unable to install display drivers for dual monitors

[Andrea Gates]

We are upgrading our Dell systems to Vista Ultimate in this branch office.
Then, roll out to other offices across Southern California.

The display adapter in the systems are Nvidia GeForce FX5500 (drivers is
Microsoft WDDM). We are taking the old Dell system's adapters Dell Nitro 3D
(STB Systems VGA boards, S3 ViRGE/GX 86C385 IC) to set up dual monitors.

We are able to use this combinations for all the XP Dell systems in our
offices.

But, we are unable to make the Dell Nitro 3D drivers work on Vista. We tried
the S3 ViRGE/GE PCI adapter drivers, but unable to install drivers in Vista.

Can you offer any alternatives for us, other than getting new bunch of
adapters?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

CodeMicro,http://codemicro.com/store/check_price.php?partid=6123, carries
these so they may have info on the drivers as well. You will need Vista
drivers and that is likely to be tough.

 

[Andrea Gates]

CodeMicro,http://codemicro.com/store/check_price.php?partid=6123, carries
these so they may have info on the drivers as well. You will need Vista
drivers and that is likely to be tough.

Is there any reason why this monitor adapter driver works in XP, but refuse
to install in Vista? Anyway to force the driver to install?

This is the second driver we have problem with Vista. We also unable HP
Deskjet 900 series duplex XP printer driver in Vista also.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Vista uses a different driver model. It is called Windows Display Driver
Model.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Display_Driver_Model
This is why you cannot use the XP driver.

The issue with printer drivers is somewhat different in that the drivers for
many multi-functional printers do not enable all features. You need to
check the HP site for the specific printer model to see what the situation
is with the Vista driver.

 

[Andrea Gates]

Vista uses a different driver model. It is called Windows Display Driver
Model.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Display_Driver_Model
This is why you cannot use the XP driver.

Is that why we are unable to use all the 2002 display adapters in Vista?

The issue with printer drivers is somewhat different in that the drivers
for many multi-functional printers do not enable all features. You need
to check the HP site for the specific printer model to see what the
situation is with the Vista driver.

In the HP web site, HP said there are not printer drivers for HP 970 dulplex
printers in Vista.

Also, there are no HP C5200 scanner drivers for Vista too.

We found over 60% of our peripheral equipment do not have Vista drivers in
our office.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Without a Vista driver the card can probably only deliver basic video
functionality.

 

[Andrea Gates]

Without a Vista driver the card can probably only deliver basic video
functionality.

We are very satisfy with the functionality in XP.

 

[JW]

You won't get the full functionality that you got in XP with just a generic
driver.
Prior to Vista drivers were allowed to put part of their driver code into
the Windows Kernel to improve performance. With Vista this ability was
removed in order to increase the security of the system against driver bugs
and Viruses. It is for this reason that most drivers had to be rewritten.

 

[Andrea Gates]

You won't get the full functionality that you got in XP with just a
generic driver.
Prior to Vista drivers were allowed to put part of their driver code into
the Windows Kernel to improve performance. With Vista this ability was
removed in order to increase the security of the system against driver
bugs and Viruses. It is for this reason that most drivers had to be
rewritten.

This is the exact reason we have voted not to deploy Vista.

 

[JW]

I can certainly understand your decision which is based on your evaluation
of is the cost to upgrade to Vista worth the cost of the increased security
and additional features it provides to your company at this time.