After experiencing frequent lock-ups while trying to render large textures in Poser, I have resolved to upgrade to XP. I have a Athlon 1800+ w/512 megs of DDR ram and this machine cannot render the large textures with any more reliability than my PIII 850mhz. So, acting on advice received in this forum, I am upgrading to XP tomorrow. What am I in for? My system is relatively clean, so should I attempt to upgrade or is a full reformat in order? Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

It has been my experience, as a computer technician, that upgrading your OS tends to inherit the headaches you're trying to leave behind. If you have all of your important files backed up already, or can do so without tremendous headache, I recommend a fresh install on a clean, empty hard drive. This way, even if you DO run into trouble, you know it's not a carry-over from Win98. You can install even the upgrade of WinXP on a clean drive, as long as you have your 'qualifying product' handy...in this case, your Win98 CD. It will ask for it at some point, if your HD has no OS on it. Also, if you install WinXP on a blank HD, the only format option you'll get is NTFS. Don't worry about this, it shouldn't cause you any trouble. NTFS is the preferred file system format for the NT kernel operating systems, and will afford you a tad more drive space, and a lot more drive security. Good luck on your impending upgrade, I think you'll be pleased overall with the performance improvements. I've been running WinXP since Beta 3, and haven't had a single major issue with it, only a few minor hiccups with some of my older legacy hardware and older software...all of which were fairly easy to remedy.

~Hands him a large towel~ Use it to wipe tears... scream into... wring it tightly while swearing... all helpful. Due to a problem I was having and an idiot tech who said I had to go to xp from 2000... 200 bucks later I'm happy to say I'm back to 2000. Good luck to ya.

I use XP from the first day it was released here in germany without any problems. I had a relativ clean win 98 and upgraded it. it took about one hour,and i had all running.

I used to have 5-6 lock-ups PER hour useing poser under '98, but since I upgraded to XP...I...I just want to....I just want to SING!! 'oh the HILLS are aliiiiive to the sound of XP....'

No Singing!!! At least not until I get everything up and running.

Thanks for this thread, I'm in a similar situation although my machine isn't as sophisticated. I've an AMD Athlon 700 with 512 mg of RAM running Win 98 and have been considering the upgrade to XP too. I increased the RAM from 256 to 512 recently but got virtually no improvements and still get the lock-ups from time to time, so I'll watch with interest. Let us know how it goes....

Drivers. Make sure you have downloaded all the current ones availible for your peripherals, even if updating from 2k or NT4. Some of the off brand hardware has problems with the generic drivers included in XP. Also be aware that if you burn cds with Adaptec, you'll have to go to their web site for the XP patch to createcd. For some reason I lost all burner capability when I upgraded. Adaptec wants the registration number for your current CreateCD before they give out the patch, so have that handy. Once it's up and running though, the OS is pretty stable. Hope this helps jbear

Attached Link: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/upgrading/checkcompat.asp

No one should even think of upgrading to Windows XP before they click on the link I provided. You need to do your homework first. Check to see if your hardware and software are compatible or need to be upgraded, etc. You may need to seek out new drivers for your hardware. That is not Microsoft's job. That is the job of the hardware manufacturer's. Some of your software may need to be replaced with new versions. Examples are Easy CD Creator by Adaptec/Roxio, Norton Utilities, Norton Systemworks, etc. Some titles that don't work: Winfax Pro version 10. (There is probably a new version out by now.) Another thing you can do is to read the MANY threads we've already posted about Windows XP. So much information has already been shared. I think we go through this once or twice a week. Personally I'm a bit more stingy with my time, since I need to do domestic things like clean house before my wife gets home. I've already invested some time in helping people with Windows XP, so I don't feel compelled to repeat it all. I will state I've had Windows XP since it was a "release candidate." Windows XP is the best operating system I have had. I date back to Windows 95. Of course I did my homework too. Ron

I have downloaded all of the newest XP drivers for my Radeon 8500, Soundblaster Audigy, Wacom Intuos etc. There may be no need to upgrade the Roxio EZ-CD Creator because there is supposed to be built-in burner support for CD burning in XP itself. I will be installing this afternoon. Thanks for all of the help.

