Vista RTM

Posted by: oliver

Vista RTM - 22/11/2006 01:30

Has anyone else tried out the RTM build of vista yet? I downloaded it on Friday and installed promptly.

I've had tons of BSOD in every single beta release, at the RC2 milestone they removed the text from the BSOD screen. Under the RTM build, I'm still having spontaneous BSOD's, it seems like they're completely random. I've been playing BF2 for hours, without a single problem, so I'm pretty sure it's not the ATI video drivers. I have a hauppauge 250 card, which I'm guessing the the root of my problems, but vista will still crash while MCE is not active. Half the time it will crash while browsing various websites like engadget, g'news, the empegbbs, etc. Other times it will crash when closing an application (like task manager for example).

Is there any other tools I can use to help figure out where this problem is coming from?

I just received an awesome response from the Problems and Solutions app, the problem will be fixed in a future build of vista.

Anyways, I figured because we have our own resident microsoft employee, i'd see what Tony thought.

I'm also attaching a few pictures of the crashes I've experienced.

Problems and Solutions list
Posted by: Taym

Re: Vista RTM - 22/11/2006 13:39

I just got the Business version, but I am actually waiting that the (slow) download of the Enterprise one from the Microsoft VLM website completes, and I will be testing that, next week, on two or three laptop models. We'll see...

I experienced no crashes with previous beta versions, though, on Thinkpad R50e, R52 laptops, fortunately. I did experience some random crashes on older R40s, though. I was testing one of the first betas, at that time, however.
Posted by: oliver

Re: Vista RTM - 22/11/2006 16:01

I've only tried the Ultimate Edition. I'm getting it directly off my MSDN developer account. I actually re-installed lastnight because the system started to completely lockup on every startup. Explorer was hanging all over the place. It's weird, all my hardware is pretty much brand new, and XP would run for weeks and weeks without a reboot.

I think this time, I won't be installing vs.net 2003 directly on vista. I need to setup a stupid VM machine to load XP and all my developer tools.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Vista RTM - 22/11/2006 16:24

I hate this BBS.

"The form you are using is no longer valid"

I had a really long response typed up here. Fuck it.
Posted by: Waterman981

Re: Vista RTM - 22/11/2006 16:32

I also installed my MSDN on Friday on my Inspiron 6000. I've had no problems so far (except a couple program compatibility issues), and it is running much faster than RC1 did on the same laptop. As it is a slow day on the IT help desk here I'm doing some video editing on it to pass the time.

I'll be loading my T40 with it come Nov 30th when we get our volume key at work. (Of course I may need to wait and see what the company is planning for activation.)
Posted by: oliver

Re: Vista RTM - 22/11/2006 18:09

Quote:
I had a really long response typed up here.


Makes me wonder what that post contained.
Posted by: oliver

Re: Vista RTM - 22/11/2006 18:47

Quote:
and it is running much faster than RC1 did on the same laptop


I completely agree, when it's working for me, it's blazing fast. The memory usage is much lower than all the previous builds, UAC works alot better while multi-tasking. Now if I could only figure out why my machine loves to BSOD I'd be all set.
Posted by: tanstaafl.

Re: Vista RTM - 22/11/2006 21:10

Quote:
I hate this BBS.

"The form you are using is no longer valid"

I had a really long response typed up here. Fuck it.


I have gotten into the habit now of automatically putting everything into the clipboard before ever trying to save any response on the bbs.

Last night I had to re-paste one of my posts four times.

tanstaafl.
Posted by: Taym

Re: Vista RTM - 22/11/2006 21:34

Is it true that one Windows DVD contains ALL versions, and depending on the SN the correct one gets installed? That was my understanding, but on MVL website I saw two separate dwnload pages for the Enterprise and the Business...
Posted by: oliver

Re: Vista RTM - 22/11/2006 22:01

Quote:
Is it true that one Windows DVD contains ALL versions, and depending on the SN the correct one gets installed? That was my understanding, but on MVL website I saw two separate dwnload pages for the Enterprise and the Business...


