Agreed about the sound drivers. I have an Audigy 4 setup and the beta drivers were terrible, the produced way too much hiss in the speakers to be usable.

I then saw how you could install the XP drivers (via a right-click / properties setting) and they would install fine in Vista.

The speakers sound great again unless I try to change their settings via Audigy software or Windows sound settings, then it all goes back to crap which is fixed with a reboot.

Hi Chris,
Thanks for the comments. What is amazing is that some of the hardware companies seemed to not know that Vista was going to be released. And your Audigy card is very popular and drivers should of been available by now….I’m talking about drivers that actually work!

Regards, Ron

Hearing this is really a concern to me , I looking to get a new Laptop and all I see is Vista everywhere.
Would I be able to buy a computer with XP Pro in it? Any help out there?
Jerry

Hello Jerry,

Funny you should ask. I was looking at these Gateway Business systems this morning for someone else, and spotted several that were still shipping with XP-Pro. But, just to confirm, I would call Gateway.

http://gateway.com/systems/product/529664336.php

Now that I think about it, why not call the OEM’s. Online is only going show thier latest wares. Maybe they still will take orders with XP. Worth a try.

What made me think of this was that 3 weeks ago I hooked up a wireless internet setup for a nursing home, that had received new Dell systems from a state grant program. When I spoke with the administrator of the home, she stated the systems had Windows 2000 Pro on them. I thought she was mistaken. But nope, she was correct. Seems Dell threw on Windows 2000 Pro per the states request. Go figure.

Regards, Ron

After using windows vista on my gateway 600YG2 note book i have no sound card and modem card.
there is poor instalation.Beacze on XP i have auto detect sound vga and modem card.

Vista is too boring if i have using it without sound and modem and poor display setting.

Hello Khan,
Hopefully Gateway will be posting updated drivers for your laptop. The normal time for most manufactures to play catch up after a OS is released is 3 to 6 months.

Thanks for the comment, Ron

Driver problems so far include Blackberry and Wireless Broadband. Also having office network problems and display issues. What a joke! The real cost of Vista will be huge when you include all the time that is going to be wasted. How do they get away with this?

Hi Plugmeister,

Good question.

Even Chris Prillo who is very computer savy finally gave up on Vista. He can’t use it for his primary OS so he’s going back to XP.

http://chris.pirillo.com/2007/02/27/windows-vista-im-breaking-up-with-you/

Me - I dual boot - XP for doing my real work - Vista when I want to play with the new OS.

Microsoft after SP2 has XP purring like a kitten. As Chris states, Vista is like a Beta - not ready for prime time.

Thanks for the comments, Ron

Where to begin….oohhh the pain!
I am a project manager from New Jersey, living in China. Over here, everything is copied…all hacked software, including any computer that you buy locally.
Therefore, its normal to buy a fully operable OS for about USD $1.25.
But what I really wanted was the cream…the new Vista, so I could get away from all the garbage viruses and be an honorable user of original software.
(Please note that my home PC running a jacked XP2 is still the most stable PC I have ever used.)

Anyway, during the Chinese New Year I traveled to the states to do a tradeshow and made it a point to check out the CompUSA.
I didn’t know how much Vista cost so I was a little shocked to see that the Vista/Office package was about $1000. I had about $500 with me, so I called my sister and asked her to meet me at the store; and we put our funds together and bought Vista Ultimate, and Ofice Upgrade for about $750.
After flying back to China, all pumped up, I decided that it would be better if I launched my new tools on a new notebook PC.

This time i decided that I would not trust the local PC vendors, and opted for a more professional crew. After spending hours at a huge (I am talking Smithsonian Museum huge) PC market, I dissed IBM and chose a Fujitsu Lifebook E8210, which is Vista-ready. This notebook costs $1800 in China.

Before installing, I read the Office pack which stated that it would only install over a registered Ofice product, which i did not have.

I left China and crossed the border into Hong Kong to find a vendor who had the original version of Office 2003. This took me 2 days and cost me another $440, not including the trip and hotel, food, taxi, train, etc.
I got home with the new book (running perfectly with XP)and did a complete install of Vista, using 32 bit to make sure (=HOPE)the compats are ok. While setup was doing the setup thing, I then noticed that Vista required 1G of onboard RAM. My Fujitsu had a 1.83G CPU, but only 512K of onboard RAM….ok so then, (getting a little p*ssed now), I went back to the computer villa and tossed my new 667 512K into the garbage and purchased 2 new 1G memory sets, to total 2G’s of all aboard RAM at a cost of another $275.