Take my word for it, the builtin CD Writer support is almost totally useless. Take my word for it. I've done extensive research in the Windows XP newsgroups, and I'm trying to save you the trouble. I, and others, recommend the best way to upgrade to Windows XP is to get all the drivers, save them on CD. Then save all your data to CD. Then wipe the hard drive, and install Windows XP from scratch. Do NOT install any older versions of Easy CD Creator. If you decided to upgrade over a previous version of Windows, you inherit all the problems of that previous installation, and possibly more. Do all of us a favor, click on that link I provided. Read the other Windows XP threads. Read the Windows XP newsgroups. Do your homework. Ron

You mention an AMD chip?? My experience is except for the newest AMD chip Xp runs slower on it than it should!! I to am a tec, and have had several customers, do similar os up grades and now there systems crawl!!! I haven't figured out exactly what the deal is. so carfull!!

Tonymouse, I acknowledge your job description. You say your'e a tech?! I am a former tech (not working due to industry slump). I have no such knowledge of a problem with AMD chips and Windows XP. And none of my previous research in the Windows XP newsgroups provided this knowledge. What does the Windows XP Compatability site say?! Ron

As usual a little as possible!! My exp with MS is that they only admit to problems that they can't sweep under the rug!! :) AMD has released a new chip athlon XP and it does fine but older chips seem to have this problem.

windows 2000 profesional (NT5) is much better. If you need an stable system buy it.

can't sign this. Tried win 2000 and in all aspects of multimedia and hardware extensions- it was a nightmare. I'm using a 21'' screen and a I'm a notorious high detail renderer. Call me insane but I changed to XP when upgrading to an Athlon 1800+ with 1 Gig Ram and a Geforce 3. Runs like hell! OK, it took about two weeks to turn XP into a running system but after that: No complaint. So if you got some experience with operating systems and a fast machine have a try.

I had Windows XP Home Edition running right off. Not a single problem, even with my network sharing the internet with my wife's Windows ME computer.

Try to search any image file in XP? dont find nothing. it's a good OS? my personal xperience is whit XP pro and i can say:This is a sheet("una mierda") in spanish. ;)

I upgraded this afternoon. It took a little over an hour to get everything configured. I needed new drivers for my video card, sound card and modem. Fortunately I had downloaded them the night before and had them ready. My first test was to bring Vicky2 and Mike2 with the hi-res Daz textures and bumps into a scene with Magnet's Emmanuelle with bumps and Asia again with full resolution textures and bumps. It rendered it all in about 30 seconds. I repeated the process 3 times with the same results. Considering that the machine would lock up after about 3 renders with just the Vicky2 texture, I would say the operation was a success. Now if I could just get High Heat Baseball 2002 to work.....

After getting the system up and running, I went to the Windows Update site and was directed to download (which I did) a new driver for the Athlon processor. That probably means that yes there was a bug, and now it is fixed. So far so good. The one irritant that I experienced was Microsoft's flagrant attempt to shove it's Instant Messenger Service (I have absolutely no use for these types of programs)down my throat. They don't make it easy to get rid of but I was persistant and it has been succesfully removed from my taskbar. Another question: Where is the system configuration utility hiding? Were too many people using it to disable Instant Messenger and so it was removed? All in all though, it was the easiest Windows upgrade that I have done so far.

johnnydnh, I'm so glad that you were able to do the XP install so easily. I forgot one very important piece of advice: You always want to go to Windows Update immediately after installing your new operating system. I've installed a few new operating systems in the past 3 years, and all of them had Windows Updates waiting when I looked. I'm sorry I can't advise on MSN Messenger. It does seem that has been integrated more into Windows XP. It is now Windows Messenger. I recently worked for MSN, and all my coworkers used MSN Messenger. My friends still do. Ron