Vista - Sound Driver & SLI problems with Vista x64...

Hello, i have Vista Home Premium 64, and i am having some big problems with Vista so far. I upgraded from XP Pro (32 bit) hoping for some improvement on my 64-bit processor (Alienware M9700 laptop). So far i have had nothing but problems, due to the sound card, SLI (duel video cards), and Airgo MIMO Wireless card not functioning AT ALL!

Laptop Stats:
AMD Turion64 ML-44 (2.40GHz)
(2x) GeForce Go 7900GS (256MB) SLI
2GB of RAM
Intel High-Definition audio Internal stereo speakers w/subwoofer

If someone out there can help me, please let me know. My problems are:

1. I installed SoundMax for Vista HP 64, but it does not function due to there being no correct driver. Tried several drivers, and none seem to do anything, as all of them come up with errors while installing. Sometimes its missing a file, but mostly it states that it could not find the desired hardware. Odd, because its definetely installed (its a laptop afterall!).

2. My Airgo MIMO Wireless card does not have a functional driver either. I downloaded the driver from the alienware website for the operating system that i am using, but it does not work. Airgo was sold to another company, and they no longer support the wireless card.

3. Everytime i click "Enable SLI Video" in my NVidia control panel, i get a box stating that some programs need to be closed for it to work. I click yes. Then i get a box stating that i need to restart windows. Whether i click yes or no, i get the same result. The "Enable SLI Video" button turns off, and sets me back to "Single GPU". No idea whats going on here. My video driver is a Vista 64-bit driver from LaptopVideo2Go.com. The video drivers there are nice and up to date, but i am getting this one problem with them. I cannot find a real driver for this operating system anywhere else, so i'm stuck using these. I have tried several of the different versions of drivers from the site, all with the same result.

PLEASE, somebody help! I need to be saved from this Vista crisis! I just want to be happy and play my games / do my school work.

Please email me at Ultima472@yahoo.com if you have the drivers, can direct me to the solution, or just explain what to do.

Thanks a ton! I would love to have everything working!

Laptops are finicky when it comes to drivers. Especially the video drivers. The laptop manufactures customize the drivers to the laptops configuration. If you found an inf file that matches your laptop on laptopvideo2go.com, it might work. There may have never been vista drivers developed for your sound card. I am not nessecarily saying that this is the case, but there may be some components in your laptops that do not have Vista drivers. If that is the case, XP 32 might suite you better for that laptop in the long run.

It is a nice laptop, good luck...

I have installed Vista Ultimate 64 bit on my M9700, and have everything working except the audio. The wireless card just worked on it's own, didn't have to install drivers.
Here's what I did have to do:
I got a bunch of drivers from Harmacy here in this forum.
I installed the Synaptics touchpad driver.
FYI, I rebooted after each install.
Then the Nvidia display driver. The SLI options didn't show up at first. After a few reboots from other installs it all of the sudden popped up a window from the taskbar that allowed me to enable it. Mine also does not stay on. Same dialogs you described. I didn't realize it wasn't on though, so I will try playing with it and let you know if I am able to get it to stay on.
Next installed the Bison cam driver.
Next the RICOH flash media controller driver.
Next was the function key controller.
Then I installed the bluetooth which gave me some grief for a while, tried running an executable right from Broadcom's site with no luck. Then I noticed that the driver I downloaded from Alienware's site had a 64 bit folder, so I tried it and it worked.
I also had trouble with the modem. I was finally able to install it using the device manager and the driver that came with windows! Go figure.

I am still trying to find an audio that works. If I find something I'll pass on the info.

OK, I got the audio to work. Used the driver that I received from Harmacy after all. Just had to load it thru the device manager instead of the exe that was in the folder.
I also got the TV tuner working which I forgot to mention in the previous post. Used drivers and software that I found at G.D.B. International - Support

FYI, I turned the SLI back on and it has stayed on after multiple reboots. My guess is something I did earlier (driver install, etc.) must have caused it to turn off. I know some things won't work with it on, for example at my office running XP I use a dual monitor configuration which forces it to switch back to a single video card.

I look forward to installing some programs now and see the benifits of 64 bit. Time to load AutoCAD. Right after I make a backup image.

Correct, SLI and dual monitors are not compatible unless you have an additional card *not* in SLI that you use to power your second monitor.