Anyone find Vista RTM too buggy for use?

[hectorsm]

Originally posted by: Fishy007
Smilin, it worked Installing the default Vista AHCI driver enabled the write caching on all my disks. Now, the messed up part is that Windows wants me to reactivate! What the hell is going to happen to the people running an OEM version? If a DRIVER change causes a reactivation notice, then there's going to be trouble.

Thanks for all your help!

XP is no different. I have had to reactivate a few time when I change drivers. I like to uninstall drivers first before installing the new ones. This causes windows to sometime load generic drives. After a few times I will get flaged by XP to reactivate again. My hardware has not changed at all. However, re-activating always goes well after the new drivers are installed. It does not bother me at all as long as I can continue to reactivate.

 

[jw0ollard]

I've boycotted Vista ever since it (RC1) decided to delete a partition on my backup HDD that was completely irrelevant to the install. I had to use GetDataBack for NTFS to recover close to 300GB of data. And please no replies telling me it was "user error." I chose a completely separate, primary partition, in which Vista informed me it was "not suitable to install Vista on" for WHATEVER reason, and upon reboot my entire backup HDD was missing.

It gets better. Vista somehow bricked my mother's external backup HDD upon install. She lives thousands of miles away and used a completely different DVD and computer to install Vista. She tried running GetDataBack to no avail.

Was this a known issue with RC1??? Because then MAYBE I'll give RTM a chance.

 

[d1c1ple]

Anyone having video issues w ATI? I did an inplace from xpsp2 initially; then wiped and did a fresh install. I also tried 3 cards (9700 Pro, X700 Pro, and X1600Pro); keep getting the error below in device manager. Seems to occur whether using WDDM or ATI Beta Vistas. Any thoughts?


Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: d1c1ple
Anyone having video issues w ATI? I did an inplace from xpsp2 initially; then wiped and did a fresh install. I also tried 3 cards (9700 Pro, X700 Pro, and X1600Pro); keep getting the error below in device manager. Seems to occur whether using WDDM or ATI Beta Vistas. Any thoughts?


Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)

I'm running Vista RTM 32-bit with an ATI X800XL, and don't seem to be having any issues at all with the latest beta driver.

I haven't tested Vista RTM 64-bit, so I can't speak to how well the beta 64-bit drivers are faring.

-phil

 

[Schnieds]

Has anyone dared to experiment with an upgrade install instead of a clean install? I have WinXP Pro and I am in the middle of a side software contract (I am an application developer) so I don't have time for a clean install and re-installation of all of the apps I use. I don't want to wait until February (when the contract will be completed) to start using Vista though... So has anyone been brave enough to try an upgrade?

 

[d1c1ple]

I'm running 32-bit RTM Ultimate edition. Driver hell; very frustrating. For a new OS that supposedly ships with 20,000 device drivers on it and another 10k on windows update; this is quite poor for it not to detect recent video cards on a recent platform. Nforce 3 Ultra has been a good platform thus far; no such issues w XPSp2. Hopefully can be straghtened out. No gaming at present!! Busted.

 

[d1c1ple]

Found a solution; although it cripples my machine. Check out the thread below.

Change hal from ACPI x86 to ACPI PC and bang; everything discovered properly and now AERO in full effect. However I want my Dual Core working! I hope there is a fix coming from MSFT/ATI, etc.

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/Sho...dex=3&SiteID=17&PostID=468410&PageID=0

 

[ChronoReverse]

Pentium D 820, Asrock 775Dual-VSTA, ATi 9600SE 128MB, HDDs in RAID0.

Clean install worked fine and the ATi RTM drivers installed correctly as well. So far no crashes and everything is snappy.


I hate the new WMP11 icon though.

 

[spherrod]

I'm very happy with it so far on both my main rig and my old laptop (P4-M 2.2GHz with 1GB of RAM).

