Some Vista SP1 early adopters reporting problems, how about you?

Alright folks, it's been a whole day with Vista SP1, and like any OS release, reaction is mixed -- although we're certain the people with problems are being more vocal than the rest. As you'd expect, major complaints seem to center around driver issues, that perpetual thorn in Vista's side -- sound cards seem to be the major problem, although there are also reports that NVIDIA drivers are being finicky. For what it's worth, Windows Update won't offer SP1 to anyone running what Microsoft calls "problematic drivers," until they're updated, but that includes several machines sold with Vista pre-installed, which is causing some confusion. In addition, older versions of security software like BitDefender AV and Zone Alarm are flat-out blocked from running on SP1, but updates are apparently available. Obviously that's a lot of chatter, so we figured we'd ask the experts -- how'd it go? Any speed-ups or slow-downs to report? All your drivers and apps still working? Let us know in comments!

[Via Pocket-lint]

Read - Official Windows Team Blog entry on getting SP1 to appear in Windows Update
Read - List of problematic drivers
Read - PC Pro article on Vista SP1 problems

[buzzbean @ Mar 19th 2008 2:46PM]

worked fine for me and the system does seem to be a bit more responsive. programs open faster, web seems faster too.

[gvanlee @ Mar 19th 2008 2:50PM]

Same here. Vista 64bit, been running SP1 since this morning (about 11 hours now). Feels a bit more responsive and no problems so far.

[Cal @ Mar 19th 2008 3:03PM]

Not really noticed any change here, except it disables some incompatible software that I never got around to uninstalling

[kiakid2006 @ Mar 19th 2008 3:14PM]

Works for me and is also faster. I have no problems with my drivers for my nvidia motherboard or video card. I was surprised about performance it offers because I only have 512MB and yes it is a vista capable PC you know a junk pc.

[Harkonian @ Mar 19th 2008 3:21PM]

Is everyone downloading SP1 via direct link or Windows Update? I've tried Windows Update many times in the last two days and still don't see SP1 available.

[Rafer @ Mar 19th 2008 3:43PM]

WOrks great... How about we get a list of pros instead of going straight to the negative. Or maybe even a poll To see how many tech savvy engadget users are having problems...
*Cough* Bias *Cough*

[Andir3.0 @ Mar 19th 2008 3:51PM]

"*Cough* Bias *Cough*"

*Cough* Blog *Cough*
*Cough* Cry more *Cough*

[Wayne @ Mar 19th 2008 3:56PM]

I lost my "volume" and "network status" icons froms the system tray. I can't select them from the menu anymore as the boxes are grayed out.

The laptop did resume from hibernation much faster and connected to the network faster.

[Andir3.0 @ Mar 19th 2008 3:56PM]

Also, maybe in your poll you include the number of people who claim that it's much faster now and they were claiming no problems before... because I'd assume that it running slow IS a problem.

[Rafer @ Mar 19th 2008 3:59PM]

"I don't have Vista, but I'm downloading it to spite... and to steal all your bandwidth."
-Andir3.0

Then we don't need your opinion here. Obviously you dont know much.

[OneLove @ Mar 19th 2008 4:04PM]

Placebo effect!

[LJKelley @ Mar 19th 2008 4:19PM]

I agree... things seem smoother and faster. No problems here.

[Andir3.0 @ Mar 19th 2008 4:23PM]

I don't have to know anything about Vista to know that you are all crying over a BLOG. This is not a credible news site, nor should you assume that they post unbiased articles. Is that so hard to understand? Maybe I can have Microsoft spell it out for you so you will accept it as "standard"?

[PynkFloydd @ Mar 19th 2008 4:49PM]

Actually, SP1 boosted my 3dmark06 scores up 60 points. I ran right before update and right after to compare.* I haven't done any other testing though.

* -- Prior to, I just upgraded from the EVGA 680i motherboard to the 780i and still haven't reformatted my hard-drive or reinstalled the OS. I'm probably on less than optimal conditions so other people might have better/worse experiences. I had a driver conflict with a printer from the upgrade and SP1 resolved it. Although this was purely my laziness (the conflict) and not Microsoft or Vista's.

[D. @ Mar 24th 2008 11:55PM]

Same here. The only thing they skipped for me was bootup and shutdown times which seem unnecessarily slow. Other than that, my system seems to have gained quite a boost.

