Thomas M. Turner's Tech Ramblings
IT blogging from the corn, soybean, & hog state... oink. Atom formatted XML site feed
Last month I got my new office computer, an AlienWare system with an AMD 3400+ processor, and wow does it scream!
Just for kicks, I figured I'd try out the Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for 64-Bit Extended Systems Customer Preview, which is a free download. Well, when they say it is a "preview" version, they weren't kidding!
First of all, it took some Google searches just to get it to install, because the key problem is the short supply of 64-bit XP drivers. My system had the SATA drive installed on the integrated Promise SATA RAID controller, but alas there weren't any 64-bit XP drivers for that (as of a month ago, when I did this testing.) AlienWare systems are cool in that they use the same brands of components I use in my custom-built systems for home and friends, so this system has an ASUS K8V Deluxe motherboard. This motherboard also has two more SATA RAID controllers as part of the VIA VT8237 Southbridge.
To get the XP 64-bit to install, though, you need a driver disk to insert after you've pressed the F6 key, but the drivers I found were meant to be loaded after the initial XP install. Huh? Luckily, Planet AMD64 had all the drivers I needed, to at least get things installed and (mostly) working, including the edited TXTSETUP.OEM file required to let the XP installer finally recognize my hard drive!
Planet AMD64 also has the 64-bit 3Com 3C940 NIC driver I needed, where it came from I have no idea, though, since a search on 3Com's own site came up empty for me. The 64-bit Realtek audio driver (beta) worked, sort of. To get sound output, I had to connect the speakers to the microphone jack, believe it or not.
Once I finally got the Windows XP 64-bit Edition installed, I found that it is pretty much Windows 2003 server, without the server stuff. It maintains separate folders and registry keys for legacy 32-bit apps versus native 64-bit apps, while 16-bit apps have been deprecated from running. Here's a screen shot.
The only application I had that said it supported Windows XP 64-bit, although not actually a 64-bit app, was Nero Burning ROM v6.3. It installed and worked just fine. One odd thing, though, is that Spider Solitaire crashed every time I closed it.
Alas, a week later I put Windows XP Professional SP1 back on the system, since obviously I need my work computers to be fully functional and (as) stable (as any Windows OS can really be.) Perhaps a year from now, all the drivers will be certified and I'll put it back on, but right now my 64-bit processor is going to have to suffer with a 32-bit operating system. It's not like there are any 64-bit applications yet for me to run anyway!
Just for kicks, I figured I'd try out the Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for 64-Bit Extended Systems Customer Preview, which is a free download. Well, when they say it is a "preview" version, they weren't kidding!
First of all, it took some Google searches just to get it to install, because the key problem is the short supply of 64-bit XP drivers. My system had the SATA drive installed on the integrated Promise SATA RAID controller, but alas there weren't any 64-bit XP drivers for that (as of a month ago, when I did this testing.) AlienWare systems are cool in that they use the same brands of components I use in my custom-built systems for home and friends, so this system has an ASUS K8V Deluxe motherboard. This motherboard also has two more SATA RAID controllers as part of the VIA VT8237 Southbridge.
To get the XP 64-bit to install, though, you need a driver disk to insert after you've pressed the F6 key, but the drivers I found were meant to be loaded after the initial XP install. Huh? Luckily, Planet AMD64 had all the drivers I needed, to at least get things installed and (mostly) working, including the edited TXTSETUP.OEM file required to let the XP installer finally recognize my hard drive!
Planet AMD64 also has the 64-bit 3Com 3C940 NIC driver I needed, where it came from I have no idea, though, since a search on 3Com's own site came up empty for me. The 64-bit Realtek audio driver (beta) worked, sort of. To get sound output, I had to connect the speakers to the microphone jack, believe it or not.
Once I finally got the Windows XP 64-bit Edition installed, I found that it is pretty much Windows 2003 server, without the server stuff. It maintains separate folders and registry keys for legacy 32-bit apps versus native 64-bit apps, while 16-bit apps have been deprecated from running. Here's a screen shot.
The only application I had that said it supported Windows XP 64-bit, although not actually a 64-bit app, was Nero Burning ROM v6.3. It installed and worked just fine. One odd thing, though, is that Spider Solitaire crashed every time I closed it.
Alas, a week later I put Windows XP Professional SP1 back on the system, since obviously I need my work computers to be fully functional and (as) stable (as any Windows OS can really be.) Perhaps a year from now, all the drivers will be certified and I'll put it back on, but right now my 64-bit processor is going to have to suffer with a 32-bit operating system. It's not like there are any 64-bit applications yet for me to run anyway!
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