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Flame on: Windows Vista

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Posts

  • AzioAzio Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    victor_c26 wrote: »
    victor_c26 wrote: »
    Just in case it hasn't been posted yet. Anybody get a look at this?

    Looks like Microsoft's answer to Google Earth (Space Feature only), Stellarium, and Celestia:
    World Wide Telescope

    Yup. It is pretty awesome. It's worth it for the guided tours alone. There's Google Earth style representations of the terrestrial planets and some of the moons, and all kinds of crazy shit like letting you view the entire sky in infrared, or x-ray, and get close up views of nebulae and galaxies. It's pretty damn cool.

    I wouldn't consider it a replacement for Google Earth though.

    Oh I agree. Google Earth is still a must install. It's much more broader than WWT.

    But apps like these show that Microsoft is capable of pulling an Apple. If MS bundled software like this, they would really have a competitor towards OSX in regards to user features.
    And then they would be sued for monopolistic practices, and be roundly villified by the Digg Dot Com Social Networking Web 2.0 We Make Our Own News And We're Always Right community, and that would be the end of that.

    Azio on
  • LaCabraLaCabra MelbourneRegistered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Djinn wrote: »
    Hey windows peeps

    I'm in the process of planning a new PC. This PC will have 4gb ram, and an Intel E8400 3GHz chip.

    Should I get 32 bit vista or 64 bit vista? My friends, who dont know much (but know more than me) say its a trade off between accessing all my ram (32 bit) and suffering poor drivers/compatability issues (64 bit). Is this indeed the case?

    That would be the case if you were talking about XP, but no, get Vista 64.

    LaCabra on
  • victor_c26victor_c26 Chicago, ILRegistered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Azio wrote: »
    victor_c26 wrote: »
    victor_c26 wrote: »
    Just in case it hasn't been posted yet. Anybody get a look at this?

    Looks like Microsoft's answer to Google Earth (Space Feature only), Stellarium, and Celestia:
    World Wide Telescope

    Yup. It is pretty awesome. It's worth it for the guided tours alone. There's Google Earth style representations of the terrestrial planets and some of the moons, and all kinds of crazy shit like letting you view the entire sky in infrared, or x-ray, and get close up views of nebulae and galaxies. It's pretty damn cool.

    I wouldn't consider it a replacement for Google Earth though.

    Oh I agree. Google Earth is still a must install. It's much more broader than WWT.

    But apps like these show that Microsoft is capable of pulling an Apple. If MS bundled software like this, they would really have a competitor towards OSX in regards to user features.
    And then they would be sued for monopolistic practices, and be roundly villified by the Digg Dot Com Social Networking Web 2.0 We Make Our Own News And We're Always Right community, and that would be the end of that.

    Which brings everything full circle. Which makes me sad.

    victor_c26 on
    It's been so long since I've posted here, I've removed my signature since most of what I had here were broken links. Shows over, you can carry on to the next post.
  • MorskittarMorskittar Lord Warlock Engineer SeattleRegistered User regular
    edited May 2008
    I don't think people actually *look* at the driver situation for Vista 64 before spouting off the XP mantra.

    The Digg Dot Com Social Networking Web 2.0 We Make Our Own News And We're Always Right community strikes again!

    Morskittar on
    snm_sig.jpg
  • Lucky CynicLucky Cynic Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Man, I am actually a bit bitter, my World in Conflict game keeps crashing for no reason. And hard crashes, like crashing all of Vista 64 with a BSOD... >_>

    Lucky Cynic on
  • JAEFJAEF Unstoppably Bald Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    I was having crashes until I rolled back my nVidia drivers. A lot of their new drivers just suck wangballs. When was the last time you checked thems?

    JAEF on
  • Dark ShroudDark Shroud Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    I probably sound like a broken record saying this in a lot of places. But if you have an nVidia Video card &/ Mobo do not install their Forceware software. Install the drivers only because the Forceware software is known to cause conflicts with their own drivers. And it can cause program conflicts with other software on both XP & Vista.