Finally, after travelling to 3 countries over a period of 4 weeks, I was exited to get to the usage.

As soon as I installed Vista, I received multiple driver install issues. I installed all drivers I could find with the original Lifebook software, which really saved me, because if I did not have those, i would have been sh*t out of luck! But even with those, it became clear that Vista was lacking support for devices which could install automatically with XP.

On the first run everything ended up working fine, but the next day, when i started my puter, the Vista could not find a partitioned drive on my computer. My drive is parted into 5 sections. The final section is after the CD; C,D,E,F, G(CD), and H. I won’t drag you through the absolute pain in the Ass that it took me to finally get this drive recognized, but at this point Vista was trouble.

Every time i start, there is something wrong, or a driver request. Mouse, Antivirus, physical drives, partitions, simple apps, flashdisks, all the simple stuff that just runs fine with XP. So much time is wasted on trying to fix this.

All of my cash was trashed on the Vista Endeavor.

Hit me with a solution. I will be on XP until then.
Tony
loyaldoors@gmail.com

Hello Tony,
Thanks for sharing your story with us. I was trying not to laugh when I read your exploits, which was difficult not to do.

Geeeeezzzz! I’ll give you credit for your tenacity. It sounds like you have been to hell and back. And I wish I could say that your tale was the exception to the rule. But unfortunately it is not.

My only advice is to keep your Vista - Office disks handy and pray that Microsoft produces SP #1 soon. Along with new drivers for your Fijitsu lappy.

And as I have stated in other articles, I’m sticking with XP myself because it just plain works.

All the best and thanks again for sharing your story.

Regards, Ron

hi

microsoft windows dell vista new

microsoft new

After reading the comments here I fell pretty fortunate… I just purchase a Dell Experion 1705… with Vista… right out of the box I started getting the driver errors… and drivers blocked notices… I found out this is common especially with Dell’s new shipments… but fixed the problem quickly by visiting:

http://kb.roxio.com/content/kb/Creator/000131CR

There are a couple solutions… one for Dell OEM and one for non Dell apps. I used the Dell OEM solution and all seems to work fine… hope this helps somebody.

JW

Hello Joe,
Thanks for your comments and for also sharing the link. Hopefully it will help someone. Again, thanks for your comments.
Regards, Ron

iam using vista on my gateway 7320gz notebook….but there is no sound.the os takes some default driver …if any1 have the drivers…..please pass them to me..

I have cd/dvd drives dissappearing right and left!
First I purchased a Toshiba Satellite laptop. The cd/dvd drive dissappeared about 4 hours into installing my things on the new machine. Error code 10, this device is not working properly. Took the mahcine back to Best Buy, where Geek Squad said it was a hardware issue and gave me a replacmenet machine. The same problem happened again and was again diagnosed as a hardware issue, bad drive, and I got my money back. Thing it was a bad lot of drives int eh toshiba, I purchased an hp laptop. Guess what, exact same thing happens a couple days into using the machine, just long enought to have completely installed all my programs, data, itunes, etc. On the phone with hp support, the first time gets it working again by turning off the upper and lower filters in the control set in the regedit. This worked for a few days. Then the drive dissappeared again. Called HP. The had me even reseat the drive by taking it out compeltely. finally it came down to, guess what, reformat the machine and reinstall the operating system (again loosing all my work of installing all my stuff). I reluctantly did this as I had no choice, but just knew it would not fix the problem. And guess what, the drive has dissappeared again before I can even finish installing all my files needed to work. HP has decided the drive is bad and is sending me a new cd/dvd drive I will have to take somewhere to have installed.
Now, I know this will not stop the new drive from dissappearing also. Why doesn’t hp, geek squad, and toshiba know this too? Where is the person that knows what the conflict is and can fix this issue?
I cannot work with having to replace computers and reformatting and reinstalling operating systems every other day…
Frances

I forgot to say, of course this is VISTA we are talking about…

Hello Frances,
Your story is totally unreal! I can’t believe that after 3 systems, no one has figured out what the problem is. And I seriously doubt all 3 systems would have bad drives in them.
Thanks for sharing your story. Ron

I purchased a Dell Dimension 9200 with Windows Vista. After 5 exhaustive days with the Dell tech folks trying to get through the many Windows Vista problems, they advised I should have the machine replaced. I agreed but insisted that any replacement does not have Windows Vista as its operating system. Unfortunately, a Dell Dimension 9200 only comes with Windows Vista. I am now in the process of ordering an XPS 710, a higher end machine, and Dell has promised that it will be at no extra cost to me.

