@too_many_usernames said:
So finally, with much kicking and screaming, I'm being forced to migrate from XP to Win7 (64 bit) by IT because of XP EOL.
This isn't a bad thing. Win7 is pretty good, once you do some tinkering: ClassicShell, 7+ Taskbar Tweaker for immediate relief.
MS seems to have slipped into Star Trek Mode (tm): every other Windows release is decent. Win7 is okay, caveat the above. I made the same switch about 3 years ago.
@too_many_usernames said:
I get my shiny new computer (Dell E6540 for anyone that cares) and it's replete with WTFs, some of which I blame on Windows, some I blame on people cutting costs, and others I don't even...
I had an E6xxx at a previous job, and it was okay over all.
@too_many_usernames said:
1. It's a 15.6" screen, 1920x1080. But someone screwed up badly, because I can see the damn pixel masks on the screen! The screen manufacturers didn't put any horizontal breaks in the pixel mask, so I see Every Single Vertical Line. This isn't an aliasing thing - it's the pixel coloration itself. And my eyesight isn't even that good!
Your IT is probably paying for Dell's "No questions" support. Hand that laptop in and get a brand new replacement, asap.
Protip: get the backlit keyboard.
@too_many_usernames said:
2. How many wireless drivers do I need anyway? Dell DW WLAN with an icon from 1985. Intel PROSet. And Windows native. Seriously folks...
The Dell one is worthless. I'm not even sure why they bother to include it... which reminds me. The biggest improvement in the machine I had was when I needed a device wipe and reinstall from my IT's standard windows image. Ask your IT for that too. Gets rid of all the Dell preinstalled crap in one shot. Then hit up Dell's driver site and cherry pick just the ones you need. I recommend video, audio, network(s), and the trackpad driver. I usually install the chipset drivers too.
@too_many_usernames said:
4. Some of my customer-specific apps don't work on Win7 64 bit. Third party, not mine, I know, I know. (Best part? The app was written in .Net...)
MS makes available for free "XP Mode" which is a sort of VM + XP image bundled together. If that doesn't work they also make available for free an XP image for booting under a real VM. One of those will work for your apps, although it's a bit of a PITA. Complain loudly and often.
@too_many_usernames said:
This laptop has two video chips - Intel HD and AMD Radeon (WTF?).
Are you docked? Your dock has a separate video chip in it, which is why the dock requires a slightly different power supply than the laptop itself.
@too_many_usernames said:
Program uses a single USB channel to talk to a USB to CAN converter. There are two client devices on the CAN bus. On WinXP or Win7 32-bit, the software can talk to both clients on the CAN bus. On Win7 64 bit, it can only talk to one client device. I suspect it's not so much a Win64 issue so much as just terrible programming that hit some weird corner case of undocumented API behavior.
If it's not the managed code thing mentioned elsethread, the driver/apps's probably using pointer arimethic to get to the second device, and it's not coded properly for 32- vs 64-bit pointers. This is entirely common.