A peek at the XPS M1210 running Windows Vista RC2 64-bit (Build 5744)

Hello all you fellow Dell XPS M1210 users out there! Well, the next Windows is upon us very soon, and if Microsoft stick to their schedule, the final RTM (Release to Manufacturing) build should go ahead on 25th October, and with OEM launch in November and full general public launch sometime in January '07.

[Note: Click on the images below to get the full sized screenshot]

I have been using and testing it out for the past few days, thought I'd share some of the experiences and findings with the rest of you (hopefully also XPS M1210 users as well).

Since I've upgraded to a 100GB 7200rpm HDD (Hitachi 7K100), the original HDD (a 60GB 5400rpm unit from Toshiba) became the lab rat for my Windows Vista experiment. I downloaded and installed the latest 64-bit Release Candidate 2 (Build 5744) to see what 64-bit Windows is like, and to take advantage of the Core 2 Duo T7200 processor I have.

Prerequisites:

A copy of the OS burned onto DVD.
As far as drivers go, it's very sparse as Dell does not yet have any beta drivers avaliable for Vista. I obtained the latest NVIDIA ForceWare beta driver for Vista 64-bit (v96.85 WHQL certified), and then modded it to support the mobile chipsets from LaptopVideo2Go (in the form of a patched .INF file).
Oh, and some time and patience as well.

Specifications as tested:

Dell XPS M1210
- Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 (2.00GHz/4MB L2 Cache)
- 2GB DDR2-667 Dual Channel Memory (2 x 1GB Kingston ValueRam modules)
- 60GB 5400rpm SATA HDD (Toshiba)
- NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 TurboCache (64MB dedicated + surprise amount shared (explained below))

Installation Process:

I highly recommend you try it out on a clean spare HDD, as this is still pre-release software and anything could go wrong. So, stay out of your working/production installation of Windows XP on your drive.

Well, it went very smoothly, if not as smooth as a Windows XP installation. about 30-35 minutes later, Windows Vista is installed. The modded NVIDIA driver was loaded and after a reboot, a nice clean screen of Vista with Aero and all the bell and whistles will greet you.



As far as drivers go, well, I am VERY surprised, in fact, the only things that are missing from first bootup are:
- Display Driver
- Part of the Ricoh card reader (MemoryStick/PRO, xD and MMC won't work, but strange enough the SD portion has a built in driver)
- The integrated Logitech webcam

Almost everything else: SigmaTel HD audio, Intel 945PM chipset, USB2.0, FireWire, Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG WiFi, even the Dell Wireless 355 BlueTooth module, are properly recognized, enabled and working:



Graphics Card and Windows Aero:

Now, the reason why most of you configured the M1210 with the GeForce Go 7400 (and I hope most of you DID configured it with that) is because of the eye candy that's promised to us with the new Windows Aero interface. Well, I'm happy to say that you wouldn't be disappointed. As mentioned earlier, I installed NVIDIA's latest WHQL certified ForceWare v96.85 patched to support laptop chipsets.

Well, I was somewhat surprised at what I was greeted with:



Now, let us refresh ourselves with NVIDIA's (and Dell's) spec for this machine:
- NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 TurboCache 256MB (64MB dedicated + 192MB shared from system memory)

Well, what Vista reported, is:
- Dedicted Video Memory: 64MB
- Shared System Memory: 271MB
- Total Avaliable Graphics Memory: 335MB

That is some 79MB more than it supposed to have (or under Windows XP)! Maybe it's because I have 2GB of RAM installed and NVIDIA (or Microsoft) programmed it to use more for TurboCache. Someone will have to ask NVIDIA or Microsoft for an answer to that.

Under the new Vista "Windows Experience Index":



It clearly shows that the 3D graphics subsystem is the "weakest link" at 3.3 (out of 5.9). But considering the intended market/performance position of the Go 7400, it is not bad at all to say the least.

