Windows Vista From XP to Vista - one user's experience

[Ian]

Real shame about that, as that is a very good sound card to go to waste. You'd think with time they'd get the drivers nailed, wouldn't you?

Have you read on any sites/forums if they are planning on fixing this, as I'm guessing this writes off lots of customers!

 

[floppybootstomp]

After lots of searching it seems it comes down to four choices for 5.1 sound, if we ignore the really top end audiophile/music industry cards ( and they are few and far between):

Asus Xonar D2 7.1P

Which is a regular pci slot sound card that works well within Vista but doesn’t support EAX.

Then there’s:

Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 which is pretty much the same as the first card I’ve listed but which works in a pci-e slot and does support EAX.

Another possible contender:

Auzuntech X-Plosion DTS Connect

Which is reasonably priced but I haven’t figured whether it will work in Vista yet.

All the other Auzuntech cards, as far as I can gather, use Creative X-Fi chipsets.

And finally:

Razer Barracuda

Which at this link includes a set of headphones but oddly enough it’s about the same price everywhere else without the headphones.

The Razer’s too expensive for me and I don’t have much info on it.

The Asus Xonar D2X looks to be the ideal choice but it’s still a little pricey but it does support EAX and comes bundled with lots of software.

Unfortunately, from the reviews I’ve read, a lot of that software is not particularly too good. It also needs a floppy disk drive power connector and floppy disk drive power connectors are becoming a little thin on the ground with current PSU’s. If you have a modular PSU (like I do) this means adding another cable to it.

Still, all in all, the reviews I’ve read have been positive and all reviewers seem to agree it sounds superb.

I think this one is the choice but I honestly can’t afford it just yet.

I have browsed just about every computer component supplier I’m aware of and believe it or not only OCUK and Aria offer decent choices, the market is overwhelmed by Creative. Which when you consider their incompatibility with Vista, seems to me a lot of suppliers don’t keep tabs on hardware/software anomalies and just push stuff as product with only a view to profit.

Whatever Aria’s shortcomings, kudos to them for stocking a decent range of sound cards.

I’ve read about this issue and it seems Microsoft completely rewrote the way sound is handled when they started work on Longhorn shortly after XP was published. Longhorn, of course, eventually mutated into Vista.

Apparently this was in response to a decade of complaints about sound within Windows dating right back to Win 3.1.

Unfortunately MS neglected to let the hardware manufacturers know about this shift in their software architecture which not only cheesed off Creative a great deal but probably millions of Computer Users/Consumers worldwide. A poor state of affairs on Microsoft’s part if that’s the truth.

Asus spotted this gap in the market straight away and their two cards have been their response to it. Seems they’re trying to take on Creative in the marketing stakes. Given Asus’ good track record, I think if they adopted a more aggressive marketing strategy; offered OEM versions of their card and trimmed their prices just a little, they could very well clean up.

A greater range of cards would be a good option as well.

If Asus took away all that software and some supplied leads and just supplied drivers/console and only essential leads, I’m sure the price could be reduced.

So there we have it, it comes down to – yes, there is a solution for me but it’s going to cost me over £120.00 when I’ve added the postage costs.

And Ian, my X-Fi Audio is not that top end, it can be had for around £35.00 and isn't a true X-Fi. It did sound sweet though, in 5.1

 

[floppybootstomp]

An update

Okey-doke, been using this software for three months now, here's a little update.

No SP1 installed yet, it hasn't installed via auto update and I have chosen not to install it manually yet.

I did mention about the sound card problem in another thread, I've also mentioned it here in this post.

Those of you who've followed my problems with running Crysis in Vista will know I had a problem with the game. Basically the mouse cursor was out of alignment in the menu and I couldn't move it all the way to the left.

Problem is summed up in this thread at another forum Here.

I done three things:

1) Installed the modified UT3 Vista Nvidia drivers Available here

2) Set game res to same as my desktop res 1280 x 1024

3) Disabled Aero within Vista and set graphic presentation to Basic Vista.

Loaded the game, English language only, to a remote hard disk (not main disk C) and without punkbuster.

Problem no longer there, this is looking promising. Using default profile within Vista, saved a few games and stopped/started the game three times. All ok.

There are three patches for Crysis - V1.1; V1.2 & V1.2.1

V 1.2.1 is a small patch and is only for multiplayer as far as I can work out and as I don't play Crysis online I didn't bother with it.

Installed patches 1 & 2 - game still running fine.

Enabled anti-aliasing to x 2 - stuttering . Disabled AA. (Computer spec is in my signature)

Enabled Aero within Vista again - the game is still running ok.

