+Zurawski 33 Posted October 8, 2008 Okay… I’m an educated and tolerant man when if comes to computer technology. I’ve always built my own PCs and likewise have always optimized my operating systems to an inch of their lives. I’ve prided myself on tuning my OSs’ so tight that I never (and I mean never…) crashed to desktop or ever saw a blue screen… Hell, I even made Windows ME behave within a business environment with absolutely no problems. (which unless you’ve tried it… is no small feat) That said… I’ve officially named Vista as the most worthless piece of software I’ve ever had the displeasure of running. Between un-reported incompatibilities with some of my existing software apps, to driver issues to printer issues, I’ve run the gambit with this crap-ware. Now… If this was the large and small of it… I’d deal with it. No this is just the beginning… Vista will hard-lock / freeze for no apparent reason… will BSOD if I look at it wrong… and generally runs everything that does run properly like crap. Copy files? … GPF. Run a game?... BSOD…. Etc…etc…etc… Mind you… I ran XP on this same hardware with absolutely no issues… memory is rock-solid and test thus so. CPU is mid-range but more than capable… GPU is high end and rock-solid… Sound card is an industry standard work horse… I’m at a loss for how absolutely worthless Vista is… and I generally take OS bashing with a grain of salt… till now. Yes, it’s very visually appealing… when it’s not freezing or crashing. Yes, it’s innovative in some areas… when it’s not freezing or crashing. But did I get what I paid for? I guess if I paid $200.00 for endless crashes and freezes… I got a frick’n bargain…. Personally, I want my money back. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JediMaster 451 Posted October 8, 2008 I think we should all know by now you never trust anything from MS until service pack 2. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
column5 63 Posted October 8, 2008 If its blue screening all the time, you might have a flaky driver. When it crashes, what does it say caused the crash? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Jug 99 Posted October 8, 2008 I think we should all know by now you never trust anything from MS until service pack 2. Cannot join in the MS bashing. I am running Vista Ultima on a machine I built (2.4Gig Quad, 8 gig memory) and it is fast, smooth and reliable. I, also, transitioned from XP and the only complaint I have is the tendency of MS to attempt to make things easier and end up making familiar things more difficult. Overall, cannot get aboard the bash VISTA train. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Zurawski 33 Posted October 8, 2008 If its blue screening all the time, you might have a flaky driver. When it crashes, what does it say caused the crash? Crashes are typically IRQ and or memory related... Get this... I was able to make safe-mode GPF... Figure that one out. Food for thought: I have XP installed on one of my back-up drives and run the same apps with no problems. It's definitely Vista... I've pulled memory and add-in cards.... swapped memory... removed all the devices... still freezes and crashes. I wish I was just and idiot and had borked drivers or something... but I've done due diligence with troubleshooting... it's definitely Vista. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
column5 63 Posted October 8, 2008 What about overclocking? Oh, and another dumb question, but you do have SP1 installed along with everything on Windows Update? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Zurawski 33 Posted October 8, 2008 (edited) Cannot join in the MS bashing. I am running Vista Ultima on a machine I built (2.4Gig Quad, 8 gig memory) and it is fast, smooth and reliable. I, also, transitioned from XP and the only complaint I have is the tendency of MS to attempt to make things easier and end up making familiar things more difficult. Overall, cannot get aboard the bash VISTA train. Not MS bashing at all... I've lived with MS in all its iterations in perfect harmony until Vista... I thought I could find middle-ground with it... I've always found it with other MS apps. Vista is just not going to let it happen however. Looks like I'll be wiping my HD again and re-installing XP to my primary... I'll likely throw Vista on the back-up drive for when I feel naughty and need to be punished. Edited October 8, 2008 by Zurawski Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dysko 93 Posted October 8, 2008 When I bought my laptop for use at university, it had Vista Home Premium preinstalled on it. At the beginning I had no problems with it, but some days later I installed the modem's drivers and they were not compatible with Vista. Then I started university, and the programs the university gave me for free with the academic license were not compatible with Vista. My only chance was to format the laptop (voiding the warranty) and installing XP (actually I had another chance... but I thought that getting failed at exams was not a viable choice ). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Zurawski 33 Posted October 8, 2008 What about overclocking? Oh, and another dumb question, but you do have SP1 installed along with everything on Windows Update? Nope all stock speeds. Hell, I even under-clocked in an attenpt to sooth the beast. Oh, and yup... SP1 is onboard and all drivers are Vista cert and current... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Dave 2,322 Posted October 8, 2008 What version of Vista you running? How much RAM did you install? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
