View Full Version : Windows 7 RC1 experiences
SUBMAN1
05-09-09, 12:51 PM
Figured I'd share mine - it won't install on my machine. Probably doesn't like my RAID or something. It almost completes but either hard locks (usually hard locks) or crash dumps at the exact same point in the install process - during the finalizing portion after everything is installed.
Just to be sure, I went through and disabled everything up to and including the Ethernet in the BIOS, unplugged all USB devices, and even pulled out my TV card and everything else I have stuffed into this thing. Only things left were 3 optical drives (CD burner, DVD_ROM, and Blu-Ray burner), 3 hard drives (2 in RAID 0), one 4870 vid card, and of course MB/CPU.
Still crashes during install. I install to the non-RAID drive too so as not to have that screw up anything - no dice still. Probably that the RAID exists is the problem.
I'd say it is definitely not ready for prime time yet.
-S
Arclight
05-09-09, 01:00 PM
Beta seemed a lot more... easy-going. And stable.
I've experienced 2 lock-ups as well. For some reason when an .avi reaches the end and playback stops, system stops as well. :-?
Pushing ctrl+alt+del gives black screen as it tries to load the log-on screen with options, but it never gets there. So weird, HD led keeps blinking indicating activity, mouse cursor keeps moving, no crash or error... it just stops responding.
I have a RAID array as well, and the page-file is on it, entirely (no portion on c: drive). Maybe the array goes to sleep due too inactivety during playback (playback is from second partition on primary disk). Will have to play around with the power options and page-file. :hmmm:
SUBMAN1
05-09-09, 01:32 PM
Yep! I'll wait for RC2 I guess.
-S
Arclight
05-09-09, 01:53 PM
I just don't see how they can go from a beta that was good enough to release, to RC that is borked. I'm no software engineer, but that doesn't seem like progress. :doh:
CaptainHaplo
05-09-09, 02:37 PM
Subman, what is the raid controller? Did you give the install a base driver for it? MB based?
As always, specs help in ts stuff.
Assuming the array controller is MB based and your using sata - check the modes. Especially if its some wacky dell......
When it crashes (vs locks) - what info does it give you - often it will reference either a file - or let you know a device (like disk0) is unavailable. That will also help point you in the irght direction
SUBMAN1
05-09-09, 08:40 PM
Logic should deduce for you that if I made it to the finalizing step that the RAID controller has a driver and it is functioning properly up until that point.
It is annoying that it crashed at the exact point every time. Nothing left to disable. Waiting on RC2.
And BTW - I would never buy a Piece of Sh*t Dell! :D
-S
And BTW - I would never buy a Piece of Sh*t Dell! :D
-S
I was kind of waiting for that response :haha:. I imagine you've been building your own rigs for a long time.
Interesting info regarding the RAID :hmmm:... You'd think that MS would have given it more consideration since it's becoming more common in systems. Then again--it is a MS product :shifty:. Looking forward to RC2 with SP1.
SUBMAN1
05-10-09, 11:47 AM
I've been building my own since about 1990. Got boxes full of old parts.
I can say I did own a canned IBM PC computer once - a Tandy 1000 EX, but man it was worth it. I had it decked out with 640K of RAM and I upgraded to an 8088-2 proc at 8MHz MHz, external 3.5" disk drive, the works. So even though I had a canned system, I still decked it out. I was the cool kid on the block back then too since everyone was running 4 color CGA graphics and I had 16 colors! I could play Starflight in all its glory! On top of that, I had 3 voice sound chip with a noise generator! :D Bad ass!
But yeah, since the early 90's I only built my own PC. It is the only way to get what you want.
I do have this itch to dig in my boxes of old parts and throw together a PC with a 3dfx in it and Windows 98SE. Got some old 3dfx games I want to play that never worked right on the 3dfx emulators. This is one game - http://www.homeoftheunderdogs.net/game.php?id=2523 (I donated this unreleased 3dfx version to this site - it was never released to the public, but the devs decided to give me a copy after the company went bust. There was a non-accelerated version released in Europe to keep the company afloat but it wasn't enough) that I'd like to fire up again. Never worked right on an emulator - the colors got all screwed up. You had to play in software rendering mode which is not as smooth or good looking.
