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Windows 8 Consumer Preview Thread

36K views 461 replies 119 participants last post by  Veeper 
#1 ·
Tomorrow, Feb. 29, is the release of Windows 8 Consumer Preview. I thought I'd start a thread to discuss what we find in W8CP.


I've got an old Dell GX280 with 4GB that I've put a new HD5450 card in that I intend to use for fooling around with the new OS.


Let the fun begin!
 
#277 ·
From an eariler post, I was only getting 4MB/s networking throughput on the Win8 customer preview. I couldn't get back the networking for my Realtek 8111D onboard chip, so I reinstalled the Win8 customer preview. It still isn't showing up.


This time I ran Crystal Diskmark to check the sequential read/write speed of the storage pool with parity.


Read - 127.8 MB/s
Write - 27.57 MB/s


Not gonna record many SageTV HD streams at this rate. Time to try some different hardware or punt Win8 for now. I know this is not "production" software but I soooooooo wanted it to work well. It has everything I needed.
 
#278 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by najames /forum/post/21757961


Win8 installed, didn't have drivers for the Intel NIC, can't install Intel drivers for Win7 unless I hack their scripts because it immediately says "unknown OS" or something similar and halts.

Don't use the installer - download the drivers, extract them, right click on the NIC in device manager, and manually update the drivers.

Quote:
I pulled the Intel NIC and turned on the onboard Realtek 8111D. It was recognized, MS driver installed. However, the LAN transfer starts at 100MB/s and rapidly drops all the way down to 4MB/s on big video files. Tried Filezilla server/client, no difference. Transfers to the WHS v1 server 87MB/s, scratch head. Win8 wouldn't let me install a Realtek driver to test with, so I uninstalled theirs first. Now it doesn't know the NIC exists, even after turning it off then back on in the BIOS, rebooting. Realtek driver install also fails.

Sounds like a driver issue - again, just download the Realtek drivers, extract them, and update the drivers manually.

Quote:
The "parity" drive pool set up the 5 drives ok, pretty slick actually. I was transferring some big files and the transfer somehow timed out, the drive pool disappeared until I rebooted. It also disappears if the PC goes to sleep on S3, not sure about S1 BIOS settings. Power Saver in Win8 won't let me bring it out of sleep well either, key press or mouse movement did nothing.

Can't help with this one - the only computer I have with RAID is my server, which runs WHS 2011 and is a hardware RAID, not a software RAID.
 
#279 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by StardogChampion /forum/post/21760140


It's not mentioned because it's not true.


"Windows 8 features a new Metro Start screen, which is a big change from Windows 7. To launch Metro-style applications, which are the new immersive-style applications, you need a resolution of 1024x768. This should be possible on most hardware platforms. To use the Snap application capability, which allows two Metro applications to appear on the screen at the same time with one application using up most of the screen and the other giving a summary view, you need a resolution of 1366x768."


And that's just the requirements for the start screen and snap feature. It has nothing to do with other non-metro applications such as W8MC, etc.

Maybe the real question is, do we care about Metro apps on a HTPC? Answer may be "no". I just don't know as I haven't installed Win8 yet. I was just concerned that it would eventually shut some of us out from certain apps. Obviously not true now.
 
#280 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mfusick /forum/post/21760018


No one runs 720p HDMI directly to projector as they would have no sound.


Usually you hit an AVR- which in that case shoot it 1920x1080p and let it downconvert.


Results are usually acceptable.

I don't have a receiver in that room that can do that (pretty sure it can't at least, have to check). This is a less serious setup that I just go directly HDMI to the projector and use either analog or optical to the AVR. I have a dedicated theater room with a Pioneer 1121 which could probably do what you say, but of course I have a 1080p projector in there (Benq W6000).
 
#281 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by kegobeer /forum/post/21760223


Don't use the installer - download the drivers, extract them, right click on the NIC in device manager, and manually update the drivers.


Sounds like a driver issue - again, just download the Realtek drivers, extract them, and update the drivers manually.

Thanks for the reply, but drivers for what? Win8 doesn't even see the LAN chip, there is nothing listed in the device manager. Realtek drivers don't install either, been there, done that in round 1. Ah what the heck, I tried it again for grins and it says, "Realtek controller not found". Yes, it is enabled in the BIOS.


