to shake out a few bugs. I WAS having this problem after a Win10 upgrade but it doesn't happen nearly as much anymore.

[Espy]

Yeah, I had the latest drivers and all. Still was bugging out. Didn't have the patience to deal with it and/or find solutions/get actual Microsoft help, and from the looks of it, MS has basically been pushing all the blame to Nvidia and saying that it was Nvidia's job to fix their drivers.

Unfortunately, most of the "solutions" that they offer 1.) don't work and 2.) require more computering expertise than your average layperson possesses.

So I gave up and reverted to 8.1. I'll deal with "upgrading" again later, when I have the time.

[Yokuutsu]

Your symptoms sound like the entire system freezing. Of course I don't think I've ever had the screen just hang.

I know you reverted back, but maybe they'll have a fix for it in the future...I think Microsoft pushed 10 too soon. I think it being free for now....is more of a open beta or something.

[Coda]

Microsoft didn't push 10 too soon. Too aggressively, yes, but not too soon. There were some launch bugs because there are ALWAYS launch bugs in modern operating systems, but for the most part they got shook out within the first couple months.

When Microsoft says it's Nvidia's fault, they mean it -- there is LITERALLY nothing Microsoft can do to fix this, because it's a bug in the video driver. Nvidia had access to the Windows 10 preview builds just like everyone else and on top of that it's been eight months since Win10 hit general release.

Unfortunately, as I said earlier, video drivers have lots of moving parts. It's possible Nvidia hasn't been able to reproduce the issue in the lab in order to debug it.

[Espy]

I mean, it's been seven months since LAUNCH, and plenty of people had and probably still have this issue; it can't be something particularly exclusive to machines similar to mine.

[Coda]

It very well might. Consider JUST HOW MANY computers are out there. There could be hundreds of people with configurations like yours and that still would come out to less than 1% of the installed base of Windows 10.

[Yokuutsu]

On Windows 10....I've heard of cases where it messes up the drivers. That, for some machines, it is recommended to not install certain updates since Microsoft's updates may mess up the drivers....and some just say to update the drivers before your first restart. I don't trust Microsoft....but then again...I don't trust anyone who wants remote access to my computer. (It also doesn't help that, from what I understand....they want to be a service provider, pay for a subscription to Media stuff and all. I think not)

But that's just me

I don't dislike windows 10....it's close enough to 7 that I like it. I do not like the no product key thing if you buy a new laptop...

[Coda]

Why do you dislike that? It's a GOOD thing. It means that you don't NEED the key anymore. You couldn't transfer a bundled Windows 7 license key to a different computer; they're tied to the hardware and the activation process makes sure that it's being installed on the same (or close enough to the same) computer.

Instead, all you need to do is make a Windows recovery USB stick.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

I upgraded just a couple days ago, and haven't noticed anything significant save for a slight slow-down in graphics, but nothing catastrophic. I've heard Nvidia chatter online but seems to mostly relate to making sure drivers are up to date, and occasionally re-assigning some stuff in the control panel.

The slow down a little annoying, but so far it's mostly one particular game, and I got a new 64 bit launcher for it so it could be that too. And my computer is a whole year old now. Dear me!

[Coda]

I haven't yet seen any examples of Windows 10 being slower than Windows 7 with Aero turned on. It's possible that it might be slower than 7 with Aero off, but for the most part I haven't noticed any performance hits, especially not compared to 8.0/8.1.

[Yokuutsu]

My problem with no key?

Lets say this computer goes down (it has windows 10, came with it)....I get a used laptop...put a hard drive in it...oh I don't have a validation key for an OS...I'm stuck with Linux which can play none of my games, is not compatible with my mp3 player, hates my modem (or maybe it's just the wireless card it hates in that one laptop)...and is, in general, a pain in the arse.

And the laptop I have, with windows 10...wouldn't let me make a recovery usb...microsoft linked me to a thing that I hope is the same thing minus toshiba's things. See, there's another problem right there (and I hear recovery usbs, if you don't make one ahead of time are 40 dollars, about double of recovery disks in the good old days)

I like codes. That way if something happens to my current laptop, I don't have to flail around as I remember how to use Windows 7 (eventually 10 will not be free anymore, I think it should be if they're going to sell services and all instead) or have to get Linux.

I mean, what happens if I put in a new hard drive? I have no code and couldn't make any recovery media with the laptop's stuff, I downloaded something from microsoft...so it wouldn't have the code built in...so I'd be left with no valid OS.

[Coda]

Here's the thing: The key wouldn't help you there. The keys that come with computers are OEM-locked. You CAN'T grab a copy of Windows from somewhere else and install it using that key, and you CAN'T use that key on a different computer. And that's been true since Vista.

You CAN slap a hard drive with Windows already installed on it into another computer, but it locks itself down when you do that. It gives you enough time to recover the stuff you need off of it but it'll start refusing to let you use it after a while.

So in other words, the very reason you like keys is completely irrelevant because it doesn't actually work.

Now, why your laptop wouldn't let you make a recovery USB is an extremely good question, and that sounds like something worth investigating. If you tell me more about what Microsoft referred you to, I can give you more information.

Side note: You're right about $40, but $40 now isn't significantly more than the $15 that recovery disks were in the good old days, thanks to inflation. And before that, it was even more expensive because technology prices have been coming DOWN over time.

[Yokuutsu]

But you should be able to use those keys imo....hard drives fail. Then you're left completely screwed when you technically bought the OS with the system...and you're wrong, you could use the code on other computers, I've done it before (you know, when they put those stickers on the computer)...otherwise I would've been screwed before now. At least now I know I need to finish making that hard drive with pirated 7 on it.

It was to a download of windows 10. I don't have the link since it was during a chat thing with Microsoft.

[Coda]

No, that's the thing. You DIDN'T buy a copy of the OS with the system. You bought a system which had an OEM license for Windows associated with it. The license agreement you accepted when you opened the box containing the computer said it was only valid on that specific machine.

There ARE bundled keys that are semi-portable. If you're installing the key on a computer from the same manufacturer with similar enough hardware configuration, the key won't know that it's not being used on the same machine. For some manufacturers the keys may even be portable across all laptops or all desktops or possibly all computers made by the same company. And for PARTICULARLY small manufacturers, they may be using System Builder's licenses instead of OEM licenses, which can work on any hardware. (It's still technically against the license agreement to move them to different computers if you don't buy a full version of Windows yourself, but the technological enforcement can't tell.)

Regardless of the license type, though, even if you succeed in INSTALLING Windows, it might throw errors on ACTIVATION if the key was used on another computer in the past.

It's also possible I was wrong about Vista or that the enforcement on Vista wasn't as picky. But I know it's 100% true about Windows 7 because I ran into that problem myself a couple months ago because I was trying to salvage a failed laptop for a friend and he didn't have a recovery USB -- but I have one, so I used it. The installer was happy to go on with the key on the bottom of the laptop, but Windows started complaining later about activation.

[Coda]

For the record -- I'm only saying this as a description of the facts of the case, not that I agree with it. I think this is ridiculous, and I think Microsoft needs to give up trying to make money off of desktop Windows. Apple did that years ago, Mac OS X upgrades haven't cost money in a long time, and the OS X installers only have a hardware identification check to make sure the computer you're installing it on is known to be compatible. Apple makes their money off of hardware instead of the operating system.

Let Microsoft do the same. Let Genuine Windows be a system integrity check rather than a licensing permission check. Have them make their money off of services and application software instead of operating systems. They're already starting down that path, but they're still desperately clinging to that old business model.