-S
Arclight
05-10-09, 11:57 AM
Still have an P1 100MHZ to run old games on. Has been collecting dust for a long time though. :hmmm:
SUBMAN1
05-10-09, 12:13 PM
Still have an P1 100MHZ to run old games on. Has been collecting dust for a long time though. :hmmm:
I have a P133, but I mainly used it for programming serial devices.
-S
Arclight
05-10-09, 12:27 PM
Programming serial devices? Sounds interesting, please explain. :)
Also have 1 or 2 old 386 thingies (and Commodore), but they were stripped for components looong time ago. Man, I should really get rid of unusable cases taking up space. My bedroom looks like a PC graveyard, ain't got nowhere else to put them. :haha:
SUBMAN1
05-10-09, 12:29 PM
Programming serial devices? Sounds interesting, please explain. :)
Also have 1 or 2 old 386 thingies, but they were stripped for components looong time ago. Man, I should really get rid of unusable cases taking up space. My bedroom looks like a PC graveyard, ain't got nowhere else to put them. :haha:
Try and find a serial port on a laptop these days! That is why I keep it around! Runs Win95. I should upgrade it to Windows 98SE. I think I have ME around here too but that was a POS.
For example, here is one impulse buy I made once that I need that laptops serial port for:
http://cdecas.free.fr/robots/wonderborg.php
http://cdecas.free.fr/robots/images/wonderborg-perso-01.jpg
A lot of devices like routers and servers can only be talked to with a serial port too. So I need that little laptop for more than one thing.
-S
Arclight
05-10-09, 12:40 PM
Oh, that's awesome! One of the things I had in the back of my mind was to use stuff from old PCs and build my own robot, but I have no clue how to do that. Don't even know if it's possible. :88)
Last serial port I saw was on a P3 I think, but sadly that board died recently. CPU was fine (1ghz) and went to a friend of mine whose CPU just died, so some part of that system still lives on. I got that P3 board from a friend of mine, was my first "real" PC (was always far behind current tech due to lack of money), was still using a P1 100MHZ before that. I remember playing a lot of Ceasar II... good memories. :yep:
CaptainHaplo
05-10-09, 08:38 PM
My normal job heavily involves devices that require pc serial ports. Most end users buy a pc - then go "where do I plug this 9 pin thingy in?"
I think my company probably has kept a couple of usb-serial adapter firms in business by ourselves.....
USB Serial adapters usually work fine for most uses, however avoid PCI serial cards.... they have gotten to be about useless....
Subman1 - why is it I have the idea that like me, you have spent way too much time in telnet and hyperterminal?
BTW - did anyone else notice that hyperterminal was removed in Vista and has NOT made a reapearance in 7?
Installed it today, havent had any big problems yet (ArmA locked up once, but that's most propably because there was heavy load on the HD from some other things), quite the opposite. My PC is now very fast and depending of the game there's been a BIG improvement on FPS (ArmA from ~35fps on normal on XP to ~40-45fps on high/very high on Win7).
Raptor1
05-12-09, 01:20 PM
I've been running RC1 on my laptop very well for a while now, it sure beats the horrible Vista 32 I've had on it up until now
I've been running RC1 on my laptop very well for a while now, it sure beats the horrible Vista 32 I've had on it up until now
Yeh, Vista was a piece of poo.
Right, now to figure out how the animated wallpapers work so I can get bunch of girls jumping up and down in bikini's on my desktop. :D
Try and find a serial port on a laptop these days!I have an Icom IC-R75 receiver that has a serial port for computer control, I had the same problem with lack of serial ports so I checked on ebay and found a usb to serial converter for XP & Vista, cheap & works a treat!:yeah:
SUBMAN1
05-13-09, 12:37 AM
...Subman1 - why is it I have the idea that like me, you have spent way too much time in telnet and hyperterminal?
BTW - did anyone else notice that hyperterminal was removed in Vista and has NOT made a reapearance in 7?
