Windows Now

August 2006 - Posts

• 5536 and Marvell Yukon NIC Cards

  Posted by Chris Holmes to Chris's Corner on Aug 27 2006, 01:27 AM

  Anyone who has installed Vista 5536 on a machine with a Marvell Yukon NIC knows that it has issues, you cannot browse websites or really do anything functional on the network.  One easy way to fix it is to of course install the XP NIC Drivers.  The other way however, lets you keep the Vista driver and just fix the root of the problem.  Here's how to do it:

  1. Go to Start -- Run and type "devmgmt.msc" without quotes.
  2. Expand Network Adapters
  3. Right Click the Marvell device and go to properties.
  4. Click on the advanced tab.
  5. Select IPv4 Checksum Offload and set the Value to Disabled.
  6. Hit ok and enjoy!

  NOTE: This may also work for people who have Realtek network devices and are experiencing hard system lock-ups when doing anything on the network.  No promises there but I can confirm this works 100% for Marvell.
  

  3,717 Views

• Windows Vista 5536.16385 Guide

  Posted by Chris Holmes to Chris's Corner on Aug 26 2006, 12:53 PM

  It's done!  The tweak guide for 5536 has been finished.  I would like to thank Kristan Kenney for his many contributions as well as Dena Reiter for helping me out with the wording as well as proofreading the guide as a whole :).

  This guide has a lot of tips to help you get the most from your Windows Vista experience.  I really hope you enjoy it and as always, feedback is more than welcome.

  View: Windows Vista Build 5536 Guide
  

  2,494 Views

• Vista and the Screensaver: The Answer

  Posted by Chris Holmes to Chris's Corner on Aug 22 2006, 05:56 PM

  In my previous post on this topic, I discussed the screensaver in Vista (as well as XP MCE 2k5) not working with the Microsoft Cordless Laser 6000 KB/Mouse combo from Microsoft.  Since then I have been doing some further investigation into what exactly is the cause of the issue.  Well, I found it.  It turns out that with this KB/Mouse setup and a few others released around the same time they introduced a new "Microsoft Wireless Desktop Receiver 3.0A".  Previous wireless sets had the 2.0A receiver, and I just happened to have one of these old receivers lying around.  Plugged it in, aquired signal with my devices and walked out of the room.  When I came back 5 minutes later, the screensaver was working as I would expect it to.  So it's the receiver, not the keyboard or the mouse.  When I called Microsoft support about the issue, they said it is known but have no plans to fix the issue and outright refused to send me a working receiver.  I guess they don't need the business, or they just like pissing people off, but either way, they know about the problem but they don't want to do anything about it as usual.

  Apparently the issue is something to do with the 3.0A receiver conflicting with the ehtray.exe process on any version of XP/Vista equipped with Media Center.

  Just figured everyone should know, so now you can at least stop pulling your hair out trying to find the real culprit.
  

  29,535 Views

• Expectations for Vista RC1

  Posted by Chris Holmes to Chris's Corner on Aug 19 2006, 07:15 PM

  As you have probably already seen over at Brandon Leblanc's blog, we had a rather interesting discussion about our expectations for RC1.  We all pretty much agreed on the fact that RC1 has to prove to be stable, and I mean REALLY stable.  But on top of that there has to be consistency throughout the whole user interface.  As people have already pointed out, things like the Install new fonts dialog are reminiscent of Windows NT 3.51 (NT 3.51 because of the long filename support).  Vista is Microsoft's chance to change their reputation of horribly inconsistent UI's and give us something that is truly unified and looks like it all fits together in the same puzzle.

  People wonder why Apple users always poke fun at the Windows UI?  Well it's because of inconsistency (and the fact that Luna was just plain ugly but that's another story for another day).

  So in short, my expectations for Vista RC1 are for it to be very stable and have the performance of an OS that the average person can use day to day (mind you I have been using Vista full time since 5342).  I also want to see a unified interface, no more dialogs or icons from ancient versions of windows.  Windows team, I am not asking you to change the underlying code at all, just make everything consistent!  Laziness is not the way to create a good operating system.
  

  4,398 Views

• Windows Vista and the Screensaver

  Posted by Chris Holmes to Chris's Corner on Aug 06 2006, 07:13 PM

  This is a funny story, and I thought I'd tell everyone about it, because this is something that has been driving me insane for MONTHS and the solution was so freakin simple.

  Anyway, the big problem I've been having with Vista is my screensaver not working since build 5381, it just would not kick in, I Checked everything, made sure there was nothing preventing the system from idling etc..  I was playing around the other day and it hit me.  Right after 5381 was released, I bought a Microsoft Laser Desktop 6000 KB/Mouse combo.  No, it can't be that I thought.  Well just for kicks I plugged the PS/2 portion of the wireless reciever in for the keyboard and left the USB as was (essentially making the keyboard PS/2 and the mouse USB).  Still no screensaver, so I figured, OK let's yank the USB plug.  2 minutes after yanking the cable the screensaver kicked in.  It was the mouse the whole time.  Solution?  Went out and got myself a Logitech G7 Laser (AWESOME Mouse btw, and the setpoint software works on Vista).

  And for anyone wondering, I did some research into the problem, apparently this issue affects any machine running Media Center with this keyboard/Mouse combo.  If you kill ehtray.exe, the screensaver will kick in, but then your MCE Remote won't work.

  Bottom line, don't buy Microsoft hardware, lately they can't even get it to work right with their own software it seems.
  

  27,420 Views