What's more interesting is that it scored 4.9 out of 5.9 for the Processor, which is a 83%, just shows how powerful Intel's new Core 2 Duo are. I wonder what would make it score a perfect 5.9/5.9, perhapes the desktop Core 2 Extreme X6800 or any of the upcoming Core 2 Quad quad-core would do it.

(Updated: I initially thought the scale was out of 5, but after some reading, the scale is out of 5.9. Why Microsoft picked such an odd number is beyond me, but still, it's a pretty respectable score for both the Graphics and CPU subsystem)

Performance and the Vista "Windows Experience":

I haven't conducted a lot of comprehensive tests yet, as proper native x64 Windows 64-bit software are still very sparse for XP, let alone for Vista. However, with Microsoft's WoW (Windows on Windows 64), most of your applications/programs written for 32-bit 2000/XP should run fine with Vista 64-bit.

I fired up Guild Wars, Counter-Strike (classic v1.6), Counter-Strike: Source and Half Life 2: Lost Coast.

Guild Wars installed smoothly, and under full screen mode (1280x800) with details set to high, there's no difference between XP or Vista. However, if I were to play in windowed mode, under Vista it's noticabally more choppy than when it is in full-screen or XP windowed mode. The Vista Aero interface is probabally the culprit for this (since in windowed mode the graphics card has to render the background and your desktop as well).

In Counter-Strike (classic v1.6), it ran just the same between XP and Vista, that is, butter smooth at 1280x800 all details as high as possible (and I wouldn't expect any less seeing classic CS is a decade old by now).

Counter-Stike: Source and Half Life 2: Lost Coast are more interesting. While under the Video Stress Test with the same settings (native 1280x800, most details turned to high), the frame rates in XP and Vista come out approximately the same (~50fps for CS: S, ~45fps for HL2: LC). But there are serious image quality problems under Vista, namely, the textures swap in and out of each other and flickering in the background. However, since it is still a work in progress, I am sure NVIDIA will polish up the drivers for proper release when Vista officially ships in Jan '07.

In terms of the general experience, the Aero interface is, pretty. The window edges are translucent and the soft drop shadow effects are, nice. In fact, I think my first reaction when booted into Vista is, "Isn't this OS X?!?" (I have tried OS X before and I do like their fancy UI)... *ahem* but, most importantly, everything runs smooth and doesn't lag. So, rest assured that your newly purchased XPS M1210 (with the Core 2 Duo and dedicated NVIDIA graphics) will be able to run everything that Vista has to offer. I wouldn't be surprised if Dell starts to put "Windows Vista Premium ready" stickers on them once Vista ships.

Battery life seems to be on par with Windows XP. With the power setting set to "Balanced", I get the same amount of computing time as I am under XP, which is about 4 hours with a 9-cell battery, half (3/7) LCD brightness, WiFi on and surfing the web, browsing this forum and typing up this little rant.

Overall, Vista is very stable. I have yet to encounter any fatal crashes and errors, however, do note that a lot of your old 32-bit Win2k/XP era applications might not work with 64-bit Vista. My copy of Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 10.2 wouldn't install (granted that is a 32-bit version although it is "Vista compatible"). Notebook Hardware Control as well as the famous I8kFanGUI wouldn't work either.

Right now for AntiVirus I'm using avast! Home Edition v4.7 which is free. I also have Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Plus Beta installed (hey, I might as well test out all of Microsoft's newest offerings, and doing it legit). Adobe Photoshop CS2 also runs fine, however, it will automatically cause Vista to switch to the "basic" interface as it says it isn't compatible with Aero (apparently a few other programs will do that too, Java release 1.5/5 apps for example, although Java release 6 beta fixes that). However once you close the offending program Vista will revert back to the Aero interface automatically.