Impressed with the overall responsiveness so far and not yet run into any issues

 

[cmv]

Originally posted by: Fishy007
I'm not at home right now, but I can tell you that the write caching feature of my drives is NOT enabled. I went there last night to see if I could see anything and there's a checkbox there for write caching, but it's unchecked. I tried checking it off and hit ok, but when I went back into the properties, the text next to the checkbox had changed and it said something like 'the physical properties of this disk does not allow caching'. I can get the exact text later if needed.

All my hard drives are 2 years old or less. One of them I just bought about 6 months ago. 3 of them have 8mb cache and one of them has 16mb. Any thoughts?

It is your IDE chipset not drives. So you need to research the driver(s) for your IDE chipset. Could be something else like BIOS settings but unlikely.

edit: Cool -- glad you got it fixed.

To the person posting about random deletion of partitions on install -- that sucks but it isn't a 100% release so... Hope they fix that so more complaints the better .

 

[orion23]

I installed Vista RTM a few days ago and I like it, not crazy about it, but I like it.

It seems to me that Vista really uses the CPU and RAM at all times which might be the reason why things open much, much faster. (in XP, cpu utilization and memory usage is very low compared to Vista) And I don't mind this at all. What's the point of your CPU and RAM not being used to it's fullest?

On the 1st run I had Media Player 11 crash on me while configuring it. I had to restart and it works fine ever since.

A bug I noticed is the Folder view option to have all folders open in different windows, well, it doesn't work for me. Everything just opens in the same window which I hate. I cannot change this behaviour.

And I have the search function. It's confusing (to me) and not as easily arrenged as XP's.

I like the looks of it. I like the annoying tripple security questions (makes it safer), and the way everything just opens so much faster!

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: orion23
I installed Vista RTM a few days ago and I like it, not crazy about it, but I like it.

It seems to me that Vista really uses the CPU and RAM at all times which might be the reason why things open much, much faster. (in XP, cpu utilization and memory usage is very low compared to Vista) And I don't mind this at all. What's the point of your CPU and RAM not being used to it's fullest?

On the 1st run I had Media Player 11 crash on me while configuring it. I had to restart and it works fine ever since.

A bug I noticed is the Folder view option to have all folders open in different windows, well, it doesn't work for me. Everything just opens in the same window which I hate. I cannot change this behaviour.

And I have the search function. It's confusing (to me) and not as easily arrenged as XP's.

I like the looks of it. I like the annoying tripple security questions (makes it safer), and the way everything just opens so much faster!

I've not tried that folder view thing but they did add a new feature you might be interested in: Ctrl-N now spawns a new Windows Explorer window from your current location...same way it always did in Internet Explorer. So.. Windows+E then browse then Ctrl-N then browse FTW!

The UAC prompts are annoying at first but once you get 'moved in' and everything is setup you don't see them very often.

I'm still getting used to search myself. Now that my drives are indexed, I can hit the start button and type something and I get immediate results and so far it's always been what I'm looking for.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Schnieds
Has anyone dared to experiment with an upgrade install instead of a clean install? I have WinXP Pro and I am in the middle of a side software contract (I am an application developer) so I don't have time for a clean install and re-installation of all of the apps I use. I don't want to wait until February (when the contract will be completed) to start using Vista though... So has anyone been brave enough to try an upgrade?

Run the Vista upgrade advisor.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/upgradeadvisor/default.mspx

Take heed of anything that shows as problematic. Don't try to force something to work.

Note: Upgrade intall time is VERY long as you don't gain the real benifits of the new imaged based install.

 

[Schnieds]

Originally posted by: Smilin

Originally posted by: Schnieds
Has anyone dared to experiment with an upgrade install instead of a clean install? I have WinXP Pro and I am in the middle of a side software contract (I am an application developer) so I don't have time for a clean install and re-installation of all of the apps I use. I don't want to wait until February (when the contract will be completed) to start using Vista though... So has anyone been brave enough to try an upgrade?

Run the Vista upgrade advisor.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/upgradeadvisor/default.mspx

Take heed of anything that shows as problematic. Don't try to force something to work.

Note: Upgrade intall time is VERY long as you don't gain the real benifits of the new imaged based install.

