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Vista 64 Tales The lesson seems to be that Vista 64 works well with a new computer with a factory install, but is vexing to computer enthusiasts who have a wide range of devices that they want to use. I've written in the past about several such issues. And each time I play with Vista 64, I run into a few more challenges. Today I wanted to fix issues with Vista 64 recognizing Tripplite UPS units, install the new Blackberry desktop software, get an IPAQ 6515 to synchronize, and to update my NVidea drivers. Tripplite makes some awesome UPS units. And I have two of the units pictured below. Initially I was using their old version of PowerAlert with limited success. They have updated their site with a Vista ready version of PowerAlert, which was easy to install. It also requires that you have the most recent version of Java. Aside from having to right click on the PowerAlert Console icon and selecting "Run as Administrator" the new software works like the old version did in Windows XP. After the install, you will need to remember that the Vista device manager will discover the UPS units and need you to tell it to search for drivers on your hard drive. Success. The next challenge was installing Blackberry's Desktop Software. That went well enough and before long I was able to sync my Blackberry Pearl with Outlook. Previous issues have been resolved and the solution worked well. Now I can say I am a very happy camper with Blackberry Pearl. The same luck did not hold for my IPAQ 6515. ActiveSync has been replaced by Windows Mobile Device Center. The idea is that one bit of software will allow you to synchronize with a lot of different devices. The site advertises that "Windows Mobile Device Center is compatible with Windows Mobile 2003 devices and later." My IPAQ is a Windows Mobile 2003 device, but was never recognized by Windows Mobile Device Center. I was able to get a driver installed for HP USB device, but could not find any drivers for this particular device that would allow it to be discovered and managed. The final task was to update my Nvidia drivers. I am running two NVidia GeForce 7900 GT/GTO display adapters in an SLI configuration to run three monitors. Previously, I had experienced a problem with video on my primary monitor anytime I tried to get to my screen after the screensaver was running. The primary monitor would not display a screen image and instead presented a cross-hatched pattern. This seems to only affect systems with multiple displays and the work around was to press the Windows (flag) key and "L" key simultaneously, press tab, press tab, and then press enter to get to the logon screen. This would return a normal screen and allow resumption of normal displays. The new driver installed without a hitch. However, after I allowed the machine to sit idle and go into screensaver mode, the problem of the primary screen going into the cross-hatch pattern resumed. Hopefully this will be resolved in a future driver release. It isn't fatal and is only a mild inconvenience, if you know the workaround. At the end of the day, I can say some of my efforts succeeded and some did not. Although there are a number of problems with my Vista install that still need to be resolved with drivers, the overall performance of the new OS is much better than Windows XP. I am running both in a dual boot system and on reboot, Vista 64 is much faster in getting you to a screen where you can start doing something productive. The graphical user interface (GUI) is certainly much more pleasing and the security controls though sometimes annoying, actually have helped prevent a couple of websites from injecting malicious code. Posted by WEBnME @ 2/25/2007 07:51:00 PM 
Permanent Link: http://www.webnme.com/2007/02/vista-64-tales.asp SHARE: 
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