It will be a long time before I ever look at Vista again.

Hi Russ,
Let us know if the XPS710 works any better or not. It is hard to believe in reading about all of these issues, Toshiba, HP, Dell and others, that the problem is the OS, not the machines.

Thanks for your comment. Ron

Russ,

That’s great that Dell was willing to be constructive on solutions for you. What were the specific problems you were having? I just placed an order for a Dimension 9200, and am wondering if I’ll face some of the same problems you did.

EricW asked what specific problems I was having with the Dell Dimension 9200. There were many, mostly to do with Vista not running my software properly if at all. But the problem that really bothered me and could not be resolved by the Dell Tech folks was the system would crash (The blue screen of death) when they (remotely)or I tried to make any adjustments through the Control Panel to the microphone. It happened every time. The same thing would happen using programs that involved using a mic. Hope EricW does not have the same problems

Hi Russ,
Thanks for the information and comments.
Ron

Thanks for the added info, Russ!

Vista sucks
Unfortunatly I have one and spent the money
already. Why should I have to invest in more money, time and effort for a new
better version of window. It wasn’t
ready, it shouldn’t had been released.

Veriouse problems straight across the board. From system crashing to incompatible
software and hardware.
Something else went wrong with it yesterday, too tire and frustrated to
resolve it. Almost threw the lap top into
the wall the first week of purchase.
For an average user as myself, not totally
PC literate it’s been a nightmare.

The older pc with XP with outdated processor and drivers operates much better

Hello Sherry,
Sorry to hear about your frustrating experience. I wish I could give you some hope that things will get better, but it seems Microsoft is of the opinion that Vista is working just fine for most users.

All the best, Ron

I’ve been suffering the same problems as you guys with my express upgrade of Media Center Edition 2005 to Windows Vista Home Premium. The problem is that it will not upgrade leaving me to believe that the problem lies with the system functionality of the 9200 and its compatiblitiy with Vista.

Hello Abu,
What does Dell say? Have you contacted them?
Ron

I recently bought Dell Dimension E520 with Windows Vista Home Premium edition, and after 3 hours of using the PC, while trying to deal with Partitions with Partition Magic, since partition magic wasn’t compatible with Vista , i tried to uninstal PM. Thats what messed up my Vista OS and now i can’t even see my HDD or even install drivers (samsung HDD). what’s even worse i can’t even install any other OS since the Blue Screen keeps poping out while installing.
Now thats what i call BIG Problem!!!!

Hello Keli,
Yipes! That is a huge problem. Have you tried to reformatting the hard disk before installing a OS again? And do you have the Vista DVD? That should handle the job for you or did Dell not include the DVD? If no DVD call Dell and get one.

Ron

We just got a Gatway desktop with Vista. Not as many problems as others, but having issues with the wireless driver. I am able to install it, get on the internet, everthing works great…until I shut down and attempt to re-start. Windows will not load and I have to run ‘repair’ at which time it takes off the wireless driver. The computer then works great but I have to reinstall the wireless driver. Do you know of any fix for the driver issues yet?

Hi JoAnn,
A few suggestions. Check Gateways site to see if they have posted a updated driver. Call Gateway and complain. You would think that they could send a replacement wireless card that would work with Vista. OR check on the manufacturers site of the wireless card. For info. or a new driver as well.

I hope this helps, Ron

I got the same problem as Keli.

Just bought Dell’s Dimension E520 and after two days of fighting against Canon DV drivers (I can’t capture video with Ulead Video Studio 10) tried to install Win XP.. and it died with a blue screen at the begining.
I used Vista’s DVD to erase partitions before install and it didn’t help. Blue screen again. And it says only to scan the hard drive against errors..

