Windows 2000 Advanced Server Won't Work RIght On Dell Dimension 3000

Please read my problems and see if you what I am missing.

For almost a year now I have fought over and over again (plus spent
30-40 hours with moron Dell technicians who cannot spack English
well enough to communicate) trying to get Win2k AS on this Dell
Dimension 3000. I can get it to install, only takes 2 days to run the
Windows setup.

Once it's all installed (drivers and all, fresh start, no other
software),
it takes about 5 minutes to open any settings. It takes about 5
minutes to list hardware in my DEVICE MANAGER and 10 minutes
more if I want to attempt to change anything. Even photoshop 6.0
that I have on a CDROM (yes, it will run from USB drive to on any
computer) that I use on my other computers takes about 20 minutes
to start (usaully only takes 2 minutes max on my P2 333mhz which
is almost 10 times slower by the CPU clocking). I even install service
pack 4 and did updates on Windows (took about 4 hours to install
SP4, on my P2 333mhz, it only takes 15 minutes to install SP4 on
win2kas). WTF? Is Dell purposely screwing business people like me?

TASK MANAGER shows between 65%-100% cpu usage from a
fresh reboot. I have made sure the Primary/Secondary IDE channels
are using MDA (DEVICE MANAGER settings) but no luck. I was
assuming for the longest time that it was harddrives slowing me down,
but it's something goofing up sucking up CPU usage.

I have 3 Dell Dimesnions (3ghz, 1024 RAM, 80 WD HD) that I bought
to use as server, $1500 bux wasted that I cannot do anything with
(Dell support lied to me saying I should be able to use as a server)
until my warranty was up). I have tried about 15 times to install
win2kas,
so it's not just a glitch... I have set up about 20 other PCs with
win2kas
and even have 3 older PCs running with it, so I know it's not me (I am
experienced with servers).

I even went as far as wipping the harddrives to get rid of Dell's
hidden
drive (I used the Dell Resouce CD to boot win98 version of DOS, then
found that it had FDISK on it, so I deleted every partion and reset my
own from scratch then did a DOS based format after reboot), but still
the same crap after I installed.

I am very frustrated, I have tried hundreds of different tactics,
wasted
hundreds of hours and lost hyundreds of dollars as I have not been
able to use these 3 useless Dell Dimesnion 3000s!

Funny thing, with WinXP home edition that comes with the Dimensions
works great as expected, but Win2kAS makes it run like a Pentium
133mhz computer. WHY IS THIS? ANYONE?

http://www.WHAK.com edy!

the entire partition creation and format should be done from the
bootable windows disk, not from dos.

what i would do:
boot from windows 2000 cd.
delete all existing partitions with it, and create the new one as ntfs
and do a full format. then install the server as usual.
dont skip any of these steps.

then report back.

if you're in the NYC area, i'd love to see it.
Jay

I have tried this method last week and a few times with same results,
too slow to even run. I tried the DOS FDISKing as a last resort/attempt
before I take a baseball bat to these damned beasts sent from SATAN
himself....

I have tried using fat32, fat16 even (oh gosh, old school)... Even
multiple partitions of fat32 and NTFS.

Good ideas though, thanks for your help.

I am near Syracuse, but too paranoid to meet online folks

Jay B wrote:
the entire partition creation and format should be done from the
bootable windows disk, not from dos.

what i would do:
boot from windows 2000 cd.
delete all existing partitions with it, and create the new one as ntfs
and do a full format. then install the server as usual.
dont skip any of these steps.

then report back.

if you're in the NYC area, i'd love to see it.
Jay

A friend just lent me a copy of windows 2003 sever enterprise to give
it a try (not my serial number so I cannot keep it, I'll just pretend
it's a learning/educationaly version for the next few days). I'll try
this, I've been actually installing it now for the last 2 hours and I
probably have another 2 hours to go, so far seems like the same ****
and I let the CD setup reformat the drive to NTFS...

I think I hate Dell, rather be in Hell, hmmn, Dell/Hell, maybe they are
connected?

it sounds to me like the hard drive
either the disk driver is not right.
when you install, you should hit f6 and install a hard drive driver
floppy perhaps.
or perhaps the internal hard drives are not enabled properly.
if one of them is not set to auto in the bios, then the drives will
perform slowly.
or some kind of conflict on the cable. if these are ide drives, they
should be cable select! not master /slave.

i've installed windows 2000 server and have it running on a 500mhz clone
box, so its not the speed.


Sign Generator wrote:
I have tried this method last week and a few times with same results,
too slow to even run. I tried the DOS FDISKing as a last resort/attempt
before I take a baseball bat to these damned beasts sent from SATAN
himself....

I have tried using fat32, fat16 even (oh gosh, old school)... Even
multiple partitions of fat32 and NTFS.

Good ideas though, thanks for your help.

I am near Syracuse, but too paranoid to meet online folks

Jay B wrote:
the entire partition creation and format should be done from the
bootable windows disk, not from dos.

what i would do:
boot from windows 2000 cd.
delete all existing partitions with it, and create the new one as ntfs
and do a full format. then install the server as usual.
dont skip any of these steps.

then report back.

if you're in the NYC area, i'd love to see it.
Jay

stop complaining about dell, they are not to blame in this case.
not yet anyway.