Thanks for the link!!! I will run this when I get home tonight.

Anyone tried upgrading yet?

 

[nboy22]

Personally had a TON of problems...

-My sound driver would not load properly
-I could not install any types of Virtual CD drives (even though they claimed vista-compatible)
-everything was a bit sluggish with the graphics stuff turned on (on 9800 pro)
-ALL my cd-rom/Dvd drives failed to load (don't know wtf this was about but it was ridiculous, I couldn't install ANYTHING new unless it was from the internet)
-Opening control panel was slow.. it has to load all those new options I doubt I'll ever use.

I'm believing as of right now, most problems could be fixed with new drivers from companies that are vista compatible.

 

[KoolDrew]

It has worked flawlessly for me so far.

 

[Fistandantilis]

I thought that I was going to have troubles getting applications to work and games but I love this new OS, I think it is fantastic! I esspecially like the "switch between windows" option, that is kick arss!
though, I do notice some bugs but my overall experience is great.

 

[blimey]

I'm been running Vista since RC2 (now running RTM).

No crashes, just a few expected compatibility issues. My third party firewall software doesn't work (of course). And my download manager (mass downloader) doesn't work.

I really don't like the new file explorer (windows explorer). I find it much more difficult to navigate than XP's file explorer.

The only other issue I had was that the Vista PC couldn't share a printer on the network connected to an XP PC. I searched and found a workaround for that and now Vista can print to the printer on the XP PC.

 

[aidanjm]

I found it to be too buggy. then for some reason I installed ubuntu, maybe out of curiosity, and now a few months later I seem to have abandoned windows completely. not sure how that happened. maybe I will give Vista another go when a service pack has been released.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: blimey
No crashes, just a few expected compatibility issues. My third party firewall software doesn't work (of course). And my download manager (mass downloader) doesn't work.

Not surprised there are some compat issues there All the 'hooks' that those things used have been 'made illegal' and the right way to do it is through the parallel monitoring portion of netio.

Really though the built in firewall is there now. I think 3rd parties may have a tough time coming up with a reason to make you spend money.

If you haven't been there yet, goto "Windows Firewall with Advanced Security" in admin tools. This is where the REAL config for the firewall is at....not just that simplified XPish interface.

I really don't like the new file explorer (windows explorer). I find it much more difficult to navigate than XP's file explorer.

I'm still getting used to this myself. One thing that helps immensly is this:
Under organize | folder and search options tell it to actually hide hidden files and protected operating system files *gasp!!!*. Yea seriously. Show hidden when you need to but otherwise run like an average user. You'll find you navigate around a lot faster.

Other tip: Leverage that favorites pane in the upper left. If you navigate to something using the Folders pane in the lower left more than a few times you should drag it up to the favorites.

My personal favorite: Ctrl-N ...works in Windows Explorer the way it did in Internet Explorer.

I miss my "Folder up" button. Backspace (folder back) isn't quite the same.

 

[ChronoReverse]

I've already gotten used to clicking the Folder from the previous level instead of of Up. I still miss the Up button but this works. Plus I'll eventually get used to clicking the little arrow and going directly into the folder that I wanted.

 

[A1CSpence]

My AV710 soundcard flashed to prodigy doesn't work right. Some video files play with sound, others don't, depending on the program I use to play them. Also Nvidia pisses me off, their drivers are junk. My TV out doesn't work!

 

[imported_latuszek]

Is anyone getting a bunch of things crashing all the time? I keep getting Rundll, COM Surrogate, and IE7 crashing. the crashing never bring down the system, but it's just annoying as hell. Should I reinstall or what?

Screen Shot

 

[imported_latuszek]

Originally posted by: ChronoReverse
I've already gotten used to clicking the Folder from the previous level instead of of Up. I still miss the Up button but this works. Plus I'll eventually get used to clicking the little arrow and going directly into the folder that I wanted.

I used to use the up arrow all the time too and missed it in Vista.. I found the thumb button on my MS mouse perfect for quickly going back.