Even my CentOS 4.1 install DVD doesn’t see any hard drive.. probably it’s to old. So I had to install Vista back.. I have a new computer but I can’t use it properly. 1 of 2 avi files kills WMP11 without a reason.. there’s nothing wrong with them when I use other players..
They force me to use a standard user which apears as administrators group member, but it doesn’t have access to folders, so many programs give me annoying messages that many operations are forbidden.
It helps when you run programs as Administrator.. but after a few days I am sick of it. Vista seems like an annoying spyware or shareware with limited functions..

Additionaly I didn’t check before and realized that it comes without standard IDE slots.. now I have some useless but brand new hard drives in a drawer and two of them attached to USB ports. I wanted to avoid all of these cables on my desk..

I am so disappointed..

I have a strange problem with my Sound Card. on every System boot I have to reinstall the drivers to get sound back.

Once installed in works fine without any problem for that session.

I have spent more than 20 hours trying to fix the problem without any success.

I guess VISTA drivers handling is really very poor.

I am sure Microsoft is going to come out with a service pack soon to get these things sorted.

Hi Marcin and Omer,
Thanks to you both for sharing your experiences with us.
Regards, Ron

SATA controller causes the blue screen problem during installing Windows XP. Solutions to try:

- change SATA option in BIOS from RAID to ATA emulation
(default option is RAID even if you have only one hard drive and it’s RECOMMENDED by Dell :))

OR

- use F6 option during install process to add Intel drivers from floppy disk:

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/CS-021736.htm

I still can’t capture movies from my camcorder properly.. but.. I have installed older version of Ulead VideoStudio 7 and it works.. why? because default option is capturing video in 4:3 ratio.. when I try to change project resolution.. it coms with the same problem. It never happened on Windows 2000 on my old Dell box. So Vista allows me to rip videos only in 4:3 ratio.. but..

Funny thing. Roxio software which comes with Dimension E520 rips video without any problem.. (while I have these problems with above mentioned software) but I can’t hear sound in the movies outside the application. All files are fine when playing inside it, but WMP11 says that audio codec used in these files is not installed..

My camcorder has an option to be a webcam (network mode).. when I try to switch to this mode, Vista says that a new hardware has been found and I need to use a driver CD to install it.. it also never happened on Windows 2000.

I still don’t know why WMP11 doesn’t like majority of avi files, which are fine in other players.. it closes itself after trying to open these files. It also doesn’t like DivXG400.

I mentioned about standard user and files/folders access problem. Since then I use ‘run as Administrator’ option instead of simple double-clik on all executable files (setups and installed application).

Why? Try to install for instance IrfanView 3.99 without using this method. It will ask you to approve change to Administrator mode as all setup.exe files (sic!) and then will say that you should close an EXISTING instance of IrfanView.. and fails.
But when you run it as Administrator (right-click) it works fine.. why?

Try to run your applications in standard user and in administrator modes using the same method while starting your applications (right click to run as admin).
Some application won’t remember your settings in standard user mode. But you will experience that some options suddenly work better in Administator mode
Obviously simple applications which inherit rights from the parent process. But some install wizards are written to avoid insecure situations.. and… yes( ‘Huston we have a problem’.

I pressume that many problems would gone if you could install and configure applications/drivers properly as administrator, but the user created during first login appears as Administrator though behaves as a standard user.. and you CAN’T SWITCH to local Administrator!

Hello Marcin,
Thanks for taking the time to post this for all of us. I am sure that this should help someone here that is having this problem.

Thanks again, Ron

I think Microsoft did a poor job with Vista and the sound. I have a Soundmax onboard sound card and everything works but the microphone and no matter what I try it will not work.

Hi Andy,
Thanks for the comment.
Ron

This sounds like Windows 2000 all over again. Sadly these sorts of things are par for the course with a new operating system. Vista will sort itself out - it will just take some time. I figure by the time SP2 comes out - most of these issues will be addressed.

Hi Steve,
It does take time.
Ron

I’ll write in Portuguese, my native language, because I don’t have words to say, ESSE VISTA EH UMA BOSTA!!!!, like, this Vista is a sh*t!!!!
Thanks Bill Gates.

A so called Wow factor OS that can’t even find drivers. Why don’t you guys put yourselves through so much hassle.

