Tripredacus

Round 3 - Ray Charles OK I am starting to get annoyed/confused. Last time I tried to use an X-Fi PCI card in a Vista image (Business) it blew up and I had to recreate the image no less than 8 times. This time everything is working.... It might be because I am using an MSI board now instead of an Intel one, but all the other hardware/drivers are the same. So anyways, here are the results of installing the MSI Chipset INF, onboard sound and Video card drivers. Video card drivers are nVidia 175.19. All three of these situations passed: Test 6 Software: Creative SoundBlaster X-FI PCI driver package XFXA_PCDRV_LB_1_04_0079 Sysprep method: sysprep -audit -restart errors: none result: PASS Test 7 Software: Creative SoundBlaster X-FI PCI driver package XFXA_PCDRV_LB_1_04_0079 Sysprep method: sysprep -audit -restart -generalize errors: none result: PASS This test (7) had the following other results: - X-Fi driver was blown away but sound worked at startup. Windows prompted for software and it installed automatically. - video artifacts (incorrect colors, inverted gradients) appeared on the dock, the clock and the clock's transparency alpha layer was visible. This corrected after a reboot. - The Realtek HD Audio driver was removed. Test 8 Software: Creative SoundBlaster X-FI PCI driver package XFXA_PCDRV_LB_1_04_0079 Sysprep method: sysprep -oobe -restart errors: none result: PASS Windows Defender blocked Nero Startup (setupx.exe) which is a program that prompts the user to complete the registration. I used a silent install of Nero 8 in the image so we do not have to type in the serial number. The method used is similar to installing the demo silently, but this is the full version instead. This is interesting because the OOBE method did not block the Nero Startup app without the video and motherboard drivers installed. My next test will be the same as this round, but to do the complete job. This means installing the two other sound cards, and verify if they work simultaneously. I will do a generalize but I might have to reinstall some stuff, like the onboard audio. I was really hoping for more errors here, but it is beginning to look like there are certain motherboards where its software conflicts with the Sound Blaster software. This is good to know, at least, but this also means we will have to re-evaluate the X-Fi card with all of our motherboards with Vista...

A couple other things I'd like to note about the image. It is a generalized image and has OfficeReady (Office 2007 60 day trial) and Nero 8 Essentials Suite 2 pre-installed. Round 2 - Harry Belafonte Test 3 Software: Creative SoundBlaster X-FI PCI driver package XFXA_PCDRV_LB_1_04_0079 Sysprep method: sysprep -audit -restart errors: none result: PASS Test 4 Software: Creative SoundBlaster X-FI PCI driver package XFXA_PCDRV_LB_1_04_0079 Sysprep method: sysprep -audit -restart -generalize errors: 1 ERR01: This error was actually present in all the tests, and can be fixed with Service Pack 1. There is also a VSS (Volume Shadow-Copy Service) error that appears but I won't be listing it. Source: ACPI Event ID: 6 Description: IRQARB: ACPI BIOS does not contain an IRQ for the device in PCI Slot 0, function 0. result: PASS Test 5 Software: Creative SoundBlaster X-FI PCI driver package XFXA_PCDRV_LB_1_04_0079 Sysprep method: sysprep -oobe -restart errors: none result: PASS Next up, Same process as above, but install all drivers. Since this driver package caused the errors before and I am not getting them now. So I will do these again but with the video card and motherboard drivers and see what happens.