You still use that stuff? Crud! Upgrade already to PuTTY! - http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/%7Esgtatham/putty/)
And if you must know, I use SSH every day. Not only are my servers at (they lack video cards - this is one of them - http://www.revogear.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=KURO%2DBOX%2FHG%2DW R&Show=TechSpecs (http://www.revogear.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=KURO-BOX%2FHG-WR)) require it, my job requires that I use SSH almost daily.
-S
PS. That Kurobox makes an awesome media server. I run Twonky on it mainly (V4.1 will run forever if you never allow it to call home - hint hint).
JSLTIGER
06-18-09, 10:29 AM
So far, problem free for me. I have no complaints about either this version or the beta.
danurve
06-18-09, 03:58 PM
I've been building my own since about 1990. Got boxes full of old parts.
I can say I did own a canned IBM PC computer once - a Tandy 1000 EX, but man it was worth it. I had it decked out with 640K of RAM and I upgraded to an 8088-2 proc at 8MHz MHz, external 3.5" disk drive, the works. So even though I had a canned system, I still decked it out. I was the cool kid on the block back then too since everyone was running 4 color CGA graphics and I had 16 colors! I could play Starflight in all its glory! On top of that, I had 3 voice sound chip with a noise generator! :D Bad ass!
..
-S
Man does that bring back memories! Owned a Tandy 1000SX, did the memory upgrade, and - dropped in a 20-meg card drive. Maybe it was 30, but woo hoo had me a C:\ drive :ping:
After that I started hitting the computer shows and building my own jazz too. Skipped the 286's and went right to a 386 dx board with a math co-processor - OS2/Warp - Windows NT - slammin!
JSLTIGER
06-19-09, 02:03 PM
Man does that bring back memories! Owned a Tandy 1000SX, did the memory upgrade, and - dropped in a 20-meg card drive. Maybe it was 30, but woo hoo had me a C:\ drive :ping:
After that I started hitting the computer shows and building my own jazz too. Skipped the 286's and went right to a 386 dx board with a math co-processor - OS2/Warp - Windows NT - slammin!
I've got you both beat. The first computer I ever used was my grandfather's IBM PC-XT. Intel 8088 at 4.77MHz, 640K RAM, 20MB HDD, 5.25" Floppy and EGA graphics. When I was a kid, that thing was the bomb. Next upgrade wasn't until 1994 with a 100MHz Pentium, 16MB RAM, 1.2GB HDD (world's first), 4x TEAC CD-ROM, 5.25 and 3.5" Floppys and VGA graphics. From there's it's only gotten to be more powerful, with my latest rigs in the sig.
I've got you all beat,:O: the first computer I had was kit built, National sc/mp evaluation chip, had 1k ram, programmed with front panel switches called miniscamp,(1978) the second computer was a huge leap forward, the Exidy Sorcerer mark II with 16k ram, 32k rom & expanded to 64k ram later, built an interface card for a pair of 8" floppies,(1982) wow!!:yeah:
SUBMAN1
06-19-09, 08:03 PM
I've got you all beat,:O: the first computer I had was kit built, National sc/mp evaluation chip, had 1k ram, programmed with front panel switches called miniscamp,(1978) the second computer was a huge leap forward, the Exidy Sorcerer mark II with 16k ram, 32k rom & expanded to 64k ram later, built an interface card for a pair of 8" floppies,(1982) wow!!:yeah:
I didn't say that was my first PC above. So AGAIN (:D) I have you all beat! I had what you had in 1982 back in 1977! I had a CP/M system with 64K RAM (imagine that back this early), dual 5.25" floppies, and built in monitor. Graphics cards were rare in these days so I only had text, but still... I might still be able to produce an 8" floppy from another CP/M system, but I have no idea where it would be right now. Probably in storage.
Beat that! :D <...pissing contest continues...>
-S
PS. The above system had a 5 digit price tag in its day in case you were wondering. Was my fathers, and it was given to him by someone that owed him $$$, and he had no idea what to do with it, so it ended up on my desk.