Sign Generator wrote:
A friend just lent me a copy of windows 2003 sever enterprise to give
it a try (not my serial number so I cannot keep it, I'll just pretend
it's a learning/educationaly version for the next few days). I'll try
this, I've been actually installing it now for the last 2 hours and I
probably have another 2 hours to go, so far seems like the same ****
and I let the CD setup reformat the drive to NTFS...

I think I hate Dell, rather be in Hell, hmmn, Dell/Hell, maybe they are
connected?

I will complain about who I want to (I live in a free country).

I have spent days on the phone with Dell morons, who's to blame for the
retards working their? Microsoft? AOL? Who should I blame? I have had
these 3 Dells for 11 months and I have not been able to use them as
servers as Dell business services told me I could, my business has
suffered, I have lost much money on down time (my old servers are
overloaded with over 10,000 unique visitors a day plus the money I paid
for these useless paper weights.

Jay B wrote:
stop complaining about dell, they are not to blame in this case.
not yet anyway.

hey, dont bitch to me, i'm trying to help you.

why havnt i seen you write about this problem in the last 6 mos or so?

if you couldnt get them to work, i would have returned them within 30
days return period. not complain here a year later without asking for
help before then.
you would have been better off buying the sc420 servers without software
and putting win2kAS on them. same price on sale!

so did you check out the hard drive issues i raised in my last post?
are you using PATA or SATA?
i would also try adding a 3rd party card and use their drives at the f6
prompt and see if that makes a difference.


Sign Generator wrote:
I will complain about who I want to (I live in a free country).

I have spent days on the phone with Dell morons, who's to blame for the
retards working their? Microsoft? AOL? Who should I blame? I have had
these 3 Dells for 11 months and I have not been able to use them as
servers as Dell business services told me I could, my business has
suffered, I have lost much money on down time (my old servers are
overloaded with over 10,000 unique visitors a day plus the money I paid
for these useless paper weights.

Jay B wrote:
stop complaining about dell, they are not to blame in this case.
not yet anyway.

Sign Generator wrote:

I will complain about who I want to (I live in a free country).

I have spent days on the phone with Dell morons, who's to blame for the
retards working their? Microsoft? AOL? Who should I blame? I have had
these 3 Dells for 11 months and I have not been able to use them as
servers as Dell business services told me I could, my business has
suffered, I have lost much money on down time (my old servers are
overloaded with over 10,000 unique visitors a day plus the money I paid
for these useless paper weights.

I suspect your attitude (calling those you don't care for, "retards")
might have something to do with your problem(s).

Notan

Dell never shipped the Dimension 3000 with Win2k Advanced server so why
would you expect their help? Pretty sure who the real moron is here!


"Sign Generator" wrote in message
oups.com...
Please read my problems and see if you what I am missing.

For almost a year now I have fought over and over again (plus spent
30-40 hours with moron Dell technicians who cannot spack English
well enough to communicate) trying to get Win2k AS on this Dell
Dimension 3000. I can get it to install, only takes 2 days to run the
Windows setup.

Once it's all installed (drivers and all, fresh start, no other
software),
it takes about 5 minutes to open any settings. It takes about 5
minutes to list hardware in my DEVICE MANAGER and 10 minutes
more if I want to attempt to change anything. Even photoshop 6.0
that I have on a CDROM (yes, it will run from USB drive to on any
computer) that I use on my other computers takes about 20 minutes
to start (usaully only takes 2 minutes max on my P2 333mhz which
is almost 10 times slower by the CPU clocking). I even install service
pack 4 and did updates on Windows (took about 4 hours to install
SP4, on my P2 333mhz, it only takes 15 minutes to install SP4 on
win2kas). WTF? Is Dell purposely screwing business people like me?

TASK MANAGER shows between 65%-100% cpu usage from a
fresh reboot. I have made sure the Primary/Secondary IDE channels
are using MDA (DEVICE MANAGER settings) but no luck. I was
assuming for the longest time that it was harddrives slowing me down,
but it's something goofing up sucking up CPU usage.

I have 3 Dell Dimesnions (3ghz, 1024 RAM, 80 WD HD) that I bought
to use as server, $1500 bux wasted that I cannot do anything with
(Dell support lied to me saying I should be able to use as a server)
until my warranty was up). I have tried about 15 times to install
win2kas,
so it's not just a glitch... I have set up about 20 other PCs with
win2kas
and even have 3 older PCs running with it, so I know it's not me (I am
experienced with servers).

I even went as far as wipping the harddrives to get rid of Dell's
hidden
drive (I used the Dell Resouce CD to boot win98 version of DOS, then
found that it had FDISK on it, so I deleted every partion and reset my
own from scratch then did a DOS based format after reboot), but still
the same crap after I installed.

I am very frustrated, I have tried hundreds of different tactics,
wasted
hundreds of hours and lost hyundreds of dollars as I have not been
able to use these 3 useless Dell Dimesnion 3000s!

Funny thing, with WinXP home edition that comes with the Dimensions
works great as expected, but Win2kAS makes it run like a Pentium
133mhz computer. WHY IS THIS? ANYONE?

http://www.WHAK.com edy!