Thinking about upgrading to Vista or getting a new PC?

3-Mar-2007

[Barrett 50BMG]

I love how fast Windows Media Player 11 rips my music and sorts them for me... I rip them to MP3 at 192 Kbps it's SO fast , at it automatically gets the song titles and album covers and everything pretty cool.

[aft_lizard]

No.You usually just send a private mail or ask on a thread to be added

[aft_lizard]

I havent tried that yet, I am testing various DVD rippers though to see if I can back my dvd's up on Vista, so far no good.

[Barrett 50BMG]

"I havent tried that yet, I am testing various DVD rippers though to see if I can back my dvd's up on Vista, so far no good."

You want AnyDVD and CloneDVD2 go to slysoft.com you will get a free 21day trial, it's fully functional software you will be able to backup your entire DVD collection have fun.

[Barrett 50BMG]

I already backed up my entire DVD collection with the 21day trial. on Vista.

[Barrett 50BMG]

AnyDVD also works with HD-DVD as well "HA!"

[twin2]

Thanks! I went to the HP site and got the printer working....now to battle the registration issue. I appreciate your help.

[Barrett 50BMG]

Also, my HP 750 printer from 2002 does not seem compatible with vista. I tried installing it and it says it can't find the correct operating system. Do I need to buy a new printer too?

look

[Zuben Elgenubi]

I figure this Windows2000 is good to 2010 or so. Good, stable operating system.

[dennisw]

HP is very very good on new printer drivers. Printers are prime business for them. You will have a Vista driver soon.

I've seen 13 year old HP laser printers with XP drivers for them

[RedCell]

Also, my HP 750 printer from 2002 does not seem compatible with vista. I tried installing it and it says it can't find the correct operating system. Do I need to buy a new printer too?

Welcome to my personal hell. I bought my wife a new entry level laptop a few weeks back (Compaq Presario C501NR). It came with Vista basic. I did some basic research but not as much as I should have.

First of all, I had to get a memory upgrade to bump the system up to 1GB RAM. It came with 512MB and there's no way you can run that OS and have anything left for other programs. No big deal as the memory was cheap and was easy to slap in.

Then I went to install the HP Jet Suite program on the laptop. Jet Suite is the application "control center" for my HP 3150 multifunction printer. I have that printer hooked up to an HP Jet Direct 170x printer sharing box which allows it to sit on the network with an IP address. As long as my systems have that Jet Suite program on it, I can set up the printer. I have 3 other systems in the house, all with XP Pro SP2 and no issues getting the printer to work. However, the software won't install on the Vista system as it's not compatible.

No problem, I think to my self. I can just manually add a printer and direct it to the IP I have on the Jet Direct box and install a universal driver. I go to type in the IP, Vista comes back and says "Hey, that's an HP 3150 I see over there. Would you like to install the driver?" Whew! Finally! I click yes and it comes back and says "HA-HA... Fooled ya! Not gonna happen". Of course I'm paraphrasing here but you get the drift.

I go onto do my research and low and behold... HP won't be developing any drivers for my perfectly fine HP 3150. I called HP and asked if there's any other driver I can use (which I already tried but thought I might be missing something) and they told me that because of the way the Jet Suite software controls the printer, that a straight-up driver won't work.

Ok... so where does that leave me? I have to buy a new printer. And of course I can't get anything simple like an HP 1018 or 1020. Noooo... those aren't networkable (which is a must for my situation). Even if I could squeeze one of those stand-alone toaster-sized printers onto my wife's desk, the affordable (read that as I'm kinda pissed that I have to drop even MORE cash onto this venture and am trying to find a cheap solution) Vista compatible. Of course the marketing material says they're Vista ready, but the technical pages say a driver hasn't been written yet.

I asked HP/Compaq if I could downgrade my system to XP Pro and they said the system was specifically designed for Vista and that I'd be opening a huge can of worms if I tried. I'm not sure I completely buy the first part of that but the second part is more than likely spot-on. Anyway, it's enough for me to keep from trying it. With me, adventures like that always turn out like that muddy slide down the mountain a-la Romancing the Stone

The moral of the story, I think, is that you need to do ALL your compatibility homework before dropping any cash on anything having to do with the Vista OS.

Here are a couple of links that may prove useful. Careful, the first one "requires" a Microsoft Internet Explorer browser to view (figures):

Microsoft Vista Hardware Compatibility List:
http://winqual.microsoft.com/hcl/

HP Product Support Matrix (for Vista):
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00808536

[aft_lizard]

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=2093&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=1146336&lang=en

That page says they have Vista printer drivers for your printer.

[RedCell]

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, that’s the driver for the Photosmart C3150. Mine’s the Laserjet 3150. I got excited there for a minute. ;-) I need to stop doing that and let it go. LOL!

Cheers!

[aft_lizard]

Ooops sorry, it was one of a couple different products that were all in one printers with the 3150 in it’s name(I wonder who the genius at HP was that decided that?) and you are right they havent came up with specific drivers for your printer yet, sorry bud. ANd you say the XP drivers don’t work? My wi-fi works using xp drivers, had to install them in administration mode. But I digress, it sucks because laserjets are not cheap, but I would think HP would have to be working on them or they risk the loss of some enterprise customers who depend on networked laserprinters.

[RedCell]

No worries. The issue I have is that there is no straight forward driver for my particular printer. I need that Jet Suite software to make everything work (I've seen it and HP's multi-function support group confirmed that yesterday). I was reaching by trying to manually install a UPD the other day.

As for lasers not being cheap, they have one that’s $99 that would be perfect for my wife. But as I mentioned in my earlier long-winded post, she has no space for one to attach directly. Plus she sometimes works in the kitchen, living-room, etc. We need one that can be networked. So that’s when the “are not cheap” statement you made holds true. Those start around $300 or so. And I know I could go with deskjet vs. laser jet but for what she does, that wouldn't really fly. Add to that the total cost of ownership and deskjet/officejet products are more expensive over time.

I’m in a pickle, no doubt about it. So she’ll keep using her Dell with XP Pro on it while I figure out what the heck to do with the new laptop. Perhaps in the near future, I’ll find a networkable laser printer that won’t break the bank and actually works with Vista.

Until then... Cheers!

[aimhigh]

The issue I have is that there is no straight forward driver for my particular printer.

I had the same problem when XP was released. HP initially refused to create a driver to Deskjet 895CSE. They finally relented.

I think you could load XP on your new machine with no problems. I'm not aware of any new hardware designed for Vista, except for HHD drives which aren't for sale yet.

[RedCell]

Thanks for the encouragement but I’m a little worse for the wear after a couple of other landslides when attempting something like this.

BTW... I owe an apology to aft_lizard for what seems like a thread hijacking. That was not my intent. I only wanted to give a heads-up to others that additional homework might be prudent wrt Vista.

Cheers!

[aft_lizard]

No biggie, if it was a whole new thread it would have went down hill after the first “should of gotten a mac” post by some smart alec.