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Win7 drivers?

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 3:52 pm
by FireFox
Hi okay this is another Win7 post :P

I finally got my hands on a Win7 CD I can now install. I'm planning on dual booting it as I'm not ready to give my XP copy the boot yet :lol:

I've downloaded GParted to repartition my HDD into 2 partitions to keep my copy of XP safe and sound in case of Win7 doesn't do it for me. Before going into a debate of why not to go Win7 right now and what not, I'm curious about it and wish to give it a whirl :P

This brings me to my question! Drivers! I've already gotten my Display drivers but I'm running a MSI K9N SLi Platinum. Win7 should most likely not require any specific drivers for the nforce 4 chipset right? The hardware that seems to be going to be a pain in the rear is the soundcard! I'll be honest I haven't googled this a lot yet as I'm short :( on time researching this so I thought I'd just ask. From what I've found there seems to be complaints of the sound on the SBlive 24-bit crackling and what not.

Does anyone know if this has been sorted yet and what drivers should I use as I couldn't find a Win7 specific driver in my search for it yet :? I'm still looking but thought I'd call in some help 8)

Anyways any help and suggestions or links will be appreciated!

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:59 pm
by AceCombat
i dont see why Win7 wouldnt have NF4 drivers pre-installed. hell, it should have the RAID/SATA aswell.

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 8:42 pm
by Admiral LSD
Windows 7 should offer most of the drivers you need to get up and running out of the box with a large chunk of the rest being available through Windows Update after you're up and running. It's not perfect, but the good news is that 9 times out of 10 you can use Vista drivers to plug any gaps that might arise. In particular I'd suggest getting a hold of at least the LAN and the SATA drivers (if the SATA isn't/can't operate in AHCI mode) to start with as that way you'll be prepared for the two most disruptive and annoying install headaches. You should be able to pluck both out of the nVidia driver kits but if you search around there's a few remixed kits about with later versions in a few cases. Once you have those just dive right in. You'll get a picture of what works and what doesn't than by trying to piece together various bits of possibly conflicting information from forums.

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:45 pm
by fliptw
the only driver disapointments with win7 are for my audigy2, and the lan.

Had to get an updated driver for the lan so WOL works, and the A2? its typical creative driver slacking.

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:16 pm
by Admiral LSD
Yeah, I've had decent luck with it overall too. The one exception, and the reason behind my above recommendations, is the nForce2-based Athlon XP. The chipset drivers were available on WU, but the LAN driver wasn't installed with the OS. The Silicon Image SATA controller also wasn't supported in the installer. In both cases though, using the Vista drivers sorted everything out.

Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 11:28 am
by Warlock
On my test comp I half to use XP drivrs to get my IDE raid to kick in

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2009 9:11 am
by JMEaT
All of my drivers were found by Win7 EXCEPT my X-Fi card, which I obtained beta Win 7 drivers from creative. (Not bad for using the 64-bit version)

When in doubt, most Vista drivers will work in Windows 7 flawlessly. Even Apple's drivers work, as I am dual booting between Mac OS and Win 7 on my MacBook at work using the included BootCamp Vista drivers.

Have fun with 7, took me a week or so to get used to the new bright and colorful UI from plain old XP, but I can't even use XP now w/o fumbling for something I've already forgotten. (IE: Show desktop being next to the clock now in 7.) It's a great OS, glad to see MS got their crap together after Vista.

:)