That's also my understanding, however I have both the Business and Retail editions. The Business DVD doesn't prompt for a product key in the intaller, it also installs alot less software, and requires activation with the MVL product key within 3 days. The Retail edition I'm currently using, has an optional product key screen in the installer, I haven't tried leaving it blank but after entering my Ultimate key, it gives me 30 days to activate the copy. I haven't activated a single copy yet, because I can't get it to stay functional for more than a week, let alone 30 days. We'll see how this install holds up.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Vista RTM - 22/11/2006 22:02

Quote:
Makes me wonder what that post contained.


Short version:

Monkey love vista.

Monkey thinks BSODs not Vista's fault and you need to locate the crappy driver or malfunctioning RAM chip. Monkey had BSODs on XP, too, until he disabled the crappy $10 unbundled-oem soundcard whose drivers hadn't been updated with bugfixes since its original 1.0 release.

Monkey gushed about how great Vista is, and and why he wishes there were some truly compelling reasons for people to switch to it from XP (there aren't any that Monkey can see).

Monkey assured folks that he wasn't coerced into saying nice things about Vista by his new employer.

Monkey listed some of his biggest gripes about vista but noted that he has to do fewer annoyance work-arounds on Vista than he did on XP.

Monkey agreed most of the good stuff in Vista was already done on OSX years ago.

Monkey mentioned his home system might have to go Vista if the rumors were true that Halo 2 is coming to the PC as a vista-only app.

Monkey presses ctrl+a and ctrl+c now.
Posted by: oliver

Re: Vista RTM - 22/11/2006 22:18

Quote:
Monkey thinks BSODs not Vista's fault and you need to locate the crappy driver or malfunctioning RAM chip. Monkey had BSODs on XP, too, until he disabled the crappy $10 unbundled-oem soundcard whose drivers hadn't been updated with bugfixes since its original 1.0 release.


I'm guessing it's my TV Tuner, as every time the system BSODs the tv tuner driver is uninstalled and vista wants me to locate new drivers, a quick reboot after canceling that driver prompt gets the system to recongize the tv tuner again.

However, I also have a bundled sound card. Hopefully my creative soundblaster will work better. We'll try that out right now.

It could also be a stick of memory, I have 2 different brands, hopefully it's not in my 1gb sticks, lets hope it's in my 512mb chips.

Anyways, I just got home from work, went into the device manager to check on which drivers were installed by default. Opened up my ATI 9800xt device, went to the driver tab, and ummm nifty BSOD.

BCCode: a
BCP1: 0406000A
BCP2: 0000001B
BCP3: 00000000
BCP4: 8186B5D5
OS Version: 6_0_6000
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 256_1
Server information: a986125a-1ff4-4459-8973-cb5836c7aa3d

Not sure if that helps at all, but it's just numbers to me.

Thanks for typing up the response again, I really do appreciate it!
Posted by: oliver

Re: Vista RTM - 25/11/2006 01:46

Quote:
Hopefully my creative soundblaster will work better.


Well, that isn't the case. It looks like Creative wants everybody to upgrade to one of the latest and greatest sound cards. All my soundblasters are about 4-8 years old, and I'm sure Creative wants to capitalize on the "new" windows release. So, I tried out the CMD (Creative Modded Drivers) and they wouldn't install (windows told me that issue would be solved with the final release), I googled a bit more and found the kXproject which seemed like it installed, added the soundcard and mixers but gave me no volume. After adjusting the kXmixer because all the gains were set by default to off, rebooted the machine, and vista hung on startup.

So, I'm on my 5th install in 7 days.
Posted by: mlord

Re: Vista RTM - 25/11/2006 11:58

Why even bother with all of this? ???? Masochism????

Seems like a lot of fuss just to be able to download the latest spyware, trojans, and botnet client software ?????

-ml
Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Vista RTM - 25/11/2006 13:52

To tell you the truth I don't know what's worse at this point. The garbage system vendors put on top of XP, the complete unsuitability of XP for a notebook type system or the garbage hardware 90% of PC makers design and release.

My GF just got a new notebook with her recent promotion, an Acer Travelmate of some sort. If you were to read the spec sheet it sounds nice. It has all the ports and bells and whistles. But when you take stock of the physical machine it's a design nightmare.

