Today, you can now download Windows Vista SP1 via Windows Update. For those of you eager to receive the benefits of Windows Vista SP1 - you can now do so! We’ve seen quite a bit of questions in our comments so we want to communicate as much as possible surrounding Windows Vista SP1 and today’s release to Windows Update as we can.

For those of you happy to wait - sit tight because SP1 will start downloading to PCs automatically beginning in mid-April (Remember, this happens only if you have your Windows Update configured to automatically download updates and SP1 will automatically download but not automatically install).  But if you want to get the benefit of a year’s worth of improvements right now, go check Windows Update today…(Hit the Start Menu, All Programs, and select Windows Update).

If in running Windows Update you do not see Windows Vista SP1 listed, there are a number of good reasons for this (Eight in fact, see the whole list). Below are a few of the most common reasons why you might not see SP1 on Windows Update:

You have not yet installed all the prerequisite packages you need for Windows Vista SP1. To install them, visit the Windows Update control panel and click on "check for updates."

• You have a pre-release version of SP1 and need to uninstall it before installing SP1
• You already have it. To determine if you already have SP1 installed, Open the Start Menu, right click on Computer and left click on Properties.
• We released SP1 in these 5 languages: English, French, Spanish, German, and Japanese. If you have any other language installed, SP1 will not yet be offered to you. (You might not even know if you have an additional language installed! Check the Language control panel to see what languages you have installed)
• Back in February we announced that we’d be using Windows Update to help make the update as seamless as possible for our users. Windows Update will detect drivers that we know may be problematic when updating to SP1 and will not offer the service pack until an update has been installed.

I’ve received a lot of requests for more detail about the driver situation this last month, so I want to share some more information here.  We spent the last couple of months looking closely at reports of driver problems on pre-release builds and, to be safe, we held the public availability until March.

We’ve completed our analysis and are happy to report that many of these issues were fixed between the release candidate (RC) and the final version.  We identified a small number of device drivers that may be problematic after an update from Windows Vista to Windows Vista SP1.  Check out the list here; we’ll keep it updated with any additional drivers that we identify.  As a result, we spent the past month or so working with our partners on driver updates for these issues.  Of these drivers, most already have updated versions on Windows Update and are available for download now as optional updates.  In a few weeks, we’ll start to deliver these updated drivers to PCs automatically via Windows Update.

We’re working with the providers of the remaining devices to get updated versions of the drivers to our customers as well.  In the meantime, Windows Update will recognize PCs with drivers that may be problematic and postpone offering SP1 to those PCs until it has installed corrected drivers or other applicable updates.  Either way, Windows Update works to detect whether or not your system is ready for SP1 and not offer it to you until the time is right.

Those of you who find that SP1 isn’t offered over Windows Update even after updating all your drivers, but would still like to download it can access our "standalone installer" from the Microsoft Download Center here. Windows Update will help ensure a better experience, so if you do choose to visit the Microsoft Download Center make sure that you read these KBs before installing.

Looking forward, we’re also getting ready to begin releasing the second wave of SP1 languages in April.  These are the other 31 languages that we haven’t released yet. 

Some users encountered an issue last month when installing the Servicing Stack Update (KB937287).  We’ve investigated this carefully and learned that it occurs only in certain rare situations.  Specifically, this happens because the update needs to be completely installed before a restart occurs, but something caused a reboot during the install.  While the update was carefully designed to avoid many of the common reasons for an inadvertent restart during installation, this issue was caused by some that were not caught.  By temporarily suspending automatic distribution, and making a small change on our Windows Update server, we believe we’ve largely eliminated this problem (and our support call volume reflects this).  We did find one aspect of the problem that was exacerbated when the update was installed using automatic updates.  For this issue, we’re planning to release an additional update before we resume automatic distribution of the Servicing Stack Update.

So what does this mean exactly?  For those who’ve already installed the Servicing Stack Update or are waiting to install SP1 until Windows Update offers it to you automatically, you do not need to do anything at all.  But if you want to install SP1 manually and haven’t yet installed the Servicing Stack Update, you’ll find it on Windows Update when you visit.

I know this post sounds like a lot of guidance, but we would rather over-communicate to reduce any surprises.