    Dark Shroud on
  • FrostozunaFrostozuna Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    My network status icon in the taskbar is apprently not there anymore and I have no idea when it disappeared or how this could have happened. Awesome

    Frostozuna on
  • squirlysquirly Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Right click on the Start Bar > Properties > Notification Area > Check if Network is ticked

    squirly on
    Diablo2 [US West; Ladder]: *DorianGraph [New/Main] *outsidewhale [Old]
  • TasteticleTasteticle Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    I for one am actually really pleased with how vista's performance has seemed to have improved. I remember I tried it out when it first arrived, it worked maybe 3/4ths of the time, alot of programs wouldnt run, "new" drivers wouldn't work very well and then I got pissed and switched back to xp and never looked back until recently. I just ordered a new laptop with vista home premium and am glad I wont have to throw xp on the thing.

    Tasteticle on

    Uh-oh I accidentally deleted my signature. Uh-oh!!
  • fogeymanfogeyman Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    The RAM in my computer has been dying for a while now and I finally replaced it. Of the two (1GB each) sticks, one was dead, so I kept the other and inserted two new and identical sticks. The RAM is arranged properly with the new sticks in the dual channel slots and the old stick in another slot. My Windows Experience Index score for RAM went from 5.0 with my two old sticks to 2.2 with my two new and one old stick. Any idea why?

    All of the RAM is detected, by the way.

    fogeyman on
  • LaCabraLaCabra MelbourneRegistered User regular
    edited May 2008
    You could check your paging file, make sure it's not set somewhere stupidly small, but I dunno if that'd throw off the score.

    LaCabra on
  • AzioAzio Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Dual-channel is only supported with matched pairs.

    Azio on
  • fogeymanfogeyman Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    LaCabra wrote: »
    You could check your paging file, make sure it's not set somewhere stupidly small, but I dunno if that'd throw off the score.
    How do I check (and what is) my paging file?

    @Azio: I have identical sticks in the dual channel slots with a different stick in another, non-matched slot.

    fogeyman on
  • AzioAzio Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Yes, you'll have to remove the odd one (or find a match for it) or else dual channel will be disabled.

    Azio on
  • RohanRohan Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    I still hate Vista. I booted into it for the first time in weeks today to play Crysis, and there are still issues coming up that irritate me to no end. Firstly, for no reason at all, I no longer have 5.1 sound from my speakers. Everything is set up properly, both in the Windows sound controls and the Realtek audio program (using onboard audio). I have the exact same set-up in XP, I know the speakers work because I was listening to music in 5.1 on XP five minutes prior to booting into Vista! All it will do is allow sound to come from the left and right speakers, nothing comes out of the centre, rear left/right and subwoofer. Last time I booted into Vista, things were fine on the sound front, but not now they're not. Now I have to use headphones to play Crysis.

    Second, for the love of God, why do things like this keep happening?

    bloodyvista.jpg

    Notice anything? That's right, parts of the icon images are missing. You can see it on the games folder icon, and the LAN icon also. How the crap does that happen? And before anybody says something, no, I am not running a copy of Vista I downloaded from the 'net, I bought Home Premium legally and it's been updated with all the latest drivers for my components, and all the updates from Microsoft. And people here insist on saying that there's nothing wrong with Vista, it's a fine OS that has matured well. Sure!

    It's stupid problems like this that steer me ever further away from Vista. By now I'd have hoped to migrated away fully from XP, but no, I get this to deal with.

    Rohan on
    ...and I thought of how all those people died, and what a good death that is. That nobody can blame you for it, because everyone else died along with you, and it is the fault of none, save those who did the killing.

    Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Yeah I got that too until I did a factory restore on my laptop.

    It actually has gone away and I have been bug free on vista for about a week or two now.

