Windows XP 64?

[The Doctor]

A friend of mine is bringing his new, custom-built PC over this evening for me to look at. Apparently he's having sound problems with Windows 7. If we can't get it working, he wants to put XP 64-bit on there.

I seem to recall XP 64 not being very good. Have things changed any in the time since its release?

I already told him I think he'd be better served by falling back to XP32, but I'm afraid he might have 4GB+ of RAM installed.

My *preferred* solution would be to just buy an inexpensive sound card and stick with Windows 7, but he probably won't go for that.

[burger]

I had tons of problems with it where as my experience with Vista 64 and Windows 7 has been issue free.

Most of my problems with XP 64 centered around hardware and drivers.

[biosc1]

Windows 7 64 is better than Vista 64 which was still better than XP 64.

I would definitely just tell him to get a cheap known-working sound card.

[RandoM51]

People who buy 4GB of ram and then force themselves to use a 64bit OS solely for that reason deserve what they get.

He doesn't need technical help, he needs counseling.

[burger]

Originally Posted by RandoM51

People who buy 4GB of ram and then force themselves to use a 64bit OS solely for that reason deserve what they get.

He doesn't need technical help, he needs counseling.

Seeing as that's the primary advantage of a 64 bit OS you might want to clarify your opinion.

[Goronmon]

I would buy a new sound card rather than downgrade from Win7.

[RandoM51]

Originally Posted by burger

Seeing as that's the primary advantage of a 64 bit OS you might want to clarify your opinion.

The primary advantage is that it makes use of ram he bought that he didn't need? Interesting.

In other words, people going 64bit OS because they have >2GB of ram are putting out a fire with gasoline. They're "solving" one bad decision with another bad decision.

The real reason to go 64bit is because you have an application that mandates it. What 64bit application is driving his requirements in this case? Once you know that you can find out how well and/or if it will run ok on 64bit XP.

Then you can decide whether or not switching to 64bit XP is a better solution than ponying up the money for a sound solution that works with Windows 7.

[burger]

Originally Posted by RandoM51

The primary advantage is that it makes use of ram he bought that he didn't need? Interesting..

When was it established he didn't need 4 gigs? Interesting..

Originally Posted by RandoM51

In other words, people going 64bit OS because they have >2GB of ram are putting out a fire with gasoline. They're "solving" one bad decision with another bad decision..

Presumptuous and wrong for more reasons than I care to address (pun not intended).

[RandoM51]

Originally Posted by burger

When was it established he didn't need 4 gigs? Interesting..

It was established when applications weren't mentioned at all. The subtext is somebody who built a custom PC using a bigger is better mentality across the board without an appreciation for what actually is better for whatever he intends to do with the machine.

He's in the same boat with the people who bought Q6600 processors.

[Vigil80]

That seems like a pretty narrow view, Random, if only because it's his money and he should spend it however makes him happy. The question wasn't whether 4GB+ of RAM was a smart buy.

Like others said, urge him to replace his sound card with one that works, if you can't get it working. Having just switched to Win7 64 myself, I can say it's worth a sound hardware change/upgrade to keep it. Why go back when he's already spent the cash on 7?

If he won't go for that and is determined to go back to XP, he should just go back to 32 bit as well. I have a hard time imagining that XP 64 would have fewer problems than Win7 64. XP 32 may still recognize as much as 3¾GB of his 4GB of RAM. (Assuming he has 4GB and not more.)

Then shrug, knowing you did all you could.

[RandoM51]

Originally Posted by burger

Presumptuous and wrong for more reasons than I care to address (pun not intended).

Wrong? Few problematic systems are made better by adding complexity, by adding more points of failure, by adding more incompatibilities.

Originally Posted by Vigil80

That seems like a pretty narrow view, Random, if only because it's his money and he should spend it however makes him happy.

Sounds like he doesn't have any money left to spend if he is considering switching to XP 64 to "fix" a sound problem. Seems to me he'd be pretty happy right now with a 32bit system with 2GB of ram that actually did what he wanted it to instead of what he ended up with. Sticking to 64bit without an application driving the decision---and there may be one but it hasn't been mentioned in this thread, only mention has been a desire to use all of the 4GB he purchased---is shooting himself in the foot.