Just GET A MAC

have xps710 and it came with media center 2005 dell shipped a free upgrade dvd to vista and yesterday i thought well why not. i spent 6 hours with dell tech support removing dif. things and installing vista drivers before hand and still the upgrade wouldn’t work the guy even said that the clean install wouldn’t work and that some xps710 are having trouble with vista. now i have to wait for awhile i’m fine with xp i just want to see how vista works

Hi DD,
Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I think it is a smart move to stay with XP as well.
Ron

Ron, et al; thanks for this board. I found it via google search on ‘ vista driver problems ‘ I was entertaining the upgrade to Vista and within a few minutes I was educated. Much appreciated.

Hi Krkwyt,
I’m glad it helped you.
Ron

Hello, Have a new dell notebook with vista. I cannot get the dang thing to recogniza any microphones. Dell is of no help. I finally ran a diag test in the master boot. I can hear myself just fine, so the outlet is working, but I cannot get vista to recognize the mic. I have read alot of people having the same problems. Has anyone figured out how to resolve this?
thanks!!

Hi Bryan,
Try this solution and please let me know if this works or not.

“Hey I found it! After about half an hour of desperate button pushing and knob tweaking, I managed to hear my microphone through my speakers. Here’s how to do it: Right-click on the sound icon in the system tray and select Playback Devices (or alternatively, go to Control Panel and select Sounds). Once in the Sounds window, double-click the Speakers options, then go to the Levels tab, and there you’ll find the available options. Why oh why did they make it so complicated?”

Thanks, Ron

please can anyone give me the instructions how to find the dd drive cd rom on a dell 9400 its gone missing and driving me nuts trying to locate
as i am a frustrated learner???? thanks

Can any one help me with my HP 1220C printer, the drivers with vista only allow plain paper to be used, it will not work with any other setings, there are no new drivers on HP’s web site, so I thought that I would buy a HP 1280 printer as I need to retain A3 size, so I borrowed one to try, down loaded the latest HP drivers for vista, from HP and lo and behold this printer will also only print on plain paper, HP phone line were no help at all and their E-Mail contact for new purchases do not support the 1280, although it can still be bought, any suggestions would be appreciated

the intel video driver keeps freezing when i try to download it on my toshiba. all the other ones were fine. when i try to play video games (world of warcraft) the screen will freeze, then turn black, then go back to normal.
does anyone have any advice on how to fix this problem?

Vista is an absolute mess. I am a computer programmer and IT specialist, and I could not get bluetooth devices to work properly. My soundcard doesn’t work properly. I could not get my USB drive to work. And even hardware with driver downloads from the original company did not work (for example an HP 1315 all in one, the installation asked for me to connect the printer– which after doing the setup program would not recognize that I had connected). I’ve tried installing anyways by clicking a “connect later” box and hitting next; however this did not work. HP and Microsoft have both failed me. On the plus side I am switching out 10,000 computers in my office to Linux, and so my pain will be felt a lot more by microsoft in the years to come.

After years of sticking it out with Microsoft, I am finally a die-hard anti-Microsoft consumer. I have stuck with them through even MS-DOS and Windows 3.1. I chose windows mobile over palm. I chose IE over netscape, mozilla, and firefox. I even had an easier time with Windows 2000 than this.

My next PDA will definately be a palm-based OS. I am running ubuntu on my computer, and I have helped install linux on my entire family’s computers. I recommended that my sister get Apple. For Christmas I was thinking about getting my little cousin an XBOX 360, but I am getting a Nintendo Wii instead. Microsoft’s focus on predatory strategy and getting the hype and wow right but the basics wrong has pushed me over the edge. I urge all of you to tell as many people to abandon Microsoft en masse. Microsoft needs to hear about this.

Vista is a mess. I am a computer programmer and IT specialist, and I could not get bluetooth devices to work properly. My soundcard doesn’t work properly. I could not get my USB drive to work. And even hardware with driver downloads from the original company did not work (for example an HP 1315 all in one, the installation asked for me to connect the printer– which after doing the setup program would not recognize that I had connected). I’ve tried installing anyways by clicking a “connect later” box and hitting next; however this did not work. HP and Microsoft have both failed me. On the plus side I am switching out 10,000 computers in my office to Linux, and so my pain will be felt a lot more by microsoft in the years to come.