    Jasconius on
  • RohanRohan Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    I wish mine was... I just updated the Realtek drivers for the sound chip, and two other things now have happened that have me turning red with rage over how stupid Vista is. The first is that the Realtek sound manager is gone. It's just gone, nada, zip. I looked in the Program Files folder and saw nothing to do with Realtek... which is odd, because it has one in XP where the Sound Manager program is located.

    Also, Vista won't even recognise my speakers anymore, before it just wouldn't output sound to the other speakers, now it refuses to see them. I go into Control Panel > Sound, and there is only one option when I try to configure the speakers - left and right stereo. I am so pissed off with this stupid OS.

    Rohan on
    ...and I thought of how all those people died, and what a good death that is. That nobody can blame you for it, because everyone else died along with you, and it is the fault of none, save those who did the killing.

    Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
  • Epyon9283Epyon9283 Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Yeah never let windows update do any driver updates.

    Epyon9283 on
  • RohanRohan Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    I didn't... I only let it download it's own patches and updates and what-not.

    Rohan on
    ...and I thought of how all those people died, and what a good death that is. That nobody can blame you for it, because everyone else died along with you, and it is the fault of none, save those who did the killing.

    Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
  • FaceballMcDougalFaceballMcDougal Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    I let Vista maintain all my drivers because I'm super lazy about getting new ones. Sometimes you get an older set... other times (like recently) they had the newest NVidia drivers for my card.

    FaceballMcDougal on
    xbl/psn/steam: jabbertrack
  • AzioAzio Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Rohan wrote: »
    I still hate Vista. I booted into it for the first time in weeks today to play Crysis, and there are still issues coming up that irritate me to no end. Firstly, for no reason at all, I no longer have 5.1 sound from my speakers. Everything is set up properly, both in the Windows sound controls and the Realtek audio program (using onboard audio). I have the exact same set-up in XP, I know the speakers work because I was listening to music in 5.1 on XP five minutes prior to booting into Vista! All it will do is allow sound to come from the left and right speakers, nothing comes out of the centre, rear left/right and subwoofer. Last time I booted into Vista, things were fine on the sound front, but not now they're not. Now I have to use headphones to play Crysis.

    Second, for the love of God, why do things like this keep happening?

    Notice anything? That's right, parts of the icon images are missing. You can see it on the games folder icon, and the LAN icon also. How the crap does that happen? And before anybody says something, no, I am not running a copy of Vista I downloaded from the 'net, I bought Home Premium legally and it's been updated with all the latest drivers for my components, and all the updates from Microsoft. And people here insist on saying that there's nothing wrong with Vista, it's a fine OS that has matured well. Sure!

    It's stupid problems like this that steer me ever further away from Vista. By now I'd have hoped to migrated away fully from XP, but no, I get this to deal with.
    Have you been reading the thread? The vast majority of these types of problems are caused by shitty third-party drivers and/or failing hardware, not the operating system.

    I mean there is also the possibility, as you suggest, that we are all lying and Vista actually doesn't work perfectly on my laptop, desktop, and the half-dozen computers I've built over the last year, but if you are interested in fixing your problem then you should maybe drop the attitude and give us the information we need to help you. What are the specs of the machine and how old is it?

    Have you tried System Restoring to a time before the problems began to occur? My guess is that you installed a bad driver update for your soundcard, which is easily solved by System Restore. As for the video, it's probably overheating or something, but I'll get to that when you tell me what video card it is.

    Azio on
  • DHS OdiumDHS Odium Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Yeah, since most people have heard some nonsense about Vista, they use it as a convienent excuse to bash the OS. Any time there is something acting strange with the computer, it must be entirely Vista, all Microsoft's fault, can't be other shittily written programs, nope.

    Not bashing anyone here. Personal example, a friend was compaining about his mouse pointers and Vista, saying "I know this is Vista and the new Office problems, but is there a way to fix the text cursor, I can't see it when I move it." The problem was actually partly the size of the cursor, his eyes aren't the greatest, and mainly the fact that this was on an LCD with a poor refresh rate and the brightness set too high. I did a quick fix of changing that icon to something more noticable and increasing the pointer sizes.