As of right now, I am going through a testing regiment concerning the use of Creative Labs' SoundBlaster software in Vista's Audit mode. We cannot sell computers to customers that want Vista and an X-Fi card of any sort, unless we can agree to certain delivery methods that I won't get into. Here is the facts that we can start with: 1. Creative Labs does not test their sound cards with the on-board audio enabled or another sound card present. 2. Creative Labs does not support the above configuration. 3. Creative Labs' primary customer focus is the end user and not system builders. 4. The X-Fi drivers (stand-alone) and/or software suite does not survive Sysprep from Vista Audit mode. Here is the current hardware configuration: - MSI G31M3-F motherboard - Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3GHz CPU - 2GB PC2-2400 DDR2 533MHz RAM - nVidia GeForce 7300 LE PCI-Express x16 - PCI Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 24bit - PCI Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi - PCI 1x Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi - Windows Vista Ultimate There are multiple issue with this config. The first is that the drivers for the PCI-E X-Fi are not made available on Creative's website. Oh I know what you are thinking, yes there are drivers you can download there... This card supports Vista x32 and x64 and XP Pro x64, but the drivers from the website will not actually install the INF for the card in ANY of the OSes listed. Only the CD the card comes with works. This config also originally had 2 PCI X-Fi cards in it, but they weren't playing properly. When different sound sources (CD or MP3) were used at the same time, the audio got all garbled and started playing too fast. The customer informed us that they had gotten a similar (ie XP Pro x32 with SB Live cards) config working fine. I talked to our Creative rep, and while he couldn't actually help me out, he did say "maybe there is a problem using the same driver" which is why there is an Audigy card in the config now. As a test, I loaded up the PC with Windows XP Pro x64, and installed all the drivers. Using Winamp and a program called MK1, I was able to successfully play multiple files through multiple soundcards simultaneously without a problem. However the issue is that the customer did not order XP 64bit, although we might change his mind. So right now I am testing the process of installing Vista Business 32bit, which works the same as Ultimate as far as sysprep goes, only because I have a generalized image of it up on the WDS and I don't for Ultimate. The bottom line here is that when you install the X-Fi software in Audit mode, and then run a sysprep, choosing generalize or not, or choosing OOBE or Audit on reboot, Windows has some problems. Those problems (from memory) are: 1. drivers and/or software are removed after unseal/welcome 2. Windows reports error and prompts for reinstall. 3. Windows reports error with SB software and prompts for reinstall. 4. Windows never completes the sysprep phase. This thread is to be used to document all testing results. Products to be tested are the SB Audigy software, X-Fi PCI and X-Fi PCI-E software and Sysprep. I should note now that using Service Pack 1 does not change the results, although I will likely be testing this out also. Process - shared - Deploy Vista Business x32 image from network using PXE/WDS - Unseal image - install sound card software and restart - verify sound card can play an MP3 using customer supplied software - check for errors - reseal using posted method - step through welcome, restart and retest software - document errors Test 1 Software: Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 24bit driver package SB24_VTDRV_LB_1_04_0077 Sysprep method: sysprep -audit -restart errors: none result: PASS Test 2 Software: Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 24bit driver package SB24_VTDRV_LB_1_04_0077 Sysprep method: sysprep -oobe -restart errors: none result: PASS I am working on the third test now. I may also consider retesting all results using -generalize pass as well. Comments, ideas, whatever are welcome.

OK for some stupid reason the driver is on the CD but not the website... We usually don't use CD drivers because they are typically out of date.

Well the SP2, did you get it from Windows Update, or run it separately, or from a CD? If you ran just the actual file, it will have "-x64" instead of "-x86" in the filename. I didn't actually install the 32bit Sp2 myself, one of my co-workers saved me from that. So I don't know if the 32bit would error out saying it was not supported, or if it would just install anyways. Either way, since you removed it I don't know if it even matters now. You can try to run the recovery console and restore the affected file from your original OS CD... that is if your admin account has a password.

Did you install the Service Pack 2 for 64bit? I almost installed a 32bit SP2 on 64bit XP yesterday.

I am having trouble finding a driver for the following: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi PCI Express Windows XP Professional SP2 64bit This website says it is supported http://us.creative.com/products/product.as...16770&nav=3 But I cannot find any drivers to let it install. The 0001 is for Vista only.

The current driver package I am using is XFXA_PCDRV_LB_1_04_0079. And a folder path: E:\drivers\Creative\XFXA_PCDRV_LB_1_04_0079\Drivers\xp\Win2k_xp Is where the INF file is located. You can extract out this driver package using WinRaR... Or maybe I have a slightly different driver package than you do. I've been doing some research today and that folder layout you are referring to is in the SB Audigy package.

Do you think the requirements will be similar to San Andreas? I'd really like to be able to play this before I can build my new computer.

I've used a few of the ones in that list, but after a couple years of battling spyware, I was able to determine how to deal with them without those programs. Currently, my computer hasn't had spyware on it for well over a year, because I am careful about how I do things on the internet. My favorite apps for dealing with spyware (on other people's computers) are: File Monitor, Process Explorer, NTFSDOS and Regedit.