[Bizam! @ Mar 19th 2008 5:05PM]

Definitely faster file copying. I found that I had to hide optional updates before Vista SP1 was offered to me by Windows Update.

[Jeremiah Zachary Hoffman @ Mar 19th 2008 6:29PM]

sp1 halved my boot time, 2 days ago i was fully booted with everything running in 2 minutes and 12 seconds, as of today with sp1 installed i can boot and have everything running in 58 seconds. programs seem snappier, and file transfers are definitly quicker too. i didn't have any problems before so problem wise there's been no change.

[Brian @ Mar 19th 2008 7:19PM]

@Wayne:

That's not a new bug with SP1, just new to you. There's a fix for it here: http://directedge.us/node/44

[Moze @ Mar 19th 2008 7:35PM]

Everything looks ok, the only thing I'm having some problems with is bootcamp drivers (I use it for apple keyboard), I can't enter bootcamp control panel. The only improvement is that my PC shutdowns much faster :).

[Craig B. @ Mar 19th 2008 8:32PM]

Ok, installation was unpleasent - got to 3 of 3 100%, but then it hung for like 3 hours. I could put it to sleep and all, but it didn't boot. Except for BCEdit or whatever that MBR program is called, I have 0 3d party software installed (I had so many probs w/ Vista, I decided to flush it and reinstall, and put on the MBR program so I could enable Fedora 8 dual-boot in case Vista became unstable again).

But everything now seems ok, and even a slight bit faster.

I saw some posts here about people not being able to download the SP1. I saw a response that said that you can only have the 4 language packs supported - THANKS!! I had installed other language packs, and when I saw this response, I uninstalled them - and SP1 became available.

To build on that, though, make sure that you have all compatable drivers, too.

Check this link: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=948343#method5

[Edmund @ Mar 19th 2008 11:21PM]

seems fine here too
nothing of a big change though
but wasn't expecting one either

[dreamer @ Mar 19th 2008 11:41PM]

yup...
same here...
no problems...
seems to work fine and bit better...

[Andrew @ Mar 20th 2008 4:52PM]

Running an AMD Turion TL-60, 2GB RAM, 160GB 5400RPM HDD, Vista Home Premium.

SP1 has slowed my bootup time from under 30 seconds to well over 2 minutes.

Am I pissed? Yes. And guess what. It STILL doesnt come out of standby, or even turn the monitor back on when I open the lid (I have it set to do NOTHING when I close the lid...)

Well, I have given SP1 and Vista its chances. Time to upgrade back to XP for games. Someone should slap Bill Gates across the face.

Now I know why I rarely use my laptop. Back to Fedora I go...

[Shafiq Jetha @ Mar 24th 2008 7:13PM]

I thought we weren't allowed to make Bill Gates jokes anymore..

[Darkbyte @ May 20th 2008 2:01AM]

I loaded SP1 and my sound driver mixer was restored back on the sys tray. Instead of the MS audio driver. The Calculation slow bug in the copy of files was fixed. Its also seem more responsive with opening explore windows and also to shut down and also going into stand by has improved.

Darkbyte2005

[roger k smith @ May 25th 2008 8:39PM]

sp 1 stopped the scroll sections on the touchpad of my toshiba A215 satellite and prevented reinstall of drivers only choice i had was to rollback the system to before the sp 1 install and that happened twice so far nobody seems to have a solution to this problem it really did stabalize the system though but that other problem is really an annoyance

[Jake E. @ Mar 19th 2008 2:46PM]

Really? It's been what, one day? Give it some time.

[Sukhminder @ Mar 19th 2008 8:10PM]

I expected more. Thats all the coverage we get from Engadget? For fun, search Engadget for "leopard", my personal favourite post, "Leopard pre-orders shipping, blowout coverage commencing". Okay, you can low rank me now.

[Jonathan Worrel @ Mar 20th 2008 3:12AM]

Oh cmon you guys. I've had the official release of Vista Ultimate x64 Service Pack 1 since January 30th now (got before all the issues sparked with it over at Microsoft). You guys are really slow.

[bamboo @ Mar 19th 2008 2:47PM]

I didn't have any problems. Running Vista 64, and pretty happy with it. It runs fast as hell with 4 gigs of ram that I got for $90.

[scrcmedic @ Mar 19th 2008 3:12PM]

Ram is my friend!

