So, my PC finally died and I got the opportunity to get the laptop I’ve always wanted. Well, not the laptop necessarily, but a laptop. Mr. BEG found a gaming rig that has features I wanted for a pretty good deal (display model $200 cheaper than listed on website) last night. I’m happy with it (and that’s the important thing), but how’d he do? So, now I’m sitting here playing around with it, trying to learn what I need to know about laptops and Vista. Tips and basic info is appreciated.
I’ve managed to get my wireless keyboard and mouse working, but I can’t seem to get my LCD monitor detected in Windows Mobility Center. I downloaded and installed the Vista driver for it, but still nothing. What am I doing wrong? Eventually, I’ll probably get a docking station, but for now it’s old school style.
Oh, and Vista is weird. If it’s supposed to be intuitive, it’s not, really, for a long-time Windows user switching from XP. I can’t figure out the start menu. How do I customize the programs menu? I don’t like messy lists.
Brown Eyed Girl: From what I remember of your posts that I’ve run across, you seem like a really nice person, so I’m going to go ahead and give you my best advice about Vista:
Get yourself an installation disc of Windows XP somewhere. Make sure you have the serial number handy.
If only. I did exactly that and it turned out that XP lacked device drivers. Naturally, I had no installation disks and had not made my emergency boot disks. Finally, the dealer (that I have an excellent relationship with) took it back and using repeated phone calls to Toshiba (who couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to downgrade to XP) finally got all the necessary drivers. It cost me a pretty penny, but at least I have not had to deal with Vista since. I got a copy of XP at the MS emplyee store for $35, but the last time I asked my son, he told me they were no longer selling it. My next computer will likely be one of those mini laptops that come with XP installed. Meantime, I will keep my large laptop as long as possible. I can’t imagine why MS has taken this tack, nor why the manufacturers haven’t perceived that they are losing business this way.
Anyway, be warned. The suggestion is not easy to carry out. The longer time goes on, the less certain it will be that the new hardware even has had device drivers written for them. My vendor had to get the screen driver from one computer, the Wi-Fi from another and the mousepad driver from a third, etc.
Bill Gates used to muse publicly that he woke up every morning asking himself, “Is today the day that we lost our edge and start the long decline that eventually affects every organization?” Well, I think that the day they released Vista was that day. And they made it worse when they stopped selling XP.
I’ve been told both “lose Vista” and “reinstalling XP is a nightmare” from several people in meat space as well. I am usually one of those people who upgrades my OS kicking and screaming. For now, I’m going to see what all the fuss is about. I will say this, it’s pretty.
I got my external monitor to work and am learning to get around the “security features” to get my own brand of security installed (Comodo and aVast, tyvm). The nagging was irritating, but that’s gone now.
Everything seems to be going swimmingly so far. My Asus plays WoW like a gem: 60 fps in Dalaran. I asked Mr. BEG if they fixed the server in the last few weeks I was out of WoW and he laughed at me. And I found Mah Jongg…oh that will keep me busy for awhile.
I’m off to get all the scuttlebutt on Vista now after I hit the gym.
Do you mean an external monitor? Many laptops have a keyboard command to switch between the built-in display and external monitor (usually 3 modes: internal, external, both). Windows may only detect the external monitor if you use this switch. On mine it’s Fn-F8.
You could try the classic mode for the start menu. Right click on the Start button -> Properties -> Start Menu, then select Classic Start Menu.
I have to say though, I haven’t found a single thing in Vista that I consider an improvement over XP. I’ve had two laptops come with Vista and eventually replaced both with XP.
The first two things I do with every XP computer I’ve owned is to configure it to use the classic Windows “theme” (right click desktop; the “Themes” tab should be showing by default when the Display Properties box comes up. Select “Windows Classic” in the drop-down list box labeled “Theme”, click “Apply” and Bob’s-yer-uncle) and classic start menu. For me it’s as much aesthetics as familiarity and ease of use; from XP’s release date on I’ve always gotten the impression that the default XP UI was designed by Fisher-Price, and I refuse to use it.