Why would anyone put ports on the FRONT of the machine? I haven't seen physical switches for Bluetooth and WiFi do anything but cause people problems. Who needs so many LEDs on a notebook?

The thing that's pissing me off the most right now is that at some random point after closing the clamshell, the machine will seemingly wake up and start playing some tune. Or just sit there on the desktop ON. The power settings have been taken over by some Acer application (so that you can no longer see the default OS UI for it). But the power option for clamshell close is definitely set to Standby (sleep).

When the machine was first turned on there were no fewer than 15 icons in the tray and another 3 or 4 next to, but outside of the tray. Who was it that said most applications don't install stuff to the tray on Windows? Yeah right. ATI's own craptastic tray icon was there - but at least that one can be disabled from Catalyst Control Center (a huge pile of steaming usability crap itself).

I do two things with Windows right now. One is run my SageTV in my living room (it's the only TV tuner & PVR I use - media PC case with 800GB of HD). The other is to run Canada Post shipping software for my business which is done on a Shuttle system. If I could buy an Intel Mac notebook today I'd be running that software inside a virtual machine.

But these days, the only thing I hate more than having to run Windows is installing Windows. So I don't see Vista in my immediate future. Down the road if I can keep the business going and eventually exppand into some Windows-based software I'll no doubt also do some development/testing with it - likely on Apple hardware.

Looking forward to moving one of my servers to Linux and eventually being able to move my TV/PVR system to Linux as well.
Posted by: BartDG

Re: Vista RTM - 25/11/2006 14:04

Quote:

The thing that's pissing me off the most right now is that at some random point after closing the clamshell, the machine will seemingly wake up and start playing some tune. Or just sit there on the desktop ON. The power settings have been taken over by some Acer application (so that you can no longer see the default OS UI for it). But the power option for clamshell close is definitely set to Standby (sleep).


Ah, that is indeed a very annoying problem! I have the very same problem with my travelmate, and it pisses me off immensely too. I've got a habit of doing some late-night surfing in bed before going to sleep, and then I put the machine back in standby mode, besides my bed. Then, all of a sudden, about 10 minutes later when I've *just* fallen asleep, the machine wakes up again and goes *TADAAAAA* (or some tune like that). I almost put my foot in it the first time that happened.

Now I always completely shut the computer off. No more sleep mode for me. I know that's not a true solution, but I don't know what else to do.

If you ever come across a solution for this, I'd be very happy to hear it! Thx!
Posted by: g_attrill

Re: Vista RTM - 25/11/2006 14:09

Quote:
The thing that's pissing me off the most right now is that at some random point after closing the clamshell, the machine will seemingly wake up and start playing some tune. Or just sit there on the desktop ON.


Ah-ha! Last week I was staying with a friend in a hotel room, and at about 2am his Vista notebook (lid closed) made some funny noise and the screen came on. Must be the same "feature"!

Gareth
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Vista RTM - 25/11/2006 15:57

Quote:
Acer

Well, that's your problem right there. It hardly makes sense to buy a Yugo and then complain about the entire automobile industry.
Posted by: drakino

Re: Vista RTM - 25/11/2006 17:39

Quote:
Monkey mentioned his home system might have to go Vista if the rumors were true that Halo 2 is coming to the PC as a vista-only app.


It's not a rumor, H2V has it's own FAQ about it and why it will be Vista only.


Also, found this article about the development of this "feature" a handy reason never to go to work for Microsoft on their Windows team.

*edited to space out the two separate thoughts a bit more*
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Vista RTM - 29/11/2006 14:44

I don't understand the relationship between the shutdown menu and Halo 2.
Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Vista RTM - 29/11/2006 14:50

Bitt, the Acer is about 10 times better than any Dell or Toshiba and generally Acer systems are also better than anything from HP. What does that say about the PC industry?

To me is says that Apple is making the only BMW and Mercedes class machines and everyone else is making Ladas or GM vehicles (ie. the bottom of the barrel).

