Vista is Becoming XP.. Faster now

Hi guys,

Apart from nVidia drivers.. Vista is becoming much more stable .. SP1 RC was good enough to stop the Vista bashing threads, And now with updates releasing daily, Most applications run very smooth on Vista. I tried testing this by running different Apps AT ONCE such as Outlook 2007, Firefox, Live messenger, Dreamscene using VLC, OneNote, Opera, Counter-Strike CZ .

None of Them Crashed (VLC however Crashed once when changing the Dreamscene File).

What do u think?

In matter of few more months Vista will be the standard.

 

I don't think microsoft will let us have a choice in the matter by that time anyways.

 

Does Vista still require at least 1GB of RAM to run at a bearable pace? I'm just wondering whether SP1 makes it worthwhile for me to update my Parallels XP installation to Vista.

 

XP needs 1GB, Vista needs 2GB.

 

If you don't do gaming/multimedia then 1GB is enough on Vista-like 512 on XP. I used 1GB during Beta 2, RC1 & RC2 and no problems (they didn't have the memory usage proportional to system memory during that time, so always 850MB used).

I know you can still run on 512MB but turn Aero off and be ready for long boot times.

 

Vista SP1 is highly recommended if you don't want to see a system lockup or unexpected blue screen.

 

I'm sure that varies depending on the user and their system setup. I've had no trouble w/o the service pack, and I'm waiting for the final release to the public.

 

As much as I love Vista, but that isn't true. I got 2 BSODs while using it. Any I know my RAM is 100% find coz tested it using memtest.exe as I got paranoid.

 

I never had a bluescreen without SP1, so it depends on the user's skill. The memory usage is around 30% with SP1.

 

Same here. I have not changed any way of using Vista before the SP1 and after the SP1.

 

my memory usage was between 29-31% before sp1, still is the same after sp1.

 

No BSODs until now. Vista Business 32bit, no SP1. I'll try it when it goes out in March.

 

That doesn't mean anything, the % of memory used and the speed are not really linked , because Vista has been optimised to use 2-4GBs of RAM. On XP, if you have 200MB used versus 800MB you will see a difference because the optimisation was made for 256-512MB.

Windows 98 might only uses 40MB of memory, and if give it 512MB, it won't be faster than XP....

Nonused RAM is wasted RAM

 

I've yet to experience a BSOD in Vista since I've began using it heavily on a daily basis, which was back in August '07.

SP1 will only make it better.

 

where is my vista updates??

on winxp I have that icon on the right side of my tas bar that tells me when updates are ready, I cant see it on my vista basic

 

Open the start-menu and in the search bar, type "Windows Update" and open it from there.

From there, you should be able to view anything regarding updates.

 

You should have the same thing, except if you turn them off..

 

cool, found it, had on on automatic updates and installation

 

Everything everyone is saying about vista needing 2GB, and BSODing is chicanery. You only need 1GB MAX with vista. Aero barely uses any ram so it doesn't even make a difference.

I've installed, and uninstalled tons of software with no BSOD, even if the software messed up my system, system restore was good enough to get me back to normal.

Many people who are relying on SP1 to "fix" vista will be disappointed, it doesn't do much for vista, just a small update. The only reason people have for not using vista is because they are too afraid of upgrading to something better.

 

Some people still use XP out there?

I thought only companies did that....

Seriously, I started using Vista since the longhorn days, and on day 1, I switched to Vista and have been happy since.

It is prettier, faster, more stable and easier to repare.

The only thing that I HATE in Vista and which I hoped was to be fixed with SP1, was the SEARCH option.

Vista's search option SUCKS, it is un-usable. It was perfect under every previous OS, but Vista killed SEARCH for me!

 

hey anyone know what updates to uninstall to uninstall sp1 rc1?

 

You go in the installed updates window and select uninstall. Backup your files before though

 

What do you mean? How did it kill search for you?

 

I mean which updates exactly do I uninstall. I know how to do it. I just need to know which ones.

 

Vista running great here, no SP1. I'm waiting for the public release of SP1 when available in mid-march.

 

Yeah, after Vista SP1, it'll be hard to find a reason to still use XP, other than the hardcore XP fans.

Been a very satisfied Vista customer since August '07.