I've just watched so many people go down this road before. He'll regret it a year from now if he doesn't regret it already.

[Seika]

I've had to deal with XP 64bit at my previous job.

Fuck that thing, fuck it to hell!


So many countless hours trying to hack some program to get it to run, only for it to break the next day.

Is he having trouble with on-board sound?
I'm pretty sure Win7 has some really good driver support for on-board.
If it's a creative sound card, then you're out of luck.

I would suggest buying a cheap stand-alone sound card.
Don't go with XP 64bit, getting the sound drivers to work will be the least of his problems.

[Grifter]

Originally Posted by RandoM51

Wrong? Few problematic systems are made better by adding complexity, by adding more points of failure, by adding more incompatibilities.

If you want to help then help if you're just going to make snarky, worthless comments find another place to troll.

[nabokovfan87]

Perhaps you should post what the issue is with the sound, maybe we can help fix it.

Arguing with Random hasn't seemed to fix anything.

I wouldn't touch XP anymore, win7 is much improved.

[RandoM51]

Originally Posted by Grifter

If you want to help then help if you're just going to make snarky, worthless comments find another place to troll.

Troll? I'm just trying to inject some common sense. Then again, I spent 20 years designing, implementing, and maintaining systems. Perhaps the sense I'm talking about isn't so common.

My experience leads me to believe that the only logical reasons to go to 64bit XP from Win7 have to be driven by application needs, particularly in the case of a newly built system. We're not talking legacy hardware here where there might be something with only an XP 64bit driver.

Let's pretend that going back to XP 64bit will solve his sound problem. Is anybody comfortable stating that this will not introduce any other problems? Is there even any confidence that it will fix the sound problem?

Whenever I see a customer making a bad decision like that I try to get them to take another look at their requirements. Most of the time even if it seems like the right thing to do, it is for the wrong reasons, and becomes fairly obvious after taking a step back and reevaluating.

But hey, that is just the voice of experience. Pardon me for not sugar coating it.

[Vigil80]

In the interests of not sugar coating things, there's a difference between not sugar coating and sounding like a jerk. That's where the issue lay for these folks, I believe. Teaching takes a little finesse.

If we take those middle three paragraphs of yours and insert them at the very beginning instead, everything flows much better.

[The Doctor]

Thanks for the feedback everybody. I haven't seen his system yet, but XP64 was an idea he advanced and I wanted to know if it was even an option worth leaving on the table before I got into things. With any luck, I'll get the sound problem fixed, and XP won't even be an issue.

I think I'll try to just keep him on Win7 no matter what. I'll play around with some liveCDs to see if the sound issues are isolated to Windows or if it's in the hardware. If the stuff's all new, an RMA shouldn't be too tough to handle. He can still plug away on his iMac while he waits.

[Vanthar]

XP64 was a compatibility nightmare from what I remember. I'd do your best to make what he's got work. As someone mentioned before, a description of the sound issues may be useful if you would like some help solving them.

[J Arcane]

XP64 is a piece of shit. I have never known a single person who used it and didn't have problems.

Is the sound that's having issues onboard, or did he actually pay for a soundcard in this day and age?

[The Doctor]

Originally Posted by Vanthar

XP64 was a compatibility nightmare from what I remember. I'd do your best to make what he's got work. As someone mentioned before, a description of the sound issues may be useful if you would like some help solving them.

No matter what we did, the system would never recognize that speakers were plugged into the analog jacks (front or back) and he couldn't play any sound. I tried the SPDIF connection as well, and no sound came out of that.

He'd already tried a Win 7 reinstall, and I tried playing with the mixers, multiple versions of the drivers, a BIOS update, fiddling with BIOS settings, unplugging the front jacks, and booting into Ubuntu, and we never got any sound.

Ended up RMAing the motherboard. I'm going to assume (hope) the audio part is just bad.