Vista SP1 and the Sigma Tel driver issue

Question

Level 2

467 points

Vista SP1 and the Sigma Tel driver issue

I've done a fair bit of reading about why Vista SP1 does not show up for some people in Windows Update and for me its almost certainly down to the Sigma Tel audio drivers on my MacBook Pro (Feb 2006).

N.B. I have installed the latest BootCamp 2.1 32bit update and this did not change anything. Also I should mention this is a clean Vista install and I have not used a pre release version of SP1 either.

Apparently Sigma Tel sold off their audio division and is therefore no longer updating the software drivers. Microsoft have said they plan to address this driver incompatibility with their own update at some point. This was the response another user received from MS tech support:

"Kindly wait for further updates from microsoft which addresses the sigma audio driver compatibilty issues with service pack1."

OK, so they understand and are looking into it, but it also seems like it would be down to the new SigmaTel owners to solve - IDT posted this statement, which suggest they think there is no need to update their drivers:

http://www.idt.com/?app=knowledgebase&contentID=4836&parentID=4836&parentPath=12 10-3638-3639-4836

I have tried 'Resolution B' from that link, but after removing the Sigma Tel audio driver, Vista SP1 still did not show up in Windows Update and I don't want to force install (via the download link) if Vista is not happy with my setup.

Does anyone have the definitive answer to this situation? It looks like I just need to wait a little longer, but I just wanted to check I've not missed something important.

Thanks

MacBook Pro | 2.16Ghz Core Duo (Feb 06) | Vista 32bit | BootCamp 2.1

Posted on Apr 27, 2008 3:23 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Apr 28, 2008 5:19 AM in response to Mark.Burton

Hi Mark

Firstly, at the risk of being patronising, use winclone to image your BC partition. It works brilliantly.

Secondly, I have a late 2006 MBP (2.33GHz) with Vista on BC and running Fusion. MS Update did not offer the SP1 upgrade so I used the standalone installer. The sound works perfectly but I have found that there is a nasty bug in the video driver (X1600), which causes an immediate reboot if you try to adjust the screen brightness. It works fine so long as you don't touch the F1 and F2 keys. I used the BC systray app to asign the F keys to MS software rather than Mac hardware to avoid inadvertently tripping this fault.

If you don't mind this nasty little funny lurking on your system then SP1 is worth installing. For example Safari on Vista opens much quicker than on OS X 10.5.2

Vista SP1 works perfectly in Fusion.

Reply

Answer 2

Mark.Burton Author

Level 2

467 points

Apr 28, 2008 9:46 AM in response to pauljwells

Thanks paul, this is very useful info. I've developed a nasty habbit of constantly hitting the Brightness keys in both OS X and Vista due to the incredibly poor brightness of the my MacBook Pro, so I might hold off a little longer and keep an eye on the updates.

(Is it just me or were the early MBP's fitted with poor performing screens compared to the current ones?)

Reply

Answer 3

Apr 28, 2008 1:21 PM in response to Mark.Burton

I've also just read that SP1 changes activation in a way that breaks the Fusion fix. It seems to stay activated in Fusion, but each native boot of Vista requires a reactivation. I think Vista allows you unlimited reactivations on the same hardware so it's an inconvenience rather than a disaster, but just so's you know...

Reply