Closing Thoughts:

Overall, I am pleasently pleased and surprised with how smooth Windows Vista RC2 is. Then again, Microsoft is close to finalizing Vista with RTM imminent, thus, I'd say we are looking at a close to 90%-95% finished/finalized product. The Dell XPS M1210 (with Core 2 Duo and dedicated NVIDIA graphics) is more than capable to run Vista with all the features turned on.

The only negative point right now is the lack of a Logitech webcam driver, which makes me unable to use that beautiful webcam sitting on top of the LCD lid. However, all things considered the XPS M1210 is pretty well supported by basic built-in Windows Vista drivers, with almost 95% of hardware features properly installed and enabled right from the start. I am sure by the time Vista ships next year Dell will provide full drivers on their website.


Well, I hope this little mini-preview/review will give you all a little insight as to how the XPS M1210 will perform in the coming years with Windows Vista, and, maybe help tip some of the undecided towards getting one as well

If you are going to get one today, I do strongly suggest that you should configure it with:
- Core 2 Duo processor (although I think even the baseline config comes with the T5600 (1.83GHz) these days from Dell)
- NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 (even if you don't plan to run any games, the Go 7400 is just so much better than the crappy Intel Integrated solution, and the Vista Aero interface is quite demanding)
- 2GB Memory (as Vista loves memory, and utilize it very very well so nothing's wasted to give you the best performance possible)

 

ok i'm sold. do we get vouchers for upgrades if we purchased our computers recently??? nice pics btw, i had to remove my windows blinds kol, i miss that having my desktop look like that.

 

Thank you very much!


K.

 

wow i havent seen much screenshots of Vista since i assume that i most likely won't be getting it for at least another year or two, but the interface looks very cool and shiny from the screenshots.

 

Angrymob: So how long is the booting up time as compared to windows xp? Does it take longer time to boot to logon screen?

 

I tried the 32bits version (RC 1) on mine. but i couldnt install Daemon tools and many other programs, didnt really spend time playing with it, cos its still not perfect yet, hopefully it will be much better than xp, afterall we have been waiting for a long time.

I just read on the new that it uses more battery, u mind trying this out for us???

 

lejon:

I don't think Microsoft has started handing out those free upgrade vouchers yet. Rumor has it that it starts near the end of October... my bet would be on after they officially make Vista RTM (which would be 25th October, this coming Wednesday). And, looking back at history (such as before the XP launch in 2001), I don't think you'd be getting that free upgrade voucher if you already purchased your machine, seeing how most manufacturers don't backdate on deals like this.

donkuok:

Short of pulling out a stopwatch and timing both XP and Vista's boot up times (and I don't have a stopwatch unfortunately), I'd say they boot up at roughly the same length of time, which is to say less than a minute or so.

holliswhy:

I mentioned this in my writeup:

" Battery life seems to be on par with Windows XP. With the power setting set to "Balanced", I get the same amount of computing time as I am under XP, which is about 4 hours with a 9-cell battery, half (3/7) LCD brightness, WiFi on and surfing the web, browsing this forum and typing up this little rant."

MobileMeter seems to work with Vista 64-bit and I notice that it registers around the same amount of power draw compared with XP under the same conditions. Of course, it also depends on the individual machine's settings as well.

 

Angrymob,

I think the Windows Experience Index goes to 5.9, not 5. So, a 4.9 on the CPU is not almost the best, but a full point away. Still fast, though!

 

You are most correct, although I don't know why I thought 5 was the highest initially, as I remember I wanted to know what the scale of out of and clicking the random Windows Help topics and files I might've read something along the lines of "its out of 5".

Still, 4.9/5.9 for the CPU is high, that's 83%.

 

Angrymob: I have a question for you on the RAM upgrading. Any issue if the manufacturer of the new RAM is different from the existing one? My exisiting one is Samsung made, 1GB 667 RAM. So any issue if I install a new Kingston 1GB 667 RAM?
Please advise. Thanks.

