is Win XP 64 worth the hassle

I am getting an Amd 3500 venice next week. I heard a lot of stuff does not work well with XP 64. is that true. I mean hardware wise.

I have heard there are a lot of problems with getting XP 64 to work with your existing hardware. Is that true is it worth the hassle and time getting everything to work. I just got an amd 3500 venice.

The biggest problem I have experienced is driver support and application support. I wouldnt rush into the whole xp 64 bit deal any time soon. By the time driver and app support start to come around we will be getting ever so close to longhorn.

Do you own research, since we can't really do it for you. Make a list of all the internal and external hardware you have, and find out through Microsoft.com and each company's site if they have XP64 drivers or not. You will have your answer then.

Things I've noticed.

1. Driver support
-Yes... X850XTPE (Cat 5.6), nVidia chipset drivers (although I swear the IDE/SATA drivers make the load slower, and others have seen this as well). AMD 64 CPU Driver (I noticed no change), ATiTool.

-No... Logitech drivers wont work (MX Cordless Duo). Windows drivers work, but I cant use all the buttons on the keyboard or mouse. Dell monitor drivers are a no show. But it works fine and I dont really see installing them anyway (USB ports work).

-Sound Cards are hit or miss, I use onboard sound and it words fine, nVidia drivers. I know you can find this out before you get x64, so if your sound card is not supported than you might want to hold off.

2. Programs
-I wont list what I can get to work, but I will list what I can't get to work.
-3dMark, others had no problem, it crashes on my system in the first scene, and its not a video card problem.
-Bad installs, I get an error for every 1 out of 5 programs during the installation but all of these install. FarCry 64bit install works, but it goes NonResponsive in the begining (both files) and eventually (around 1 min) starts to load again.
-AquaMark, if I click on the icon it wont load. Error right away. I dont know how others have done with this.

3. Antivirus / Firewall
-I use Avast! as I am sure many other x64 users do. Its free and works. No AVG, yet. The major players (Norton. etc) are working on it or have them out already.
-Firewall, I use the MSI network adapter with the nVidia chipset firewall. I got the firewall program from nVidia drivers 6.56, but lost networking with the 6.56driver, so use the 6.25 drivers for network adapter. I never tried the 6.37 drivers.
-I noticed that Windows Firewall decided to turn itself back on after I told nVidia to turn it off druing the installation. Turned it off and it hasn't bothered me since.

4. Misc
-I have noticed nothing strange about preformance. FarCry runs flawless except the strange install noted above. HL2 runs flawless.
-32bit... Nero, Everst, CPU-Z, Quicktime, Clockgen, AtiTool all run fine.

-I have problems with Windows Media Player. I go to watch a video off thier "videos" tab (the music videos) and I get a script error. I dont know whos end thats on, but I think Microsoft would fix it.
-I cant get FireFox 64 (deer park?) to run. I dont know if its me or them.

5. Installs
-I hit on some of the problems earlier, but most installations seem to know where they are to go. If its 32bit it goes into the Program Files (x86) folder effortlessly.
-If its a driver and wont work (like the Logitech) it gives you the error "not supported by this OS" right away, so its not half installed and then tell you. That sucks but its nice to know early on.

6. Random
Windows interface is almost identical. Msconfig runs the same, all other Windows tricks run the same. I haven't really done and Regedit things but the interface is the same. I will try skins, and update this but right now I am happy with Windows Classic look.

______________________________________
AMD64 3700+ Clawhammer @ 2.6
Crucial Ballistix 3200 @235 2.5-2-2-10
Msi K8n Neo Plat
Seagate Baracudda 160gb SATA
LiteOn DVD burner, Pioneer DVD
Sapphire X850XTPE
Dell 2005fpw

One thread on the same subject please.

Mods if you could put djnes response in the other thread and delete this one it would all work out.

^ good Lord man...

you've just convinced me to hold off on installing Win XP 64 for a while longer.

Just a note, none of the driver problems are Windows problems. The manufacturers of the individual pieces are to blame. If logitech would get off its ass and make drivers I would have no probelms.

All in all I am happy. I wonder about my 3dmark scores but I can see real world preformance so I really dont care.

^ lemme ask you a question.

you mentioned that not all of the buttons w/ your MX Duo work at this time.

does this mean all the buttons on your mouse dont work or the buttons on the keyboard?

Yeah manufatures dont like to make new drivers for new OSs, they would almost want to drop support for the old items, also the install base on windows 64, is still very low...

But I do think this will get better over time. as for your question, depends if you want to work with the hasle of it.

ninethreeeleven said:

HL2 runs flawless.

Click to expand...