Most PC notebooks aren't worth the cardboard they're shipped in.
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Vista RTM - 29/11/2006 15:25

I've had no real problems with either my Sony or my IBM laptops. I'll agree that Dell isn't the best choice in the world, but many of their business-class laptops don't suck.

Basically, the problem is with consumer-grade computers. They're simply not made well. But the quality of the entire line generally seems to increase with the ratio of business to consumer computers they make. That is, Acer, a consumer-only company, makes crappy laptops. Dell makes better ones, but not that much better, as they're still primarily consumer, even if they do a reasonable amount of business sales. IBM seems to make the best laptops, and they have the highest business to consumer ratio.

But there are exceptions. Apple is largely consumer, but make good laptops. And I've had no problems with my Sony, which is very consumer, too. (But many other people have had problems, and their support is lousy.)
Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Vista RTM - 29/11/2006 16:09

Well, Acer is the corporate notebook supplier for the company my girlfriend now works at. The machine is built much better than the Toshiba she had before.

The high-end IBM Thinkpad she had a couple of years ago was by far the best, but none of them come close to the build quality and ruggedness of this 15" aluminum PowerBook. I'm not even talking about the OS now.

Of course the problem I mentioned earlier are caused by these OEMs patching garbage on top of Windows, including custom device drivers and all sorts of other little dodads that are supposed to control their bells and whistles. All those little toys/tools absolutely kill Windows every time. The difference between a notebook and desktop in this regard however, is that you can't do a clean wipe or you will probably lose some of the hardware functionality.

Her company would be better off buying Macbooks and installing Windows via Bootcamp. of course her IT department has issues of its own. They run a Novell network for starters. Hello, 1986 called. They want their netware back.
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Vista RTM - 29/11/2006 16:47

Well, I find that the crappier the hardware, the more random useless software comes installed.
Posted by: matthew_k

Re: Vista RTM - 29/11/2006 17:05

Quote:
and their support is lousy.

Well, I'd take the position that Apple's support is lousy compared to Dell's. When buying a dell, you can select a Complete Care warranty. You can step on the laptop and break the screen, and they'll be out the next day to fix it. With a Dell Server, they will be out within 4 hours. (Literally. The server knocked a drive out of an array twice, and the new drive was shipped sonic air same day delivery. that's service.)

With apple, the best you're going to get is taking it to the apple store and waiting in line. Well, you might be able to Make An Appointment Online IF we're allowing that for people who didn't buy our $99 extortion fee for the same genius bar service we used to provide for free. Then, you'll drop it off, and they'll fix it in store or ship it to their repair depot. You might get your machine back this week week, or you might get it back in three weeks once we've got the part back in stock. None of this is any use if you dropped it, as coverage for that is not an option.

Apple's software support may be good, but I wouldn't know as I've never tried it.

Matthew
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Vista RTM - 29/11/2006 17:22

I was referring to Sony's support, but point taken.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Vista RTM - 29/11/2006 17:52

Quote:
It's not a rumor, H2V has it's own FAQ about it and why it will be Vista only.

Well, in my particular case it's now a moot point because I bought a 360 on Black Friday, along with a used copy of Halo 2. As much as I dislike playing FPS games with a joystick, I've been enjoying it. Played though a big chunk of it during my Snow Day yesterday. Visuals are slightly glitchy due to the emulation (it *looks* emulated, even, if that statement makes any sense), but I'm having a lot of fun with it.

Separate thread on 360 games coming up.
Posted by: oliver

Re: Vista RTM - 06/12/2006 23:14

I'm having another issue with vista now that it's actually running for weeks without crashing.

When I RDP into my vista machine, and disconnect before leaving work. I'll get home and my machine will have the monitors in powersave mode and moving the mouse or hitting keys on the keyboard won't get it to wake back up.

I know the machine isn't sleeping or anything like that, because I can still RDP and be at my desktop. The only way I can get back into the machine is to reboot it via RDP.

Anyone else notice this?
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Vista RTM - 07/12/2006 15:19

When you "disconnect" are you specifically logging out via Startmenu/Clickonthelittlearrow/Logout, or are you just hitting "close" on your RDP client?

