Few tech questions...

[quicksilverva]

Couple questions here, hoping yall could shed some light.

 

 

1) Spent about half of my tax return this year (approx. $470) on essentially a new computer.

Previous build:
Intel DG45ID motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz CPU

6GB DDR2 (Can't think of brand right off)

EVGA GeForce GTX465 Super Clocked GPU 2GB
Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champ1on Series sound card
Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit

 

Current build:

ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0 motherboard

AMD FX-4350 Vishera Quad Core 4.2GHz (Overclocked to 4.5GHz)

16GB G.Skill Ripjaws X Series DDR3

EVGA GeForce 960 SuperClocked 4GB

Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champ1on Series sound card
Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit

Sound like a decent build to you guys??

2) I'm having a bit of an issue with my audio. Whenever I have tried to update audio drivers, I would Blue Screen, with a ha20x22k.sys driver stoppage report, then getting stuck in a boot cycle until a hard reset. The research I have done on this system file, says that it is used by Creative Labs for their drivers??? Also, I have tried to update the RealTek HD Audio drivers, and the same error occurs. Here is the kicker, I have wiped my hard drive and did a complete reinstall of Windows (with all the updates and Service Pack 2), and the issue will still occur. Are there any ideas that you guys could throw out that I could try to resolve this issue?

3) What are yalls recommendations for a replacement sound card, as I now believe mine to be dead. The card itself is getting power, however, the front control panel does not illuminate, and my system is NOT recognizing it to be installed, even after being installed on a different motherboard and with a clean hard drive.

4) Don't laugh at this one, as I am not currently financially able to upgrade Windows, but will Fallout 4 run fairly decently on Vista?? Don't want to spend the money on the game and it not work.

[Purr4me]

boot without the sound card installed and allow the OEM mother board drivers to install first. "Built in sound devices are required."

[Purr4me]

 

*1: Use a chassis with HD audio module in the front panel to support an 8-channel audio output.

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/M5A97_LE_R20/specifications/

[iXenite]

The CPU is fine enough, but if you can upgrade to the AMD FX 6300 I would recommend doing that. I don't know about Vista though. Maybe you can get a cheap Windows key from Kinguin or something. I believe Paul's Hardware on YouTube has a guide on that.

[FMod]

3) What are yalls recommendations for a replacement sound card, as I now believe mine to be dead. The card itself is getting power, however, the front control panel does not illuminate, and my system is NOT recognizing it to be installed, even after being installed on a different motherboard and with a clean hard drive.

None. Fix your driver issues.

 

IF that doesn't work, try it out on a different OS install on a separate partition.

 

If that doesn't work, there's a few sound cards around that are OK.

 

[quicksilverva]

Redacted for redundancy.

[quicksilverva]

 

None. Fix your driver issues.

 

IF that doesn't work, try it out on a different OS install on a separate partition.

 

Don't know if it is a driver issue, sound card issue, or a blue hat issue...

 

Unless you are referring to a separate install of Vista on a separate partition, I have no other OS's available to me.

[FMod]

Actually, you do have other OS available to you. First is Linux, which is free software, and a number of other OSS, but obviously it's not what you want. Second, a little known fact, you can use Windows 10 for free even if you don't own a Win 7 or 8 (edit: but for a limited number of purposes).

Note the catch: use, not get. It's not piracy (which isn't free anyway, you pay by giving pirates control over your PC), but rather a lack of previous version ownership requirements in Microsoft Insider licensing agreements, which makes Insider builds legal as long as they're connected to a Microsoft account and used in accordance with the terms.

The Insider program also has some other conditions: you can't opt out of updates or telemetry; you get updates before others; and you don't get a permanent entitlement, only a license to use the software at Microsoft's sole discretion, that discretion currently being to keep extending your license as long as you keep installing new updates.

At the end of Win10's lifecycle, and such will probably come (they promised to make it the last Windows ever, but they made a 32-bit version of it), it will probably expire. Possibly at the end of Mainstream Support. In contrast, Win 7/8 users get a digital entitlement, so they get to keep their W10, updated or not, for as long as their motherboard holds out. With Insider, they're not giving away W10, just letting you run it for limited purposes.

( Also, the EULA happens to seemingly prohibit you from swearing on online forums, making fake name social accounts, collecting people's emails and answering surveys. Don't worry, just lawyers putting an extra layer of slat armor over the chobham on their butts. )

Anyway, it's probably worth it. (Probably not, given all the confusion)

Mandatory updates and telemetry are a normal part of the modern continuous delivery model and Microsoft is a late adopter here; for a lot of highly-connected software, anything else has been unimaginable for years.
Microsoft's current priority is to kill old versions, especially XP and 7, in favor of Windows 10 (and not, say, Linux!), and they've been too aggressive about pushing W10 to worry about them pulling back.

