That Experience Scorer Sure Is Buggy

[Eck]

I just returned to the Vista fold after a long stretch of a 98SE/XP situation, which I also combine with a Linux distro.

At first I kept formatting and installing again and again because I couldn't get Windows Experience Index to get past the Aero test, and the initial first boot couldn't do it either.

Finally I renamed /Windows/Performance/WinSAT/DataStore to DataStore.old and that enabled the test to finish.

But today I upgraded the NVidia driver to the latest and needed to run it again and renaming it didn't work. Over and over I tried different things such as deleting everything in the WinSAT folder (except the Windows Media tests which I think only come with a WMP install and I didn't want to mess with that) including taking ownership of the file that wouldn't let me delete it. Then I ran sfc/scannow, it put back the stuff. Still, no good.

Finally I clicked all the boxes for CREATOR/OWNER on the security tab for DataStore. It seemed to make the checks disappear afterwards, but when I ran the test for WEI it went ahead and updated my score.

Has anyone else had so much trouble running the test? As soon as it starts the Aero test, when the problem is happening, the mouse cursor will freeze and I must hit the reset switch on my computer to restart the computer. This happened with any NVidia driver, Microsoft or NVidia provided. And this had never happened before with all the Vista beta's, release candidates, or when I first bought and used the retail Ultimate upgrade dvd.

Also unlike before, running sfc /scannow gives final results all the time that there were some corrupted files and it couldn't replace all of them. The details in the log it mentions give no real clue what the problem is as far as I can tell. I just think this is related to the files dealing with that Performance folder and the permissions somehow not being set right by default to allow the tests to be performed or files to all be replaced by sfc.

Any ideas?

[PC_LOAD_LETTER]

Ive never had any issues with vista performance thingie. but its not a very accurate benchmark but its never locked up on me. prolly a driver issue of some kind. try some different driver versions if you really wanna get it working but if it works fine in games who cares what the windows score is.

[Eck]

Not so much an issue now that it's giving me Aero anyway. However it was an issue at install time as it wouldn't get through the initial OOBE test, freezing at the same early time when it was testing for Aero compatibility. I got through that by hitting the reset button and being forced to create an addtional user when the OOBE started again, it skipped the test thinking it had done it already, and I logged into the original user and deleted the one it made me create to continue. And after upgrading the NVidia driver, it is supposed to report that I need to test again because my system has changed. It did not request that, simply reporting my score.

I couldn't care less what it reports, but it is supposed to at least be able to run the test without crashing the system. I had the same hardware using the same Vista DVD previously and had no problem running these tests. The only thing that has changed is that time has marched on. Since the test fails right at the start, it isn't a Windows Update that is at fault.

I don't believe it's the driver either as the original or Windows Update drivers don't run the test either. It is likely permissions screw up that doesn't allow the test access to that DATASTORE folder. Defective by default it seems. But then why didn't I have this trouble before?

I spent all day today on this, attempting to get the test to run. Safe Mode, redoing permissions on files to be able to delete them, etc. At last all is fine, but I know the next time I do the NVidia upgrade I'll need to "get lucky" again and just Russian Roulette until the test works.

This is why I've spent the last year or so running Linux distros 99% of the time. Now that I want to try the "newbie" Windows operating system I see why it is rarely used for anything vital. I just discovered Linux last year. Thank Heaven! I mostly put Vista back so I could check out the Unofficial Creative drivers for the Audigy 2 ZS a fellow has on the Creative forums. They are awesome! Nearly all software and deactivated by Creative official drivers functions are now available on Vista with his Revision 2 cd and then his Vista Support Pack for even more features. The audio with the Audigy 2 ZS finally sounds better than on XP, as it should according to Microsoft's intentions with Vista Audio.

So although cool in some respects, the inherent buggyness of Microsoft operating systems will have me running briskly to install a Linux distro again onto my 2nd hard drive to use most of the time. I really tried to like Windows but, my goodness. I can understand 3rd party software having troubles but not operating system provided materials a year after Gold release. This stuff should work perfectly now. 3rd party drivers for old hardware? I understand. Old software? I understand. Vista bugs. I do not understand and will just keep it around to experiment with occasionally while I do everything in Linux. How can people stand this?

[PC_LOAD_LETTER]

Yeah i forgot about the OOBE test. thatd be kind of a pain. i woulda prolly just swapped to an ancient vid card, let it test then fix the problem once i was in windows. no idea why things worked differently this time though.

[Eck]

Thanks for the chat, by the way. I'm just churning with that need for anger management kind of feeling after having to spend so much time figuring out how to get this done with and move along. Something like this is supposed to be just a quick test and you go on setting up your software and happy computing with you. But because of some quirk in the OS that isn't quite right I was forced into internet searching, posting here and in the Microsoft Vista forum, and much starting, restarting, tinkering with files, and heck I even formated 4 times before I just said the heck with it and starting troubleshooting within Windows since the OOBE couldn't work properly.

I added a ton of software, got all the drivers and everything setup and working, all my personal files copied to the appropriate places, then when I updated NVidia again I was forced to go through all this again because the original fix (renaming that folder) that had first worked no longer did.

So you see how I'm not all smiles right now. And what's up with that sfc /scannow finding corrupt stuff and not being able to replace some of them? All except this Aero test appears to be working and all the software I've installed works.