I am not the only one seeing these problems. I posted on MS and another guy has the same slow throughput with the customer preview, but said the developer release worked ok.


Win8 Hard drive write issues thread, wish I'd seen it earlier.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1676726
 
#282 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by najames /forum/post/21760370


Thanks for the reply, but drivers for what? Win8 doesn't even see the LAN chip, there is nothing listed in the device manager. Realtek drivers don't install either, been there, done that in round 1. Ah what the heck, I tried it again for grins and it says, "Realtek controller not found". Yes, it is enabled in the BIOS.


I am not the only one seeing these problems. I posted on MS and another guy has the same slow throughput with the customer preview, but said the developer release worked ok.


Win8 Hard drive write issues thread, wish I'd seen it earlier.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1676726

Drivers for your LAN card. You can probably get the Intel NIC working if you download the PROWinx64 installer (for 64 bit, PROWin for 32 bit) and extract the drivers instead of trying to run the full installer. Once the drivers are extracted, go to the device manager and manually update the drivers.


What motherboard do you have? I don't find anything for H55M-SH2, just GA-H55M-USB3. I looked at the support page for the H55M-USB3 board, and there is an INF for the board - you could try installing those drivers (manually, if necessary) to see if it helps. The consumer preview may not have all of the required drivers included, so it might be necessary to download all of the Gigabyte drivers and install them.
 
#283 ·
Motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2H, sorry box didn't have GA in the name. http://www.gigabyte.us/products/prod...px?pid=3523#dl


I'll hack out the Intel inf and give a try later tonight, but Win8 didn't appear to even search for drivers. I've always used the drivers directly from Realtek (or any manufacturer) instead. If possible I avoid Microsoft drivers. Often Microsoft drivers will work, but drop of features in the "real driver".


I still say the Win8 consumer preview has issues, too many people with the same exact problems.
 
#284 ·
You shouldn't need to edit the inf, just try it. When I first started using 7, I used Vista Intel drivers the same way - extract and manually update.


8 might not ask for drivers. If it doesn't, just check the device manager because it probably installed some sort of default driver.
 
#285 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by kegobeer /forum/post/21761624


You shouldn't need to edit the inf, just try it. When I first started using 7, I used Vista Intel drivers the same way - extract and manually update.


8 might not ask for drivers. If it doesn't, just check the device manager because it probably installed some sort of default driver.

I stuck the Intel Pro1000 PT back in, shut off the Realtek in the BIOS reinstalled Win8. I didn't do anything different, but it actually recognized the Intel NIC this time, for the very first time in 4 installs. It used a Microsoft driver, claimed it was working properly, but actually didn't function. I updated the driver and pointed it to my Intel driver files, it actually updated.



I set up the parity pool, opened up the sharing on a directory. It started out at about 120MB/s transferring the Win8 download, ended up at 21.5MB/s. This is more consistent with what I read and although still very poor, it is better than the 3.8 MB/s it was ending up at before.


Crystal Diskmark is now reporting 125MB/s reads and 27MB/s writes.


Homegroup isn't working yet, and there is a PCI Simple Communications device not working, but I made some progress.
 
#287 ·
I haven't read this entire thread yet but I'm making my way through it. I'm having severe audio and video issues with my setup. I have a dual core 1.9 AMD and an ATI 5450 graphics card outputting at 1080p and using stereo out to my 2 channel soundbar.


1st issue (happens 25% of the time)- When playing a video, if I pause it and let it sit for a few seconds and then unpause, the video will play but I will get no audio. The only way to make the audio come back is use the skip button or just restart the file and even that doesn't always work. This also happens sometimes when I just go to play a file from the beginning and it starts with no audio.


2nd issue (happens 10% of the time)- When playing a video or resuming from pause, the video and audio will play back at 2-3 fps and is obviously unwatchable. Same thing have to skip around or keep hitting pause/unpause for it to play right again.


All of these problems happen regardless of the video player. It happens in mpc,wmc, and xbmc. I'm using the ati consumer preview drivers they have on their website. I've also tried to use the Win 7 12.2 drivers just to see what happens and the advanced features of CCC are not available so I can't adjust overscan among other settings.


I've already clean reinstalled once thinking there might have been an issue the first time but the problem is still there. I really don't want to have to reinstall again and go back to Win 7 as I like the speed and UI of Win 8.


