WIN 7 Major USB Hardware Incompatibilities ?

[Nil]

You're welcome to your bend-over-and-take-it attitude.
If XP could run my hardware device, there's no reason that W7
can't. The code is already written.

Is it? How do you know that? Did the hardware manufacturer tell you
that? It's their code, so I guess they would know. (hint: the drivers
were not written by Microsoft.)

This "throw away everything and start over" every few years has
gotta stop!!!

I agree with you there. It's a game the software and hardware
manufacturers play with each other. That's how they stay in business.
But there's a solution: don't upgrade anything. I stuck with Windows
2000 until 2006, because it worked fine for me. I only upgraded to XP
when I wanted to run a program that required it, so I built a new
computer from the ground up, researching all the hardware to make sure
everything was compatible. And it still works.

Our new vehicles are no longer compatible with garages built prior
to 1998.

Oh, darn, my engine crank doesn't work with my 2001 Prius. Call the
Attorney General!

Oh, dear, the engine from my '75 Cadillac won't fit in my Kia Rio!
Curse you, Henry Ford!

Please remember that Toyoter motor company is the ONLY option
available to you. We trust you will continue to buy our
products...because you have no other choice.

Here's where your analogy falls apart: there are alternatives. Go buy a
Mac (but I bet you'll have similar problems there) or get onea them
free OSs that only supports about 10 different hardware devices, or...
just stay with what you have that already works. You don't have to jump
on the moving Microsoft train, you know.

You must be a recent Windows user, because EVERY Microsoft OS upgrade
has left some hardware in the dust. If this is the first time you ever
noticed it, you're lucky.

 

[mike]

If that were true, your devices would continue to run just as they
did. Since they don't, there must be a reason. The reason is that the
hardware driver is not compatible with the new OS. You have things
bass ackwards if you think the OS needs to be compatible with 3rd
party hardware. It's the responsibility of the 3rd party hardware
vendors to provide drivers that work with the OS, not the other way
around. You don't have to like it, but that's the way it is.


If it worked fine, you wouldn't be here complaining.


They do. Just continue to use the OS you were using.


No thanks, I don't want tens of thousands of unneeded drivers
cluttering up my system.


You can also bet if it was Microsoft's responsibility it might have
happened, but the truth (whether you want to believe it or not) is
that hardware vendors are responsible for providing drivers for their
equipment. Period.

Microsoft provides tools, processes, techniques, interfaces that
vendors use to write drivers.
When microsoft arbitrarily CHANGES these base processes, the drivers fail.
If M$ did not change the processes, but supported them for legacy code,
drivers written by vendors for legacy products would continue to provide
whatever functionality they provided before the OS change.

It is MOST DEFINITELY a M$ responsibility to allow old drivers to
continue to work and coexist with drivers written using the new
tools/processes/techinques/interfaces provided with the new OS.

Additionally, M$ keeps changing the tools so that it is inconvenient or
expensive for writers of new drivers to support older operating systems
without a complete rewrite. This FORCES users to update the OS go get
drivers/support for NEW devices...which obsoletes their old hardware...which
forces users to buy new peripherals to go with their new OS.

They get you coming and going.

Who forced you to change your Operating System? If all of your devices
worked with XP, why not stay with XP?

Microsoft forced me to update the OS because the tools they provided
to software vendors made it expensive to support older operating
systems...So there's new software that REQUIRES the new OS. Ditto
for new hardware.

They get you coming and going.

 

[John McGaw]

I'm finding some suggestions that having more than 4 Gig RAM in
a Windows 7 64Bit install leads to greater problems.

Hardware uses addresses at the top of memory
with 64bit& greater than 4Gig RAM those addresses can be off what the
device driver can cope with.
(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(") mouse ( You could install Win 95 1st Issue in 40 MB's)

The amount of memory should not be a problem as long as there is enough.
Having 4gB+ is a good thing. A driver is either compatible with the OS or
it isn't. If it is then it will handle as much memory as the OS supports
and having less memory is not going to make the incompatible magically
compatible. I've not found any USB hardware with incompatible drivers on my
W7-64bit beyond my old HP ScanJet. But given that the hardware is about ten
years old that is probably to be expected.

 

[Char Jackson]

Microsoft provides tools, processes, techniques, interfaces that
vendors use to write drivers.
When microsoft arbitrarily CHANGES these base processes, the drivers fail.
If M$ did not change the processes, but supported them for legacy code,
drivers written by vendors for legacy products would continue to provide
whatever functionality they provided before the OS change.

It is MOST DEFINITELY a M$ responsibility to allow old drivers to
continue to work and coexist with drivers written using the new
tools/processes/techinques/interfaces provided with the new OS.

OK, you've made your desires known. They don't match the reality of
the situation, though, so I suspect you're going to continue to be
disappointed. My best advice is to stop changing your OS just because
a new one comes along. The existence of a new OS doesn't make your old
OS suddenly stop working.

Additionally, M$ keeps changing the tools so that it is inconvenient or
expensive for writers of new drivers to support older operating systems
without a complete rewrite. This FORCES users to update the OS go get
drivers/support for NEW devices...which obsoletes their old hardware...which
forces users to buy new peripherals to go with their new OS.

Sorry, I'm not buying what you're selling. Wouldn't you have to look
long and hard to find a peripheral that only works with Win7 and not
with XP, for example? Again I ask, how are you being forced to upgrade
your OS? Just stay with what you had.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I found one for my 1650 Scanner that works great.

So look here: (this is one very long URL)

http://<infinitely long> snipped

Have you heard of TinyURL.com?

Look into it, it's useful. There are other similar sites too.

I love them.

 

[Tinkerer]

I found one for my 1650 Scanner that works great.