    That's one example, but I have heard and seen so many issues that have nothing to do with Vista, but the complaint gets laid on it anyways as it's the popular thing to do, the easy way out. As for drivers, it's not up to Microsoft to make sure your peripherals from Company A work, it's up to Company A.

    DHS Odium on
    Wii U: DHS-Odium // Live: DHS Odium // PSN: DHSOdium // Steam: dhsykes // 3DS: 0318-6615-5294
  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Yeah but some things are Microsoft's fault that directly impact third party software.

    I've been tracking this series of articles, written by a Windows developer, worth reading:

    http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/microsoft-learn-from-apple-II.ars

    Jasconius on
  • AzioAzio Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    That's all well and good but I'm pretty sure this poster's problems are caused by bad third-party drivers.

    Azio on
  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Well speaking from experience, Realtek software is both bad and very hard to uninstall.

    I had a Realtek onboard sound card and I bought a Sound Blaster and I had sound issues until I ended up reformatting.

    I would not be surprised if the Realtek drivers are written in some sweatshop in Asia.

    So, the fact that they break in Vista does not surprise me either.

    Jasconius on
  • AzioAzio Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Realtek is basically the worst thing that ever happened to onboard sound. I wish Nvidia, ViA and Intel would go back to putting their own audio solutions on motherboards rather than licensing that horrible Taiwanese garbage.

    It really is too bad that the PC audio market has to be so thoroughly dominated by shitty onboard chips with awful drivers, and Creative.

    Azio on
  • MorskittarMorskittar Lord Warlock Engineer SeattleRegistered User regular
    edited May 2008
    DHS Odium wrote: »
    That's one example, but I have heard and seen so many issues that have nothing to do with Vista, but the complaint gets laid on it anyways as it's the popular thing to do, the easy way out. As for drivers, it's not up to Microsoft to make sure your peripherals from Company A work, it's up to Company A.

    Thing is, consumers don't care about this.

    I'm of the opinion that's the true price of Microsoft's success in the past few decades; the company is held to a vastly higher standard than many others, whether through the consent decree or public opinion of such a huge target.

    Ultimately, it means that while Microsoft maybe shouldn't be responsible for the quality of 3rd party drivers, it's in the company's best interest to make sure they work. As long as Apple can control their entire ecosystem, Microsoft needs to simulate the same (without actually controlling it, 'cause the government would come down like a ton of bricks). If a Dell PC runs like shit because of crapware, it's MS' fault, from a consumer perspective. If HP won't supply a backup disk or support Windows 98, the same. Consumers (and often businesses) just don't care and see any explanation as "passing the buck".

    That and get the in-house developers further out of their little boxes and ivory towers.

    Morskittar on
    snm_sig.jpg
  • Dark ShroudDark Shroud Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    When it comes to disks Microsoft is actually fine with people getting them off torrents or burning copies for each other. As long as the license is legal MS doesn't care where you got the disk from. And for the record, HP's restore disks are horrible due to the bloatware. I don't mind their PCs, I just have to format them before I can use them.

    As for Windows "Developers" Vista is exposing many to be the poor quality programmers they actually are. Why would a person need to be signed in as an Administrator to play a game? A lot of programmers that complain about Vista are either afraid of change or are just lazy. In short a lot of the "developer concerns" over Vista have been debunked.

    Dark Shroud on
  • fogeymanfogeyman Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Azio wrote: »
    Yes, you'll have to remove the odd one (or find a match for it) or else dual channel will be disabled.
    Thanks for the help. I have a couple more questions:

    I should still get better performance with 3.0 GB of mixed RAM and no dual channel than 2.0 GB of dual channel RAM, right? Note that all of my sticks of RAM have the same specs, they're identical in every way except the time of purchase. Should I just ignore my low Windows Experience Index rating, or assume something is wrong and try and diagnose and fix it?

