One of my WD Raptor hard drives died (it was Raid0, so ruined a lot..). So, I decided to try using Windows Vista when the replacement came. I thought it would be an appropriate time to upgrade.

Vista has received a lot of flack for its performance issues, but my computer is more than capable enough to deal with them. The installation went well, it detected my raid setup, so I didn’t have to create a special slipstreamed CD like I did for XP, and everything seemed to be going pretty well.

It generally detected drivers pretty well, automatically installing the network driver which would allow me to virtually install anything it missed and grab updates. However, it did not seem to grab the appropriate driver for my graphics card, a Nvidia 7900GT. I went to Windows Update so it would grab a newer one and other updates that needed installed.

Unfortunately, once it installed the driver all I would see was diagonal lines across the screen completely destroying any chance of understanding what it was really displaying. It was acting like the refresh rate was not what it should be. So, I decide to roll the driver back and try something else. After booting into Safe Mode, I get the driver rolled back, and go back into normal mode to have another stab. I try the latest version of the driver from Nvidia, and get the exact same result.

I begin to search across the internet, there appears to be a solution which is an optional download in Windows Update. I’m thinking “Oh, Ok, well at least the solution isn’t so painful.” I try to install the update. It fails. I look up the generic illogical error code and suggests checking for corrupt system files. I do, it doesn’t find any. I try to install the updates several times over with different combinations of things, and none of it works.

Now I’m not sure how to solve this problem. The suggested solution I’ve found online is to — get this — overclock my video card to make it reliably work, because of some bug in the driver or something? Wow. That’s backwards.

So, I’m not sure what to do with my computer, I guess I’ll be reverting back to XP.

Thumbs Down on Vista.