Loaded saved profile, loaded saved games, started game - the problem's back.

After saying out loud some rather colourful language that even I didn't know I was capable of, I checked the in game resolution.

And it seems that my saved games/profile had a lower res, 1024 x 768 which settings had reverted to.

Once I changed this back to 1280 x 1024 - the same as my desktop setting you'll recall - the game worked fine again.

Since then I've started/stopped the game a few times, also re-booted and all is good.

So it would seem my problem was simply a question of matching in game and desktop resolutions.

All hunky dory but I would have thought Crytek would have addressed this problem with their three published patches, Versions 1 & 2 were quite large patches after all. No Brownie points for Crytek then. Or maybe Microsoft?

So, I am now in quite an odd position - I don't have any faults/problems within Vista cos I've also sorted my Creative X-Fi Audio sound card problem out.

Yegods, what am I going to do? This means I can't go off on a moaning binge and accuse Vista of being as useful as an ashtray on a motor cycle

As a PS/Add-on, those who read the sound card threads and were aware that some guy named Daniel K had written Creative drivers that sorted out the sound card problems within Vista may be surprised to learn that Creative published new drivers two days ago that claimed to - wait for it - sort out sound card problems within Vista.

Well, there's a coincidence eh? No drivers from Creative for Vista for the last 6 months and now this. And from a company that threatened legal action against this Daniel K guy.

Hmmm....

So, all in all, it's taken a while but I'm getting there

I now have these games installed and running:

Bioshock
Call Of Juarez
Civilisation 4
Civilsation 4 Warlords
Call Of Duty 2
Call Of Duty 4
Crysis
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
Dungeon Siege 2
Dungeon Siege 2 - Broken World
FEAR Single Player
FEAR Multi Player
FEAR Extraction Point
Orange Box - The Half Life 2 Collection
Halo 2
Flight Simulator X
Need For Speed Most Wanted
Need For Speed Underground 2
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion
Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 with 2 add-ons
STALKER Shadow Of Chernobyl
Syberia 1 & 2
The Longest Journey
Timeshift
Unreal Tournament 3

 

[Ian]

I think I should update my Creative drivers then

Odd, but I've had Crysis default to an old saved resolution too. I played it at the max my 22" monitor could handle, but had to drop down half way through the game once there was more on screen. Then, for no apparent reason it goes back to the max setting next time I load. No biggie, but strange.

Any reason why you've held off installing SP1, or are you just waiting till it does it itself?

 

[floppybootstomp]

Any reason why you've held off installing SP1, or are you just waiting till it does it itself?

That's right.

I would assume SP1 will check to make sure I have nothing that will clash with it.

I can hope, can't I?

 

[Ian]

That's probably a wise idea, I've recommended the same to other people - but I'm too impatient myself

 

[Anon_F]

I've been running Vista Ultimate within VMWare and like what i see.
Sadly some of my laptop drivers are difficult to get, but aim to go over later in the year, depending on if the other simulation software i'm running will work with Vista!

Nice write up's about it FBS.

 

[sandywu]

Vista experience turns into consumer nightmare to me. I do not want to explore the wonders of the Sidebar, don't care about a raft of "cool" new applets, and don't know a user account control from a spreadsheet.

 

[wskaihd]

Oh, I really enjoy reading your posts. Excellent experience !

 

[mackenzie]

I've been running Vista Ultimate within VMWare and like what i see.
Sadly some of my laptop drivers are difficult to get, but aim to go over later in the year, depending on if the other simulation software i'm running will work with Vista!

Nice write up's about it FBS.

download vista upgrade advisor from www.microsoft.com.au
please tell me if it works,thanks

 

[floppybootstomp]

download vista upgrade advisor from www.microsoft.com.au
please tell me if it works,thanks

You want somebody else to download some software and try it out for you?

Heehee, sorry, we're not a group of Guinea Pigs, in the nicest possible way - if you're interested, try it yourself my friend.

Good luck.

 

[mackenzie]

you are that wanted to know if your drivers were compatible with vista i just told you the answer,floppy guinea pig

 

[floppybootstomp]

you are that wanted to know if your drivers were compatible with vista i just told you the answer,floppy guinea pig

Oooooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, sorry to upset you matey, I've possibly misunderstood you.

Now tell what it is exactly that you'd like some of us to do?

Seriously, I really don't understand where you're coming from.

Btw, I like Guinea Pigs, great little animals

 

[V_R]

you are that wanted to know if your drivers were compatible with vista i just told you the answer,floppy guinea pig

lol?

 

[crazylegs]

Well now Flopp's has Win7 I bet Vista is gonna take a bit of a backseat from now on..