 

I just received a laptop with Vista that started having problems almost immediately. I tried for four days solid to get it working right, speaking with Dell support, searching the web, posting on Dell forums, and talking to a buddy that works with GeekSquad. After 4 reinstalls, multiple different driver configurations, and a lot of sleepless nights I had to resign and go back to XP. Some combination of nVidia drivers, my onboard sound, and my chipset (according to STOP error 0x124) just would not let me run Vista.

I'm glad it works great for you, and I truly hope SP1 makes it runnable for me, but until then I will be sticking with XP.

 

I'm curious about the "Vista is faster" threads, because every experience I've had with Vista tells me precisely the opposite. Measureable benchmarks tell me the opposite, too.

This isn't about being an XP fanboy or purist, it's just about reality. I've grown increasingly frustrated with Vista, everything from network problems arising from hibernation to network file transfers.

If there are others that have the time to work through Vista's quirks, power to 'em. In my corner of the world, I have to get work done, not find out I need double the memory to realize less net performance.

I've not sworn off Vista completely; I have a dual-boot config on my laptop, but Vista will have to grow up a bunch to make it my full-time player.

-SD

 

vista works fine and awesome for me. gorgeous and fast ive stuck with it.

all my games work and software for designing, photoshop and illustrator.

im very happy and glad with vista.

 

the only BIG problem i see in Vista is poor Video Drivers... the screen goes Blank many times when u minimize a game, resume standby. etc.

 

As always with latest version of Windows, the problem is device driver. It needs to be optimized.

 

I found two old Dell laptops at work (I think they were Latitude C400 or something along those lines). Anyway, each had a PIII chip and 512 of RAM (cant remember the processor speed). Just for fun, I threw Vista Business on one to see how it would run (XP Pro was loaded on both). I expected the machine to lock up or BSOD its way to hell, but amazingly, it worked. Not only that, it ran slow, but smooth. I found drivers for pretty much everything except for the video card. While I'm messing with that machine, my co-worker started to do updates and such on the XP machine. I think he said he updated the BIOS on it or something, but it crashed that machine. Now it no longer boots, but the Vista one is chuggin' along. I really have no idea how this post is beneficial to this thread, so pardon my carrying on...

 

XP fans probably don't like your post.

 

The video hardware acceleration issue with Vista and Media Center is an issue for nearly every HTPC. Media Center doesn't use VMR9, it uses DXVA, and there's no MPEG2 codec that supports it. The end result is a stuttering movie when the video overlays are on-screen (the DVD controls, etc). That is one thing that will keep HTPC users away, until the video drivers catch up and use DXVA.

 

Yeah, whenever I got frustrated wtih Vista over the past few days, I just reminded myself that I had similar problems when XP first came out. The unfortunate thing is, I really do love Vista. I like the way it looks and feels, I like (some of) the new features, but overall I gotta go with what won't crash me 20 times a day... not an exaggeration unfortunately.

After installing XP though, I did install Vista Inspirat 2 to bring back the look =)

 

Umm what exactly did you do to make vista crash so much? I have never had a crash or a bsod on my vista laptop since I bought it in july so I don't really believe you.

 

I spent the first 4 or 5 days I owned the laptop trying to answer that question. I ended up with two "answers" that really didn't help:

STOP Error 0x124
Windows Kernel Error #12 (Event Viewer)

I'm not going to rehash the troubleshooting steps I took, mostly because I've already posted them before, but I did NOTHING but troubleshoot this problem with Dell/GeekSquad/Internet for 4-5 days (this included several clean installs of vista).

48 hours of running XP now with no issues.

 

I don't think Dell Tech or GeekSquad cannot really help you with that Error. They are tech with knowledge on how to use the operating systems, not how it works. Again, you want to make sure you have all the latest device driver for Vista. What software did you use when you have an error message?

 

Ive never had any issues with Vista since I installed it last year. Its run all my apps and programs perfectly fine, including games.

 

I agree that neither of those are truly qualified to troubleshoot those kinds of errors, but they're what was available. The stop error occured during Vista idle with nothing running, fresh out of the Dell box, and after a clean install of vista with no additional software installed.

I could "force" an error by opening media player/media center and playing a dvd, mp3, or avi file.

I tried updating drivers from Dell website, and then later from individual component manufacturer's websites.

Vista was fully up to date, not counting the SP1 RTM which I couldn't find.

As much as I like Vista (and I've frequently used it on other machines) it's not worth it to me to invest any more time when XP runs fine. I'll give it another shot with SP1 release on windows update.


