driver problems on Ultimate preview version

[Jerry]

I've clean installed a preview version of Ultimate, dual booting with my
XP install, to start getting familiar with Vista but having issues with
various hardware.

For instance, according to the upgrade advisor no action is required for
my Benq monitor or ATI Radeon X850 video card. But Vista only lists
several Intel video cards and a generic monitor so I'm stuck some
non-native display resolution. I tried installing the current ATI driver
but it freezes.

After the install I got a notification that Vista had solutions to 3
problem, all hardware related. All 3 solutions said to get updates
through Windows update. However there are no further updates available
on windows update.

There remains some kind of PCI something problem in device manager but
attempting to update the driver for it finds nothing.

Is this typical of a new installation of Vista? Could the preview
version be a partial cause and it should be better with the RTM version
that I'll be getting? Any online resources, FAQs, etc (aside from this
one ;^) ) for debugging/correcting these type of problems?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

This is typical. MS deprecated a number of things supported in the past,
such as game ports and ISA. You may have a game port or some such thing.
USB game controllers are supported but not the older dedicated game ports.
In any case, use the Device Manager to bring up the Properties Page for the
device and check the Details tab. Use that info to google for the info on
what the device is.

 

[John Barnes]

For your sound go to the website of your audio chipset. Realtek on many
mobo and Creative etc. for add-on sound cards.

 

[JW]

How do you know that your MOBo has to have a special Driver for Vista? What
happened when you tried to install Viata on your system? My MOBo did not
need any driver, it just needed a BIOS update last summer that supported
some Vista requirements in addition to the functions that were in the BIOS
for other operating systems.

 

[John Barnes]

Your memory of prior systems is different than mine. I remember months of
problems getting drivers after I installed XP. That is the only system I
was there at the birthing. XP X-64 also had a year or more while drivers
trickled out and there are many items with no drivers still. Most likely
never.

 

[Guest]

I went back and looked at the compatibility report. No hardware was singled
out as being not compatible and 3 programs are not compatible. But a bunch of
hardware (including sound) and programs are unknowns of various types. Asus
has no Vista drivers of any type and I already have the latest XP drivers for
the board. The sound hardware is Analog Devices SoundMax. They provide no
drivers that I can find and point you back to the motherboard manufacturer.

Of course this is a "preview" version (how can I tell what version it really
is?). Hopefully the RTM will work better. Documentation I've seen claims
"1000s" of drivers included which surely beats what's in this preview version.

 

[JW]

I understood that the RTM version had 20,000 drivers and that there at least
that many more now avasilable for download when the RTM version is
installed. I think you will have much better luck when you install the RTM
version next week.