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Windows Vista comes with 19,500 drivers on DVD – more on Windows Update | |
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| Time: 11:00 EST/16:00 GMT | News Source: IT Wire | Posted By: Michael Dragone | ||
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Ever needed to find a driver for a product and wished Windows would either just have the driver in it, or that their Windows Update service could provide it? With Vista, it can – and new features and updates will be forthcoming too. It’s about time! | ||
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| #1 By 23275 (68.17.42.38) at 11/20/2006 12:55:06 PM |
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The coverage is indeed pretty good from what we have seen. Using the RTM and Ultimate version key, I set out to do a clean install on a 2 year old HP/Compaq NX9600 laptop [used as a desktop replacement, or an excellent auxilliary ship anchor]. Despite borrowing heavily from many desktop subsystems, the NX9600, like any laptop, has a variety of proprietary subsystems and features - quick launch keys, media card readers and HP's mass storage expansion controller being among them].
This test system was used throughout Vista BETA and RC builds and served as a pretty good platform from which to compare things like driver coverage from both Microsoft, and HP/Compaq and I think most especially so, because it has been discontinued for over a year - probably owing to the scarcity of climbing shirpas available to help carry the thing and its power supply which doubles as an excellent self-defense weapon. Through the BETA's and RC's it ran well enough, but the proprietary devices, while they would work somewhat, were never fully supported. With a little effort, and using older, but the most recent XP drivers, Vista in RTM form supports all of its devices - I even managed to expand the drivers from Microsoft's VX6000 HD web camera and install support for it - despite no official release for the VX series being available. [pretty awesome web camera, by the way, which works well with Windows Live Messenger and LCS 2005 Office Communicator]. I was especially surprised that the wireless toggle switch was compatible after installing the latest Broadcom 802.11b/g drivers that were available for Windows XP - these did not work under any BETA, or RC, yet the same driver works under Vista RTM. The wireless connection always worked, but using the toggle resulted in the blue indicator light flashing rapidly and continuosly. That is fixed now. The biggest and happiest surprise was available support for HP/Compaq's proprietary card reader - an SD Host Adapter that was all but useless under the RC's. It is now used to support a 2 GB ReadyBoost drive where Vista caches a wide range of objects based upon user behaviors and usage patterns and unlike system memory, or a HDD swap file, these preferneces stick, regardless of systems state. This is among the best features we've noted about Vista as it allows a PC, or laptop to used as an almost instant on device. Even on systems with a lot of RAM [2 GB or more], using ReadyBoost, or even better, hybrid drives with non-volatile memory can transform a system into a platform that is just about as on/off as a piece of AV equipment [after first boot and while connected to power]. |
| #2 By 16302 (64.201.211.159) at 11/20/2006 2:15:40 PM |
| With 19,500 drivers on CD, I am left wondering why Iget the black screen of death during the install. I am using a standard PC with an nVidia 5200 video card and a WD Raptor 74GB hard drive. No RAID. The upgrade advisor sees no problems with the install. I slap in a new hard drive, and start the install, reformat the drive and let it complete the first install. The machine reboots and I am left with a flashing white cursor on the monitor right after the POST. The machine never reboots. Pressing F8 during the install also doesn't help. Rebooting to the DVD and selecting repair, shows no problem with the OS, partition, or boot files. This is a problem that was reported by many in Beta 2 - I was hoping it was fixed in RTM. |
| #3 By 23275 (68.17.42.38) at 11/20/2006 2:37:46 PM |
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#2, Bring it up in safe mode and install the latest discrete graphics card driver, or replace the video card with another one to test it. Sytems with a faulty video card will exhibit the same behavior you have described.
BKSOD seems to be a very odd behavior to observe - given how a Vista install process uses a driverless installation routine that uses the exact same config for every build until later in the process when specific device drivers are loaded. This post was edited by lketchum on Monday, November 20, 2006 at 19:25. |
| #4 By 28801 (68.81.50.122) at 11/20/2006 6:29:27 PM |
| Yes redde, we are all aware of the plethora of drivers available for Linux. Oh wait, that was Windows that supports nearly every device known to man. |
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