That's an interesting thing to consider, and I hope that it is true. However, I think we'll need to wait for a while, and start checking the stats as people install SP-2 and see what kind of real-world performance gains people experience with the service pack.
In the meantime, even if the service pack solves the majority of Win2K software problems, this means that people with Win95/98 are still in the same boat, with no relief in site. And it's no solution for people shift to Win ME ... it's just Win98 with repackaged bugs and a lack of access to the command prompt. Even with better multimedia support, the OS's performance increases are offset by the problems generated with terrible non-Plug and Play features, and the system "roll back" feature, which is just far too memory-intensive to work well in a Win 9.X platform.
Finally, this does not change all the problems people are having due to poorly designed hardware on many early variations of VIA 'boards. The most common problem (i.e. locking up in games, with a blank monitor screen) is because of the power leads on the mainboard and/or an inadequate power supply. You may notice that when this issue occurs, rebooting becomes difficult because the video card refuses to initialize during the POST, and this problem becomes worse over time, with the system in question taking longer and longer to reboot.
Other lockups, such as ones where the game simply has a bug, normally do not cause the system to spontaneously shut down, with the fans still running, and a blank monitor screen. Whenever I get a call about this, I ask if the game is still visible on the screen when the system locks up. If that is the case, I know that the problem is usually NOT due to the common AMD/VIA/Power issue.
I won't discriminate ... I've seen similar problems in VIA 'boards with Pentium processors. It just happens less often.
On my P4 system, with a decent power supply, GeForce3 card, and Win2k SP-2, everything appears to finally run the way I want. Although I'm still reserving judgement ... something might show up later, down the road. But somehow, I doubt it.
I said goodbye to my AMD system this morning ... shipped it back to the manufacturer. A moment of silence, please.
<SIGH>
<GRIN>
Comments?
Toejam31
P.S. If you are running a GeForce3 in Win2K ... I highly suggest that you install the 12.40 drivers. They are the fastest, most stable drivers released yet.
<font color=purple>If there was a reason for everything, having faith would be redundant.</font color=purple><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Toejam31 on 05/16/01 01:47 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
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