column5 63 Posted October 8, 2008 Anything in the event logs around the time a crash occurs? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Zurawski 33 Posted October 8, 2008 What version of Vista you running? How much RAM did you install? Vista Home Premium w/SP1 ... 2Gig Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Zurawski 33 Posted October 8, 2008 Anything in the event logs around the time a crash occurs? Nope... I've dug into the crash logs as well trying to determine of it was driver related... most seem to be tied to IQ or memory overlap pertaining to the apps thats running. (3d studio, iexplorer, Battlefield 2132, Thirdwire games... etc.) Others just reference a out-of-memory error at xxx-xxxx address. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
column5 63 Posted October 8, 2008 What are your virtual memory settings? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Zurawski 33 Posted October 8, 2008 (edited) What are your virtual memory settings? I'll have to catch-up with you later on these... (I'm at work/on-break) and working off an XP machine that doesn't crash. AFAIK, they are all default and well within typical range, but I have to admit I'm guessing at this point. I do know right up to the point of freeze/crash... Vista appears to be working properly... ie, it's not hesitating or doing anything weird that would indicate it's about to take a dump. Edited October 8, 2008 by Zurawski Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Typhoid 231 Posted October 8, 2008 along those lines do NOT get System Mechanic to help out with computer maintenance!!!!! That piece of junk trashed two computers and in the process took down all the data files on one of them. Their non-existent help desk's only response to my query for some assistance or recommendations on how to proceed with a completely locked up computer was to ask me two weeks later "how are you doing with that problem you reported?" Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WarlordATF 1 Posted October 8, 2008 (edited) Vista Home Premium Here, Last Night Windows Update decided to download a new driver for my Intel 945G Onboard Graphics, It said the update was a success, so i started WOE and had really bad flickering that i never had before so i checked the adaptor under Device Manager and the so called update rolled me back to a driver dated in 2006! Tried to update again, Update Failed saying i was already using the current driver. Ended up backing up everything i could, WOE,FE,My Music ect to my second HD, then I unplugged the 2nd HD and restored back to factory settings and ran windows update again to bring it up to SP1. Bingo, Same Issue again!!! Tried to download drivers from Intel, Installed failed saying i already had newer drivers on my system.So i disabled the Onboard Graphics and uninstalled the adaptor in Device Managed then rebooted and let Windows install the standard VGA driver then i ran the Intel Drivers and they installed and so far everything checks out but after installing WOE and Patching it then renaming it to WOE2 and copying my other install back onto Drive C: I get the DirectX error. I Came here to check the KB to see what version i need to get and i find this post. Man, Zurawski, I'm right there with you! Vista has some nice features,When it works, but its not nearly as good an OS as XP!!! Windows Update caused all this for me, you might want to check and see if your have a simular issue, there are alot of posts on the web about windows update messing things up and they advise to only let it download updates for the OS itself, if i get it fixed its not downloading any updates for anything again! I'll do it manually then i can at least blame myself when something goes wrong!!! Edit: I forgot to mention that before i went back to the restore disk i tried to go back to a Restore Point and it did not fix the problem. Anyway, I Got DirectX9c installed,Ran WOE and its working fine again. No loss of anything in that sim,FE install should be fine also. So total loss is about 8 hours of my life to fix Vista, and figure another 8-10 hours to reinstall all my games and data again. This is insane, I bet Bill Gates uses a MAC!!! Edited October 8, 2008 by WarlordATF Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sparkomatic 7 Posted October 8, 2008 Have Vista SP1 on a laptop...which is used as a paperweight until I can scrub it and load XP. