Vista to XP is it worth it?????

I have been struggling to get XP on my new sony vaio and I am gradually realising this may not be possibly and certainly not easy... I cannot find all the drivers... crucial thing like graphics and audio...

So should I stick with Vista or is it worth persevering to get XP running?

I have all ready spent hour son this... But I must say when i had XP running on it (without proper graphics or audio and no other software) it was lightening fast... but then again if I had everything installed on it maybe it would run the same as vista...

any advice?

 

My post on other thread:
Vista is third-grade OS....i bought a XP SP2 CD yesterday to dual-boot ...

I am so disappointed...most of the time i am TAKING CARE of Vista & can hardly do MY WORK on Vista

My post again:

Fanboys, will say give it time...dudes my college projects can't wait...my business plan can't wait...my gaming can't wait...i am a customer not Bill Gates buddy who is obliged to him forever..

 

All I can say is persevere. XP is faster than Vista now and with the SP3 coming out it'll be even faster (as the news goes). Good luck. Have you tried to ask Sony if your laptop has XP drivers? Otherwise, you might have to go to the specific hardware maker to see if they have a driver for you.

 

SP3 ?? wow..where did u read that ?

 

Just google XP SP3 you'll have a few thousand hits.

 

Here you go: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,139911/article.html

Just google "sp3 faster than sp1", without the quotes.

 

usually Vista laptops dont have the drivers for XP thats why its really hard to change. but i kinda like vista, everything is working fine, all my graphics and old games and music and videos. its all working great. vista is fine with me. =)

 

I have spoken to Sony and no there are no dedicated xp drivers and there will be none released.

They have suggested trying the drivers for the previous model (the FE) which was available with XP as its OS.

Vista runs fine on my laptop most of the time (after I have removed all the rubbish and trial versions I don't want that comes bundled with the PC from new) except for there annoying problems:

I use this computer for live music work recording and playing. I use an external USB2 audio interface to provide connection to my mixing desk.

Problem 1) at performances i am often require d to leave background music playing. I also have to lock the laptop to prevent unwanted fiddling. I do this by setting a 3minute screen saver which calls log in screen ro resume. I use itunes to play the music. When i want to bring the computer out of its screen saver state as it calls up the login screen the audio momentarily stops. This is not at all acceptable. My old FS215B running XP did not do this.

Problem 2) if i shut the lid of the laptop and then open it up after some time. when i resume my windows session it appear to have lost the wireless card. I then have to restart to get it to work again. Again my old FS215B did not do this.

Problem 3) When I shut it down it takes ages and sometimes doesn't shut down just sits at the shutting down screen.

Problem 4) Why does the screen flicker at the desktop when i first start it? Is this related to problem 1?

finally I use d to use a dongle emulator (real USB dongles tend to get stolen or broken at performances) windows vista sometimes runs my emulator fine but other times it crashes it. This never happened on xp. Although if i manually start the emulator after start up has finished all seems ok, but this is a pain....

 

SP1 for vista is also just round the corner and will be available before XP SP3... will this make Vista quicker?

Why has SP3 taken so long to release they have been talking about it for ages. Will they actually release it?

 

If you aren't running into problems with Vista, then just keep it. If you know you need XP (then you would consider the effort to be worth it), then switch to XP. If you're not sure if it's worth it, then maybe it's not (for you).

@nocturnal310:
Nice preemptive strike, but characterizing those reasons as fanboyisms is disingenuous. You might have different needs than other people, and that's fine, but each of those reasons is certainly valid. Some people are early adopters and prefer to try out new things, and are willing to deal with some bumps in the road. Without those people who tried things out and hlped to expose and work out the bugs, XP wouldn't be stable either.

 

anyone got any ideas about the specific vista problems? and how to make it run faster. It doesnt feel as 'instant' as xp... but then again maybe i would benifit from a clean vista install? I just dont want to buy a copy!

 

That is just not true. Here is a quote from a thread in the Sony forum here. As I told you before, all you need to do is go to the search box at the top of any page here and type "FZ XP Drivers" without the quotes and you can find all the info you need.

