Vista Drivers

[Dave Johnson29]

putting Vista to sleep on many systems (6 out of 10 in a test after it hit RTM) corrupted the hard drive.

Dan,

This is certainly not a top-end laptop, an Acer 5570Z for 500-bucks from Wallys probably 18 months back.

Until about 3 weeks back, I have always closed the lid to Sleep and never a problem. I have now set the lid to Shut down. Can't quite recall why I changed that, hey I am old, I forget stuff. I am sure it was for a good reason a few weeks back. But then, maybe not!

Given your fix of memory and revised motherboard, I can't see how you can point the finger at Vista. Don't get me wrong, Vista needs fingers pointed, just that memory and motherboard issues seem to point at the manufacturer not confiorming to the Vista requirements. Were you using an Intel CPU?

I have only used Intel chips, well except for an old IBM PS/2 with an IBM 486DX2 (AMD 486DX2). It runs one of my CNC milling machines!

[Dave Johnson29]

running a 1Ghz system with 1GB or less of memory and a slow hard drive. vista is going to crawl.

Michael, not sure what you consider "crawl" as but Vista and this 1.6GHz laptop+1GB is about 10% slower than 3.33G-Core2-duo with XP-Pro+4GB. Both have SATA drives.

Even at that, the 10% equates to about 2 seconds longer to load Corel than the XP. I think I can sit and stare at a screen for 2 seconds without panic. Hell, I can't change my mind in 2 seconds.

Not trying to defend Vista, just trying to make sure we stay on a level playing field here.

[Dan Hintz]

Given your fix of memory and revised motherboard, I can't see how you can point the finger at Vista. Don't get me wrong, Vista needs fingers pointed, just that memory and motherboard issues seem to point at the manufacturer not confiorming to the Vista requirements. Were you using an Intel CPU?

There were two issues (only partially inter-related):
1) Memory errors during memchecks
2) BSODs on wakeup

The memory errors were mitigated significantly when I reduced mem speed to below what the sticks were listed for, but even then I still got a few here and there with constant runs of MemCheck. So I requested new sticks. The old mem was 2.20V, the new is 2.00V, which has made a huge difference in heat. The motherboard swap (ASUS) was due to a number of people claiming similar memory problems, probably due to a failed attempt at proper PCB mem line routing. Replacing both fixed those memory errors and I can now run at full listed stick speed.

Even after the memory was checked and found to be error free, I was still getting BSODs after the system went to sleep and was woken up. Some Googling showed similar problems with the RTM release of Vista (but not in the RC release), a problem that was resolved with SP1. I installed SP1 and the problem disappeared, but not before rebuilding the machine from scratch on at least 3 occasions getting more and more frustrated at what I thought was bad memory (Crucial Ballistix). Since the install of SP1, not a single BSOD or error. Vista was the culprit.