We are extremely pleased with Windows Vista SP1 and the benefits it offers our customers, so we look forward to hearing about your experience.

***This Post Courtesy of Windows Vista Team Blog***

It’s Thursday evening, and I just finished our banner setup for what is to be the greatest LAN Party of 2007 on the West Coast.  That’s right, RLS is casting off tomorrow morning for San Jose, the first stop of this year’s ShowdownLAN.   500 Gamers assemble in the San Jose Convention center, ready to battle for prizes, fame, and glory.  Roughly 20 members of RLS and its sister communities have dedicated this weekend to participate, and we cant’ wait to see what’s in store for us.  Can we walk away tournament winners?  Will one of us win the fabled Intel Q6700 Quad Core Processor?  What kind of shenanigans will we get ourselves into this year?

Personally, I am looking forward to the crazy contests Matt Conwell, event organizer for ShowdownLAN and PDXLAN, has up his sleeves.  There is rumor of yet another Power Supply toss contest, as well as a Guitar Hero Tournament.  One vendor is even supplying sumo suits, a mechanical bull and American Gladiator style jousting for prizes and swag.  Other vendors will be doing contests as well, aside from the ones Matt has planned.  Patriot and Antec always have fun booth events and contests, and I am sure other vendors saw their success at the last Showdown and will be brewing up some fun of their own.

Plus, Gabe Newell of Valve Software will be onsite as Showdown’s first ever keynote speaker.  All attendees will be receiving a free copy of Half-Life 2 as well as a chance to play-test Valve’s new zombie game "Left 4 Dead."  AMD as Showdown’s Gold Sponsor will have a booth, and will undoubtably be doing a presentation as well, possibly of AMD’s upcoming quad-core solution, Barcelona.

Well, I must go and pack some clothes, prepare my LAN bag, and shut this darned computer down and get it ready for transport.    There will not be internet connection at the LAN Party, so we will grace you with an event rundown when we get back.

Bon Voyage!
RLS-ThirdEye

Unless you live in a cave or just never seem to make it to the store, you’ll see that the selection of energy drinks seem to be growing by the day. Recently rap music stars and even Nascar drivers have entered the multi million dollar a year business. Jeff Gordon of Nascar fame has recently sported his Pepsi sponsored citrus energy drink to the market within the last month or so. Energy drink popularity is growing by leaps and bounds and one of the main reasons are video game players. Professional players are being paid big bucks to sport the company’s drinks while competing in tournaments. It’s gone so far that many feel that professional gamers can get an unfair advantage by these drinks and in some cases, are calling for a ban during tournaments. For you gamers that just can’t get enough of the stuff, 60 more energy drinks are scheduled to hit the market by years end.

Ok, so weve all used the coolbits reg hax to boost our cards. what about BIOS Flashing? Too hard? Too Complex? Too scared!? you no0bs. Well anyways, found this great lil util that lets you do many a crazy things with ur bios. Enter NVIDIA BIOS Editor (NiBiTor) v3.4a. I slick lil app that will let you take your software OC settings and plug them right into the cards BIOS. Nice. Im playing with it a bit right now atm. The program is full of lil helpful notes and warning if you delve into more advanced areas (Volt modding for instance). Serious OCers Only should prolly apply. Sorry ATI fan Bois, this is for Nvidia Cards only.

Get it here

If you get what you pay for then you can expect one whopping video card out of the Nvidia 8800 Ultra video card. The 8800 Ultra is set to hit the streets on May 15th at an expensive $829. So what do you get for your money you say? The card’s specs run an impressive 612MHz for the core, 2.16 GHz memory, 1.5 MHz shader clock, and 768 MB of DDR3 SDRAM. Many enthusiasts may not feel the extra 10-15% performance gain over the GeForce 8800 GTX for another $125 is worth the coin but I’m guessing gamers will be digging deeper into the piggy bank soon. Only time will tell how well sales for Nvidia’s newest offering will fair and many just maybe holding out for ATI’s Radeon next generation cards to be released soon.