    Thanks again.

    fogeyman on
  • AzioAzio Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Well it depends. If you want to be able to run a lot of programs or have a lot of documents open at once, then stick with the 3 gigs. If you want better performance on individual tasks, games for example, then pull one and go dual-channel.

    Azio on
  • RohanRohan Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Azio wrote: »
    Have you been reading the thread? The vast majority of these types of problems are caused by shitty third-party drivers and/or failing hardware, not the operating system.

    I mean there is also the possibility, as you suggest, that we are all lying and Vista actually doesn't work perfectly on my laptop, desktop, and the half-dozen computers I've built over the last year, but if you are interested in fixing your problem then you should maybe drop the attitude and give us the information we need to help you. What are the specs of the machine and how old is it?

    Have you tried System Restoring to a time before the problems began to occur? My guess is that you installed a bad driver update for your soundcard, which is easily solved by System Restore. As for the video, it's probably overheating or something, but I'll get to that when you tell me what video card it is.

    It's third-party drivers that has parts of icon images missing (desktop)? Or installing SP1 for the second time and thus not allowing me to activate because I had already done so (media pc)? Endless hard drive access no matter how long the system is left alone (both)? Thank you, yes, I have read the thread, and it's mostly filled with people saying that they're having no problems with Vista, and those who are having problems must put them down to either shoddy third party software or hardware, or an over-active imagination. It's nice that people are having no problems with Vista, but it's infuriating for so many problems to keep cropping up and it puts me off from using it... I want to use it, I want to switch - as a pc gamer, I will be forced to eventually, but I would like to switch in my own time. Vista just keeps screwing up in different ways however, and it's really, well, to reiterate, infuriating.

    What attitude am I displaying other than irritation at Vista's flaws as I see them? As for the pc's, both of them are self-built with quality parts. My desktop I built last June, and has -

    Core 2 Duo E6420 2.13GHz
    2GB PC6400 Corsair XMS
    Asus P5VD2-X motherboard
    Club3D GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB
    120GB Seagate Barracuda ATA
    250GB Seagate Barracuda SATA
    NorthQ "Godzilla" 500w PSU

    The media pc was built around Christmas and has -

    Pentium Dual-Core 1.8GHz
    2GB PC6400 Corsair XMS
    Intel Essential Series motherboard
    500GB Western Digital SATA
    Antec 380w EarthPlus PSU

    Problems keep cropping up on both. When I bought my laptop it came with Vista, it's a Dell Inspiron (Core 2 Duo, 1GB 533MHz, 80GB) and similar issues cropped up there, too. People say that Vista catalogues the hard drive (or something) at first and it takes a while but it eventually stops all that hd access, and it has on my desktop (which I never boot into Vista with), but it hasn't on the media pc (which is on damn near all the time). Vista was kept on my laptop for a month and it didn't stop there, either. Third-party drivers may be responsible for the sound issues I recently spoke with, but I'm willing to bet that no software outside of Microsoft's own had the media pc wanting me to install SP1 yet again, mere weeks after installing it when it first came out. I mean, how screwed up does the OS have to be to want to install the same security updates twice over (and it did install them correctly the first time, I was there both times to witness it)?

    I want to like Vista, but it annoys me so much when things just keep going wrong, while XP is solid as a rock.

    Rohan on
    ...and I thought of how all those people died, and what a good death that is. That nobody can blame you for it, because everyone else died along with you, and it is the fault of none, save those who did the killing.

    Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
  • MorskittarMorskittar Lord Warlock Engineer SeattleRegistered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Rohan wrote: »
    I want to like Vista, but it annoys me so much when things just keep going wrong, while XP is solid as a rock after three or four years.

    Vista really caused a lot of upset, too, by *completely* revising the Windows driver model. It needed to happen, but makes for a lot of growing pains. It will make for a far better OS, I believe, once the rest of the industry gets to know it.

    The issues you've mentioned seem to be fairly unique (and plentiful). I did a quick search on MS' knowledge base and couldn't find anything like some. Perhaps there's a single unifying factor? Are you using antivirus?

