Windows Vista RTM on an E1405

Before ANYONE says this thread should be closed, I've acquired this copy through perfectly legal means directly from Microsoft with a valid Key -- and I've already activated.

I've been running Vista Ultimate on my my E1405 for the last 3.5 hours.

I started the install around 1PM CST. I performed the Upgrade, not a clean install.

The upgrade itself was painless, but I did have to uninstall the Mcafee security center all together. That kinda sucks. However, everything else converted perfectly and works well. I'll probably go MS OneCare VirusScan or Norton 2007 VirusScan instead. Not sure if AVG will work in Vista, suppose I can give it a shot.

Oh, it even converted my domain settings, desktop settings, etc. for me. I had NOTHING to change.

Anyway, the install took a little while, but I did leave it running while I left the house for about ~2hrs. You'll want to be patient.

The good news: Vista has drivers for EVERYTHING including the Ricoh and Sigmatel sound. After running Windows Update, it downloaded even NEWER richoh drivers.

More Good News: Areo runs fine, taskbar previews work (DVD in real time thumbnails!) and the stacked real time windows all work quickly and without a hitch (and faster than I expected -- no delays). The Media Center is slick and fast, and works well.

Even More Good news: Hibernate is crazy fast now. I mean seconds fast.

The bad - Startup and shut down are slower. Shut downs more so than Start Ups, compared to XP.

The badder -- I haven't noticed any major slow downs yet, but I think I'll be adding a second 1G stick. I'll be using this machine to develop/test some new Vista Apps and I think Studio 2005 Compiles will be ungodly slow if I don't (whereas XP Pro, everything ran fine and fast).

Neither good or Bad news: Some apps I'll just uninstall, because I don't think there is much use for them anymore (EasyCleaner being one).

Once I learn a little more, I'll right a proper review.

 

Thanks for the post. This is really good news as I have been wanting the e1405 but wasn't sure if Vista would run with the Integrated Graphics that the 14" Laptop comes with. I was hoping that would put some dedicated chips in before I decided to bite the bullet. I now don't have to settle for the bigger laptop with the dedicated graphics.(e1505)
Do you think you could post some screenshots? What kind of score do you get with the Vista interface? I think the highest is 5.9 with Vista. Also were you testing with the power plugged in? How is the performance when it is not plugged in as far as the Aero Interface? What kind of battery life should be expect with your battery? 9 cell or 6 cell?

 

Sure, screen shots attached.

3.0, but everything seems fine to me. Windows turned on all the fancy stuff for me. I still think even an extra 512 memory would help alot. 1G would be even better.

Also, word of warning - DO NOT install the free CA Anti-Virus 2007 they say works with Vista. Apparently it only works on Vista beta, Vista RTM didn't like it. Hello Safe Mode.

 

Something else I failed to mention. You'll need to download the Synaptics drivers and install them separetly afterwards, then reboot. That'll get the scroll bars to work. Otherwise, you've got tapping only.

Also, battery life I don't know yet. I usually stay plugged in. We have 5 A/C adapters scattered around the house. However, even at half proc power everything seems fine. I think its more memory dependant then CPU dependant. My CPU is hardly ever doing anything -- even with areo.

 

that's awesome. my 640m has a 1.83 Ghz C2D, 1.5 gb of ram... great to hear it will run aero!

 

Great news, thanks for the re-assurances of vista working properly

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edit
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....and what to avoid doing.

 

Glad to see that Aero works, one of my main worrys of buying a ~£500 laptop and the Intel 950GMA.

Looks sweet!

 

Glad I could help out! I'll be posting more as I learn more about what works and what doesn't. Overall, this is by far the best Microsoft launch of any OS ever.

 

Were you previously using Windows XP Media Center Edition? I use just the regular Windows XP Home Edition. Will Aero still work, or only Basic?

PaulyRags

640M l T2500 2.0 GHZ l 1 GB RAM l 120 GB HD

 

Well as you can see your graphics card is diffantely the bottleneck. Since its integrated it would use up your memory thus give you less than a 1 GB of ram you have now. For me 1 GB is the minimum and is usually a good representation of what I need. So if its anything under than that I can diffantely tell. 1.5/2 GB of RAM for this Laptop wouldn't be a bad idea. Let us know if when you do a battery life test. Wifi On, Low Screen, Normal Surfing.

 

I was previously licensed for XP Pro.

You can surely upgrade to either Vista Ultimate or Vista Media, but the upgrade path through Dell for XP Home is Vista Basic, which doesn't include Areo.

So, to better answer you're question the two things that would affect your ability to run Areo would be Hardware (you can download the Vista Readiness advisor) and the version of Vista you buy.

Vista Basic DOES NOT INCLUDE Areo.

All other versions do.

 

Ok great, thanks for your reply!

PaulyRags

640M l T2500 2.0 GHZ l 1 GB RAM l 120 GB HD

 

Okay, a few more things, which I'll compile in an actual article later:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

AVGFree 7.5 works perfectly in Vista. Installs without a hitch -- and its free!

Also, to get Quickset to work in Vista, you must run it in Compatibly mode (Right click -> Properties ->Comptability tab -> Check Box for XP SP2. After you do that, it works fine. If you don't, it just really does nothing but activate the on screen display.

 

hey, is there any way you can take a video of aero working? Is it smooth or a little bit rough?

 

Thanks for the news. Keep is updated!

 

I don't have software to video the screen. But, it's perfectly smooth, no jerkiness. If it were jerky, I wouldn't use it.

I.e., even the thumbnails or video when in Alt-Tab mode or thumbnail mode in the taskbar is smooth and in sync.