I do not use any anti-virus. The last time I had anti-virus was an old version of McAfee that ran off a floppy disk (boot disk) way back in 1997. Since this time I have only gotten 2 viruses, and those were ones that I had installed myself to see how to remove them. My computers are always setup to for maximum security and I do not allow anyone else to use them. I usually recommend people to use Panda, because you can get it free for a year, although I wish they had a lite-version since it adds like 9 processes to Windows.

Well what you can do is have 2 user accounts: a limited user account and an administrator account. The admin account would be for the tech and have a password on it. The limited user can have a password, use autologon or not. Then assign a Group Policy to the limited user account to be applied at startup. This can lock out the keyboard and mouse for this user, and if a reboot is made, you could log on as the admin account and make corrections. Of course, you are going to need to be running XP Pro, Vista Business or Vista Ultimate, or another OS but the computer and users would have to be added to the active directory (domain).

Are you using Active Directory? and if so did you set up your OUs accordingly? If so you could just add a login script to make these changes just for the users who use this printer.

XP will see both CPUs. I think SP1 is required for that (hyper-threading support) but XP sees HT and dualies as the same thing. Either way RTM will only see 1 CPU (or 1 core) and still work anyways.

The way I see it, yes XP is great but we all gotta move on. This isn't to say that I am going to abandon XP, heck I still run a Windows 98 box at home. But the fact that SP1 has made Vista livable is a great sign. To tell you the truth, I haven't even used SP3 on XP and probably won't. There isn't enough demand for it, and personally I don't see a reason to get it.

So are you saying that after the drivers were removed that the display is still corrupted?

Well you are taking a chance by using that board with 2008 server. 2008 works like Vista, where it may be able to install default/generic drivers for some devices, but you might have ones that get flagged, or don't work properly. This could be a major issue if say a generic driver doesn't work properly for a motherboard component. I looked up this board (or what you put for it) and it says its an Intel 915 chipset. Getting drivers for this might be impossible. I do not have experience with 32bit 2008, so you might be able to force 2003 (or XP x64) drivers to be used instead. I wouldn't recommend using 2008 on this board at all. Use 2003 or get some newer hardware.

HDDC = Hard Disk Drive Controller. Or Hard Drive Controller. Basically the part of the motherboard or if you use a card that your hard drive connects to. XP needs to have the drivers for that in order to format the drive. If you have a SCSI hard drive, then yes.

Well the reason I am asking is because I've never seen an image capture wizard before. What happens if you do a manual capture?

Static IPs can be done two different ways. You can set the IP on the client, but it won't appear on any of the pages on the Server. Or if you set a reservation (aka static via DHCP, the client still acts like it doesn't have a static IP) it does show up in both places. I think the "pen" on the icon either means that the lease is active (within the lease time from which it was granted) or the interface is currently online.

As far as 32bit XP goes, your main concerns are going to be whether or not XP likes the HDDC and/or there is an XPx86 driver to F6 for it. Also, finding drivers might be an issue depending on what motherboard is in there. Also, you do not need to remove the other RAM. XP will only see about 3.2GB of it (more or less depending on VRAM setting in BIOS and how it handles that) but it just ignores anything higher. EDIT: sorry read DUAL = DELL... and forgot what Opteron was.

The differences between OEM and Retail concern with how Windows accepts the CD Key and know how they are activated. The features should be the same as long as they are both Windows XP Professional SP2 32bit.

What application are you using to upload into the WDS?

Unless you are trying to do some legacy hacking, you should seriously consider updating to the newest PE.

First off, just getting a CD won't help because the CDs aren't labelled to match the CD Key. If you look on your CD Key, its going to say 'Windows 2000 Professional...' on the top. Post that line (its bolded) we can tell you. Or it might just say '1-2 CPU edition' or something. Also if you look on the sticker, you're going to see a number that looks like X11.0000 or something. That X number is important because it will only work with certain CDs. Basically you need to find a CD that has a sticker with that same X number on it, then you can use that CD. Did this sticker come with a Dell or HP or something like that?