Apropos the OP’s comment that Vista isn’t intuitive for an experienced Windows user transitioning from XP… I don’t know how long you’ve been using Windows, but that’s a “feature” that’s been in every new release of Windows since the transition from Windows 3.1X on (based on my experience: Win 3.1, Win 95, Win 98 and XP). Basically, Microsoft’s never learned how to leave well enough alone, and insists on making some kind of change in the user interface that’s going to completely confuse the user for the first several weeks/months (or longer). This isn’t just a feature of Microsoft’s operating systems, as long time users of the MS Office suite can testify (the transition from Office 2003 to Office 2007 is especially jarring)…
Thanks for the tip, I’ll give that a try. The webcam is built-in, so I’m not sure who the manufacturer would be if not Asus. It’s listed in the specs as simply a generic USB webcam. However, I tried the Asus download site, microsoft’s site, the update driver button in device manager, and google. No luck finding a compatible driver for Vista, but I thought I saw one for XP, so I’ll give that a shot.
Ha! I used to do that as well. I’m actually kind of enjoying the new look. It’s sleek and feels fresh after staring at my tweaked UI for so many years. I might have to go classic though, in order to do some necessary tweaking to the cluttered start menu.
You know I would have thought that now that Bill is getting on in years, he would lobby for transitional ease between releases. Nothing makes you feel quite the neophyte like not being able to find the doc you just saved. I could have sworn I have been using PCs since puberty! :smack:
ETA: And I gave up on the bloated Office suite years ago, but I know what you mean.
Don’t try to use xp drivers on windows vista. this is not a good idea.
Every hardware component you have should have a proper vista driver. First make sure you have the latest drivers form ASUS for things like the chipset, the network card, the webcam, etc.
With the webcam, make sure that orientation of the image is not some type of setting. Is there a pdf on the hard drive with the webcam manual, maybe? Do you have a support number you can call?
Also get the latest video drivers form the GPU manufacturer website, not ASUS. If it’s a nvidia card, go to the nvidia website, if it’s an ATI card go to the ati website. finally, make sure vista is fully up to date.
It seems like the webcam issue is your only real issue so far and I doubt that’s Vista’s fault. I’m not sure why everyone immediately comes in to decry the OS.
The start menu is one fo the best improvements IMHO: you don’t need to use the programs menu. Click on the circle and immediately start typing anything you are looking for: type n-o-t and note pad will pop up for example.
And if you really don’t like it for some reason, you can go back to the xp style by right clicking and choosing the classic style option.
And stop paying attention to the naysayers. I’m sure when XP came out they were holding on to their copies of windows 98 with a death like grip.
The thing is that I don’t think that attitude is part of Microsoft’s corporate culture; they’re all very enamored of newness for newness’s sake. And Bill’s pretty much transitioned from day-to-day management of Microsoft to running the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, last I looked.
For my own purposes, I just about never use a word processor. Any documents I need to generate can be handled by a text editor (but my job doesn’t require my preparing any documents more sophisticated than a simple memorandum).
Thanks for the info and encouragement. I was one of those people who switched to XP kicking and screaming. I don’t handle OS change all that well, generally. However, despite what I’ve heard, Vista came with my laptop and I’m willing to give it a chance to make me happy.
As to your advice:
Update drivers. Good point. I haven’t yet updated all the various device drivers because a) I figured they weren’t related to the webcam issue and everything else seems to be running okay and b) I figured if something needed updating, I’d be nagged about it or it would get updated on an as needed basis. Fortunately, ASUS drivers for my notebook are easily found. I’ll get on this.
As to the webcam, I can’t see any orientation settings. There didn’t even appear to be webcam software pre-loaded, so I downloaded (from ASUS) one called LifeFrame, which controls the camera, and ASUS Virtual Camera, which has settings to fine tune the image (but not orientation).
I have found no manual that covers the webcam. The paper manual I have is pretty thin and I havent’ found any pdf files. So, I downloaded the most recent manual from ASUS. It’s the same version as my paper manual. sigh
My husband and a couple other people have suggested that they installed the camera upside down, which seems like an easy answer to the problem and no way to actually confirm independent of the symptom. I’d also think that judging from the fact that this issue has been reported for at least a few years in several different notebooks, ASUS would have figured out there might be an issue with manufacturing by now, and corrected it. Who knows?
My next step, I guess, is to contact ASUS and find out what their support has to say about it.
As a matter of fact, I’m a firm believer in the principle that anyone who moves to a new Microsoft operating system before the release of Service Pack 2 for same OS is a fool who deserves any/all trouble s/he has with her/his system.
And I run openSUSE 11.0 at home. If I could, I’d run it at work, but we’re an MS shop.
