Lenovo G550 switching 32 &64 bit

The problem with downloading drivers earlier has gone away. It seems you have to register with a serial number before the server responds.
Now, I was hoping to use this machine as a test bed for audio devices under Windows 7 64 bit and 32 bit. I notice that there are two different bios versions listed for 64 bit and 32-bit.
Is it essential to change bios version when changing OS? The machine is fairly basic with just 2GB of ram, which will be enough for the tests.

 

no you don't have to change the BIOS, but there are certain fixes that is applicable for machines that runs the 64 bit OS.

 

Thanks, that is good. The machine will have a 32-bit Windows 7 version of the bios, I believe. Are there any fixes, apart from the various Win7 drivers from the Lenovo site, that would relate to USB?

The specific issues that I'm looking at involve major problems with usb 1.1 audio interfaces on some laptops when running 64-bit Windows 7.

I've been testing on an Acer machine showing the fault and am down to the last handful of days on my Win7 64-bit trial period, hence the urgency.

 

what is wrong with the usb 1.1 audio interfaces? can you elaborate on the problem?

 

It's a bit complicated, and I don't know whether the Lenovo will show the problem - I'm still finishing loading Win7 64 to try.

USB 1.1 audio device using asio drivers on Win 7 64. Dreadful breakup of audio on playback (one interface), dreadful crackles (the other). When problem is there, using Xperf I can see the usb connecting and disconnecting.
With an external USB 2 hub in the chain it is always fine.

Without the external hub, and no windows open on the desktop apart from the recording application, the problem is there. Open Control Panel -> Manage audio Devices. This opens in the Playback tab. Problem still there. Switch to the recording Tab, sound plays perfectly. You can then switch the sound good/bad by switching between tabs.

What may be a similar problem shows up a lot on the internet audio forums, and seems to be related to some low-end AMD based laptops. Hence the need to try the Lenovo under controlled conditions.

 

Update.Using Reaper as the audio editor and my Edirol audio interface, it works almost perfectly on the Lenovo running Win 7 64 "out of the box".

There are occasional tiny glitches, but nothing that a bit of work won't cure. As expected it is a seriously underpowered machine, having a "score" of 3.1 as against the 4.4 of the dual core Acer.