Oh poo!! you have to do one better Subman!!:oops::DL If it's any consolation, I did own an ICL 2903 in 85, mainframe with 128k ram, multi platter 14" disks, card reader for the boot strap loader damn thing was wired for 3 phase, the line printer itself weighed over 85 kg, the whole setup over a ton!:cool:
The good old days!:yeah:
Task Force
06-20-09, 01:20 AM
so, they messed up W7 aaahh... had a feeling they would.:yep:
SUBMAN1
06-20-09, 12:17 PM
Oh poo!! you have to do one better Subman!!:oops::DL If it's any consolation, I did own an ICL 2903 in 85, mainframe with 128k ram, multi platter 14" disks, card reader for the boot strap loader damn thing was wired for 3 phase, the line printer itself weighed over 85 kg, the whole setup over a ton!:cool:
The good old days!:yeah:
OK, I can't compete with that one back in '85. I can today however. An M9000 right now (fully loaded), weighing in at over 2 tons, and a ton more compute power than your mainframe! :O:
-S
Doh!!:doh: Impressive though!:up: Picture please.:yep:
SUBMAN1
06-21-09, 12:36 PM
Doh!!:doh: Impressive though!:up: Picture please.:yep:
Can't. Company Confidential. You can have a generic picture though! :D
http://www.vibrant.com/images/products/sun_m9000.jpg
-S
Where's all the pretty address & data lights, (led chasers etc) you have to admit the old ones looked and sounded more impressive, the floor would rumble with the movement of the HDD voice coil heads moving plus the large 14" disks spinning at 3.5 thousand rpm, used to love hearing them come up to speed, was like stepping into a sci-fi movie (time tunnel),:D glad I lived through those pioneering days!!:03:
SUBMAN1
06-22-09, 07:35 PM
Where's all the pretty address & data lights, (led chasers etc) you have to admit the old ones looked and sounded more impressive, the floor would rumble with the movement of the HDD voice coil heads moving plus the large 14" disks spinning at 3.5 thousand rpm, used to love hearing them come up to speed, was like stepping into a sci-fi movie (time tunnel),:D glad I lived through those pioneering days!!:03:
Not much has changed. These things have plenty of blinky lights and suck down a ton of power. These days however, storage is handled by SANs over Fibre Channel, so that is a whole other box with lots of HD's all churning away. The Fans to keep these M9000's cool however will probably blow you away.
-S
AVGWarhawk
06-24-09, 12:32 PM
Lookie lookie....
http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/default.aspx
Arclight
06-24-09, 12:39 PM
Let's hope the price is as basic as the packaging. :roll:
AVGWarhawk
06-24-09, 12:52 PM
Let's hope the price is as basic as the packaging. :roll:
Do not hold your breath on that one:shifty: It will cost and cost big:wah:
Task Force
06-24-09, 01:15 PM
Ill stick with vista... until any kinks are out... then il go to ultimant 64 bit probably.:yep:
Arclight
06-24-09, 01:18 PM
Do not hold your breath on that one:shifty: It will cost and cost big:wah:Really? And here I was thinking they were listening to their customers. :D
I never bought Vista, what did the Ultimate cost? Does one even want/need Ultimate, or will Professional do just fine? What's the difference anyway?
Task Force
06-24-09, 01:19 PM
well I want 64 bit, i dont think the others came in 64 bit.:yep:
64 bit vista... cost a lot for a bunch on s***.:shifty:
AVGWarhawk
06-24-09, 01:45 PM
I like my 64bit vista. Works great. I believe you are looking in the range of 150.00 to 250.00. Vista Ultimate was around $250.00. As you can see there is no basic verison of Windows 7. Your basic is usually in the $99.00 range.
Arclight
06-24-09, 01:58 PM
I've been looking for some prices over here. As usual, it costs as much in Euros as in Dollars. :shifty:
SUBMAN1
06-24-09, 02:32 PM
Ill stick with vista... until any kinks are out... then il go to ultimant 64 bit probably.:yep:
I wouldn't. Vista is bloat squared. Windows 7 is as small a footprint as XP, or even smaller these days.