[Christian Martin @ Mar 19th 2008 3:28PM]

No, Ram is your program. Tron is his friend. Flynn is his user.

[waiownsyou @ Mar 19th 2008 3:29PM]

We want to know if there are any problems with SP1, not show-off how you have 4GB of RAM for a bargain price.

But I guess that's what the interwebz are for, right? No one really cares in real life.

[Bamboo @ Mar 19th 2008 3:58PM]

Wasn't showing off, just describing my system and sick of pricks like you complaining about vista not being able to run on their shit systems that only have 512mb.

[tha-don @ Mar 19th 2008 4:37PM]

my 32 bit vista now recognizes all 4 gigz of ram that i have as opposed to only 3.25 of 4 gigz like it did before. w00t.

haven't had a chance to use my laptop with vista much since yesterday (i'm on my 3e right now) but it actually seemed somewhat quicker. however, that could be more because of the 4gigz of ram than software fixes. i have no way of knowing either way though.

[jmiday @ Mar 19th 2008 5:12PM]

@thaDon

i have a way of knowing.

ur comp isn't using any more ram than before, just reporting that u have 4 stuck in there.

[Sauerkraut @ Mar 19th 2008 7:26PM]

my computer is running a lot faster on opening the internet up and minimizing it, but I haven't had time to check. I doubt this is going to be able to put vista on par with xp yet

[TurboFool @ Mar 19th 2008 2:48PM]

So far no issues, but I haven't had much time to test my system so far. I used it for a bit last night after the upgrade and everything seemed normal. No notable improvements or troubles.

[computer.dude.28 @ Mar 19th 2008 7:57PM]

I'm uninstalling it right now. It completely wrecked my Windows Media Player. None of the playlists work, if I click on one and I'm lucky enough for it to start playing, it's not the list I clicked on.

[JOSE @ Mar 19th 2008 2:48PM]

everything loads quicker i can only say the only problem i saw was that it reset my creative sound settings which was no big deal..

[Rick @ Mar 19th 2008 2:48PM]

Has been working great for me. As said in a comment above, programs seem to be opening quicker and running more smooth.

The main performance I've seen is file transfers, correct estimated times and much quicker transfers!

[Russ @ Mar 19th 2008 2:48PM]

I installed SP1 last night and had no issues. It has actully made my PC boot faster and has solved problems with Vista that I have been trying to solve for months.

[Merciless @ Mar 19th 2008 2:49PM]

doesnt install if you have other language packs installed other than "jap", eng", and a few others...i had chinese installed and it wont continue with the installation....su cks

[Jeff Zander @ Mar 19th 2008 5:53PM]

Remove the Language Packs if you don't use them...

[Merciless @ Mar 19th 2008 8:10PM]

yeah, that is what i did, then i went to check and see if i can reinstall the language(s) that i uninstalled, they werent there anymore...:-(

[Zorque @ Mar 19th 2008 8:59PM]

Did you try using the multi-language version?

[Gregg @ Mar 19th 2008 2:49PM]

Downloaded and applied the updated last night. Seemed to take awhile to install compared to SPs for 2000 & XP (over 30 minutes), but beyond that oddity I've noticed no problems (or real differences) at all so far.

[Nick @ Mar 19th 2008 2:49PM]

SP1 works fine for me -- and I have NVIDIA cards and a separate soundblaster card. My settings on the sound card reset when I installed the SP, but they seem to be working fine now. Overall, I think the system is ever so slightly more responsive, but that could be my imagination.

[Kiteless @ Mar 19th 2008 2:50PM]

My Systems: (Installed SP1 on 2 of my 3 Vista machines)

(Gaming Rig)
AMD 6000+
Crossfire 3850's
AMD 580 (I think) chipset
4GB Ram
64bit Vista Ultimate
NO PROBLEMS

(Gaming Laptop)
Asus G1S-A1
Intel T7200 (2Ghz)
nVidia 8600M GT CPU
2Gb Ram
Santa Rosa Platform
32Bit Vista Home Premium
NO PROBLEMS

Hope this helps.

- Kiteless

[Patuxentbball @ Mar 21st 2008 5:05PM]

---The G1S-A1 has the T7500 at 2.2GHz.(I'm using it to type this now.) Even-numbered T7X00 are not Santa Rosa- Just saying.