Vista is a mess. I am a computer programmer and IT specialist, and I could not get bluetooth devices to work properly. My soundcard doesn’t work properly. I could not get my USB drive to work. And even hardware with driver downloads from the original company did not work (for example an HP 1315 all in one, the installation asked for me to connect the printer– which after doing the setup program would not recognize that I had connected). I’ve tried installing anyways by clicking a “connect later” box and hitting next; however this did not work. HP and Microsoft have both failed me. On the plus side I am switching out 10,000 computers in my office to Linux, and so my pain will be felt a lot more by microsoft in the years to come.

Hello Ron/all,

I had one game installed on the computer, all was well. I then Installed a second game… Now Vista remembered the second game’s installation setting. And now first game will not run correctly when it was just perfect two days ago.
This computer is a mere three weeks old. What am I to do? Obviously I do not know the finer details of Graphic Setting, Therefore I do not want to touch it and make it worse. I have left most of the setting on the computer the same as Factory Set.

Computer slows down dramatically when loading the game. I quit of the game at the first question time.
Will it help if I uninstall the games? Although Halflife is the best, this computer is, I like this computer sleek and black and shiny.
How about this one- Next day… While typing away happily in msword, computer has been on 2 hours and twenty minutes aprox. Battery life in down to 51% running on the HP balanced option. I think the screen has got too bright and is running down the battery. Anyway what was really weird, with me typing away into word; Halflife popped up, tried to install. (the whole installation process went through without a hitch) And another message saying half life is already running, and two requests of some sought to play halflife.

Openin Window Media Center – You display should be in a higher setting, go to… and increase the setting to the 32 (highest)…
Everyday there seems to be a new problem. Today the computer took about 8 minutes to load up, windows loaded as usual; it made the windows welcome noise, then the screen when black for almost 6 minutes, just a white mouse pointer showing…

What more is there for me to do? I thought Windows Vista what supposed to be the key to the problems of windows. I know computer slow down over a short period of time, I am worried, what is this computer going to be doing, when it is an old man of 10 months ?

Kindest Regards,

Samuel Glass
Sam_glass@excite.com

Hello Samuel,
Yes, I would take both games off and see how your system than functions. If it returns to normal, than try installing the games again, reversing the installs.

If you are still having problems after the games are off, I’d give the OEM a call.

Hope this helps, Ron

[…] to get it right. Although the list of known problems is relatively short, considering the initial drivers problems for Vista it is at the very least bad PR. It also begs the question did they rush it? One can understand […]

After a hard drive implosion I installed VISTA Business Edition. The OS looks great, but….

I cannot seem to get the SATA drivers to install properly. It attempts to -reinstall (and fails) the SATA driver on every re-boot. Installing the drivers manually works but they do not persist after a re-boot. The installation of the drivers requires a re-boot. It is an ASUS KV2 mobo and the SATA is a Marvell.

Additionally, the OS seems to lose the video drivers if you attempt to play a game more than once without re-booting. The error message asks you to install DX-9 and update the video drivers.

Hi Dominic,
Question? After you install the drivers during the install, after Windows starts are you installing the drivers in Windows itself? Control Panel - Device Manager?

Let us know about this and than we can tackle the video display adapter drivers.

Also do you have the latest drivers from the Asus site for Vista for the Sata controllers?

I have been installing the drivers from the driver setup file. When I try to install from Control Panel - Device Manager it cannot find the drivers even when I point right to the folder they are in.

I am using the lastest drivers from ASUS for VISTA. I am hoping there may be beta drivers somewhere.

Thanks for your help.

Dominic

Dominic,
Check out this MVP site for additional information and see if it helps:
http://vistasupport.mvps.org/installing_raid_sata_drivers.htm

Let us know.

Thanks for the information. I will give it a try.

You are most welcome.

OMG it thinks my driver software isnt their because ever since an hp update screwed up my computer the next time i turned it on the update wasnt there and the driver thought it was uninstalled i try to install it and this wierd starforce protection thing comes up and it says the starforce driver isnt compatible. What is with this? The hp update was for nvidia drivers specifically and it messed up my computer.

im using an nvidia 8500 gt wat is the problem

Hello Andrew,
There are several options you can try. Restore back to an earlier date before the problem occurred or go directly to the NVidia site and find the correct driver for your card. Uninstall the current driver and update it to the new one.

Best of luck.