Some idiot lover of pain (took him 17 hours) managed to Get Windows 7 operational on a Pentium II with only 96MB of RAM. I'll post that article in another thread.
Upgrade. Vista needs to die.
-S
Task Force
06-24-09, 02:37 PM
But you dont know what issues W7 will have on its first release, and this is my primary pc. I also dont feel like looseing all my data.:hmmm:
Arclight
06-24-09, 03:10 PM
'Course you do, download the RC and find out. ;)
Ran the beta and moved to RC, on both my primary and an underachieving secondary machine. Both worked out fine on both systems.
But you don't know what issues W7 will have on its first release, and this is my primary pc. I also don't feel like losing all my data.:hmmm:What I will be doing is buying a new HDD since they are cheap nowadays and put the new W7 system on that, if I have any problems can always put the old one back in, can also make the old drive D or E or what ever for getting your data off of.:yep: I don't like dual boot, I either have one or the other!!:up:
Microsoft says Vista buyers to get free Windows 7 People who buy Windows Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate computers starting Friday can contact their manufacturer for a free upgrade when Windows 7 becomes available on Oct. 22.What about the rest of us?
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hR95sTxPXB76bnWwbxEHxQbo9v8wD991NCD01
Pre order and save
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/buy/offers/pre-order.aspx
Skybird
06-29-09, 05:20 AM
I read that from Windows 7 Professional on (that is grade 3 of 5 product versions) there is a socalled Windows XP mode available. I expect that to mimic the XP interface and the way the functions of Windows 7 are being accessed by the user. Has anyone made experiences with it? I have zero-rien-nada-kein interest at all to learn different ways of a new Windows. Being able to just carry on handling my system like I used to do since almost 8 years is perfectly right for me.
Arclight
06-29-09, 05:53 AM
Ehr, I've got the beta for it, but haven't ran it yet, I'll let you know if I do.
From what I understand it's basically a VM pre-built/installed as Win XP. Probably does a better job compatibility wise than a run-of-the-mill VM, but I doubt there's much difference.
I'll have a look. :hmmm:
Arclight
06-29-09, 06:22 AM
Well, you're running XP in a window, basically.
Fast, faster than installing it normally. Exactly the same; on first time on desktop, you get the "take the tour" popup, that kinda stuff. Disks of the host system show up as remote desktop connections, but the DVD drive is native(?) and the C: drive is a virtual drive that resides on the hosts HD in the folder where you installed XP mode. Hardware used in XP mode is all general virtual stuff, not actual hardware of the host (no need for drivers). Memory is 256MB, but configurable, limited by the total memory of the host.
I guess it's 32-bit, since system properties shows "physical address extension" below the memory amount. (running 64-bit host with 4GB mem)
Iv run W7 on my primary PC since it came out - no problems.
A number of my friends have done the same - they had no problems either.
Works/performs better than Vista!
I skipped Vista altogether, but I tried out the win 7 beta and liked it. Now I have the 64 bit RC installed and it feels good as well. It installs very easy and it even found and suggested drivers for my Saitek Hotas. I'm no expert but the Win 7 OS feels pretty solid.
Sure, Skybird, there are a few things that works a bit differently compared to XP, but you get used to it in a week or two I would say. At least I'm not looking back at all at this point. :yep:
cheers Porphy
Skybird
06-29-09, 04:41 PM
Well, I was just curious. I do not plan to buy a separate OS for my old rig currently. Win7 does not become an issue for me before I get a new system. And that will not happen before my old system breaks down beyond easy and clean replacement of individual components.
Becasue I do not need a faster system. That is the best situation a user can be in. :up:
Becasue I do not need a faster system. That is the best situation a user can be in. :up:
True indeed. I made the "mistake" to buy ARMA2, so now I'm looking at upgrading my graphics card. I also have fantasies about running SB at ridicules framerates with the sliders at max... :D
I finally dual booted RC1 at work to see how it ran. I was expecting more of a change then what I saw as far as interface compared to vista, but really the only difference I can see so far is just the task bar.
