How do you get the different Windows versions to play nice? Why is Vista so slow across the network?

[RPosty]

Background:
With XP no longer being supported, They have asked me to try to upgrade the Computers.

Factors:
* I am not an IT guy, I fix everything in the building. CNC Lasers to toilets. whatever is broke I fix.
* Budget is maybe $100 (I know, really)
* We had 6 Computers working seamlessly on Windows XP. They shared toys in the sandbox, never called each other names etc.
* So with no budget I have returned the PC's to factory condition 2 with Vista, 2 Windows 7, havent done other 2 yet.

Results:
After reloading them several times to get the programs to talk to each other (Lions, Tigers, shares and permissions oh my), The windows 7 and the 2 still on XP seem to be operating smoothly. The 2 with Vista is like downloading a movie on a 14.4 modem. network printing is slow, if I am accessing a spreadsheet or document on the NAS it has a framerate of what feels like 1fps. just moving the mouse causes the little halo hourglass thing to rear itself.


Anyone have any insight? Thanks in advance. It is ok to make fun of me and my cheap company.

"I am stuck on Band-Aid brand, 'cause they are stuck on me"

 

[MikeHalloran]

My daughter bought an expensive laptop with Vista.
It was a pig.
I spent a few days bringing it up to date,
and tuning it up as well as I could,
from what I could find on the net.
It was still a pig.
It was unbelievably fast with Puppy Linux, but she wanted to run some specialty Win apps, and didn't feature booting from a CD or thumbdrive, and clearly didn't want me messing with it anymore, since I had not been able to improve it. Well, it was worse than that; one of the updates stopped the wireless from working.
So she paid somebody to downgrade it to XP. AFAIK, it's still running fine on XP, and she's happy with it.
I think Vista eventually got straightened out, sort of, but I have heard a _lot_ less complaining about W7 than about Vista.

If I were in your shoes (and I've worked for super cheap outfits too), I'd put everything on W7, or if the budget doesn't allow, CentOS 6, which is a fairly fuss-free version of Linux.






Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[IRstuff]

W7 is the Vista patch...

TTFN
faq731-376

Need help writing a question or understanding a reply? forum1529

 

[xwb]

Check if there are updated drivers for the network devices on Vista. It might be that they are using generic drivers.

 

[xwb]

You could try one of the following. Lots of sys admins there: they might be able to give you pointers as to why your system is slow.

http://www.tek-tips.com/threadminder.cfm?pid=1583

http://www.tek-tips.com/threadminder.cfm?pid=1726

http://www.tek-tips.com/threadminder.cfm?pid=779

 

[RPosty]

Updated Broadcom Network drivers, that did the trick. Thanks

"I am stuck on Band-Aid brand, 'cause they are stuck on me"

 

[RPosty]

Okay, Now this is a blog, feel free to jump in in something rings a bell: I will look at suggested links.

Update 1.0: Thought Updated Network drivers fixed it, then it slowed down again after I did a print preview. stayed slow, so without closing the spreadsheet, I deleted the printer and bam, fast again. So somehow when Communication is established with HP M1536dnf MFP it bogs down the Vista PC. (happens on two identical Dell C521 PC's).

next stop google





"I am stuck on Band-Aid brand, 'cause they are stuck on me"

 

[MikeHalloran]

You are not the first person to observe and report odd Vista behaviors that come and go, and exhibit irregular correlation to whatever corrective measures you attempt, as well as to nominally unrelated changes made in pursuit of other problems, or at random.

It would be less wasteful of your time to just install the Vista patch for everything, Win7, like IRStuff says.


Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[RPosty]

Fixed it. The Vista Machines did not like the PCL6 Drivers in our exceptionally noisy manufacturing environment. Installed the PCL5 Drivers and now machines are actually pretty darn Fast. Read about the differences between PCL6, PCL5 and Postscript Drivers, a few sites mentioned that the complicated structure of the PCL6 drivers can make them troublesome when buildings have old shitty cabling and that the PCL5's were somewhat bulletproof. So I tried it. Not sure how well the PostScript would have worked, maybe I will try them at some point.


I love that this site exists, so much valuable info and insight.

"I am stuck on Band-Aid brand, 'cause they are stuck on me"