Embarking in the Vista64 quest

[Stoly]

The time has come to switch to Vista64, I've been using XP64 almost since it came out so I feel prepared for the hurdles.

Still this (http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/windows_vista_x64_troubleshooting/) is making me think twice

Any suggestions before making the switch?

[dot_Zen]

I'm curious about a few thing.

First, I know firing Squad is pretty good when it comes to exclusive game developer interviews and I'd even go so far to say they do a good job when reviewing/benchmarking games. But, what makes you think they are THE place to go for testing, understanding and relating Operating Systems? Not saying their not capable or it's not credible, but surely there are better reviewers for an OS?


Second, what about the article throws you off?

I ran the Gigabyte system for about a month with essentially perfect uptime. The only time the system went down was when I was rebooting as part of software updates. I was starting to wonder about writers who were complaining about an “unstable” Windows Vista with frequent blue screens of death.Sounds pretty positive to me.

Performance in Vista x64 was another story. While the system was stable, there were clearly performance issues with my GeForce 8800GTX. I’m not talking about trouble with complex games like STALKER… I was having trouble with “Hold ‘Em” the Windows Vista Ultimate bonus game. How could the flagship GPU of the industry with DirectX10 support have trouble with the “new Minesweeper” for Vista Ultimate? In addition, my system refused to resume from S3 suspend. The system appeared to be on, but the screen remained off. These problems were present in the 100.65 WHQL drivers (dated February). Although several beta drivers were available on the ‘net, there were still complaints of BSOD’s or non-fatal driver crashes with the Forceware drives, particularly with GeForce 7 GPUs.He answers his own issues with this:

With the 158.18 driver set, these issues appear to have been addressed. There are still a few reports of occasional BSOD’s on the ‘net, but none of these occurred with my system. Nonetheless, it is certainly frustrating when it takes several months from the release of Vista to get what “simple” issues like this resolved.Is it the soundcard model? If so, it's a toss up whether you think it's good or bad by design. Both sides have their valid pro's and cons.

Or could it be the fact that after three attempts of purchasing a motherboard, he finally adhered to Microsoft's motto for Vista upgrades, if the consumer is unsure of purchasing a product: Check for Logo certification (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/logo.mspx?wt_svl=10047VHa1&mg_id=10047VHb1).

I went back to Fry’s and picked up that MSI motherboard. It had an official ”Certified for Windows Vista” logo.
Time and time again, and even into the conclusion, his "review" (read: Rant) continuously points the finger at third-party hardware and drivers but he obviously doesn't believe these to be at fault...Go figure.:rolleyes:

So, what you should be asking yourself is: Does my hardware support Windows Vista (http://winqual.microsoft.com/hcl/)?

[l3ender]

<snip>

So, what you should be asking yourself is: Does my hardware support Windows Vista (http://winqual.microsoft.com/HCL/BrowserNotSupported.html)?

I'd be interested in that link..but I'm pretty sure it's not the correct one. Fix please?

[dot_Zen]

I'd be interested in that link..but I'm pretty sure it's not the correct one. Fix please?

Should be fixed. Multi-tasking strikes again! ;)

[Stoly]

When I installed x64 for the first time I really a few problems with drivers, antivirus, and 16bit installers. It took a while to sort all the quirks but once it was ready there was no going back to XP.

I expect a similar experience going to Vista64, what I found intriguing about FS article is that he had so much trouble just to install the OS.