 

donkuok

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Well, it depends on many things. Technically, it is suggested that you should have identical matching memory for Dual Channel to work perfectly, that is: same size, speed, timing, and manufacturer/brand. However, the most important attributes are still just the size and speed/timing of the modules. Therefore, as long as they are both 1GB DDR2-667MHz sticks, you should be fine.

Intel's new "Flex Memory Technology" also gives you more leeway, as it allows Dual Channel to work even with completely mismatched modules (say, you have a 512MB DDR2-667 and 1GB DDR2-533 sticks, it'll work at Dual Channel 533MHz with 1.5GB size). It is a feature on almost all Intel 945/965/975 chipset family.

 

Thanks for your advice. I just upgraded to 2GB RAM. Bought 1GB kingston RAM in Singapore around 110USD after conversion.

 

"But there are serious image quality problems under Vista, namely, the textures swap in and out of each other and flickering in the background. However, since it is still a work in progress, I am sure NVIDIA will polish up the drivers for proper release when Vista officially ships in Jan '07."

Has anyone found a solution for the textures problem?

 

The new Logitech 64-bit beta drivers work well with the M1210.

Choose the "QuickCam for Notebooks Pro" model.

 

awesome jwolthuis, thanks! Still wondering if there is a fix for NVIDIA Go7400 with problems with textures with Halflife 2 and Heroes V. Thanks!

 

blee321:

As far as I know (and browsing through the LaptopVideo2Go forum), it seems it is a driver issue that NVIDIA needs to sort out. Many have reported the same texture flickering, swapping in and out with the Vista RC2 ForceWare v96.85 drivers. So this problem is NOT just limited to the XPS M1210 and the Go 7400 GPU.

Give them some time, with Vista now scheduled to go RTM on 30th November, I am sure a better driver will be avaliable soon (and NVIDIA is well known for their pace and quality of driver development in the industry).

 

Hey Angrymob,

I'm running Vista version 5840 on my ****ty desktop with p4 2.4, 1gig ram, and the lowest Ati card "7000" with only 64mb of ram. It runs pretty well to say the least even though the ati drivers doesn't support my card anymore and have to use the standard windows driver. When using anything graphics intensive is quite a pain to load. So I guess the video card is the most important part when using Vista. Any single core processor above 2ghz or any duo core should be sufficient, accompanied with 1gig of ram.

 

You rock, AngryMob! Thanks for posting your link to the modded INF.

I have a Sony SZ370P/C laptop which also has a nVidia GeForce Go 7400 video adapter and I decided to switch from the 32-bit to the 64-bit version of Vista. I was previously able to use my Sony Recovery DVD to get the drivers for my laptop but with the 64-bit, I had no such luck. Thus, your link to the modded 64-bit INF was my solution. I'm no longer stuck with the Standard VGA Adapter driver. I'm running at native resolution with the Aero interface after a short performance test thanks to you.

Too bad all the other drivers that are on my Sony Recovery DVD aren't going to be as easy to find. Hopefully, Sony will put 64-bit drivers out soon since Vista is going RTM in two days!

 

Well, with Microsoft officially closing development on Windows Vista, and RTM that went ahead this past Wednesday (8th November), I would say everything is falling into place nicely.

Today Windows update popped up a message informing me of some new updates, and to my pleasent surprise, the MMC and MemoryStick part of the card reader are now officially supported as well (originally only SD cards were supported).

So all that's missing now, is the official Logitech Webcam driver, and the xD memory card driver and everything will be supported and working. Looks like this will be a rather smooth OS transition we've had for a while (at least for the XPS M1210)

 

Ill be installing vista rtm (build 6000) in a day or two (getting via MSDN) and will post here how it goes.

 

This is good to hear. Then the only thing I have to worry about is the xD Memory Card driver, HP AIO 2575 printer, and Athena smartcard reader. I'll probably be trying it out later this week on my desktop as I am working on getting the 32-bit and 64-bit isos from microsoft's servers.