I know that those two things are different actions and that you might be deliberately *not* logging out, I'm just wondering if the other procedure produces different results.
Posted by: oliver

Re: Vista RTM - 07/12/2006 15:56

Normally I'll either just close the RDP client window, or click on the Start Menu, then click the "X" (which is disconnect in vista when you're connected via an RDP session)

I've also tried to Logoff (by clicking the arrow, then the logoff item from the start menu), and nothing will get my monitors, keyboard and mouse to response (note, the capslock light works at home, but the screen still won't wake up)

The only way I can get back into the system, is to goto the command prompt and type shutdown -r.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Vista RTM - 07/12/2006 19:44

Hm. Is there anything special about your keyboard and mouse? For example, are they wireless, and have you set your bluetooth adapter so that it's allowed to poweroff after a set time period?

Also: How sure are you that this is RDP related? Maybe even if you never logged in remotely, but just left the home system sitting all day, the same thing would happen?
Posted by: oliver

Re: Vista RTM - 07/12/2006 20:32

Quote:
Hm. Is there anything special about your keyboard and mouse? For example, are they wireless, and have you set your bluetooth adapter so that it's allowed to poweroff after a set time period?

PS2 all the way, I've never liked USB for the keyboard/mouse due to lag directly after startup (mainly from XP and prior)


Quote:
Also: How sure are you that this is RDP related? Maybe even if you never logged in remotely, but just left the home system sitting all day, the same thing would happen?


I'm positive it's RDP related, as after 8-12 hours of sleep my computer will turn the monitors into powersave mode. I can move the mouse or hit any key and it will wake up instantly.

I noticed this bug in RC2 of Vista, I'd never connected remotely before because my PC would BSOD every 15 minutes before. I didn't bother reporting it at RC2 because I figured it was a common problem I had bigger issues to work out (the BSOD's)
Posted by: Ladmo

Re: Vista RTM - 08/12/2006 02:57

Oliver,

I know someone who works for MS Corporate Support. They have been working with Vista for over a year already. I'll ask him if he has a chance to look at your problem and comment on it. Cool?
Posted by: frog51

Re: Vista RTM - 08/12/2006 06:47

Never had problems with business spec Dells. I run everything on them - my corporate build on a D620 dual core, and most of my pen test stuff on D600s. They are all pretty fast, whether under XP (spit) or various Linuxes. They never crash (unless I make silly config mistakes) and they cope with pretty much anything I plug in. And their support is so good I bought my latest home server / games machine / vm box from them. Veyr good experience for me:-)

(of course ymmv)
Posted by: drakino

Re: Vista RTM - 09/12/2006 22:52

Quote:
I'm positive it's RDP related, as after 8-12 hours of sleep my computer will turn the monitors into powersave mode. I can move the mouse or hit any key and it will wake up instantly.


It might be related to what I have experienced multiple times now. I left my Vista running machine on and downloading a patch for Planetside when I went to the movies today. Came home after, and tried to check on it. Moved the mouse, hit the keyboard, and nothing on screen, just black. Caps lock did work, as it would toggle the state, but nothing happened. Finally went to power cycle the box, and hitting the power button caused the machine to then decide to display something, right before starting the normal shutdown sequence. I've had similar happen before, so it looks like Vista just doesn't like being left alone. The only non Vista included driver the system runs is the ATI video driver, and such an issue never showed up under XP.

Looks like the early adopters get the shaft again with this version of Windows. It's pretty much mirroring my attempt to move to XP early, and I think this time I'm just going to stick with XP, and forget about trying to upgrade my program to be Vista friendly. UAC pretty much kills it anyhow.
Posted by: oliver

Re: Vista RTM - 10/12/2006 16:45

Quote:
Quote:
I'm positive it's RDP related, as after 8-12 hours of sleep my computer will turn the monitors into powersave mode. I can move the mouse or hit any key and it will wake up instantly.


It might be related to what I have experienced multiple times now. I left my Vista running machine on and downloading a patch ... Moved the mouse, hit the keyboard, and nothing on screen, just black. Caps lock did work, as it would toggle the state, but nothing happened. Finally went to power cycle the box, and hitting the power button caused the machine to then decide to display something, right before starting the normal shutdown sequence ... The only non Vista included driver the system runs is the ATI video driver, and such an issue never showed up under XP.


