PC Pro

Let’s go back to the beginning.

In early November 2010, PC Pro reader Pete Grist got in touch with me. “With the recent availability of [the Windows 7] Family Pack, I thought let’s go for it.”

This was the start of an ongoing saga involving repair disks and constant reinstalls of software

“Everything seemed to go smoothly and I soon had Office installed and working, but then I needed a reboot for some Microsoft updates, and hit a black screen. This was the start of an ongoing saga involving repair disks and constant reinstalls of software the repair had removed (I installed Office four times!).

“Safe mode just stopped at classpnp.sys. I soon discovered that this is a far from uncommon problem, with next to no help from Microsoft or ATI. In all my searches I haven’t found an answer, but I’ve decided that it is related to Aero, and with that turned off things have been more stable.

“What I find most annoying is that there seems no recognition that this is a real problem – Microsoft do not seem to be asking for diagnostics to be sent or to offer remote assistance. Do I take a chance on upgrading the others?”

I advised him to upgrade the other PCs and to post the question on PC Pro’s very useful Help forum.

That was it, or so I thought. Almost three months later, Pete got in touch again:

As a long shot, I thought I’d register the problem with Microsoft Support, not expecting anything to come of it.

“For a few weeks I’ve got over my restart/reboot problem by keeping the repair disc in my DVD drive, which had the odd effect of curing the problem, without any intervention by me. As a long shot, I thought I’d register the problem with Microsoft Support, not expecting anything to come of it. To my surprise I got a reply and three of hours of phone support over a couple of days (and they rang me!).”

To a certain extent, you could reply “so he should”. When you buy a retail copy of Windows 7 you get 90 days of phone support as standard. But anyway…

“After remotely accessing my machine, the support guy decided a new format and reinstall was the answer. Sceptically I went along with this, grateful for any help. It didn’t work, giving a missing boot manager error on restart. The support guy was starting to think in terms of a hardware error, and left me to do the install again, but a quick Google search on Windows 7 boot-manager led me to the answer, which was that my install disk was second on the list of disks to install to. I disconnected the data disk, leaving Windows with just one to choose from and everything is now OK.

“It would seem that the Windows install can get the wrong disk to write the boot-manager to, and I could maybe have fixed it with a repair. However, I was impressed with getting the support help from Microsoft, they didn’t have all of the answer but between us we got there. They weren’t put off by a home-built machine and it was all free!”

So well done to Microsoft support, and a lesson to us all – if you pay for a Windows 7 retail product, take advantage of the customer support on offer.

So I succumbed (to ZoneAlarm 8, not Fifi) and spent the next three hours trying to unpick the carnage that descended on my brand new Dell laptop, after the installation stalled midway through, leaving me with no other option but to reboot the PC.

Upon reboot I found myself in a ZoneAlarm no-man’s land: not quite in ZoneAlarm7, but not fully over the border into ZoneAlarm 8 either. The ZoneAlarm icon sits proudly in my System Tray, informing me the security is “up and running” but that the “UI is still initialising”. Every time I attempt to open the software, I’m met with a Windows error message informing me the application has crashed and Vista is trying to find a solution. Guess what? It doesn’t.

The same happens if I attempt to uninstall the software. Or reinstall the new software. Or reinstall the old software. I am caught in ZoneAlarm hell – as are hundreds of others, judging by the volume of complaints on the ZoneAlarm forums.

So I pinged off an email to ZoneAlarm support (phone support costs $2.95 per minute), asking if they had any idea how I might rid my system of this malady. Four days later, I get a reply with a 27-step guide to removing Internet Security 8, which includes all manner of faintly perilous activities, such as deleting hidden folders and tweaking the Registry.

And guess what step 27 is? “Try to install the latest version again.”

You’ve got to admire such optimism.