Vista, 1 year on...

OS / Drivers / BIOS
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onelegdis
Posts: 274
Joined: Thu Jul 25, 2002 6:52 pm
Location: London UK

Vista, 1 year on...

Post by onelegdis »

Hi all,

Long time no post!

Just thought I’d share my experiences with Microsoft’s all singing and all dancing, new and improved operating system, now that I’ve had some time to force it round to my way of thinking!

My first encounter with Vista was at work, two new PC’s, Sempron powered with 1 gig of ram...These machines are woefully underpowered, even though the manufacture said they were perfectly capable of running Vista(basic). They were upgraded to 2 gigs of ram without much improvement.

Time to try it out at home...Vista 64 bit Ultimate edition on an AMD 4200+ dual core, a very quick EVGA 8800GT, 2 gigs of OCZ ram and a 150 gig raptor. Result...It handled like a sack of shit...It was like walking in treacle, having sex with a condom, having a bath with your willies on...etc

I was shocked and rather despondent, I’d read all the bad press about Vista, however this was the same bad press that Windows 2000 and XP got... so I took it with a pinch of salt.

I cut my teeth on serious computing with Windows 2000 and a BP6. Driver availability, software compatibility and those little hardware issues that the BP6 loved to through at me! I was ready for anything. XP was a blessing, Windows 2000 with a pretty interface. No problem!

Vista, a progression, a natural advancement of a very successful operating system? No.
Vista, a bloated, inefficient, overweight marketing ploy by Microsoft? Maybe.

After a year of trying to bring my PC back to...XP speeds... I have finally succeeded. I’ve done all the mod’s and hacks and registry edits that any Google search will show. The index search thing, the user account thing, disabling the aero interface thing, using both cores to boot thing... I even bought a fast 2 gig USB stick and enabled ‘ready boost’ ...I must be a retailer’s wet dream!

None of these helped...I may of seen marginal improvements but things still felt sluggish.

Then I bought a 500 gig Maxtor drive, installed it, sorted the page file...and BINGO!

I now have a Vista PC, with most of the Vista advantages turned off, and it’s quick. It’s like XP with a pretty interface!

Vista cannot be ignored, it is the industry standard, so we need to learn its foibles and nuances. Just make sure you run it with more than one hard drive...it helps.

PS.

At the same time as I installed Vista, I thought I’d have a go at installing Linux on a laptop, the latest version of Ubuntu. I’ve installed Linux before (redhat), however Ubuntu still has a long way to go before it’s truly considered as a user friendly operating system. It’s so nearly there......
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Derek
Site Admin
Posts: 2489
Joined: Tue Jul 23, 2002 3:55 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

Post by Derek »

Hey man!

Good to see you again :) Thanks for the update.

I've played with some Vista machines here and there, however I have not installed it on any of my home computers yet.

I think I'll hold off for a while
-Derek
tenchimuyo93
Posts: 80
Joined: Mon Oct 16, 2006 11:04 pm
Location: currently Lockhart TX
Contact:

Post by tenchimuyo93 »

im running vista 32bit on a Intel 3.0GHz {Cedar mill core} with HT enabled, 1GB ram, HD3450 Video, 160HDD {page file still on it}, 320GB storage drive.


ill post my DXDaig so you can see specs

Code: Select all

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 7/17/2008, 02:43:39
       Machine name: POS-9004
   Operating System: Windows Vistaâ„¢ Ultimate (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.vistasp1_gdr.080425-1930)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: INTEL_
       System Model: D945GCR_
               BIOS: Default System BIOS
          Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs), ~3.0GHz
             Memory: 1012MB RAM
          Page File: 918MB used, 1594MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\Windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
     DxDiag Version: 6.00.6001.18000 32bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
      Display Tab 1: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 2: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 3: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 4: No problems found.
          Input Tab: No problems found.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D:    0/4 (retail)
DirectDraw:  0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)
DirectPlay:  0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow:  0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
        Card name: ATI Radeon HD 3400 Series 
     Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
        Chip type: ATI Radeon Graphics Processor (0x95C5)
         DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
       Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_95C5&SUBSYS_40901545&REV_00
   Display Memory: 761 MB
 Dedicated Memory: 510 MB
    Shared Memory: 250 MB
     Current Mode: 1440 x 900 (32 bit) (60Hz)
          Monitor: Generic Non-PnP Monitor
      Driver Name: atidxx32.dll,atidxx64,atiumdag.dll,atiumdva.dat,atiumd64,atiumd6a,atitmm64
   Driver Version: 7.15.0010.0119 (English)
      DDI Version: 10.1
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
 Driver Date/Size: 5/12/2008 11:45:51, 1554944 bytes
      WHQL Logo'd: Yes
  WHQL Date Stamp: 
Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-D685-11CF-B274-9A60A1C2CA35}
        Vendor ID: 0x1002
        Device ID: 0x95C5
        SubSys ID: 0x40901545
      Revision ID: 0x0000
      Revision ID: 0x0000
      Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_A ModeMPEG2_C 
 
     DDraw Status: Enabled
       D3D Status: Enabled
       AGP Status: Enabled

-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
            Description: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
 Default Sound Playback: Yes
 Default Voice Playback: Yes
            Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0888&SUBSYS_8086D606&REV_1000
        Manufacturer ID: 1
             Product ID: 100
                   Type: WDM
            Driver Name: RTKVHDA.sys
         Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5605 (English)
      Driver Attributes: Final Retail
            WHQL Logo'd: Yes
          Date and Size: 4/17/2008 16:31:00, 2098904 bytes
            Other Files: 
        Driver Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
         HW Accel Level: Basic
              Cap Flags: 0xF1F
    Min/Max Sample Rate: 100, 200000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 1, 0
 Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
              HW Memory: 0
       Voice Management: No
 EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
   I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No

        
i cut out alot of the fat from the code, but you get the idea.

havent had any real problems after sp1. but still like xp sp2 better. sp3 is lame as it keep saying my legal copy of xp is a pirate version.......
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davd_bob
Confused
Posts: 1043
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 2:30 am
Location: Houston, TX

Post by davd_bob »

Sorry for chiming in so late...
I agree with onelegdis on Vista being the industry standard, at least for now.

There was a politician I heard several months ago that just couldn't understand why some people were so resistant to just getting health insurance. She said it wasn't that expnsive and since the average americian household brings home over 80 thousand a year it just didn't make sense to her.
Well, of all the people I know personally maybe 3 of them bank 80K and the rest of us make less.

I feel MS has the same basic thinking as that seriously out of touch politician.

Onelegdis, have you installed SP1 and if so did it undo all your hacks? Im kind of curious about the hacks you used and If they would help wify's notebook more responsive. It has a (IMO weak)VIA C7-M processor.
There are *almost* no bad BP6s. There are mostly bad caps.

No BP6s remaining
Athlon 2800
Sempron 2000
ViaCPU laptop with Vista.(Works great after bumping ram to 2Gig)
P-III 850@100
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