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Windows XP Myths
app103:
I have a stable ME box in the other room. Part of the trick to making it stable was NOT using the WinME drivers that were supplied by Microsoft.
It runs much better with Win95 drivers supplied by the hardware manufacturers. :D
dk70:
Exactly right app103. The high and mighty myth of using "correct" drivers is nonsense and what has giving WinME a bad name since it is not universal solution.
Especially gamers will know this. You can do all the right things but it still blows (blew?) WinME WDM drivers were cool for office computers, not for gamers. I once spend a day testing a soundcard. Worked Mastertechnially perfect with MS supplied WDM drivers, computer could even go to sleep and wake up again. Too bad games were unplayable. Big fps loss and poor audio. Solution was to use Win98 VXD drivers - yummy. Very hard to make that driver change btw, WinME/MS insisted on WDM drivers, had to do some hacking I think. WDM were automatically installed during boot, had to delete some inf-file or something. Can look it up. Card was Creative SB10, I seem to remember SBlive card was in more or less same mess at some point. There are similar stories where user were forced to either live with situation, wait for driver solution (may be it will never come) or start to tweak away. Has been feeding WinME hate for years.
OS buyers are not happy about having to tune a freshly released OS. Driver hunting/testing not quality time for majority either. Many really should not touch - will go wrong! Does not help to say they did not have to. Whole WinME problem comes from going by the book yet solution is a pain and possibly risky. Some people just expect things to work out of the box even if it has Microsoft written all over it 8)
Carol Haynes:
Win95 is good
Win98 is better
WinMe is even better
Win2000 is close to the best
and
WinXp is the best
Because they are all from MS, they are perfect!
When MS come up with service patches for any of the above, they are all mean to correct bugs or problems in hardware drivers from the hardware manufacturers, it is their fault not MS's
If you get BSOD, blame the hardware manufacturer like Acer, NVidia, Intel and so on or at least blame yourself for not understanding what the message on a BSOD is trying to tell you...
Technically, let's say you get N BSOD on WinXX using machine A and M BSOD from WinYY using machine B, you may take A and B as factors which contribute to N and M but please DO NOT take XX or YY into account, they are suppose to be exempted.
In brief, the whole world can be wrong except MS, especially when O/S is concerned!
If you don't agree with me for the above, the fault could only be yours not mine.
I am sorry for wasting anyone's time to read till this point... :)
IMHO, this is the perfect point to close the thread!
-tslim (October 13, 2006, 11:07 PM)
--- End quote ---
The trouble is there is an element of truth in the comment that 3rd party drivers/non-certified drivers cause problems in all versions of Windows. This is mainly due to the open architecture of Windows boxes allowing all and sundry to produce products.
Having said that MS Is often to blame - many companies simply cannot afford the certification system MS has put into place for their drivers. If a company can afford the certification process (also know as ACC4MS) it stifles all innovation and development in drivers because every version will need to be certified and cost a bundle - so who produces new drivers? In the end you end up with large companies dominating the market producing drivers of ever increasing hideousness (such as ATI and Creative) because they can get away with patching versions over and over again.
The fact is that many drivers are not certified and there are many products that simply do not have certified drivers - what are we supposed to do then.
Personally I think it will get worse in VISTA as it is likely to make it harder to use uncertified drivers - which basically means a lot of products going in the bin.
For example, out of the box VISTA RC1 doesn't recognise my old Linksys 54g cards - you can't get much more standard than Linksys/Cisco WiFi cards - how do you use your computer if you can't get drivers for you network devices? (One of the main reasons I don't use Linux too!)
Mastertech:
I have a stable ME box in the other room. Part of the trick to making it stable was NOT using the WinME drivers that were supplied by Microsoft.
It runs much better with Win95 drivers supplied by the hardware manufacturers. :D-app103 (October 14, 2006, 01:24 AM)
--- End quote ---
That has nothing to do with it. There were no stability issues with the drivers Microsoft supplied with ME so long as you were using the exact hardware they were written for. In the end it is simply a matter of getting the correct Windows ME certified drivers for your hardware WHQL being the best.
Mastertech:
Exactly right app103. The high and mighty myth of using "correct" drivers is nonsense and what has giving WinME a bad name since it is not universal solution.-dk70 (October 14, 2006, 03:37 AM)
--- End quote ---
Using correct Windows ME drivers is the solution to any DRIVER related problems. Not all problems people were having were driver related. Some were BIOS related others were damaged or misconfigured hardware.
Especially gamers will know this. You can do all the right things but it still blows (blew?) WinME WDM drivers were cool for office computers, not for gamers. I once spend a day testing a soundcard. Worked Mastertechnially perfect with MS supplied WDM drivers, computer could even go to sleep and wake up again. Too bad games were unplayable. Big fps loss and poor audio. Solution was to use Win98 VXD drivers - yummy. Very hard to make that driver change btw, WinME/MS insisted on WDM drivers, had to do some hacking I think. WDM were automatically installed during boot, had to delete some inf-file or something. Can look it up. Card was Creative SB10, I seem to remember SBlive card was in more or less same mess at some point. There are similar stories where user were forced to either live with situation, wait for driver solution (may be it will never come) or start to tweak away. Has been feeding WinME hate for years.-dk70 (October 14, 2006, 03:37 AM)
--- End quote ---
Creative Labs has long ago addressed any issues with their drivers for ME. But you have to remember that the WDM drivers were written by Creative Labs any performance issues you may have seen were their fault NOT Microsoft's or ME. Gamers are notorious for not understanding the root of the problem and misplacing blame. If you use a hacked 98 driver in ME and have ANY issues the problem is YOUR FAULT.
OS buyers are not happy about having to tune a freshly released OS. Driver hunting/testing not quality time for majority either. Many really should not touch - will go wrong! Does not help to say they did not have to. Whole WinME problem comes from going by the book yet solution is a pain and possibly risky. Some people just expect things to work out of the box even if it has Microsoft written all over it 8)-dk70 (October 14, 2006, 03:37 AM)
--- End quote ---
Tuning and resolving issues are two different things. Out of the box the PC and OS should be error free. Tuning for maximum performance is a separate issue and not one that the OEM is required to address, unless of course you are buying from an OEM that specializes in high performance rigs.
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