Gary

 

You don't need to buy a copy at all! Look in my signature line below for a link to a thread with the instructions on a clean install of an FZ190. It will be the same for your FZ180. The thread is quite long, as are my long winded instructions. ...big ol' grin... But on the last page or two of the thread coolguy uncovered a way to use the Windows Anytime Update files on your SONY right this very minute, to create a bootable install disk!

Read my instructions before you start, as there are a few things you will need from your existing system BEFORE you start the clean install process.

Gary

 

you know - i gotta say - i was very, VERY hesitant to use vista - in fact, the first notebook i purchased, i specifically ordered xp pro for that reason - well, that laptop was defective and i purchased another one that has vista pre-installed

at first - it was a bit slow and i ran into immediate problems - after doing a CLEAN install, it turned out that it wasnt vista at all - it was all that bloatware that came pre-installed as well

if you have the opportunity to do so - definitely try out a clean install of vista - right now, the os responds incredibly fast - it definitely "looks" nicer than xp and, so far (knock on wood) all of my programs work

in fact - i have none of the problems that you listed - except for the screen flicker when vista first starts up - but im guessing thats the video driver kicking in and taking over (i actually never even considered it a problem - the whole process takes all of 1 second - the screen dims, and then immediately brightens - does yours do something different? like flicker on and off or something)

the computer completely enters "sleep" mode about 15-20 seconds after i close the lid - when i open it back up, it seems like im back at the desktop in under 30 seconds (thats total - from the time i open, to the log-in screen, to the desktop)

im not saying xp isnt faster or more compatible - im just saying i think a lot of the "problems with vista" are actually "problems with bloatware" (i think a lot of the vista bashing is a bit overblown - but then again, ive only been using it for about a month - luckily, since the clean install - i havent run into a single problem)

EDIT - im actually gonna try out the 64-bit version of vista this weekend - that im expecting will lead to a few issues - but i doubt they will be "vista issues" - im guessing they will be general "64-bit os issues"

 

That's how I think Kricket.

Most problems are not 100% vista related. I'd even say that many are just because people aren't used to vista. When you've been using a software for years and then swtich to a new version, of course you encounter problems.

Yes it has been proved that bloatware are a killers for it. It's also important to download lastest updates.

Also, if your laptop has 1GB of RAM, of course XP will look blazing fast compared it

 

don't know about rest of the world, but here's a link for both vista and xp downgrade drivers for asia pacific users:

http://www.sony-asia.com/support/productcategory/it+personal+computer?site=hp_en_AP_i

myself, i am keeping vista, as i have yet to encounter any major problem for the past 6 months.

 

i did that a few weeks ago it runs amazing. vista found 64 bit drivers for everything. 43 updates. my vista is running amazing i just turned off uac, and limited the amout of hd space shadow copies can take up. but i dont think you will run into to many 64 bit problems unless you use 16 bit applications.

 

can anyone help with this:

Vista runs fine on my laptop most of the time (after I have removed all the rubbish and trial versions I don't want that comes bundled with the PC from new) except for there annoying problems:

I use this computer for live music work recording and playing. I use an external USB2 audio interface to provide connection to my mixing desk.

Problem 1) at performances i am often require d to leave background music playing. I also have to lock the laptop to prevent unwanted fiddling. I do this by setting a 3minute screen saver which calls log in screen ro resume. I use itunes to play the music. When i want to bring the computer out of its screen saver state as it calls up the login screen the audio momentarily stops. This is not at all acceptable. My old FS215B running XP did not do this.

Problem 2) if i shut the lid of the laptop and then open it up after some time. when i resume my windows session it appear to have lost the wireless card. I then have to restart to get it to work again. Again my old FS215B did not do this.

Problem 3) When I shut it down it takes ages and sometimes doesn't shut down just sits at the shutting down screen.

Problem 4) Why does the screen flicker at the desktop when i first start it? Is this related to problem 1?

finally I use d to use a dongle emulator (real USB dongles tend to get stolen or broken at performances) windows vista sometimes runs my emulator fine but other times it crashes it. This never happened on xp. Although if i manually start the emulator after start up has finished all seems ok, but this is a pain....

