My Problems With Vista

From the F3SV owners lounge thread:

The problems:

I would also like to note that I cannot get the internet working when I have installed Windows XP on this laptop, regardless of the XP compatible drivers I have installed........... Thanks!

SemperFi,
- Joey

 

I have no idea what you are doing wrong but I have not seen those problems. I recentely reinstalled Vista business on my notebook (in sig) after reading there were some major fixes on windows update to address the slow copy performance.

I got this HP notebook back in august and it came with Vista. After having issues with slow file copy performance, I nuked the drive and went with XP. Besided that Vista worked fine to be honest.

Anyhow when I went back to XP the install process was long and full of driver hunting as HP did not have very many XP drivers at all for my dv6426us....I had to go with the dv6000 since its the same family and had more XP drivers, to get things working.

The worst part is that the new SATA drive controller forced me shut off an option in BIOS to get XP to see the drive (slowing things down) or boot the XP CD with the F6 option, then use a USB floppy drive, with the driver (from Intel) so I could use the faster drive speeds. After XP was up I had to install a lot of drivers to get everything working, wireless and wired NIC, video, audio, memory card reader, touch pad driver, HP buttons, webcam....all of it was a download and install. Total pain in my arse hunting down some of those drivers.

Well last week I re-installed Vista (business this time) and guess what....I did not need one driver Vista found them all to include the HP buttons. Also the file copy problems are gone.

So I did the same thing for my wifes Toshiba notebook a few days later...same deal with the drivers....found them all.

There is alot of BS out there about Vista. MS did cause a lot of it, however I would say that most of the issues are gone. Not all but most. In a year or less you will start to see more people say things like "Vista is ok now after SP1" or whatever.

 

It could also be a hardware problem. I bought an Acer laptop and the first thing i did was wipe out the drive and do a clean install of Business. It works wthout a problem

 

I noticed you both mentioned Window Vista Business. I've been thinking about picking up a copy of Business or Ultimate, and installing that, vs. using the Asus recovery DVD + drivers disc...

I've done this in the past with other versions of Windows, such as XP Home and Professional. When I used a standard retail version of Windows instead of the "OEM supplied recovery disc(s)", I had much better luck.

I'm hoping the same might be true with Vista? Should I go forth with the idea, or scrap it? If all else fails, I will be sending in the laptop for repairs, but I rather avoid that if possible... Any ideas??? Thanks.

(Note: Been hearing alot about Vista SP1. I can't wait for this to release and I hope it fixes many of the problems that exist in Vista. I know XP became a more stable OS with the release of SP1 and SP2.)

SemperFi,
- Joey

 

Not sure why the Internet won't work with XP. What type of wireless card and ethernet port do you have? Seems like there should be XP drivers of some sort - and wired Internet should work with default drivers. If you could get those issues sorted out, I'd say just go with XP.

I've had significant Vista problems as well. The "shutting down forever" problem surfaces from time to time, I haven't found a solution yet, other than turning it off with the on/off button. The sound and wireless net problems sound like driver problems; I know I didn't have any sound before I installed my audio drivers.

As for games, I agree Vista is a minefield. One game wouldn't even install for me, another has stopped working twice (end result: Vista got nuked twice).

Vista also messed up my password, forcing me to nuke it and reinstall again. Conveniently enough it was right after my favorite game had stopped working again (if that can be considered convenient in any way).

Now my Bluetooth isn't working, haven't taken the time to figure out why yet.

If you can figure out how to get the Net working with XP (someone here might be able to help with that), I'd go with that. Otherwise, maybe Server 2003? I've heard it works well with games, though I don't know how to get it for just one PC.

 

Yeah. If I could just get the internet issue resolved with XP, I am confident I can get the drivers and software updated. That would allow me to use XP, but no luck yet. I installed the drivers for the laptop that are compatible with XP, but I continued to get "acquiring network address" error. I even restarted my network and I ensured the internet was functioning via another computer. No idea why or how to fix it.

Another idea is buying a retail OEM or upgrade version of Vista Business or Vista Ultimate. The idea is Asus has not f'ed around with it, nor will any Asus software or drivers be present. I've heard a few people mention that may help, and from past experience I think it may as well. But not sure about shelling out the almost $200 for a new OS. But I have to get this laptop working, no exceptions.

SemperFi,
- Joey

 

What NIC do you have in that box? Wireless or Wired? There has to be a XP driver somewhere. This is one of the reasons I will only buy Intel chipsets and CPU's. I got to Intel for most of my latest drivers.

 

either you have some serious hardware issues or you're one of those "knows just enough to break his computer" guys. it's not Vista if you're having problems in XP as well. that only leaves the hardware and you.

 

If I was in your position I would get an anytime vista upgrade DVD. and use that to reinstall the OS using ur current key and let windows update locate the drivers for you. instead of installing the ones that you currently have.and this would be much cheaper than shelling out $200. as an anytime upgrade disc only costs $5-10.