    This, though, *could* be related to your icon issue.

    Morskittar on
    snm_sig.jpg
  • RohanRohan Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Oh yeah, I also believe that many of the changes that came with Vista were needed, and I welcome them. As I said, I want to like Vista, but it seems intent on trying to stop me from doing so. Good call on the icon issue though, I'll give that a try when I get back home on Thursday.

    Rohan on
    ...and I thought of how all those people died, and what a good death that is. That nobody can blame you for it, because everyone else died along with you, and it is the fault of none, save those who did the killing.

    Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
  • MorskittarMorskittar Lord Warlock Engineer SeattleRegistered User regular
    edited May 2008
    I think "Sacrificial Lamb" might have been a good codename...

    Good luck with the icons.

    Morskittar on
    snm_sig.jpg
  • FyreWulffFyreWulff YouRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    edited May 2008
    I'd still like MS to just start over with a new OS.

    Unfortunately they would be sued off their ass if they did.

    Only Apple could have gotten away with OS9 -> OSX.

    FyreWulff on
  • AzioAzio Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    It's really weird that you're having that much trouble with it. I run into the occasional hiccough on my machines but nothing compared to what you're describing.

    For the sound problem, as I said you should try System Restore. I had virtually the same thing happen on my Athlon X2, which was running XP at the time. I downloaded a new driver for my Realtek sound chip from Windows Update, but it didn't come with the special Realtek control panel software so I couldn't turn on 5.1 mode. I used System Restore to undo the update, and got the latest driver and software from the motherboard manufacturer. Then I bought a proper sound card.

    As for the fucked-up icons, it almost looks like the kind of artefacts that result from the video card overheating. Try to find out the temperature. It sounds like a pretty unique problem which leads me to believe some piece of hardware is broken or too hot.

    The endless hard drive access you describe is SuperFetch at work.
    Wikipedia wrote:
    SuperFetch is a technology that pre-loads commonly used applications into the memory to reduce their load times. It's based on the "prefetcher" function in Windows XP. [7]

    The intent is to improve performance in situations where running an anti-virus scan or back-up utility would result in otherwise recently-used information being paged out to disk, or disposed from in-memory caches, resulting in lengthy delays when a user comes back to their computer after a period of non-use.

    SuperFetch also keeps track of what times of day that applications are used, which allows it to intelligently pre-load information that is expected to be used in the near future.

    By default the necessary files are loaded into main memory but Windows Vista can use alternate storage such as USB flash drives, thereby freeing up main memory. Although hard disks usually have higher data transfer rates, flash drives can be faster for small files or non-sequential I/O because of their short random seek times.

    Azio on
  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    edited May 2008
    SuperFetch in my mind is the single most enjoyable thing about Vista.

    Loads Flash CS3 in under 1 goddam second.

    Glorious.

    Jasconius on
  • fogeymanfogeyman Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Azio wrote: »
    Well it depends. If you want to be able to run a lot of programs or have a lot of documents open at once, then stick with the 3 gigs. If you want better performance on individual tasks, games for example, then pull one and go dual-channel.
    Cool, thanks. I ripped out the odd stick and now things seem to be running much faster. Also, my Windows Experience Index score went up to 5.0 (from 2.2) for RAM.

    fogeyman on
  • corcorigancorcorigan Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    FyreWulff wrote: »
    I'd still like MS to just start over with a new OS.

    Unfortunately they would be sued off their ass if they did.

    Only Apple could have gotten away with OS9 -> OSX.

    Plus OSX is Unix-based, so much easier to use, rather than some weird proprietary stuff like OS9. It took a LONG time too, you could run OS9 stuff in classic mode and whatever. Plus OS9 was ancient and really needed replacing.

    I don't think they'd be sued, just lose a big chunk of market share. Their main benefit is that everything is made for their own OS, if suddenly that changed everyone would just bail to use some Unix-based system (considering it would be cheaper and have the same level of compatibility).

    corcorigan on
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