 

^ im really not sure why youre having those issues - you state that youve removed all of the bloatware - my only advice (and it may not be what you want to hear) is that imo, removing the bloatware isnt enough (at least, it definitely wasnt in my case)

with any new computer i get, i always go through the "add/remove programs" and clear out anything i dont want - this asus was no exception - admittedly, it did speed my up a bit - but i still had a few minor issues - finally, i did a FULLY clean install of vista - every since then, i havent had any issues - i guess there is just stuff in there that i didnt even know about (and didnt really know how to get rid of)

im happy to say that last nite i did my upgrade to vista ultimate 64-bit (fully clean install) - and everything went very smoothly - i had no issues with any of my drivers or software EXCEPT for itunes (which i was expecting having read that a lot of people have issues with itunes on 64-bit os's since it isnt officially supported) - luckily, i googled the error i got after install and immediately found a solution - i installed the patch and now everything works like a dream

so ive got a 64-bit os with 4 gigs of ram - all recognized immediately upon boot-up (4095 mb ram) - all of my programs work - its awesome to have itunes running in the background with NO lag whatsoever - all of the videos run super smooth and start up about 1-2 seconds after i click on them - im VERY impressed with the speed of the machine now

 

Check out Tweak 1 on Flameko's Vista tweak guide. Also, there may be other tweaks there that may help you with some of the other problems you are having. Good luck.

Try using ctrl+alt+del to lock your computer. When I do that, the music keeps playing and doesn't stop as long as my computer doesn't go to sleep. I have no stoppage of sound when the login screen loads. I'm using Windows Media Player.

 

Skip ctrl-alt-del and use "Windows key+L". Saves you a step.

 

Indeed, it does. I forgot about that shortcut. I used to use it all the time at work in XP and for some reason stopped using it after getting my Vista computer. Ridiculous.

 

Windows imo, gets a bad rap. Manufacturers that install bloatware should be shot and hung out to dry.

If you format the hdd and just install windows with updates, it purrs just as well as any other OS. Its a real shame MS allows this practice, yet the blame can still be put on them, just for the fact that they allow it and turn a blind eye.

 

Well, there are pros and cons to having bloatware installed on computers by manufacturers, and while I don't like it either, it really isn't too difficult to format the hd and reinstall windows. Plus it makes your computer run much faster A small time investment to make for a lower-priced computer, IMO.

I formatted my hd after receiving my machine and it made a world of difference.

 

MS created the problem in the first place by making an OS that needs this level of protection in the first place. Then each AV vendor has to keep improving their software, leading to the bloat.

 

Bloatwares are there because the non-advanced users would be lost without them...

AV aren't that bad for most of them.

Windows needs protection because it is the main OS. If everyone were on Linux or MAC OSX, those would be full of viruses too...

If 90% of the population has windows, it makes sense that 90% of viruses are windows based...

 

^ i would have to agree - av packages just dont need to be that dense - there are VERY good av programs out there (avg, avast, kaspersky) that are VERY light and, according to a lot of pros, MUCH better than norton and mcafee (the two most pre-installed av suites)

why do manufacturers choose norton and mcafee? simple - they pay - and they pay BIG - people have heard those names, think theyre the best, and are willing to pay $60-70/year for their "protection" - thats why norton and mcafee can afford to kickback a little cash to the manufacturers for pre-installing trialware

just like jcms said - non-advanced users would be lost without those pretty interfaces - and sure, formatting a hd and reinstalling an os might be simple for you or me, but its not for 90% of home pc purchasers - i mean, ive installed computers for family, friends, girlfriends family - people are just amazed that i can "get all those wires in the right places so quickly" - yeah, i know what the plugs look like and what they are for - but even if i didnt, most of it is color-matched and the plugs that arent, will only fit in a certain spot (usb, firewire, etc)

bottom line - most people are terrified of computers - they dont like putting stuff on (besides music and pictures) - and they dont like taking stuff off - ESPECIALLY when theyre scared to death when that mcafee pop-up comes up: "are you sure you want to uninstall? i mean, come on - no anti-virus? you know that hackers can steal your identity in under 4 seconds without anti-virus, right? and you want to uninstall?" (Click "Yes" or "No") - lol

 

lol yeah some AV are excessive on that. Free AV will be enough for most people.

But I'm a guy that is the type to do things in the internet that gets him lots of things so free AV don't cut it. One day I switch from AVGF to AVG Pro trial and it found like 70 virus/trojan in the 1st scan =/