So look here: (this is one very long URL)

And here is the same URL made shorter
http://tinyurl.com/ydp43u9

 

[Gordon]

Running W7 'Home Premium' (i.e. one of the 'crippled' versions),

There's only one "crippled" version and that's 7 Starter....

 

[Gordon]

It's Microsoft's responsibility to make their new OS compatible with the
hardware I already have.

Sure. Like they can test it with MILLIONS of different appliances
peripherals and internal hardware.

What a STUPID statement.
That's the purpose of BETA and RC releases so the MANUFACTURER can test
their own products.
Complain to the manufacturer of your hardware if it doesn't work.

 

[Maurice Batey]

It can be surprising what isn't supported under 64-bit OS's.

I was amazed that this 64-bit W7 Home Premium not only had a
driver for my ancient HP5150 deskjet, but installed it on the fly!

 

[SC Tom]

Why not just call the police so the person holding a gun to
your head, forcing you to use Win7 instead of XP, is hauled
away?

Remember, you're the one who chooses what OS to use, based
on its merits. I agree MS should take greater measures to
support backwards compatibility with drivers but we can't
expect it since they have a monopoly position in the PC OS
market.

Instead of Microsoft being responsible for backwards compatibility with
outdated hardware, why shouldn't the hardware manufacturer be responsible
for providing updated drivers? It would certainly be cheaper in the long run
for each manufacturer to write new drivers than it would be for Microsoft to
insure it, but then, HP and the rest wouldn't be selling anything new if
their 20 year old printer has Windows 7 drivers. Are you willing to pay the
extra big bucks for Windows to be compatible with every piece of hardware
ever made? Can you even imagine what that cost would be? I can't. All I
could see would be "You can have the latest Windows version, Windows 2015,
for only $3,917 for the Home Starter Edition, with guaranteed backwards
compatibility through Windows3.11." Ain't gonna happen in our lifetimes

 

[Bogey Man]

Instead of Microsoft being responsible for backwards compatibility with
outdated hardware, why shouldn't the hardware manufacturer be responsible
for providing updated drivers? It would certainly be cheaper in the long
run for each manufacturer to write new drivers than it would be for
Microsoft to insure it, but then, HP and the rest wouldn't be selling
anything new if their 20 year old printer has Windows 7 drivers. Are you
willing to pay the extra big bucks for Windows to be compatible with every
piece of hardware ever made? Can you even imagine what that cost would be?
I can't. All I could see would be "You can have the latest Windows
version, Windows 2015, for only $3,917 for the Home Starter Edition, with
guaranteed backwards compatibility through Windows3.11." Ain't gonna
happen in our lifetimes

Epson has a Windows 7 driver for that scanner on their site. So, what's the
problem?

 

[SC Tom]

Epson has a Windows 7 driver for that scanner on their site. So, what's
the problem?

Not a problem for me; I don't own an Epson

 

[Al Smith]

Not a problem for me; I don't own an Epson

Probably writing to me. The last time I looked, Epson had no
Windows 7 x64 driver for my Perfection 1260 scanner. Maybe they
have come up with one, but I doubt it. I'll take a look, though.

-Al-

 

[SC Tom]

To some extent I agree that would be nice, but I propose
instead that MS should have a compatibility mode for drivers
so a newer OS at the very least universally supports any
driver that worked on the prior OS version.

But then MS would have to have a cache of all the older drivers that they
had nothing to do with. MS didn't write them, HP, dell, etc. did.

I suggest this because inevitably there is more work to be
done in total by thousands of hardware manufacturers than a
single-point solution of backwards driver compatiblity.

Let's look at it a different way. Which would make more
sense, that a new car requires every tire company to make a
new tire for it, or the new car accepts standard rims and
tires if the owner doesn't want something exotic?





No it certainly would not be cheaper. Remember, they
already had the code developed to use the existing drivers,
it was their choice to deviate and so it should be their
responsiblity to accept upon themselves the consequences.

Who had the code developed? Not MS; it wasn't their hardware or drivers.

As already mentioned, they don't because they can thrust the
cost onto others due to their monopoly position.


Yes they would, obviously even the workhorse printers of
years past don't typically last 20 years, even if you are
skilled at repair after 10 years you start to find that
replacement parts aren't being made, all those plastic and
rubber bits that hardened and became brittle and cracked,
have equally-old replacement parts.

Then there's upgrade for the sake of tech improvements.
That 8 year old scanner can't perform as well as a new one
in most cases, nor same age mouse, external hard drive, wifi
card, etc, etc.



Actually, it costs more to make windows NON-compatible, they
already had the code for existing drivers and spent money
altering and/or replacing it.



... because you're taking a backwards approach. MS
definitely makes some improvements with each successive OS
version, but at the same time their interest is in people
buying new PCs with new components instead of pirating their
new OS to use with existing systems. I can't fault them for
wanting to prevent piracy, but I can fault them for causing
massive waste of hardware that ends up in landfills, the
energy and resources to make yet more hardware, and the
increased cost for everyone.



Then you aren't looking very hard. Random assumptions of
an extreme price approaching $4000 are obviously random
numbers pulled out of thin air that serve no reasonable
argument.

It's a "what if." It wasn't meant to be taken as fact.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

But then MS would have to have a cache of all the older drivers that they had
nothing to do with. MS didn't write them, HP, dell, etc. did.

Who had the code developed? Not MS; it wasn't their hardware or drivers.

It's a "what if." It wasn't meant to be taken as fact.

Absolutely. You even said it: "Can you even imagine what that cost
would be? I can't" before you introduce the numbers.

I am good at noticing that sort of thing. Mostly because I do it a lot,
and I also don't (intentionally) hide from others that I'm doing it.