 

I ran 64bit vista back in RC1 and I would say that I am extremely impressed. After finding a few drivers (video, my x-fi in my dock) I got it running extremely well. I installed HL2 and Lost Coast and was shocked when the game entered 64bit mode and the graphics look better in the 64bit version. In the beginning of the game the doctor in the lab looks so **** real it was uncanny. You all dont know what you're missing. I just hope everyone decides to release full x64 drivers soon.

in x64, everything ran faster and smoother and I will be definately going 64bit Vista when enough drivers are released.

Now some more x64 findings:
-Adobe CS3 is supposed to have x64 support for both mac and pc
-Most game developers will be incorporating x64 in future games and some already have it and you just dont know...
-Vista screams under x64 compared to x32 though it takes more RAM
-all x64 programs are a bit larger than the x32 versions so plan your drives accordingly.
-Vista and x64 does not have the 4GB addressing problem. You can utilize more ram than you can dream of now.
-There is a new video driver system and you cannot use older XP based drivers.
-There is also a new sound driver stack that Vista requires. Guess what... you cant use XP sound drivers either.
-But dont fear as Vista is supposed to be the first fully supported consumer x64 environment. It rocks.

anyway that is my .03

 

glad to see some people can see the benefit of what's coming from MS.

I think Vista is much more good than bad. Installed the X64 recent build on my E1505 and am just loving it, all drivers were found minus a couple "base system devices" which havent seemed to have an effect on anything (still searching for the correct drivers)

I agree on the ram, while mine runs great with just 1gb, I really really want to have 2gb.

 

Thanks Angrymob for both the M1210 and the Vista reviews, I'm expecting mine to be delivered tomorrow here in Taipei. Since it's the first time I deal with Dell (thanks in 65% to a great product and 35% your outstanding review) I have tried to decypher if I'll be getting the "Express Vista Update" from Dell. Following their links to this info, it takes me to http://www.dellvistaupgrade.com/

Stating that equipment bought after October 26 would most probably be able to take advantage of the upgrade. Is this so or should I start saving for a retail copy of Vista?

Thanks!

 

Angrymob, you are a great source of knowledge for M1210 owners everywhere!

I just bought one, it's on its way

Keep up the good work

Thank you!

 

I installed 32 bit RTM on my m1210. Here are some observations

- Aero runs very smooth (i have 7400). However there are glitches while playing games , this is due to the beta graphics driver (95.87).

- Battery life is better without aero than with it (around 30-45 mins more)

- Dell QuickSet for XP works

- i8kfangui works

- Battery shows me 6-7 hours left (9cell) when in non-aero & power saving mode. Dont know if I will really get so much time.

When the final *final* comes out on Jan 30th, I will definetly be upgrading. Vista runs well on the m1210. Its not just about the GUI, but lots of new security & stability features. IE7 also seems to be great.

 

Also there seems to be a lot of performance improvement of 64bit over 32bit RTM. I have only the 32bit. Can anyone confirm this?

 

Ho Hum...I'll stick with XP until a service pack comes out. I'm not taking advantage of the free UG. I'll wait.

I really hate that an OS has to be so bloated with crap. Who cares about eye candy in the OS. I want the resources used where they are needed most.....THE PROGRAMS I want to run. All the overhead sucks.

I could care less about 3d folders...and 3d transparent efx drop down windows chewing up resources, but Im probably in the minority. Spend the time, knowledge and energy on a ROCK STABLE and SECURE OS which has yet to be a staple from Microsoft. Not writing code for eye candy!!!!!! I'll watch and wait for all the "fixes" and software compatibility bugs to be worked out. Im guessing Jan 08 might be a good time to try it. One thing we don't want is a beta test for an OS...Like XP SP1

 

Thanks guys for the kind words. I always like to share my usage experiences with others so we can gain useful feedbacks.