Researchers in New York led by University of Tokyo have broken Internet speed records two times recently. Using the high-speed Internet 2 network on Dec. 30th achieved 7.67 gigabits per second using the current standard protocols. Using modified protocols the team broke the record yet again by sending the exact same data over a 20,000-mile path at a whopping 9.08 Gpbs. The Internet 2 has a theoretical speed limit of 10 Gpbs. I have emailed the research team and if all is approved, LAN PARTY AT MY PLACE!

Today two new game servers went online. The first is a tribute to Jack Thompson. RLS now has a Counter-Strike Source server located in San Jose on the Level3 network backbone running on a Dual Xeon 3.2 Ghz processor with 2GB of RAM courtesy of XeGaming.net. This server features 16 public slots with a tickrate of 100. We hope to have GunGame running on this server at least twice a week. Stay tuned for more on that.

Our second server is an Unreal Tournament 2004 Deathmatch Server for those of you who cant get enough old-school twitch gaming. This server features 6 public slots and has UTComp 1.6a installed for true competition gaming. Running on a AthlonXP 3200+ with 2GB of RAM, this server should handle your many hours of fragging.

If you wish to help us keep the server online for the community, visit the Game Servers page and click on the “donate” button at the bottom.

Here we go again. Psychologist Dr. Phil claims that video games have played a role in the tragic Virginia Tech shootings. Dr. Phil has stated “If these people are playing video games where they’re on a mass killing spree on a video game, it’s glamorized on the big screen, it’s become a part of our society. Mix it with psychopathic behavior and a dose of rage and you’ve got a killer.” He also goes on to say, “the mass murderers of tomorrow are the children of today that are being programmed with this massive violence overdose.” Ok, I’m not a psychologist but I wonder why we can’t start wondering if the fact that these murderers that have psychopathic and sociopathic traits, isn’t that enough to think that having those traits alone can lead to this senseless violence or is it really necessary to add that in some way the fact that they play video games in some way pushed them over the top? One other thing, just what video game was shooter Cho Seung-Hui playing? Has anyone read or heard that he even played a video game in his life? My god, just a horrific thought, what if he’s only played Barbie’s Horse Adventures?

RenoLanSlide.com is proud to announce our first custom case raffle.

Official Rules

• To enter, a $10 donation will grant you a single raffle ticket ($10 = 1 ticket)
• Multiple $10 donations will grant you multiple raffle tickets ($10 x N = N tickets)
• In order to qualify, you must CURRENTLY have 100 posts or more on the forums (OR)
• You must have previously attended an RLS LAN (House or Event)
• You must be in good standing with the RLS Admins and the RLS Community
• There is no limit to the number of times you can enter
• Drawing will be held on April 28th at the RLS House LAN at Mark’s house
• You do not need to be present at the April 28th House LAN to win

Details about the Case

The Custom RLS Case is loosely based on Markkleb’s Crossflow design, but will incorporate a style that will match the look and feel of the RenoLanSlide.com brand. It will be a completely new design for Markkleb, and will include new features never before seen in his designs. It will support full ATX motherboards as well as mATX boards, and will have room for a full size power supply as well as a CD/DVD Rom and a single hard drive.

Mark has also agreed to assemble and wire the case for the lucky winner. You just cant beat that, especially if you have seen his wire cleanup work. If you have ever thought that the wires within your case are just downright ugly, we agree, and so does Mark. Nothing against your wires, but they are just unsightly, especially sitting next to that beast of a graphics card and dual core processor. Mark is incredibly skilled when it comes to cleaning up that mess, and will do it free of charge with this highly unique and RLS branded case.

Where Do I Donate?

Right Here Silly… Remember, $10 = 1 ticket. $10 x N = N tickets.

Good Luck!!!

If you have your auto update feature on your Windows PC on you may have noticed four new patches released today. One of the patches has corrected a lot of problems caused by the emergency patch released just last week. The three other patches released today plug holes in the Window’s operating system. All of the patches have Microsoft’s highest threat rating. Seems hackers have been busy installing malicious code through the holes. These patches were different than the monthly ones normally issued as they were released in “emergency” status and does affect the new Vista operating system too. Also included in the update was supposed to be an update to Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool yet many people, including myself, have yet to see this in the updates.