Win 8谋杀了我的笔记本电脑

    安装了几个驱动后，系统的运行状况没有得到丝毫改善。接着电脑崩溃了。重启时，一个新的Windows标志告诉我它正在尝试“修复或恢复”我的系统——我任由进度条在那儿转了一圈又一圈，不过很显然，我这台三个月大的笔记本已经瘫痪了。

    我立即寻求微软的技术支持，并最终获得了一位“三级”客户经理的帮助。没法再要求更高级别的了——毕竟这位先生在达拉斯，而不是印度的某个地方，所以我相信他是个行家。我们俩决定在我的电脑上重新安装Windows 8，这意味着我硬盘上的所有数据将被清空。（教训：在安装任何东西，尤其是一个全新的操作系统前，请务必备份电脑中的内容。）

    不过，重新安装没有效果——使用联想的“一键恢复”紧急按钮同样无济于事。我的硬盘已经毫无反应了。这位工程师说他见过系统与固态硬盘不兼容导致的问题，于是我决定换一块崭新空白的IDE驱动器，再次安装。尝试了三次后（安装程序一直崩溃——难道是真的么？），操作系统终于乖乖待在了我的硬盘里，我的电脑重获新生。

    成功了吗？很难这么讲，因为Windows 8在我的机器上依然不能正常工作——许多驱动程序又无法正确下载。所以我们接下来下载了许多微软对系统的更新包。不过安装更新包时，电脑拒绝执行，提示我们更新包与电脑不兼容。我决定不管了，让微软的工程师们去弄清楚究竟怎么回事。五个小时的交谈之后，我得到了他们的说法，很简单：我的电脑与Windows 8不兼容。

    显然，我电脑上的一些关键组件没有可用的Windows 8驱动程序。他们认为问题出在我的控制器上。那是一家叫英特尔（Intel）的小公司制造的——没错，就是英因特尔。所以显然微软没有让英特尔升级我这种型号的电脑的控制器的驱动程序。解决方案呢？是打电话给制造商，拿到Windows 7的恢复盘，重新安装我以前的操作系统。（之后微软给我邮寄了一张全新的Windows 7光盘。）

    微软的工程师告诉我，我这种情况独一无二，只有和我的电脑配置完全一样的用户才可能遭遇类似的窘境，而他们估计这类电脑在全球共有20万台。我让那些达拉斯的工程师们继续想办法解决这个问题。我很难相信，世界上最大的芯片制造商英特尔和世界上最大的个人电脑制造商联想，目前在市场上还有无法同Windows 8兼容的产品——很荒谬，对吧？

    所以，至今为止，我的新电脑只能拿来当镇纸用。我的朋友们告诉我，我是一个坚持使用Windows电脑的顽固派，都不肯变“酷”一点，换台使用苹果系统的Mac电脑。不过我遇到的这个问题，除去带给我个人的羞耻之外，对微软而言也应该是个巨大的危险信号。一些程序不能在Windows 8下运行是一回事，可是用户无法使用该系统来工作，就是另一回事了。

    After installing a few, there was no change in how the system ran. Then the computer crashed. On reboot I just got the new teal Windows logo saying it was "trying to repair or refresh" my system – I let it run through the cycle many times but it was apparent that my computer, a three-month old laptop, was on its deathbed.

    Microsoft support sprung into action and I was eventually elevated to a "Level III" support manager. You can't get any higher - this person sat in Dallas, not somewhere in India, so in my mind he was the real deal. We decided to do a fresh install of Windows 8 on my computer, meaning that all my data on my hard drive would be obliterated (note: please backup your computer before installing anything, especially a new operating system).

    But just doing a fresh install didn't work – neither did the "one-touch" emergency Lenovo backup. My hard drive was dead. The engineer said he had seen compatibility issues with solid state hard drives so I decided to switch it out for a totally blank IDE drive and reran the set up. After three attempts (the installer kept crashing – really?), the operating system was on the hard drive and my computer was back in action.

    Success? Hardly. Windows 8 still didn't work properly on my machine -- there were a bunch of drivers that didn't download correctly again. So we then started to download the Microsoft update for the system. But when we went to install the updates the computer refused to do it, noting that the updates were not compatible with my computer.

    I then stepped away and let the Microsoft engineers figure out what was going on. After five hours on the phone, the final verdict was that my computer simply wasn't compatible with Windows 8.

    Apparently, certain critical parts on my computer just have no Windows 8 drivers available. The driver that they think is the problem was for my controller. It was made by a small company named Intel – yes, Intel (INTC). So apparently Microsoft didn't get Intel to update the drivers for their controller on my particular model. The engineers went on to blame my PC manufacturer for other compatibility issues. The solution? Call the manufacturer and get a Windows 7 recovery disk and reinstall my old operating system. (Microsoft later sent me a fresh copy of Windows 7 through the mail).

    The Microsoft engineers told me the issues I was having was unique and would probably only impact PC users who have the exact same configuration as my computer, which they estimated to be around 200,000 computers. I told the boys down in Dallas to keep working on finding a solution. I found it hard to believe that the world's largest chip maker, Intel, and the world's largest PC manufacturer, Lenovo, had anything on the market today that couldn't talk with Windows 8 – that would be ridiculous, right?

    So, for now, my new computer is one heavy paperweight. My friends remind me of how obstinate I am about sticking with my PC instead of being "cool" and getting a Mac. But beyond the social humiliation, this problem I am having in installing Windows 8 should be a huge red flag for Microsoft. It is one thing if some programs might not run on Windows 8 just yet. It's another if users can't even get it to work.