One of the things that surprised me is that, since I've been using Windows Vista RC2 for over a month now (as my primary OS, I do have Windows XP installed in multi-boot as my fall-back), it is rock stable. Recalling my experience with using Windows XP 5 years ago when XP was just released, Microsoft has really stepped up.

I mean, yes, you can bash Microsoft all you want, but the fact of the matter is, they are a multi-billion dollar company, and they have been making OSes for a living. Don't give me crap about "they having a virtual monopoly" and that most people "don't have a choice". This is a free world, no one is pointing a gun in your head to buy Microsoft. There's MacOS and Linux, and they are great OSes, but I am sure if MS's OS is as bad as people put it, they'd be out of business by now.


As I was saying, all this time using Vista RC2, and do take in mind that technically I am using essentially "unsupported" and "beta" software, it is, rock stable. I have not had 1 fatal crash whatsoever. None. Nothing. The OS never dies. Sure, sometimes program do crash and things do go wrong, but the thing is, Vista handles them very gracefully to say the least, and it doesn't effect the stability of the rest of the systems and applications whatsoever. For me, this is a very significant and core difference compared to Windows XP with SP2 and all the latest patch installed. XP would still occationally throw up a BSOD, a core dump, or casuing the desktop (explorer) to restart itself.

And I am using the same programs under both XP SP2 and Vista RC2, and here are a list of stuff I might be running/using at any given point in time (consider it as my normal workload):
- Media Player 11
- Internet Explorer 7
- Windows Mail (a.k.a. Outlook Express)
- MSN Live Messenger
- Yahoo Messenger
- Skype
- Sun Java2 Runtime Environment
- Azureus (BitTorrent client)
- mIRC
- Photoshop CS
- GoogleEarth
- Guild Wars
- Steam (CounterStrike: Source)
- Windows Defender
- AntiVirus program (Symantec Corporate Edition under XP, avast! Home Edition under Vista)


I would certainly get Windows Vista when it officially comes out on 30th January 2007. Out of ALL the OSes that Microsoft has offered us and that I am switching over to at the moment of launch (and for me, that would be Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000, and Windows XP), Vista has impressed me the most. It is the smoothest and easiest transition yet from my experiences so far.


Oh, and obviously, Windows Me was the worst ever, period. At one point in time, I had to do a complete reinstall/reformat every 2-3 days with the Toshiba Satellite Pro 4270XDVD I had. I gave up and reverted back to Windows 98.

 

Got the laptop this afternoon! Just installed the Beta 2 Build 5384 (I have to admit I don't know whether this is 32 or 64-bit) and connected to Windows Update...it came up with a driver for the nVidia 7400 (and it actually works)!

 

Any comparisions of between 32bit vs 64bit vista on m1210 (C2D)?.

 

Would you be able to take some screenshots of non-aero mode (or point me to some already on the forum, couldn't find any)? Also, what does the power saving mode entail? 6-7 hours sounds great.

 

Sorry to disappoint you, but there is something called AGP aperture size, and it is usually 256 to 512MB. It is a RAM space reserved for graphics addressing, but it is not TurboCache. I know that 7400 is pci-express card, but concept is same (shared system memory shows on my AGP card in vista, and it has no TurboCache). You missed to show that "System Video Memory" is at 0MB, and I think that 192MB should be shown there explicitly. For example, Windows XP would show that your card has 256MB RAM, but Vista shows only 64MB; I'm afraid that TurboCache is not implemented at all in current vista driver.

 

If you were to turn off Aero Glass, do you think you could get +10 FPS on Half Life 2?

As for guy playing Half Life 2. It's gonna only get better. A patch is coming out so that the Source engine utilizes dual core processors. In benchmarks they were able to DOUBLE the FPS.

