Have You Updated to Vista SP1?

Microsoft released SP1 for Windows Vista this past week and the reviews seem to be mixed.  Some reviewers say SP1 improves various system performance tests, and others say it does the opposite.  I installed Vista SP1 on my main desktop PC last week, and the installation process was flawless.  As far as any "real world" performance issues, I haven't noticed anything either way.  On my system, I have had no noticeable performance gains or slowdowns as others have reported.

I haven't installed SP1 as of yet on my HP laptop, as the SP1 betas I have used kept constantly BSOD'ing my machine.  I was never able to narrow down the culprit, but I am a bit wary about installing it again on this computer.  I might fire up Windows Update tomorrow morning and give it another go, so we will see how that works out then.

Otherwise, my question to the community is have you, Vista users, updated to SP1 yet?

94,806 views 54 replies
Reply #1 Top
ID, aren't you using the Conexant 4.31 audio drivers on the HP laptop? The MS site says it won't work with anything below 4.32, and yet those don't even seem to exist that I could find. Trying to update the drivers through device management says it's up to date, and HP's site says I'm up to date as well.
Reply #2 Top
I have updated both my Gateway laptop and Dell desktop and have had no adverse reactions,I also have noticed my Dell seems to run a little faster with less USB glitches,which I had a few of those.I have a sigmatel audio card that they say is a SP1 driver problem,I reinstalled the driver after SP1 update and have not has a problem.So well see.  :NOTSURE: 
Reply #3 Top
Much faster, the speed difference here is like going from XP back to 2k.
Reply #4 Top
I've been running SP1 for nearly a month now on my Dell laptop. Haven't had any problems. Seems a little quicker in all areas and there is definitely a big improvement with copying or moving files, whether on a local disk or to a network disk.

So far the experience has been all positive. Though, apart from the file copying/moving slowness, I didn't have a problem with Vista before SP1 :)
Reply #5 Top
I loaded it on my desktop and have not noticed any difference in performance.  :NOTSURE: 
Not that I expected to since I had no complaints about performance to begin with; the systems was no slouch...5.8 Windows Experience score before and after. :) 
Reply #6 Top
I loaded it on my desktop and have not noticed any difference in performance.
Not that I expected to since I had no complaints about performance to begin with; the systems is no slouch...5.8 Windows Experience score before and after. :) 
Reply #7 Top
Waiting for a DesktopX fix.
Reply #8 Top
Otherwise, my question to the community is have you, Vista users, updated to SP1 yet?
End of quote

Yes, installed on 2 computers, all works fine without problem. No real difference before and after the installation of this SP1 on these computers except this new "error log" located on Event viewer (known issue):
Unable to initialize the security package Kerberos for server side authentication. The data field contains the error number.
End of quote

Reply #9 Top
I see no performance gains either.
Reply #10 Top
Installed yesterday evening on my laptop. Not really tested but seems to make no difference. May be less time to log on/off...
Reply #11 Top
So far I have updated 2 machines this week and have yet to do a third. I have been in the process of moving a lot of files around as well this week and on my girlfriends main machine which is a 3.2p4 with 1gig of ram I noticed when I transferring a large number at a time that it immediately started to transfer without spending 10 minutes calculating the move which I had problems with before. Also I am not sure its related as I don't use that particular pc often is that there is a delay when clicking an icon before I hear the drive kick in now. never noticed that before. Yet on my 1.8 Sempron with 512 laptop, not much change either way but its not very well tested. I feel very happy with it so far though I am a Vista fan and honestly haven't a complaint about it yet.:)
Reply #12 Top
Installed SP1 a few days ago and have had positive results with performance, file copying/moving and load/shutdown times. No more of that 'calculating time' thing... not that it was particularly sluggish beforehand, but now it's quickly into copying/moving files, and that's a bonus for me because it means backups are that bit faster.

Haven't noticed any stability improvements... but then I never had instability issues before SP1

So am I happy with Vista SP1? YUP, you betcha. ;)
Reply #13 Top

D, aren't you using the Conexant 4.31 audio drivers on the HP laptop? The MS site says it won't work with anything below 4.32, and yet those don't even seem to exist that I could find. Trying to update the drivers through device management says it's up to date, and HP's site says I'm up to date as well.
End of quote

Good find Bebi.  I got the "latest" Conexant drivers through Windows Update a week or so ago, and they show as 4.36.  I guess I can try it then.

 

Reply #14 Top
How weird, I just tried it the other day and it said I was up to date with my 4.31 drivers, bah.
Reply #15 Top
I did the update about a week ago. I did notice the PC seems a bit more responsive. It did, however, take a while to install. I have an HP laptop.

So far so good. However I noticed my wife's laptop has not been updated to SP1 but does not show on Windows update as available to DL and install. Not sure why. I don't want to manually DL it and install it, I have never had good outcomes of manually installing a SP. I would normally slipstream it onto the CD.

The only problem I had was I could not get to any websites although I had Internet and was able to play my online games. I found out the update had an issue with my static IP setting so I disabled it. I will have to reset it but I'll do that some other time, its not a desperate necessity.
Reply #16 Top
Strange...it appears that posting in the forums is screwwy. I edited my post yesterday and I just noticed it double posted. :NOTSURE: 
Reply #17 Top
I updated and it took a lot longer than I thought it should and I didn't even have a full install, only about 66mb. Otherwise I didn't notice any difference afterwards.
Reply #18 Top
I updated and havent noticed any increase or decrease in performance what so ever,,dont know if its to do with the new machine i just built being a pretty high spec though..
Reply #19 Top

Both of my Vista systems updated without issue.  One 32 bit, the other 64.

Reply #20 Top
I updated and it took a lot longer than I thought it should and I didn't even have a full install, only about 66mb. Otherwise I didn't notice any difference afterwards.
End of quote


Huh? Service Pack 1 5 language pack (the smallest version) is about 430mb. I have no clue where you got 66mb from.
Reply #21 Top
The 66mb version should be the one on Windows Update.
Reply #22 Top
Ha!  Windows Update won't even list on my laptop because of the drivers. 
Reply #23 Top
Ha!  Windows Update won't even list on my laptop because of the drivers. 
End of quote

See! Told you...it's those damn Conexant nonexistant drivers that MS wants us to magically update to or something. I haven't checked on mine recently though.
Reply #24 Top
I spent most of the last few days reformatting my new system and getting rid of the extra crap they always feel the need to install on new computers. This one came with a bunch of free trial stuff like gateway games, Norton antivirus, microsoft office student, and a bunch of other crap I didn't need, like google desktop and such. So I reformatted it and wiped it down to bare bones. I noticed that my sound/network/t.v. tuner drivers had not installed. I removed my pci modem and put in another network card I had a realtek which installed plug and play so I then had internet access. Once I had internet access the computer installed Microsoft drivers for my sound (Prior to this I had Sigmatel audio drivers and therefore couldn't get the sp1 update). Before proceeding I ran all the windows updates and was able to update to sp1. After that I installed the Sigmatel HD Audio Driver Version: 6.10.5405.0 along with the rest of my drivers and everything seems to be running fine. I have noticed a significant increase in boot time as well as in working with file copying and such. Also my network connection seems a bit more responsive then before.
Reply #25 Top
Updated to SP1. Speedier going through the family network, apps load faster (better prefetch?).

I still cannot for the life of me get DesktopX to function correctly.