Sad but true, Another X64 tale.

October 4, 2007

Like many other before me, I decided it was time to get a 64 bit system.

I got a combo from the "Geeks" which I placed in an old enclosure with

a new power supply. The combo wouldn't load winxp 32, win 98 or

anything else. It wouldn't even boot a hard drive with win xp on it.

Good thing MS offered a trial 64 bit XP. I downloaded it, burned it,

loaded it and "poof"! I have a 64 bit operating system. The video is

on the motherboard and the LED mouse works fine as does the ethernet

adapter (onboard as well). As a matter of fact, as an internet browser

it's just great, but not noticebly better than my old socket A 1 gig

duron set up.

It's just wonderful! Everything works! (unless you want to add a

peripheral like a printer, a network card, a video capture card, a

bluetooth adapter, a serial port adapter; actually 100% of the devices

I tried to install didn't load.)

I was going to try to load some regular software, but whats the point?

I can't print, copy, scan, send or retrieve anything unless it goes

through my old stand-by computer anyway, and even then, it didn't like

the way I set up the LAN. But I threatened to take away 1 gig of

memory and it finally let itself be recognized by the network.

I spent one day trying to get drivers that would work with any device.

Even the Vista 64 bit drivers wouldn't work. It was like giving myself

a wedgie, only faster!

So, I thought I would just buy device that would work with win 64. Try

that!

The amount of time I have spent looking at specs (and not finding x64)

is going against the faster speed and reliability of the OS. (which is

a misnomer, sure it's reliable and stable, it doesn't DO anything.) I

will be too old to see the screen and probably won't care when I escape

from the nursing home to get the first compatible usb device!

The funny thing is that when you look at the new systems for sale, most

of them are 64 bit. Probably Vista though, but way too slow. Does Linux

have a 64 bit OS?

So if anyone knows where a feller can buy a x64 wireless G usb dongle,

you know where I'll be....

--

sazzbot

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October 4, 2007

Re: Sad but true, Another X64 tale.

I suggest you try to find out why you couldn't load XP 86 as millions have

it installed on 64-bit platforms. You might get help in the

microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup

"sazzbot" <sazzbot.2xycjg@DoNotSpam.com> wrote in message

news:sazzbot.2xycjg@DoNotSpam.com...

>

> Like many other before me, I decided it was time to get a 64 bit system.

> I got a combo from the "Geeks" which I placed in an old enclosure with

> a new power supply. The combo wouldn't load winxp 32, win 98 or

> anything else. It wouldn't even boot a hard drive with win xp on it.

> Good thing MS offered a trial 64 bit XP. I downloaded it, burned it,

> loaded it and "poof"! I have a 64 bit operating system. The video is

> on the motherboard and the LED mouse works fine as does the ethernet

> adapter (onboard as well). As a matter of fact, as an internet browser

> it's just great, but not noticebly better than my old socket A 1 gig

> duron set up.

> It's just wonderful! Everything works! (unless you want to add a

> peripheral like a printer, a network card, a video capture card, a

> bluetooth adapter, a serial port adapter; actually 100% of the devices

> I tried to install didn't load.)

> I was going to try to load some regular software, but whats the point?

> I can't print, copy, scan, send or retrieve anything unless it goes

> through my old stand-by computer anyway, and even then, it didn't like

> the way I set up the LAN. But I threatened to take away 1 gig of

> memory and it finally let itself be recognized by the network.

> I spent one day trying to get drivers that would work with any device.

> Even the Vista 64 bit drivers wouldn't work. It was like giving myself

> a wedgie, only faster!

>

> So, I thought I would just buy device that would work with win 64. Try

> that!

> The amount of time I have spent looking at specs (and not finding x64)

> is going against the faster speed and reliability of the OS. (which is

> a misnomer, sure it's reliable and stable, it doesn't DO anything.) I

> will be too old to see the screen and probably won't care when I escape

> from the nursing home to get the first compatible usb device!

>

> The funny thing is that when you look at the new systems for sale, most

> of them are 64 bit. Probably Vista though, but way too slow. Does Linux

> have a 64 bit OS?

>

> So if anyone knows where a feller can buy a x64 wireless G usb dongle,

> you know where I'll be....

>

> --

> sazzbot

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

> sazzbot's Profile: http://forums.techarena.in/member.php?userid=32308

> View this thread: http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=828780

>

> http://forums.techarena.in

>

October 4, 2007

Re: Sad but true, Another X64 tale.

The list of printers that work is long and well documented. And the

workarounds for ones that don't work directly are also well documented.

(I've been keeping a blog of such things for well over 2 years now.) Of

course, if you buy a printer that uses "host based printing", you're out of

luck. And scanners are the pits and still very badly supported, I'd agree.

But there are options that work.

Network cards? Please. I haven't seen a modern ethernet card that isn't

supported. There are wireless that aren't, but equally ones that are. And

there are USB NICs that aren't supported, but frankly who cares.

Video capture? There are a couple that work, I believe. Carlos will probably

weigh in with those.

Bluetooth? well, if that didn't work, I wouldn't have a mouse! Yes, there

are bluetooth devices that don't work. But many do.

Serial port adapter? How about using one of those USB<->Serial adapters.

I'm pretty sure they work. I'm not surprised that generic PCI serial port

cards don't - there just isn't all that much market or call for them in the

64bit world at this point.

Do your homework. Intelligent buying decisions will make you fully

functional. Keep in mind that the folks on this newsgroup have been running

Windows x64, primarily XP x64, for well over 2 years. So saying it can't be

done isn't likely to cut it here. Now, asking about specific hardware or

types of hardware and what might good choices be? That will get you help.

That's what we do.

--

Charlie.

http://msmvps.com/xperts64

http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/charlie.russel