Is anyone else having these problems?
 
#288 ·
I'm really not convinced by Win8, which feels like Win7 "Millenium Edition":


- For desktop use, there is very little meaningful improvement, and I find that more clicks or mouse movements are needed than before to accomplish the same tasks (shortcuts are ok, as before). The 'Charms' are anything but charming (so dumbed down it's annoying).

- The Metro side of the interface is kludgy and lacks polish (It may be that MS should have waited to have better previews available before releasing the Consumer Preview, as right now I find it useless)

- The new interface may be better for tablets, but this seems to be at the detriment of what we have been used to for many years. I may be stuck in my old ways, but I'd like a close button for the apps (this reminds me of WinCE)


I would have liked to see some tight integration between the WMC and Metro interfaces, but I'm not sure that this is where MS is headed and also don't know if Metro can bring all the eye candy of WMC.


Unless Win8 becomes a must with some new hardware, I may wait for Win9!
 
#289 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eiffel /forum/post/21763094


- The new interface may be better for tablets, but this seems to be a the detriment of what we have been used to for many years. I may be stuck in my old ways, but I'd like a close button for the apps (this remains me of WinCE)


The Alt+F4 still works for Metro Apps. Besides, metro apps are put in suspend mode when in background. When in suspend mode, the app doesn't use much resources other than memory which should be plenty on any modern PCs. WinCE apps and Windows desktop apps are still running when in background. That's the main difference. I know old habits die hard. But this is not going to a big issue if you stop your compulsive tendency to close every app you opened (I know I had a hard time too
).
 
#290 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jhoff80 /forum/post/21762750


The PCI Simple Communications device is usually the Intel HECI or AMT driver, I can't remember which.

Thanks, I'll take a look at it today.


Eiffel, I'd be happy if they could just put a power button somewhere easier on the desktop than fishing around the bottom right corner, then hitting settings, then power, then shutdown.


I have pinned many of the basic tools on the bottom bar of the desktop so I don't have to fish around for them.
 
#291 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by najames /forum/post/21760205


From an eariler post, I was only getting 4MB/s networking throughput on the Win8 customer preview. I couldn't get back the networking for my Realtek 8111D onboard chip, so I reinstalled the Win8 customer preview. It still isn't showing up.


This time I ran Crystal Diskmark to check the sequential read/write speed of the storage pool with parity.


Read - 127.8 MB/s
Write - 27.57 MB/s


Not gonna record many SageTV HD streams at this rate. Time to try some different hardware or punt Win8 for now. I know this is not "production" software but I soooooooo wanted it to work well. It has everything I needed.

An HD recording is about 2.5MB/sec (or less).
 
#292 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by stanger89 /forum/post/21763490


An HD recording is about 2.5MB/sec (or less).

Hi old buddy!! Yup, but I was getting 3.86MB/sec until I reinstalled and got the Intel driver working. I often have multiple streams recording. I get 87MB/sec going to my old server or other PCs, so 27MB/sec is not very spectacular. I am not confident in reliability either at this point. From what I noticed on this Hardforum post, it is only the parity that is slow, other mirror options (haven't tried them) are ok.

http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=...0&postcount=29


Update: The PCI Simple Communications device requires the driver from the Intel Management Engine. The main folder in the driver downloaded from the Gigabyte was titled HECI.


There was 5 updates this morning for Win8, installed them, a little more progress. Now it goes at over 100MB/sec for about half the Win8 ISO transfer, then immediately drops down between 20-50MB/sec for the last half, looks like Win8 might be throttling it. Hmmm. Sorry about the borked image upload.

 
#294 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by StinDaWg /forum/post/21762830


I haven't read this entire thread yet but I'm making my way through it. I'm having severe audio and video issues with my setup. I have a dual core 1.9 AMD and an ATI 5450 graphics card outputting at 1080p and using stereo out to my 2 channel soundbar.


1st issue (happens 25% of the time)- When playing a video, if I pause it and let it sit for a few seconds and then unpause, the video will play but I will get no audio. The only way to make the audio come back is use the skip button or just restart the file and even that doesn't always work. This also happens sometimes when I just go to play a file from the beginning and it starts with no audio.


