Honda_Boy Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 I formatted my hard drive and installed Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit today and have run into a couple of problems.First is my sound. I have a Soundblaster Audigy 2ZS (Still. Man, I have this card forever. This is the 4th system I've had it in). I installed the Vista drivers from Creative which give me the same Creative Audio Console I had in XP but on the EAX tab there's only environment enhancements. I believe in XP I had 4 or 5 categories. My favorite to leave it set in was Rock under the Advanced EQ. I've tried reinstalling the drivers but that didn't work. I had this happen once in XP but I haven't a clue how I fixed it.Also the other problem is minor. I don't stay logged into Besttechie.net when I shut off FireFox. It does this on the school computers too but my laptop, my old XP install on this system, and my old XP rig always remained logged in. No other websites do this. It's only Besttechie.net on this system and the school computers.So anyone got any ideas on what's wrong? Thanks for any help Quote Link to post Share on other sites
isteve Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 Vista SP1 should be out sometime Tuesday, before you do anything else wait a day just in case. This should have a lot of fixes for drivers and system bugs. You should be logged out when you shut down firefox. I bookmark the page after the login and have my browser just log me in. I never see the login page this way. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Honda_Boy Posted March 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 Well never mind on the login here. I replaced my FireFox App Data with the App Data from my old rig to recover my bookmarks and it fixed that problem. Still I wonder why I can't get EAX Advanced EQ. I can only get Environments and I don't want them. Really I just need to get an X-Fi but a new exhaust for the car, power supply, and video card come first. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Honda_Boy Posted March 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 (edited) Ran into another prob but this ain't just from Vista. It's very strange that StepMania actually runs WORSE on my new system than my old one AND my laptop. First off StepMania is not in the least taxing on a modern system yet songs with videos in the background cause a slow down. I kinda figured going from an Athlon 64 3500+ with 1GB of RAM to an X2 6000+ with 4GB, I wouldn't have this trouble. It's the same twin GeForce 7600GT's my last system had. It did this in both XP and Vista on the new rig. The only difference I can think of is Video drivers. On the old rig I had it with the old 9x.xx series drivers so I could turn SLI on and off on the fly. I have the latest 16x.xx drivers on this rig both in XP and Vista. On the old system it ran the same SLI or not but maybe if I disable SLI it might run better.All I know is if my Celeron 440, 1.5GB RAM, Intel 945G laptop can play StepMania without a hitch but my Athlon 64 X2 6000+, 4GB RAM, Twin GeForce 7600GT system can't, then somethin ain't right. Edited March 18, 2008 by Honda_Boy Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Honda_Boy Posted March 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 OK, it was indeed SLI causing the problem in StepMania. I turned it off (somehow without restarting the system, I guess that was just an XP thing with the new drivers) and the game ran fine.Now I noticed recently that the clicks from Windows Explorer weren't really playing. Instead I was just getting crackling. But I could play music fine and stuff. It appears that some sounds aren't working properly so I'm gonna assume there was a problem in the driver install. I think I'll completely uninstall the sound drivers and reinstall them. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Honda_Boy Posted March 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 Also, I can't get the AMD Dual Core Optimizer to install either. Is that only needed for XP? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
isteve Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 Vista 64 needs specific signed drivers, make sure you have the right driver these drivers are different from the 32 bit Vista drivers. If you looking for a more friendly Vista the Vista 32 is the way to go. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Honda_Boy Posted March 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 well I have 4GB of RAM so I went 64-Bit. i'm gonna install the service pack tonight and see if that fixes some problems.I've also run into another problem but since it's to do with the Combined Community Codec Pack, I asked on their forums. