Hello OQO Talk

[Guest]

[Stuart]

XP Wacom doesn't always start on boot.  I've found that if I wait to log in, it usually works ok.

S3 doesn't support protected content (NetFlix).  Newer (unsupported) S3 does work with protected content.

I'm not using Vista, and I don't remember the audio issue.

[charlieboy]

Adam

The Wacom driver for XP is flaky. It looses the plot from time to time and fails to load or crashes after loading, this then requires a reboot. Un-installing the driver and re-installing does not help. At one point it got so bad I just had to do a re-install the OS. But I was not using the OQO version of Tablet XP just my MSDN copy as I changed the HD in my 1.5ghz oqo and the cd which came with the OQO only loads up from HDD and refuses to work with an SSD. But even when I was originally using the supplied OS disks it still failed on a fairly regular basis. But as I am not a regular Tablet user so much I am not massively worried about it, but for the few times I do want to user the tablet features it is very frustrating.

I suggest you get an XP version of the OQO and use it again for a few weeks. Do a load of sleeps, hibernates, install and uninstall a few pieces of unrelated software and I am sure you will see what we mean.

[adamg]

I suggest you get an XP version of the OQO and use it again for a few weeks. Do a load of sleeps, hibernates, install and uninstall a few pieces of unrelated software and I am sure you will see what we mean.

My full-time computer is an XP m02 (1.6Ghz, 60MB HD, WWAN).  I'm on it constantly, install and uninstall software on a fairly regular basis, go into and out of hibernate a few times everyday minimum, and this doesn't happen to me, so I'm not sure what to tell you, other then it's not reproducible on my machine.  I can also tell you this is not a common complaint.  I've heard of it, but it's not something that many of our customers are telling us about. 

I'll ask our QA folks, as they have more exposure to the full product line then I do.

[charlieboy]

When I used to work in tech support we always used to joke that you could build 10 identical PCs and then install Windows. At this point you then had 10 completely different machines that would all behave differently. I always hated the non re-producible software bugs!

[Ronc]

We don't have any driver updates planned.  You specify wacom for XP Tablet, and audio for vista -- why?

Regarding audio for Vista:
I installed the new IDT audio driver (current final version only) and then noticed that Vista SP1 appeared on Windows Update. At that point I ordered the SP1 DVD that Microsoft was selling for $3.50 which took 10 days to arrive.  My OQO performed trouble free for those 10 days, but after installing SP1 from the DVD I started having frequent freeze-ups requiring a forced power-off shutdown to recover.  After one or more of these events, Microsoft's automated diagnostics came up with this notice:

"Problem caused by Audio Driver (stwrt.sys)

This problem was caused by Audio Driver (stwrt.sys), which was created by IDT (SigmaTel) and is distributed by your computer manufacturer..."

MS SP1 tech support suggested I try to diagnose the issue by turning off all non-Microsoft services and start-up processes using msconfig.  I quickly discovered I needed to reactivate only 3 items (OQO Services, Sprint Services, and OQOManager) to regain the functionality I needed (mainly the 3 radios).  I could do without the msconfig items having to do with tablet, audio, and bluetooth w/o losing the functionality I needed as they seem to be convenient in the systray but unnecessary.  Now I very rarely have any freeze ups.  Someone in OQOTalk postulated that there is some sort of conflict between the new tablet and audio drivers (in my case showing up only with SP1).

[trf]

OQO often gets the blame for Vista's shortcomings.

[sandydlc]

OQO often gets the blame for Vista's shortcomings.

Agreed.  <sigh> Ahh, Vista - I've tried so hard to like you!

If Trf or someone can get the Mac OS to work completely on the OQO (including WWAN and sleep), then I'll definitely switch over.  If you've never used a Mac OS you can't imagine how stable a system can be.  It's so refreshing!

[Stuart]

Closed systems are always much more stable.  They don't have 3rd party contamination.

[macmany]

OQO often gets the blame for Vista's shortcomings.

and, in this case, vice versa

[2disbetter]

OQO often gets the blame for Vista's shortcomings.

Agreed.  <sigh> Ahh, Vista - I've tried so hard to like you!

If Trf or someone can get the Mac OS to work completely on the OQO (including WWAN and sleep), then I'll definitely switch over.  If you've never used a Mac OS you can't imagine how stable a system can be.  It's so refreshing!

This is what everyone says, but I've had the wife's MAC freeze up around 20 times in the month we've had it. Not saying it's horrible, but come on folks, MAC OS is designed to work with only products the Apple themselves release. Windows on the other hands is designed to work with everything PC. I think the slates of compatibility are sligthly skewed there. Not saying it's an excuse, but still one folks shoudl take into consideration. Also Vista is seens as having many shortcoming when in actuality it's just that windows is finally doing things the right way. Sound for example in Vista is completely redone, and is much improved over past window os's. Companies who have spent years designed subpar drivers for their equipment have had a hardtime adjusting. Look at creative's support forum for proof of this.