Oh. I do have an ATI x850PRO but haven't used it on either of my systems for a very long time because of its horrible Linux performance. It's actually a better card for Windows than my GeForce 6600GT (double the memory), but since I still will be mostly in Linux once I get it installed again I am not going back to ATI. The only old NVidia cards I have that work are a couple of PCI Geforce 440MX cards. I think I read that those won't work on Vista so that would be a waste of time.

I got through the OOBE by hitting the reset switch when it froze doing the test, booting up, and creating a new user since OOBE didn't let me use the one I first created. It said that user already exists so please create a different user name. Then at the logon I selected the original user, it skipped the WEI part of the OOBE and once I got to the desktop I deleted the 2nd user OOBE had insisted I create to continue and had it delete any files as well. So it's just the one Administrator account using UAC with my desired user name.

Annoyingly, I did that several times as I tried formatting over and over until I gave up and started just setting up Windows. How many times can one sit through an OS install when it can never get it right?

It's not the video card as the same card worked fine. It's not the driver as neither Microsoft's driver nor the NVidia drivers work with that test until enough tinkering with the permissions on that folder and/or renaming or recreating it several times as the stupid machine keeps freezing on the test until it finally miraculously (dumb luck?) decides to run the test through fine.

Once it does that I have fine Aero, 3D gaming, DVD playback, mp3 playing, Office 2007, Nero 8, all works fine.

Thanks again for the opinion. Yes, their score isn't the most important thing in my world either. However, it does need to be run each time a video driver is upgraded and will be most annoying if this kind of tinkering is needed every time. It gives me a 5.9 for the videocard by the way. A 3.6 total because the processor is an AthlonXP 3200+ and not a fancy new Athlon64. But all the gaming I do works pretty well with Vista. It was the System Restore previous versions indexing constantly churning the hard drive that made me go back to XP originally. That's the least of my problems now with this new hassle.

[PC_LOAD_LETTER]

It gives me a 5.9 for the videocard by the way. A 3.6 total because the processor is an AthlonXP 3200+ and not a fancy new Athlon64.

Ok its official. That benchmark is total BS. If a ATi 850 on a 3200+ can score the same as my OC'd 8800GT on a friggin Quad core system then then any number it spits out its BS to me

I have the AMD 64 3200+ -the first 64 version (double the L1 and 2ghz clock) in my old system and it wasnt to hot either

[Eck]

Heh, yeah I haven't a clue what they're measuring. That 5.9 is the NVidia GeForce 6600GT AGP though. I think the ATI x850PRO measured a similar score too. I don't think they mean it to be a benchmark, but rather the existence of features.

For instance, if it has pixal shaders 2.0 it gives it a certain number, amount of video memory, another few points, etc. I don't think it's measuring a score like a real benchmark test would do. That Windows Media test similarly just sees if it can play a video smoothly. Stuff like that.

I was just a bit angry before. You think Linux software doesn't have bugs too? Ha! On my previous SUSE install the latest Gnome from the unsupported backport GNOME:/STABLE repo combined with the upgraded Brasero burner broke a few things in cdr burning. The KDE burning program K3b also had problems in the Gnome session. But then I could login to the other Desktop Manager, KDE, and there K3b would take the same multisession disk and add to it and verify it fine where the same cdr in Gnome was reported to have corrupted files and couldn't be added to with either program. Turns out the cdr and files were fine but the detection stuff was buggy in Gnome. They'll fix it, but you can see that computer software can be buggy no matter the operating system. There just appear to be a lot less bugs and a lot faster fixes for them in the free software world. There's just more folks working on stuff because all of it is open to explore and fix up instead of being hidden in some company's secret lab where they spend their time working on new versions to sell rather than fixing bugs in existing versions.

Vista really isn't that bad. The drive access for indexing and backups is annoying but as long as things aren't broken it can run software nicely. Looks pretty too. Not as pretty as some of the Compiz Fusion stuff but nice enough. Heh. When I didn't have Aero working at first because of that test problem, the window title bars looked like the Gillouche Metacity theme in Gnome. Got confused there for a moment.

[Eck]

I just wanted to update that it was the videocard. When I had problems with Debian and freezing with glxgears and 3D games I went back into Vista and installed a more resource intensive 3D game than I had tested with it before.

Sure enough, Vista froze just like Linux did. So I removed the drivers, shutdown, and put back my Gigabyte card. Once the latest NVidia WHQL's were installed (and, by the way, the WEI test went fine), I tried the game and it ran fine.

Back in Linux I had no idea what to do when switching cards, so I just booted up to see what would happen. Turns out that since the chip is the same even though it's a different manufacturer, it just worked without doing anything to the drivers. Another win for Linux!

Now I've got to see about an RMA on that PNY card. Good thing I tested it before the warranty was out. I bought it several months ago as a backup and I figured it was about time I at least tested it out.

I did find it weird that Aero in Vista and Compiz Fusion on Linux both ran fine with the defective card. But as soon as a 3D game was started the whole system froze in both systems. I guess Aero and Compiz aren't as resource intensive as some would make them out to be.

[PC_LOAD_LETTER]

Yeah i have a user running XP SP2 with a Nvidia 7300 (came with the machine) that wants me to replace his video card even though it works just fine in Windows but when he plays counter strike for more than an hour it glitches out. Needless to say, his job is not playing counterstrike so I just left it. Its been that way for weeks and until it start affecting the system outside of counterstrike its staying that way. The system has another year and a half of warranty so i might just leave it until then.