Actually, after watching very closely for the last couple days. My issue isn't directly with RDP, it's most likely just an video driver issue.

I'm guessing it's the ATI video driver now, and with what you've said it's pretty much exactly my issue. I have my displays set to never sleep, so they're on in the morning when I get up and I just hit the power buttons before I goto sleep. The only time they enter the sleep state is when I connect remotely via RDP to my desktop. However, yesturday my PC wasn't in the sleep state when I got back from work even after connecting via RDP all day.

So it's turned into a hit or miss problem. I'm hoping ATI fixes it along with the OpenGL support so I can play some x-plane in vista
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Vista RTM - 11/12/2006 17:28

Quote:
I'm positive it's RDP related, as after 8-12 hours of sleep my computer will turn the monitors into powersave mode.

Ah. Just checked. FITNR.

Might possibly be ATI-Related, as the internal report specifically mentions it.
Posted by: drakino

Re: Vista RTM - 11/12/2006 17:45

Quote:
Ah. Just checked. FITNR.


We have to wait 5 more years for Blackcomb to fix this? :-P

This article seems to confirm some major issues with anything sleep related in Vista, and has signs that both NVidia and ATI are causing some (but not all) of the problems.
Posted by: oliver

Re: Vista RTM - 14/12/2006 13:09

Ok, a new ATI video driver has been posted on their website. It's 8.31.100.3.2.1, my old driver was 8.31.100. Let's hope this fixes the sleep problem. So far it looks promising.

Now all I need is some OpenGL support and I'll be happy.
Posted by: Taym

Re: Vista RTM - 14/12/2006 13:23

Oliver (or anybody who could help), how is the licensing model working with the Ultimate you get from MSDN account? Does it require activation, or is it like the VLM versions?
Posted by: drakino

Re: Vista RTM - 14/12/2006 13:28

Quote:
Does it require activation, or is it like the VLM versions?


It requires activation. All copies of Vista do now, including VLM versions for the enterprise. Companies will need to set up their own internal activation servers for the company network for a mass deployment of a VLM version of Vista.
Posted by: Taym

Re: Vista RTM - 14/12/2006 13:53

Oh! So what is practically the difference between the two? Will the VLM versions lock after a while if not activated, just like the others? It's not a major problem, but it can really become annoying in testing environments, where the hd changes frequently...
Posted by: andy

Re: Vista RTM - 14/12/2006 13:54

Quote:
Companies will need to set up their own internal activation servers for the company network for a mass deployment of a VLM version of Vista.


That has to be the worst bit of Vista news that I have heard
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Vista RTM - 14/12/2006 13:58

Switch to Linux!
Posted by: andy

Re: Vista RTM - 14/12/2006 14:17

Quote:
Switch to Linux!


Of the five physical machines that I use regularly, two of them are Linux boxes.

I make my living writing mainly Windows software, so "switching" to Linux isn't an option. Or rather it would be a more radial move than for the average Windows user as I would have to do an awful lot of relearning and I'd have to find some new customers
Posted by: drakino

Re: Vista RTM - 14/12/2006 14:43

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/plan/volact.mspx has more info on it. Ultimate does not have a VLM version, only the Business or Enterprise versions.

The FAQ doesn't answer your concern directly, but seems to hint that a reactivation will expire the oldest activation of the code not currently in use. So reactivating on the same hardware should be fine.
Posted by: Taym

Re: Vista RTM - 14/12/2006 15:16

Thanks Drakino!
That was very informative. I had simply assumed VLM licensing method was just unchanged since Windows XP, and never spent a minute learning about it!

Based on what I am reading, the new MAK activation method for VLM versions can still be easily crackable, since it can be performed via phone. Which means, as usual, that there's little piracy stopping and a lot of annoyance for those who work with Vista.
I have nothing against Vista, or Microsoft, or whatever. But this activation method is just bad.

On the other hand, the KMS is going to be quicker and remove completely the hassle to enter a SN. But you need an activation server.