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2006/11/02/Multi_core_in_the_Source_Engin/1.html

 

Hey there all,

OK, I installed Vista RTM x64 Ultimate on my m1210 yesterday... The main problem I am having is the built in Verizon wireless broadband card. I can't get it to install anyway I try. I think I'm getting close but I have a feeling I need to go 32bit. the drivers are telling me they are not for a 64nit OS. Anyone have any luck with this under 32bit or 64bit? Please this is MAJOR to me as I need this card to work.

Thanks in advance.

Gromet

 

DELL released the 32 bit update just yesterday. 64 bit may be on the way.

 

So I just Downloaded the x32 driver. I go to install and nwo it tell me my computer is not a Dell computer????????

Anyone have this happen to them?

 

OK,

So I have switched back to vista 32 bit edition... Have everything working now. Even the Logitech web cam and camera button work. YEAY!. Cisco VPN Client, even got the Verizon working, but not with Dells new drivers since they would not install since their drivers now don't think I have a dell computer?? (Any help with this would be greatly appreciated). But I got it working with the other dial up connection work around.

I still have 1 base system device flagged in my device manager, but I'm not sure what that is yet...

Gromet

 

Great. Where did u get all the 32bit drivers?

 

what drivers are you looking for? i'll let you know what i used...

Gromet

 

I have also gotten the Logitech webcam to work on mine too, with both 32-bit and 64-bit Vista RC2, however, I am just a tad too tired to post details and a complete guide-through.

The short version: all you need to grab Logitech's latest official driver pack which they released recently (and have official Vista 32/64-bit and even XP-x64 support in there), and do some modding to the .inf and config files to "fool" Vista into installing it. So right now, instead of saying "Logitech Webcam for Dell", it says "Logitech QuickCam Pro 5000" in device manager.

The USB PID for the OEM Logitech unit for Dell is "08C6", and the USB PID for the retail Logitech QuickCam Pro 5000 is "08C5". I just replaced the instances where it says "08C5" with "08C6".

Honestly, Logitech just used a common CMOS sensor/design for their 1.3MP line of webcams (or more precisely under the "08**" PID family), and looking at the driver files closely, they all point to use the same .dll and driver files anyways.

That missing "last" device should be the "RICOH xD Flash Memory Card Reader". Its weird how support for the flash card reader is all saperate, even tho they got SD, MemoryStick/PRO and MMC to work fine.

 

I have installed Vista x32 RTM on M1210 w/o Logitech upgrade kit and I can't get the microphone to work - shows "no sound recording device".
Does anybody know where to get Vista drivers for Integrated Advanced HD SoundBlaster?

Thank you in advance

BTW, great job on the preview!

 

Looks nice...can't wait to use Vista on my E1505

 

I ran the Vista Upgrade Advisor and it said that Aero wouldn't able to run on the m1210 eventhough it recognized the video card as being the Nvidia 7400 GO. That is obviously wrong but it's still weird....

 

if you want to have your desktop look like vista, i mean exactly like vista, then get the vista transformation pack, i did and now mine looks EXACTLY like vista, all while running xp...so now ppl say "woah how'd you get vista?!!? it looks so crazily nice!!" and im all like "im special..." then i tell them that its a vista transformation pack

 

ummm, OR, you could Just install Vista Ultimate... I'm Running it on my M1210 and everything as running outstanding. Ligitech cam wirks better than it di in XP, Aero "Glass" is Georgous, Sound and MIC are working perfectly...

Lovin it!

 

i cant wait to get my XPS M1210.

 

Gromet,

Can you explain the webcam working better under Vista? Is the low light performance better? Grainyness gone? I am very disappointed with the webcam and have been considering returning my 1210 but if vista fixes the problem i will be happy!

Thanks,
Eric

 

The camera is decent. Dont forget that it is a 1.3Megapixel one. Not the Sony T50 with 8 Megapixels

 

Angrymob, I have a few questions 1) does aero run well with powermizer set to max battery? 2) do you notice any increase in heat from running aero? Thanks, and sorry if you've hit these already, your post has gotten rather large