2nd issue (happens 10% of the time)- When playing a video or resuming from pause, the video and audio will play back at 2-3 fps and is obviously unwatchable. Same thing have to skip around or keep hitting pause/unpause for it to play right again.


All of these problems happen regardless of the video player. It happens in mpc,wmc, and xbmc. I'm using the ati consumer preview drivers they have on their website. I've also tried to use the Win 7 12.2 drivers just to see what happens and the advanced features of CCC are not available so I can't adjust overscan among other settings.


I've already clean reinstalled once thinking there might have been an issue the first time but the problem is still there. I really don't want to have to reinstall again and go back to Win 7 as I like the speed and UI of Win 8.


Is anyone else having these problems?

I take it no one else is having these problems? I did a google search and I can't find anything else on it. I find it very bizarre that this is happening when everything worked perfect in Win 7.
 
#295 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by StinDaWg /forum/post/21764130


I take it no one else is having these problems? I did a google search and I can't find anything else on it. I find it very bizarre that this is happening when everything worked perfect in Win 7.

Sorry, I'm looking at from a media server perspective, not a HTPC. Remember it is a beta version of the OS. If it worked perfect in Win7, I'd stick with it for sure.


If Win7 had the pooling and parity stuff, I'd be very happy with it. Flexraid is in permanent beta mode and expires now $50(?), Stablebit also expires, DriveBender (name?) is $40 as I recall. I'm trying to run it all on one low power box instead of a separate file server. I have groups working, the disk shares configured, just need to test reliability now. BIOS is set to S1 power settings, everything appropriate seems to be enabled, but it has been sitting here all day and has "disapperared" from Homgroup & the network, not what I hoped for. Might be this board, will try other hardware next.
 
#299 ·
I discovered something interesting about Windows 8 last night by accident.


I had previously built a Win8 CP machine using an AMD E-350 motherboard. It turned out to be defective so I shipped it back. Last night I put together a new machine with an Intel D2700DC motherboard. I reused the SSD from the AMD E-350 build. When I booted the D2700DC machine, I forgot to tell it to boot from USB so it started to boot from the SSD with the Win8 CP install for the old AMD E-350 machine. I waited for it to error out with the whole "Windows needs to be repaired" error you'd normally see in this situation. Well, it didn't. Instead, it said "Preparing" and then something about preparing devices and then went to the start screen. According to the device manager, it had automatically installed all the right drivers for the D2700DC, converting itself from the AMD E-350 install to the Intel D2700DC install. The only driver it could not find was the video driver but it did install the "Microsoft Basic" driver which was good enough to run at least. Everything else was working, even the network adapter.


Wild.
 
#300 ·
For anyone like me, who is playing with Win8 on an old pc: although not in the official minimum system requirements, the word on the internet is that it (or at least the metro apps) is not compatible with non-sse2 processors (due to .net 4.5).


I spent 3 days trying to make W8MC or the apps work on an old athlon xp htpc, without any luck. Other than that, it looked very promising - great and glitch-free performance out of an agp hd2400 card (cat12.2 agp hotfix installed in compatibility mode).
 
#301 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Foxbat121 /forum/post/21763404


The Alt+F4 still works for Metro Apps. Besides, metro apps are put in suspend mode when in background. When in suspend mode, the app doesn't use much resources other than memory which should be plenty on any modern PCs. WinCE apps and Windows desktop apps are still running when in background. That's the main difference. I know old habits die hard. But this is not going to a big issue if you stop your compulsive tendency to close every app you opened (I know I had a hard time too
).

You can drag apps off the bottom of the screen to close them. But there really is no point in doing so. If they're not on the screen, they're suspended and the memory they're using is up for grabs by other apps.


You can bring up the settings with Win+I, Charms with Win+C, search with Win+F. Here's some other keyboard shortcuts: http://www.everything-microsoft.com/...ard-shortcuts/



I've tried hard to use Windows 8 the way MS wants me to, and I'm much happier. Before I was trying to force it to operate the way Windows 7 does and I kept hitting walls.


I still don't think I'll spend too much time in "metro land" on my desktop, but Metro seems perfect for TV and tablet. If the rumors are true, we'll also see it on the phone with Windows Phone 8 "Apollo".


Is anyone interested in making a live TV metro app for Windows 8? I think the start screen would be a perfect "ten foot" UI.
 
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