AdventuresInVista
Hints, Tips & Tricks for Microsoft Windows Vista

Vista Upgrade prob: update SCSI controller drivers
15 May 2007 in Compatibility & Installation | Comments (2)

When trying to upgrade your PC to Windows Vista, the Compatibility Checker may ask you to update the D347PRT and/or A347SCSI SCSI controller drivers (D247PRT in my case).

After some investigation, it turns out these drivers are actually virtual SCSI device drivers, installed by Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120% (whatever that is).

To continue the upgrade, you must first uninstall Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120%. Once you’ve done that, restart the Vista upgrade, and everything will go swimmingly!

Need device drivers? Visit RadarSync!
14 May 2007 in Compatibility & Installation | Comments (0)

This past weekend I decided to install Vista Business on one of the computers in the office. It was mid-afternoon on Saturday, and I was tired and bored.

It went swimmingly well once I’d found the product key on MSDN, right up until the point where I needed to install the graphics driver for my Matrox Millenium G450 Dual-Head card. It’s a really old card, and I suddenly realised the chances of getting a Vista driver were pretty remote.

So I googled, and came across RadarSync.

RadarSync are a company offering automatic updating tools for computers. A bit like Windows Update, but for device drivers. Their website includes a FREE Windows Vista driver repository. All the drivers you could ever need, organised by manufacturer and available right there to download.

I found the Matrox driver straight away, installed it, and I was done.

I’ve bookmarked this place, and I think it should be in everyone’s Favourites!

Visit www.radarsync.com now, or go directly to their Vista Drivers page.

All operating systems begin with the installation…
15 February 2007 in Installation | Comments (0)

…unless of course you’ve bought a new PC with it preinstalled!

For those of us not in that situation, we must buy a copy of the new operating system and either install it ourselves or find someone else who can (local techy geek, anyone?).

The installation is the “first impression”, the appetiser if you will. So you would expect it to be fairly slick.

In the case of Vista, well… I’m not sure that’s the case. In my experience, installing Vista on a clean PC - it was painless. It took roughly 2 hours from start to finish, and when it had finished it worked perfectly.

I have heard other reports though. A friend of mine recently did an upgrade on one of his PCs. It took 9 hours!!! Most of that was software and hardware compatibility checking - he kept having to uninstall bits of software and then retry the installation. Some serious bits of software were removed too - Nero (CD writing package), his Antivirus software, and a bunch of other stuff. Not what you want from a new operating system!

That said, he seemed happy with Vista once the installation had completed, and personally I’m very impressed. I hope to do an upgrade installation myself soon, and I’ll post my experience here when I do.

In the meantime, lets hope Vista continues to impress!

Dan