Did you have to install any sort of 64 bit patch for HL2? I'm asking these questions because I think I might go for it anyways. apparently there are 64 bit driver versions for my setup which consists of:

Intel 925XE chipset

X850 XT (PCIe)

Audigy 2 ZS

-all of these things show they are 64 bit supported so I figure, why not? I'll give it a whirl once I get my Win XP 64 bit CD on Tuesday at the AMD roadshow thing in Tampa, FL.

ozziegn said:

^ lemme ask you a question.
....does this mean all the buttons on your mouse dont work or the buttons on the keyboard?

Click to expand...

Both, sort of.

All but the "switch programs" buttons work, although 4 of them do the same thing. The scroll up button and scroll down button does the same thing as scrolling the mouse wheel up or down. I cant bind them to anything else, games read them as scroll up or scroll down. I dont know if this is how it is in XP also, I have only used this mouse in XP64.

The keyboard has way to many keys to begin with. Things that dont work are iTouch (what ever that is) Shopping, Favorites, Webcam. Basically some of the extra buttons that I probably wouldn't use anyway.

What I mean by "they dont work" is that I cant bind them to other things. For instance I dont have a webcam so that button wouldn't work to launch a webcam anyway. But I cant bind it to launch something else. Get it?

ozziegn said:

Did you have to install any sort of 64 bit patch for HL2?

Click to expand...

There is no HL2 64 anything that I am aware of. It just runs fine from install. I could get you a screen shot, but you would be better off looking at Valves webpage because there is no difference.

Right now, IMHO, is the toddler stage of XP64, it was concieved, born and now its learning. Still having problems but its getting better. Soon enough companies will start to create more and more things that actually utilize the 64bit architecture and then it will be well worth it. Also remember that when Longhorn does come out its going to have some flaws too. I got this to hold me over until Longhorn hits its SP1 stage, then IMO it will be worth it, not to mention on sale.

hey its free y not

Ram usage is increased somewhat on 64 bit windows. I would only make the upgrade if all of the following were true:

1. You have drivers for your hardware. The main things that don't have drivers are wifi adapters, tv tuners, and logitech mice and keyboards.

2. You have 1GB or more of RAM.

Thanks you all convinced not to do it.

4 Installs no problems what so ever. No incompatible programs, no driver issues, and feels snappier.

If by wifi adapters you me pci cards, then I cant comment but my wireless router runs fine.

no. now look up a couple threads (i guess down after i post) and read that one.

Lestang, only do one thread of the same topic/type next time. I've merged the two together, but if you want it cleaned up, you'll need to edit your own posts.

Logitech has 64 bit drivers out in response to your post..

Spectre said:

4 Installs no problems what so ever. No incompatible programs, no driver issues, and feels snappier.

Click to expand...

Agreed.

After my what ever time reinstalling win XP off the upgrade disc and being told to yet again contact MS support i took the dive and spent the money for XP64.

Honostly, i could be happier, sure, but as far as operating systems go, this has been very kind.

First off is vanilla driver support, it now stretches so you dont need to install dumb drivers like ethernet on new boards. I can happily say you dont need any driver discs with just about any motherboard. Just boot up, go online and get what you want.

As far as lack of driver support. I havent noticed it with the exception of small devices like webcams. Im having some issues with uninstalling/reinstalling videocard drivers but im thinking they're on ATI's end. But thats all i can really say.

BitDefender (antivirus; though windows doesnt recognize it such as SP2 and winXP so you have to set it to manual; very simple, no hastle), every game i have loaded, any IM programs, all audio and video *comment below* files work flawlessly.

Small Motherboard things like clock and temp/voltage monitoring problably wont work until they support them. Asus has yet to do this.

There are also some hidden things im noticing around the OS that WinXP lacks, just small, but over all it looks like a more polished version.

I have one major gripe and thats to my knowledge there is no DivX decoder support which is used in alot of video decoding, or at least for me. This shocked me on the part of DivX. However i did find a bypass by installing a program called "FFDshow" which runs in Win64 and supports all versions of DivX needed.

My only other small problem is the half ass support Creative did on their Win64 drivers. The sound itself is just the same as WinXP, but its a rougher looking group of options to mess with. Something on par with a third party and nothing like the Creative Console under WinXP. All the major required functions are there, but it still pretty lazy on the part of Creative.

Internet Explorer 64-Bit is much faster, load pages instantly, the versions comes with both and its easily noticable. This was a nice treat.

To be honost, it can always be improved, as with any Microsoft Operating system, and compared to WinXP, it problably isnt worth it unless you find yourself in the situation to use it. I really disagree strongly with people saying its lacking the drivers, everything major is there. Sound, graphic, ethernet, required motherboard drivers such as Nforce4, all have support out for this OS. If you have a wide array of small devices, best to research first and find out what you might loose if anything.

Is it worth it as a straight update? Not really. But it has been more then fine as an operating system is conserned.