[Lowfer] Re: Soundcard question and Vista

[Ed Tanton]

I can tell y'all a thing or two about Vista: 

1) IF there is a WIN Vista driver for any device (e.g. a Microsoft driver)
you have NO choice: Vista will use that driver, period.
2) If there is NOT a WIN Vista driver for a device, you can load the
device's proprietary driver from its manufacturer.

This does not prove that your proprietary driver will WORK with Vista-just
that you CAN load it.

There are also a couple of other factors about Vista you should all know.
One of the people from one of the companies that we certify for installing
our hardware and software systems installed the medium flavor of Vista
Business on his wife's system. It had been running WIN XP Pro; had an Intel
core-II Duo, 1GB of RAM and an unknown-to-me amount of video RAM in the
video card. 1st (this was several months ago) it took him several weeks to
resolve his common Epson or HP Printer's drivers. When he did get everything
running, he found that the system ran significantly slower than it had with
'XP Pro. It required upgrading to 2GB of RAM, and a 500MB Video RAM video
card to (finally) run a bit faster than it had with WIN XP Pro.

I suggest to our clients (Dental Offices) that there is no SIGNIFICANT
reason for an upgrade to Vista. It DOES provide some improved security, and
probably other minor improvements. The price of those improvements is
obvious from the above paragraph. Personally speaking, I HAVE a core-II Duo.
I have 2 GB of RAM; and I have a 512MB PCI-Express Video card. But I will
not be upgrading to Vista in the foreseeable future. Why? Besides not
knowing if the built-in functions on my Intel motherboard would be
compatible, I have several peripherals I would be concerned about-including
a 4800 dpi Acer ScanWit Film Scanner that uses a SCSI interface. When Vista
1st came out, I was told by the MS Test for Compatibility that I was not
compatible (the ScanWit was not installed at that time-I just hadn't gotten
around to it [story of my life]) because of my extremely common Epson
Professional 1650 'regular' scanner (USB interface.) As an aside: I figure
Epson has-by now-written drivers, but do not know that.

OTOH: Dick has Vista up front. That proves his drivers ARE compatible with
his existing hardware. My primary suggestion Dick is-if it isn't already
installed-to improve your Laptop's memory to 2GB. That you can do. Your
video RAM is what it is, and is unlikely to be upgradable-just like your
audio hardware. I would STRONGLY suggest actually downloading the demo of
VAC before purchase. Nothing I saw in a quick glance at Eugene's website
mentions the word Vista. It might really matter.


73  Ed Tanton N4XY <n4xy at earthlink.net> 
 
Ed Tanton N4XY 
189 Pioneer Trail 
Marietta, GA 30068-3466 
 
website: http://www.n4xy.com 
 
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"Right is right, even if everyone is 
against it; and wrong is wrong, even 
if everyone is for it."

William Penn
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