What I'm getting at here, is that Vista is making people code things the right way, and is not as forgiving on bad memory handling and resource control. This is as it should have always been.

And while Apple touts about having a stabler OS (and I will agree UNIX based system are very stable) there is also an extreme limitation in the amount of software you can use. In essense to get the same amoutn of use, you'll be emulating or running windows on your mac anyway.

[trf]

I have learned a great deal about both Vista and Mac, not that I am an expert, and drawn some conclusions, albeit no better than the next guys opinion. 

Here goes:

Vista does much more than Mac, and does it on obviously a nearly unlimited number of platforms.  By much more I mean that Vista lets you do things your way ie. customizable features. 

Mac is sleek, easy to use, and designed for a singular set of hardware configurations but does your thinking for you.  This leaves far fewer selections for customizing what you do. 

When you want to do someting Vista says "How do you want to do this"  while Leopard simply does it. 

An example:  Insert a dvd into a Mac and it begins playing.  Insert a dvd into a Vista machine and a menu pops up and ask you what you want it to do with the dvd. ( ie. player selection etc.)

While I prefer Vista comparing the two OS's is like comparing apples and oranges.  Many people do not want to fool with options.  They just want the computer to do as much as it can without asking questions, or boring them with options they do not even want to know about.  For them the sleek appearance of the Mac hardware and software is the way to go.  Other people want to have the ability to customize what they do and tweak what the system does and how the system does whatever they are doing.  For those Vista is better.

Having said all of that there is a price to pay for multiple platform support and for more customizable options and part of that price is stability.  While Leopard is not totally free from crashes and freezes it does perform much more reliably than does Vista.  The benefits are among other things the ability to do what you want your way.  For me that is important but everyone is not the same and obviously many people prefer Leopard. 

A few days ago I wanted to do a simple video project for my daughters sign language college class homework assignment.  I started in Leopard thinking that it would be easier.  I inserted my SD card and tried to point Leopard's idvd, if I remember right ,to the SD card.  Unfortunately Leopard did not want to proceed without transferring all of the SD card to the system.  It wanted to do the project it's way.  I have to say that the menu selections and dvd framework was awesome but I did not need awesome this time I just needed to put a simple two minute video on a dvd disk.  I shut down Leopard and went into Vista and it was done quickly and easily.

The moral to the story is that Vista will continue to do want I want it to do my way, but will include the occasional freezes and hiccups along the way, and the computer manufacture will continue to get the blame for this.

[macmany]

The moral to the story is that Vista will continue to do want I want it to do my way, but will include the occasional freezes and hiccups along the way, and the computer manufacture will continue to get the blame for this.

in this particular case, this is a hardware driver problem, not a vista problem.  the sigmatel driver interfacing the os to the sigmatel chip is buggy.  the driver is the problem.

it is the hardware provider who selects the hardware, not the os developer.  selection includes obtaining the correct driver and ensuring that it works.  if it doesn't work, the hardware provider resolves the problem with the company that provides the driver.  in this case, sigmatel. 

of course there are bugs in vista but in this case this is a hardware bug, not a vista bug. 

this isn't an example of the oqo getting blamed for a vista bug.

[Bungee]

As Stuart puts it, I'd be interested to know if any OQO XP/Vista driver updates are in the works (e.g. Wacom for XP Tablet, Audio for Vista), or should we pretty much contend with what's out there now.

We don't have any driver updates planned.  You specify wacom for XP Tablet, and audio for vista -- why?

Hi Adam, as others have mentioned, the Wacom driver doesn't always load when XP Tablet starts up. It didn't used to occur as much with a factory recovery build, but there's obviously something interferring with it increasingly (Windows Update, 3rd party application,etc?). So much so that I get an error message about 30% of the time I start up XP and can't use pen input as a result.

As for the Audio driver in Vista, I've never been able to complete the setup for the IDT Driver 6.10.5862.0 and reverted back to the previous Sigmatel driver instead.

I don't think either of the problem affects all your customers, but then again, I don't think I'm alone either. It'd be nice if there was a fix. 

[oqorogue]

Welcome, Adam.

What're the chances of getting the bug fixed where the calibration of the pen goes out the window when zooming in?

Roger
02, 64GB SSD, Verizon WWAN, XP and OSX

[adamg]

Bungee - would you PM me your support info (oqomanager > support tab) so I can get driver & SW info and I'll run this by our QA group if I don't see anything obviously wrong.  I do know that this isn't considered an open issue; we don't get any complaints about it in tech support, but then, most users aren't on Tablet. 

oqorogue - I'm afraid that Wacom is not supported in resolutions other then 800x480:
http://support.oqo.com/cgi-bin/oqo.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=658 and we have no plans to support other resolutions.