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest pfunkmusik Posted October 9, 2008 I'm going 64-bit...XP. I've found drivers for the few peripherals I use, the most critical being my Saitek X45 and my CH Rudder Pedals. I want 4GB of memory and I'm willing to use an abandoned OS to do it. pfunk Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GreyCap 0 Posted October 9, 2008 Forget Vista, Windows 7 is comming. I have a feeling Vista will go the way of NT or ME; a mistake. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ruggbutt 45 Posted October 9, 2008 We have two guys in our squadron who went back to XP after having Vista Ultimate. They got tired of fighting any kind of program installation and the fact that the games they played ran 30% slower than they did on the same machine when it had XP installed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bounder 0 Posted October 9, 2008 did they turn off all the extra stuff that will run in the background,unless you tell it not to? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JediMaster 451 Posted October 9, 2008 The fact is that it doesn't matter if Vista is ok or not since it's not in a bubble. If you can't get drivers and/or apps to work properly with it, whose fault is it? Vista-aware programs work fine, which is great as long as you never need to use older programs. If you do, you could be in trouble. The OEMs still haven't totally gotten a handle on Vista's revised driver model. XP's had flaws, but the OEMs had years to figure out how to work with and around them. Vista changed that to fix things but the OEMs are STILL playing catch-up. I wonder if Vista SP2 will be out before Windows 7? Or will Windows 7 be in effect Vista SP2? I mean, face it XP SP2 is a different animal than XP SP1, which also crashed on me a lot. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GreyCap 0 Posted October 9, 2008 The fact is that it doesn't matter if Vista is ok or not since it's not in a bubble. If you can't get drivers and/or apps to work properly with it, whose fault is it? Vista-aware programs work fine, which is great as long as you never need to use older programs. If you do, you could be in trouble. The OEMs still haven't totally gotten a handle on Vista's revised driver model. XP's had flaws, but the OEMs had years to figure out how to work with and around them. Vista changed that to fix things but the OEMs are STILL playing catch-up. I wonder if Vista SP2 will be out before Windows 7? Or will Windows 7 be in effect Vista SP2? I mean, face it XP SP2 is a different animal than XP SP1, which also crashed on me a lot. I don't mean to be argumentative, but I've never had XP sp1 crash on me. In fact I've only just upgraded to sp2 recently (stupid, lazy me I know...). The way I look at it XP sp1 is not a different animal then XP sp2 at all, it's still XP. I see sp2 as basicaly just a big patch. I'm just hoping that Windows 7 will not be Vista sp2! From what I've heard it will be a big improvement. With quotes from Bill Gates like "I'm very excited about the work being done there. The ability to be lower power, take less memory, be more efficient..." Then again I also heard Windows 7 will be build off the same core architecture as Vista. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Zurawski 33 Posted October 9, 2008 (edited) My biggest problem is, as I eluded to earlier, is that I as a self-proclaimed techno-geek... am not able to wrangle in Vista. I have never had an OS defeat me like Vista has... What it does, it does for no rhyme or reason. I wish I was a clueless FNG and I just didn't understand what I'm attempting to do... What's hacking me off is I do know what I'm doing and it's frustrating as hell. A fresh install of and OS, with all MS cert drivers on tested rock-solid equipment should yield a solid system. There is nothing odd or exotic in my set-up and it's all to spec... Should I really expect anything less? Now, some would argue that bleeding edge technology will ultimately have teething issues... Problem is Vista is not bleeding edge. It's an OS built off of existing design infrastructure that has been in place since the inception of Windows95! I would hope that 13 years would yield a more robust and tolerant OS. What did we wind up with? A bloated OS that tries too hard to be everything to everybody and does everything half as well as it should... What has been the top three complaints about Windows since it's inception? Stability... Compatibility ... Security... Yet 13 years later we have an OS that is less stable, has caused more compatibility issues that ever before and it's security is constantly the basis for scrutiny. Do I hope that MS finally is listening to their consumers with Windows 7? Lord I hope so... If it's simply a modular iteration of Vista, it doomed to fail miserably as ME did... if it is truly a modular design, in that at it's core, without all the add-on features is a solid OS that stays out of the way of the apps it's intended to run... they may have a winner. Guess We'll ultimately have to wait and see eh? Edited October 9, 2008 by Zurawski Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
