New OS - new hardware!

[Geomath]

Can someone enlighten me about drivers and operating systems.
I am getting fed up with chucking out perfectly good hardware (usually scanners!) which do not work with a new operating system.
Is the manufacturer capable of writing a new driver or is he just interested is selling more units? Does Microsoft make re-writing drivers difficult?

My latest gripe is with the Trust internet phone station ST-1200. This product is still available but Trust only support it for Win2000 & XP NOT Vista/W7.
Trust "customer care" wrote to me:
"We always try to keep our products functional for as long as possible. As a result of the quick succession of developments in this sector and the age of some products, we are sometimes no longer able to keep products compatible with the frequent release of new operating systems. Unfortunately, this is the case for your product. It is good, however, that you have always been able to use the product in the past, but the technology used is no longer compatible with the new operating systems. We apologize for this.
Kind regards,
Simon
Customer Care Operator UK & France"

Personally, I would avoid manufacturers who do not look after their past customers and encourage waste!

[Behemoth]

I wouldn't call it encouraging waste, I've always looked at this as commercially not viable to support the product any longer. How long have you had it for ?

[Geomath]

27 hours! Yes, I know!!
It says "minimum requirements 2000/XP" not "maximum".
I did search the net before buying. Didn't find anyone complaining about vista/7-compatibility and there are enough for sale.
The drivers are dated May 2005 - I think Vista beta was out by then.
Hexus wrote a "new" review Sept 2005 in lifestyle.hexus.net item=1425 (I'm too young to post a URL!)

Trouble is joe-public generally don't buy a new OS when it first comes out, they get what's current when they get a new PC.
I'm going to cut my losses not my wrists!

[lego batman]

Can't you run it in xp-compatibility mode? Or does that not work with driver-based things?

[Geomath]

It goes belly-up in compatibility mode too.
When plugged in it complains about being able to work faster in USB2 which I know I have.
I can't believe it would be that expensive to upgrade a driver. Trust no longer produce similar items but seem uninterested in keeping their existing customers.
It was first sold at the end of 2005 so the oldest unit is only just over 4 years old.

[BobF64]

Can someone enlighten me about drivers and operating systems.
I am getting fed up with chucking out perfectly good hardware (usually scanners!) which do not work with a new operating system.
Is the manufacturer capable of writing a new driver or is he just interested is selling more units? Does Microsoft make re-writing drivers difficult?

It really depends on the device. Sometimes Microsoft do change things a lot and it takes time to bring out new drivers, other times it is a deliberate choice by the device maker to abandon the product, even more so if its not a big seller or its been replaced by a newer product.

Sometimes the device is just rebadged, and the seller is dependant on someone else to provide drivers, and they choose not to develop or update them.

Can't you run it in xp-compatibility mode? Or does that not work with driver-based things?

No, just applications.

Windows 7 "XP Mode", if you have Professional or Ultimate, would probably work, as would many other VMs running an older OS.

[abaxas]

You bought exactly what it said on the tin.

Now you complain they are not offering you something else too. Get off your high horse and deal with the situation like everyone else does. We've all move away from parallel port scanners, serial printers, parallel SCSI etc etc without pain. You can too.

[Geomath]

You bought exactly what it said on the tin.

Now you complain they are not offering you something else too. Get off your high horse and deal with the situation like everyone else does. We've all move away from parallel port scanners, serial printers, parallel SCSI etc etc without pain. You can too.

High horse - me?
What other industry can sell something that effectively self-destructs in 4 years irrespective of the amount of use?
You may be quite happy with in-built obsolescence but I cannot be the only one who finds this a little user-hostile and wasteful. If MS were to produce a new OS that was not, at least minimally, backwardly compatible (like HP used to in the pre-PC days) it would not have lasted.
We have not "moved away" from cordless phones, SKYPE and USB yet, we have just changed the GUI.

It is in the manufacturers' interest to keep existing customers like me. Currently they shaft customers like you and you seem to enjoy it!

[TAKTAK]

It is up to the manufacturer to support the product, not Microsoft!

If the product doesn't work, then that is the manufacturers fault...

And minimum requirements of 2000 or XP, you have neither, but you still bought it... It doesn't even say that it works with Vista or 7...

[directhex]

It really depends on the device. Sometimes Microsoft do change things a lot and it takes time to bring out new drivers, other times it is a deliberate choice by the device maker to abandon the product, even more so if its not a big seller or its been replaced by a newer product.

Sometimes the device is just rebadged, and the seller is dependant on someone else to provide drivers, and they choose not to develop or update them.

This is pretty much the story.

If you were a company, let's call it "ISM" for the sake of argument, and you made devices, you make £x profit from the sale. A new OS is released, which means spending £y on making a new driver (or licensing it from a third party, let's call it "MMOCDAORB")

If you were ISM, would you pay for making new drivers, for zero (maybe even negative) profit, or "discontinue" support for that device, forcing a new purchase and a new £x in profit?

[Splash]

If MS were to produce a new OS that was not, at least minimally, backwardly compatible (like HP used to in the pre-PC days) it would not have lasted.

I'm sorry, but you don't get to complain at Microsoft of all companies about not maintaining backwards compatibility: they bend over backwards so that you can run that ancient mapping application etc that you bought back when Win95 was new. The insistence on massive backward compatibility is one of the main reasons for problems with the OS in all honesty. Your truck is with the hardware vendor in this case and not the OS, for the exact reasons that Directhex describes.

[CWH]

Just been reading on PcPro, one of their writers was loaned a 'new' Dell at last years PDC loaded with Win 7 beta. Decided recently, to scrub and reload with RTM and found that it had already been discontinued by Dell and had no drivers available!
It's become a more common business practiceover the last few years, especially as margins have become tighter. Plus, so many items are just re-badged, so the supplier is subject to the whims of the original maker.

Colin

[Geomath]

To TAKTAK - I used MS as an example of a 'good' manufacturer (I have Windows 3.1 still running on an old machine!) - I realise they are not responsible for supporting 3rd party hardware.

And directhex - I do agree that there is financial gain to obsolescence but Trust no longer produce this type of product and I cannot now trust Trust.

Clearly half the respondents to this thread think that the status quo (no caps) is ok. However, even as a capitalist lackey I feel uncomfortable with the amount of hardware that is going to the dump.

It cost a total of £8.99 but I have at least got a spare USB and RJ-11 cable out of it. Shame the kids are going to have to go without shoes.

Damn you all, damn you all to hell!

[TAKTAK]

Hang on a sec, did you buy online/tele-ma-phone?

If so, use the DSR to your advantage if you've only had it 27 hours

[Ben Rogers]

I had a similar problem trying to install Sage Accounts Payroll version 7? on a Windows 7 PC..on the CD box it said it didn't support Windows 95 LOL so I knew instantly it was very old software and the latest OS it supported was XP and even with XP SP3 compatibility mode it doesn't work but installs fine. You double click the EXE to load the program and it just comes up with a cmd black box for half a second, it goes then nothing else. I can't find a workaround so new software is required.

[Geomath]

As a technowarrior (as opposed to an ecowarrior) I have discovered that the Trust SP-1200 is just a badged unit. It continues to work in current OS but it took a good deal of digging to locate the driver. I found it by searching for similar products and comparing the pictures and going to the "manufacturers'" sites.
For those abused Trust users that have ended up on this thread go on to:
http://www.von-phone.com/support-b2k.php & pick up the latest Skypemate.exe
For those Hexus readers who think that manufacturers have no responsibility to support their hardware in new OS go to:
the dump
Thanks for all your help!? The children shall have cake tonight.