Performance wise I really didn't see that big of a jump from Vista. It hooked up and played nice with the domain and all the components of the system had drivers. All the network printers installed automatically. it was really a smooth and quick setup.
I will be using this OS now unless something the network requires me to boot back to XP.
Well so far so good. I'm starting to see the differences from Vista as far as the GUI goes and liking what they are going.
Most of the performance feature and bug smashing have been right on Q, my favorite fix being that explorer can remember your view settings.
SUBMAN1
07-18-09, 05:23 PM
But you dont know what issues W7 will have on its first release, and this is my primary pc. I also dont feel like looseing all my data.:hmmm:
Get a NAS. THen you can have a place to backup your data.
kiwi_2005
07-21-09, 05:56 PM
Windows 7 v.7264 64bit eating up 2gigs of ram when idle. I replied to poster that his pc is most likely infected, yet other posters have been claiming the same some with 4gigs of memory when Windows 7 is idle its eating up 2gigs of their Ram! Nasty memory leak MS need to fix.:hmmm:
SUBMAN1
07-21-09, 09:36 PM
Windows 7 v.7264 64bit eating up 2gigs of ram when idle. I replied to poster that his pc is most likely infected, yet other posters have been claiming the same some with 4gigs of memory when Windows 7 is idle its eating up 2gigs of their Ram! Nasty memory leak MS need to fix.:hmmm:
Turn off their horrible search indexer and check again. Just an idea.
-S
Windows 7 v.7264 64bit eating up 2gigs of ram when idle. I replied to poster that his pc is most likely infected, yet other posters have been claiming the same some with 4gigs of memory when Windows 7 is idle its eating up 2gigs of their Ram! Nasty memory leak MS need to fix.:hmmm:
Task Manager has a Resource Monitor under the Performance tab that should show the offending memory hog.
PeriscopeDepth
07-23-09, 01:59 PM
I've never had any Vista performance problems. With any recent Windows you really have to do some tuning, my Vista install has all the fancy stuff turned off (Aero, indexing, etc). It looks like Win 95 (without the memory leaks), but runs a lot better than before I turned all the eyecandy off.
On my Ubuntu install on the other hand, I have all the eyecandy on (3D cube desktop) and it runs better than any Windows version I have used...
PD
PeriscopeDepth
07-23-09, 02:01 PM
Task Manager has a Resource Monitor under the Performance tab that should show the offending memory hog.
If it's really a memory leak I don't think task manager will tell you which program caused it. The offending program may not be running.
PD
If it's really a memory leak I don't think task manager will tell you which program caused it. The offending program may not be running.
PD
I never said memory leak, just memory hog. Its a place to start.
Task Force
07-23-09, 03:51 PM
Windows 7 shouldnt be useing that mutch ram. Idleing now, vistas useing less than a gigabyte...
PeriscopeDepth
07-23-09, 03:52 PM
I never said memory leak, just memory hog. Its a place to start.
I know you didn't, Kiwi did though. :)
PD
yea NP, I noticed it was 64 bit build I don't have running.
CaptainHaplo
07-23-09, 05:07 PM
I got an oddity - and I am not happy about it.
Star Wars Empire at War ran fine on the beta - but on the RC (Build 7100 - no "leaked builds" for me) - it loads, displays the main menu for a split second - then blue screens.
This is 1.0v - as well as fully patched. The BSoD disappears before I can see the offending file that caused it. I am betting its video related - but have not been able to confirm. Unfortunately, I have an old 1650 Pro so ATI doesn't really have a win7 driver. However, win7 is using a signed driver (8.56.1.13).
No other games give me any kind of problem. Just EAW. FYI - its 32 bit RC - not 64. Anyone able to replicate this with older ATI hardware?
I just got GTA4 and for some reason the game will not show the correct amount of graphics RAM.
For those not aware, GTA4 has an annoying feature that will not let you run modes the PC can not run. So if it gets the RAM amount wrong it will limit me unneccesary.
I set the levels to something GTA4 says will REALLY put my system on its knees, but it runs smoooth!
Newest drivers and patches
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