Windows 8.1

kemi1975

Hi,
I reluctantly "upgraded" this week to Windows 8.1 from XP and have been regretting it since. I think the root of my problem is that my motherboard (Foxconn K8M890 M2MB?) has been phased out so no Windows 8.1 drivers but not entirely sure. My system runs but is painfully glitchy and crashes constantly, screen flickering and going blank from time to time. I work from home and am stuck until I can get it sorted, so... is it worth trying to rebuild around another motherboard (computer is 8 years old and was perfectly adequate for my needs) or is there some way of finding alternative drivers that will get it running? I'm toying with the idea of giving Linux a try and kicking Windows into touch but I need to use a CAD program and don't know how tricky it would be to migrate to a Linux version.

poppellerant

Sounds like you have a problem with your drivers, in particular graphic drivers. Try to find drivers, if you can't find drivers for Windows 8.1, look backwards for 8.1, 7 and even XP at a stretch.

If you could post your system specs, complete with make and model of all your components, we could probably make light work of the drivers for you.

buglawton

I got Paint Shop Pro For Windows working on a Mac using Wineskin, There may be similar options for Linux.

I thought there was a test tool to check if a machine is W8 compatible.

steviebabes

An 8 year old system is far too old to run Win 8.1. It would have been best left as XP or buy a new base/tower unit.

[Deleted User]

steviebabes wrote: »

An 8 year old system is far too old to run Win 8.1. It would have been best left as XP or buy a new base/tower unit.

Well my 8 year old system ran 8.1 just fine and now runs Windows Preview (10) very well :money:

poppellerant

treboeth wrote: »

Well my 8 year old system ran 8.1 just fine and now runs Windows Preview (10) very well :money:

This!

Unfortunately Windows Vista demanded far greater resources than XP. Windows 7 was lessing taxing, but it's burdon on resources is still evident in some situations. Windows 8 is far better on resources, except it is pretty unusable for desktop users out the box. Windows 10 seems to be an even better improvement on resources than Windows 8, plus it seems it might even be usable. :eek:

But I can still see why some people choose XP, because of their weariness. Windows 7 is better than XP by a country mile, especially for usability. It's just a shame it's a little more taxing on resources - but to me that's a smal compromise!

Windows 8 won't run on hardware which doesn't have NX (No eXecute bit). But if you do get it working, it's a lot better than Windows 7 once you've installed StartIsBack.

Fightsback

Ewwww VIA chipset, notoriously buggy things.

Are you using a discrete graphics card rather than the onboard graphics, I assume you are as you say CAD ?

RumRat

poppellerant wrote: »

Windows 8 is far better on resources, except it is pretty unusable for desktop users out the box. .

Really? I didn't find that to be the case and 8.1 is even better.

poppellerant

RumRat wrote: »

Really? I didn't find that to be the case and 8.1 is even better.

I should have put 8.x rather than 8, but didn't want to confuse people - I used 8 on the basis that people would naturally assume I meant the latest version, not the first version.

Unless you're referring to what I said about usability. Desktop users seem to dislike the tiles in Windows 8 the most, myself included. Installing a start menu alternative soon makes Windows 8 usable for desktop users.

RumRat

Disliking the the look of it doesn't make it 'pretty unusable'.

poppellerant

RumRat wrote: »

Disliking the the look of it doesn't make it 'pretty unusable'.

Except in Windows 8 the tiles are on the start screen, which was intended to replace the start menu as we knew it. Quite rightly, people hated the start screen and turned to replacement start menus, such as StartIsBack.

As a Windows 8.1 user, I use StartIsBack and never ever use the start screen or it's tiles. I won't be using tiles in Windows 10 either.