---

Sound card hardware failure rate is very low and it's much more likely to be a driver problem. Have you tried the above advice - making sure you install your onboard drivers first?

P.S. Disclaimer: IANAL. Everything above is my best understanding, supported by public statements from Microsoft employees and major online publications, but is not to be considered legal advice. Also, my apologies if the staff deems this information to be in the spirit of bypassing the owner's intent; no argument then, but my current understanding is that this door was left open very deliberately, as Microsoft is talking about it, so it falls in the avoidance rather than evasion category.

Edited June 3, 2016 by FMod

[obobski]

Instead of installing the onboard audio, you could alternately just disable it in the BIOS and then give the Creative card a try. I'm more inclined to point towards driver problems (especially since we're talking about a Creative card here) than hardware problems. Also, any reason you can't use the onboard audio itself? Agreed on going for an FX-6300 or FX-8300 if possible.

 

WRT Vista and newer games - it supports DirectX 11 and will work with newer AMD/nVidia drivers so I don't see why it couldn't work. It'll take longer to start-up (this is, I'm told, an extremely important metric to many users; what it actually measures I haven't the foggiest though) than Windows 7, and you'll have a few more UAC prompts (by default), and some stuff may whine at you for not having the latest-and-greatest Windows, but otherwise I don't see where it'd be a problem, and if you're used to using it after a few years I doubt any of its specific idiosyncrasies are a problem either.

[PillMonster]

 

 

None. Fix your driver issues.

 

IF that doesn't work, try it out on a different OS install on a separate partition.

 

Don't know if it is a driver issue, sound card issue, or a blue hat issue...

 

Unless you are referring to a separate install of Vista on a separate partition, I have no other OS's available to me.

 

 

Actually, you do have other OS available to you. First is Linux, which is free software, and a number of other OSS, but obviously it's not what you want. Second, a little known fact, you can use Windows 10 for free even if you don't own a Win 7 or 8.

 

Note the catch: use, not get. It's not piracy (which isn't free anyway, you pay by giving pirates control over your PC), but rather a lack of previous version ownership requirements in Microsoft Insider licensing agreements, which makes Insider builds legal as long as they're connected to a Microsoft account.

 

The Insider program also has some other conditions: you can't opt out of updates or telemetry; you get updates before others; and you don't get a permanent entitlement, only a license to use the software at Microsoft's sole discretion, that discretion currently being to keep extending your license as long as you keep installing new updates.

 

At the end of Win10's lifecycle, and such will probably come (they promised to make it the last Windows ever, but they made a 32-bit version of it), it will probably expire. Possibly at the end of Mainstream Support. In contrast, Win 7/8 users get a digital entitlement, so they get to keep their W10, updated or not, for as long as their motherboard holds out. With Insider, they're not giving away W10, just letting you run it.

 

( Also, the EULA happens to seemingly prohibit you from swearing on online forums, making fake name social accounts, collecting people's emails and answering surveys. Don't worry, just lawyers putting an extra layer of slat armor over the chobham on their butts. )

 

Anyway, it's probably worth it. Mandatory updates and telemetry are a normal part of the modern continuous delivery model and Microsoft is a late adopter here; for a lot of highly-connected software, anything else has been unimaginable for years.

Microsoft's current priority is to kill old versions, especially XP and 7, in favor of Windows 10 (and not, say, Linux!), and they've been too aggressive about pushing W10 to worry about them pulling back.

 

---

 

Sound card hardware failure rate is very low and it's much more likely to be a driver problem. Have you tried the above advice - making sure you install your onboard drivers first?

 

 

P.S. Disclaimer: IANAL. Everything above is my best understanding, supported by public statements from Microsoft employees and major online publications, but is not to be considered legal advice. Also, my apologies if the staff deems this information to be in the spirit of bypassing the owner's intent; no argument then, but my current understanding is that this door was left open very deliberately, as Microsoft is talking about it, so it falls in the avoidance rather than evasion category.

W10 is a free UPGRADE not a free Operating System. So yes you do need W7 or W8 to obtain W10. And Linux what games are you going run with that?

It would be great if people would check facts before posting the first thing that pops into their head.

 

 

@OP the rig looks OK to me but the LE isn't suitable as it only has 4 phase analogue VRMs with no cooling. You can get a M5A97 R2 or better still and Evo for not much more.

The 990X is another option, they both overclock well; if you're into overclocking.

 

What sound card do you have?