Edit: Before anyone asks, yes, I did replace every single RAM module in the computer to ensure it wasn't faulty RAM... and I think the stability of XP also discounts hardware problems.

 

I've been running Vista since Jan. 2007 without any problems.

 

Frozen, you said this happened right out of the box, and after a fresh install of Vista. Does this mean you had these errors before you did a clean install?

Would you mind listing all of the hardware you have on your laptop?

 

I mean the answer to your problem couldn't be more obvious. Did you maybe to think to check that your install disc was corrupted? Gee that would have been an obvious fix. If you have reinstalled several times this obviously isn;t a problem with vista so...

 

Yes, the install disc is fine, it works fine on other machines. I even slipstreamed a new install disc with drivers specific to this machine and all updates included, still had the problem.

It's not necessarily "a problem with vista," it's a problem with vista + current set up on this machine.

I'm not trying to bash Vista, when it works it works great. It just happens to be currently unrunnable on this machine, and no matter how much people want to say otherwise, the fact remains: for this laptop XP runs, Vista doesn't.

 

I've run games that use 800 MB of RAM, and the lowest I've been able to get Vista is 390-some MB. So I don't see how you only need 1 GB max with Vista. I'd want more than 1 GB nowadays even with XP if I planned to play new games on it. Sure you can run Vista with 1 GB if you don't plan on any memory-intensive applications, but that's a far cry from saying you only need 1 GB max.

I agree SP1 won't be revolutionary, if the betas were any indication. But I find it curious that you say SP1 won't do much and then you say there's no reason for not using Vista. That would imply it's fine as it is now, which, as far too many users know, is often not the case.

:wave: This forum really needs better smilies, but there are still individual XP users out there who bought their system after last January and did not go with XP because of the Vista SLI difficulties early on.

I agree, Search just didn't seem to work as well with Vista. With XP it's so easy to put all the filters on - size, time, file type, file location - but with Vista it's just not as easy to narrow down the search like that. File location in particular - you have to add folders to the search by navigating to them in a little window rather than just typing the folder's address. It probably is a bit faster if you're searching for a file in the indexed files, but otherwise I'd rather go with XP's search. And a good amount of the time I am searching for a file in a location that Vista does not by default index.

Not too surprised Vista worked; Lenovo was selling notebooks with 512 MB and Vista Business awhile back. But it sounds like it was a bad BIOS update rather than XP that crashed the other one. Messing around with BIOS updates that aren't official can do that - even an official one can if the power goes out. Not something you want to mess around with if you don't know exactly what you're doing cause one wrong step can leave your computer useless until you change the BIOS chip.

Certainly one of the major problems. My display driver quit working I-don't-know how many times and hasn't stopped working once since I switched to XP.

 

I was implying that you only need 1GB for regular people who only browse the web and play music. For gamers 2GB+ is needed, for any OS, so i agree with you on that.

Also, yes i was implying vista is fine as it is. You know why? Vista is meant for "buy new" systems, not upgrades. If you buy a new system and have driver problems then that's some freak accident, if you upgrade from a machine you bought 2 years ago that ran XP then you'll have driver problems for sure. Is this a good idea? Kind of, it makes people upgrade so no more slow computers, but it also creates a bunch of haters who expect vista to be a sexier XP. SP1 fixes a lot of things, and improves some compatibility, but it's not going to do much for a hardcore XP fan who are looking for flaws.

 

It could be that you are having problem with heat. GPU might be unstable when it is over heated. I had similair issue with my M1330 after using it for a couple hours or so. The screen went blank and had gone into a vertical rainbow color. There were so many BSOD. Dell replaced the motherboard and I have not had any problem since.

 

I still use Windows XP SP2 on my NC8430 even though I have the Vista Business DVD. XP is fine for me and it boots into Windows in 10 seconds. My next OS upgrade will be Windows 7.

 

I like vista quite a bit too, but your previous statement, it's not just "hardcore fans". I have a game that I play frequently, which will not run in vista, I have to use xp.
Does that make me a hardcore xp fan? I'd be more than happy to switch to one OS only, but I wont give up this game cause it wont run in Vista.

 

Unfortunately I already ruled that out as well, I kept Intel Thermal Analysis Tool running while I was troubleshooting, and the temperature *rarely* went over 50 degrees C. The average temp was around 44.


For those who CAN run vista, I found the following article very interesting (and it confirms the OP):

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/29/xp-vs-vista/

Nice set of benchmarks for XP vs Vista.