 

Your having better luck then me. I beta tested Vista since the first beta and then yesterday installed RTM on my E1405. It didn't find the Rioch drivers the first time, it but it did get this off the internet (I reported this numerous times).

AVG Free 7.5 has an issue loading automatically after rebooting you you need to load it manually.

There is some really bad choppyness/stuttering when watch DVD/Movies occasionally. Vista doesn't actually find Sigmatel Drivers, it just calls them High Definition Audio Drivers.
Battery life worse then XP.



The good:

Aero interface works great with the integrated card.
Pretty smooth and fast with a 2 Gig Dual Core and 2 gigs of PC5400 Ram

 

Did you do a clean install or upgrade? Mine was fairly painless -- however I was fully prepared for other issues (that never arrived).

 

Clean install. I never do an upgrade, to much random stuff left behind.

 

Agreed. However, I thought I'd give the upgrade a shot.

Only thing I can figure on the Ricoh is I allowed it to search for updates during install (i plugged a hardwire in during the install).

Also, to clarify, see the attachment. Mine is actually listed as Sigamatel everywhere, and not just "HD audio". Regardless, if the sound works, I suppose it doesn't matter.

Anyway, where and when did you get your RTM?

 

Hmm, I wonder if that worked since you did an upgrade. I tried to install the dell drivers rather then letting microsoft figure it out but it still listed as High Def. Audio.

 

Very possibly that could be the difference. I'll investigate a bit more and see what I can figure out.

 

sweet. That's fantastic news!

 

how much space is taken to install this monster?

i used to hv 10gb on my winxp partition, and i still hv 5gb left after all program install

is 20gb enuf for vista?

 

10 Gigs give or take.
Since it's the same installer for every version I assume there'll be no huge difference between Basic and Ultimate

 

Basically, I did the upgrade, and it took about 3G more than my XP install. But, that's unofficial and non-scientific (i.e. I only paid cursory attention to disk space before/after).

I do think Ultimate will take significantly more than Basic, simply because of Areo and all the other additional apps. How much, I have no idea.

10G sounds about right total for Ultimate, though.

 

*Edit* Response doesn't make sense because previous post I was replying to was removed.

 

Battery life. I had the opportunity to use my 9 cell all day. I didn't notice it used significantly more battery than XP. I suppose those that have seen it could be accurate, but I didn't see any significant difference.

FYI - AVG Center did require me to start it manually upon reboot. I'm trying it under "Administrator" to see if that fixes (so far it seems to has).

 

How many hours are you getting on the 9 Cell Jeff?

 

thanks for reply, guess that a 20gb is just fine as i assumed with all other basic program installed eg ms office 2007, multimedia players etc

 

i cant wait until upgrading all programs, the office looks a lot better. I have seen 2004 on a Mac and it looks good, so i hope the 2007 will be even better.

I hope u wouldnt mind if i have 3 questions for u.

Can u please try and use Notebook hardware control to see the battery usage.

Also, i am wondering if XP->Vista upgrade is worth it??? ie. stability and looks.

And if u switch off aero, will it look really bad??? much difference???

Sorry for the questions, i am just really excited about upgrade windows, as always...!

thanks
hollis

 

It doesn't look bad, or even really that much different. The wacky transitional "effects" are merely missing, along with the tranparent window borders and such. I've got RTM on one desktop with Aero, and also on a laptop without Aero. Yeah the Aero effect can be neat at times, but after 2 minutes on the laptop I've forgotten that they're not there.

 

Hollis, take a look at Paul Thurrott's review of Vista: http://www.winsupersite.com/vista/

It'll help you decide whether it's worth the upgrade or not. I've been using Vista since Beta 2 on my desktop and it's been awesome.

WinSuperSite also has screen shots of Office 2007 if you want to check out the new UI.
-Tom

 

I have 2gigs ram in my 1405 and onboard uses 224mg machine runs vista rtm wonderfully, no problems at all aero is very clean and fast! also can"t wait for office 2007 beta rocks
thanx
jim

 

oops i forgot to mention battery power management control in vista is not too bad on my 83WHr batteries (2) i mget 7hours 45mins on 1 and 7hrs30mins on the oyher running on power save using wireless

 

I am getting around ~8 hours on my 9 cell, and almost 4 on my 6 cell.

So far, I love vista. Areo adds a few extra things, the start menu is slightly different etc. but its not a deal killer not to have it. Where it may make a difference is in newer apps (when available) that take advantage of it.


Overall, after using for two weeks, I wouldn't go back.

 

I'm ready to change my e1405 to vista but i have to wait for my copy to come in.

 

I recently purchased a Dell e1405, and upgraded to Vista . . . frequently I hear a high pitched noise coming from the top right hand side of the keyboard area (where the power plugs in) - http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=48890, http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=49333, and http://www.dellcommunity.com/support...ate_ascending). This was not a problem with XP . . . do you too experience this high pitched whine, or have you heard of this problem? I am considering sending my computer back to Dell and asking for a replacement . . .

 

I recently ran the Dell Readiness Tool on my 6400.

Any thoughts on this:

Application Loaded Intel(R) PROSet/Wireless Software: You will need to download an update from the vendors website (if available) for this software to work with Windows Vista.

Application Loaded Roxio Express Labeler: This software may not run under Windows Vista, Dell recommends that you contact the vendor of this software for an upgrade, if available.

Application Loaded Sonic Encoders: This software may not run under Windows Vista, Dell recommends that you contact the vendor of this software for an upgrade, if available.

Application Loaded Roxio RecordNow Audio: This software may not run under Windows Vista, Dell recommends that you contact the vendor of this software for an upgrade, if available.

Application Loaded Digital Line Detect: This software may not run under Windows Vista, Dell recommends that you contact the vendor of this software for an upgrade, if available.