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Honda_Boy Posted March 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2008 (edited) wow, just when I thought I was gonna have one of the best builds ever, this one turned out to be a pain. Vista 64 on it sucks and whether it's on Vista or XP, for some weird reason StepMania has slowdowns. It runs better without SLI on but for some reason it still runs into slow downs and I don't know why.Also I believe the AMD dual core optimizer is a 32 bit only app. The EAX stuff still don't work right in SP1. I'm really startin to think I wasted my money on a 64-bit OS. Even though I have 4GB of ram I probably shoulda gone 32-bit.Plus I can't figure out why videos don't work right in my favorite media player, Zoom Player, but they work fine in every other media player I have.A lot of stuff runs slower, animated GIF's aren't animated in Windows Picture viewer, hard drive light is constantly blinking for apparently no reason (I've turned the paging file off but still the HD seems to be constantly active), and a bunch of other annoying crap.Probably the worst $110 I've ever spent. Edited March 19, 2008 by Honda_Boy Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jcl Posted March 19, 2008 Report Share Posted March 19, 2008 (edited) Also, I can't get the AMD Dual Core Optimizer to install either. Is that only needed for XP?It shouldn't be needed at all: it's a workaround for broken programs. That said, the programs will still be broken in Vista, so, shoulds aside, if you need it under XP, you probably need it under Vista. You might be able to work around any problems by disabling CPU power management and using processor affinity to keep every thread in the borken processes on the same core.hard drive light is constantly blinking for apparently no reason (I've turned the paging file off but still the HD seems to be constantly active)Prefetcher? Edited March 19, 2008 by jcl Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Honda_Boy Posted March 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2008 well now it has settled down but even when idle, it was going like crazy.Still I feel like I wasted my money on it. At least when I got the package from Newegg, this wasn't the only thing in the box. The Logitech G11 Gaming Keyboard was well worth the money I paid for it and I don't even use the G-keys.Still I'm at a loss as to why everything is running so poorly on this new system when it WAY more powerful than my old one. Even Vista on my laptop runs better, granted it's the 32-bit Home Basic but still man. Something is amiss somewhere. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Honda_Boy Posted March 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2008 I have a plan:I'm gonna take my old rig's WD 250GB and hook it up to this system. I'm recover anything necessary (which shouldn't be much considering My Documents was stored on another drive) and I'm gonna do a full format. Then, I'll shut the system off, remove the Seagate 320GB and install Vista to the WD.My theory is it had something to do with the formating considering how little time the Vista install disc spent dealing with it (3 seconds, i kid you not. Last I remember a full format in prep for installing XP takes 20-45 minutes). That and there's a possibility there's something not quite right with my Seagate.If it runs better of the WD, I'm just gonna leave it in there and order a second WD 250GB and use it as a secondary and put the 320 in my old rig when I get it going again.Reason behind this:I noticed it took longer for XP to load on this rig than it did on my old one. Because of the faster CPU and vastly larger amount of RAM, I can only assume either the HDD or the motherboard is the culprit. Both HDD's are supposed to be 7200RPM SATA300 with 16MB caches. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Honda_Boy Posted March 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2008 I installed it on the other drive now. It seems to responding a little quicker now. I'm gonna update it then install SP1 before installing any drivers. Maybe the audio stuff will work right. After that I'll install the Combined Community Codec Pack and StepMania and test them. Hopefully everything will work right then. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Honda_Boy Posted March 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2008 Well Zoom still doesn't work right and the EAX for the Audigy doesn't work right either.I think I'll stick to the WD drive though cause it is considerably quieter. I'm gonna put the Seagate into my old rig I guess. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Honda_Boy Posted March 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2008 Never mind. I give up. This has been a complete failure. This system is going back to XP and staying on it until I get a DX10 video card and a SoundBlaster X-Fi. Even then I might just buy a 32-bit copy of Vista despite the 4GB of RAM I have. Screw it. My 32-bit Vista laptop runs like a top. It's been rock friggin solid. But damn, this 64-bit install has been nothing but trouble. It's terrible. I'm gonna beat James for talkin me into gettin it. $110 down the friggin toilet. I could used that money to help with gettin a new exhaust for the car. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted March 21, 2008 Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 newegg is selling vista premium 32 bit for $80. To save $20 off their regular low price you need to enter the following promo code EMCADCACB . They limit it to one, I already got a copy for myself. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Honda_Boy Posted March 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 OK, got ALL my problems fixed FINALLY.......... I trashed the Vista install and put XP Home SP2 back on it. I'm customizing back to how my old rig was since while trying to get around my Vista probs, I trashed my old rig's XP install.I'm not gonna mess with x64 Vista again until I feel like I absolutely have to (and I HIGHLY doubt that). Anyway, I'm very happy now (except the whole losing a crap load of cash thing). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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