Look at this forum, Arron. This forum is designed for built-in graphics developers, but a lot of people like you and me come here, because:



1. Intel support and support of their partners (like ASUS) can't help



2. Intel does not supply their partners well with drivers



3. Intel simply does a bad resource allocation for driver development.



Situation is bad. And there is no any official answer as well.



It would be very nice to know:



1. Who is the prosperous boss of driver developer department in Intel for integrated graphics and why this boss fails to communicate to higher bosses about the clear lack of resources and about the importance?



2. Who was that genius manager in Intel, who decided that the resources allocated for the driver developer department in Intel are enough at least for doing the driver support job at "somewhat acceptable level"?



It would be nice to know these names!

Please do just that i would love to see a someone from intel explaining how they justify not supporting a chipset that is less than a year old to work with Vista Aero experience i would like to see how they explain to thousands upon thousands of customers that they just bought a computer that is already considered a thing of the past when it is just 4 months old. I personally own laptops with this chipset that are less than 6 months old and feel totally well you know ! DELL / HP/Microsoftand all of these big manufactures should also be in on this demand on behalf of their customers where are they in all this ? i would not only petition intel but them aswell to push intel into doing what is right. I wait to see what happens i noticed not much response from intel here but i promise this i will never ever buy a product that has one chip from intel again if they do not support this chipset in the next month.

Same problem here...

bought a laptop with intel's 915gm chipset... just 6 months old, furious to find that i cant run aero... the sales persom i bought from said it would... but one funny thing i discovered was that, after installing windows vista home premium, in the windows sidebar, theSLIDE SHOW GADGET, when dragged to the desktop, showed transparency effects,close to the windows aero UImicrosoft bragged about all this while, which, of course, i couldnt get my hands on... so, this is pissing me off... if a component of windows vistaCOULD SHOW TRANSPARENCY EFFECTS EVEN WITHOUT THE WDDM DRIVERS, why notINTEL put their butts down on their chairs and start working on one for this particular chipset... besides,if a component of windows vista CAN SHOW TRANSPARENCY EFFECTS WITHOUT A LAG IN PERFORMANCE AND GRAPHICS PROCESSING, why not the whole UI of windows vista? one more thing that pisses me off is that, microsoft helped intel with the certification of i915gm/gms/910gl as VISTA CAPABLE and it gave intel the opportunity to continue selling these chipsets to consumers who do not have the slightest idea that their machine cant run aero without specific drivers. instead of swelling their inventory with these chips, they made millions off of this certification... what are they trying to do? sell more 945gm chips and make more money? come on, MICROSOFT HELPED INTEL WITH THE VISTA APPROVAL, AND INTEL SHOULD THANK THE CONSUMERS FOR BUYING THEIR PRODUCTS BY RELEASING THE WDDM DRIVERS, AND FULL SUPPORT FOR WINVISTA. more than 2million chipsets were sold worldwide and i doubt that these people will buy from intel ever again...i know i wouldnt...

Have the same problem! Got my NEW HP 500 laptop yesterday which runs the same chipset, installed Vista Ultimate, but NO Aero! Wot the hell! My friends 2 year old laptop runs Aero, but new laptop doent!

How the hell do they want to make money, by not the supporting a 6 month old chipseton Vista? I can play Call of Duty 2 without a problem, but no! Vista will give it a "HARD" time...

Been a fan of Intel for 10 Years now, seems AMD is the way to go!

If you have a related story, please post!

Intel lost my bussines forever... Been a fan for quite a few years, but this is just over the top. In earlier builds of Vista 915 worked just fine, in the final build it doesn't. I'm sure this is just as much Microsoft's fault as it is Intel's so I'm boycotting them both from now on. I'm buying only AMD/Ati from now on and already switched to Ubuntu Linux as my OS of choice. This is just a slap in the face of the consumer.

Shame on Intel. My $ 400 Vista Ultimate can not run Aero with your chipset.
I bet it could be able to run aero but Intel simply does not want to spend time and money for 915 anymore

this is crazy, how many people need this driver?!!

and intel do nothing...

i need this driver too btw

I have 26 VAIO Notebook (Intel 915GM....) I'm buying only AMD from now on.

Hey everyone - my name is Josh, and I work for Intel Software Network. I'm actually the guy in charge of these forums, as of a couple of weeks ago. I'm also a huge mobile device user (I have a couple of tablet PCs and UMPCs with the graphics chipset in question, running Vista).

I know that the community is upset about the lack of these drivers. Heck, I am a little, too. And I feel especially bad for people that bought computers very recently that find out after the fact that they can't run the high end eye candy in Vista.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, and there was an Intel sponsored session about optimizing your games for Intel's G965 display chips. I was in the room with several folks from the graphics group, with my video camera, covering the conference for ISN.

I sat down after the session with the presenter (not sure if he wants me to share his name), and asked him about WDDM/Vista driver support for the 915 and 910 graphics chips. He was well aware that the community is ticked off. So I filmed a few minutes with him explaining why, exactly, these drivers don't exist. The video will be available soon.

Here's what it boils down to: The graphics chips in question were designed and built before the WDDM driver standard and no one had any idea what the requirements for Vista Aero was going to be. It's an old, low-end graphics solution, and there are specific hardware requirements for Aero that the 915 and 910 graphics chips just don't have.

We can't magically go back in time to add those hardware features to the chips, as much as we'd like to, to enable Vista Aero. The engineer I talked to in the video goes in to more detail, about what features exactly aren't present in the hardware. But that's the basic answer to the question.

I just wanted to post in here, to give you guys the info, and let you know that it's not like we're sitting on the drivers, or that it's a lack of resources that's holding them up. The fact is that it's an older, less powerful chip that just doesn't have what it takes to run Aero.

I'm really, really sorry if you were led to believe otherwise by salespeople or anyone else. It affects me, too, because even though I'm running Vista on my X41 Tablet PC and my Asus R2H UMPC, I don't have Aero Glass, and of course, like you, I want it. Heck, the R2H UMPC has only even been out for a few months, but sadly, there's nothing to be done.

Please, continue to discuss this here in the ISN forums, or contact me directly (joshua.bancroft@intel.com). I'll be posting the video explanation, soon, and if you have any follow up questions, I'll try my best to get them answered.

Oops. That last post had my outdated sig. I fixed it, and this one should have my correct cell number.

Am I crazy for sharing that? Maybe. But I want you to know that I'm available and accessible. I know I'm just getting started here, but that's how I do things, so I hope it works out, and I don't end up having to change my number or something. ;-)

In other words, please be nice! :-)

MADjabancro:

I know that the community is upset about the lack of these drivers. Heck, I am a little, too. And I feel especially bad for people that bought computers very recently that find out after the fact that they can't run the high end eye candy in Vista.
- I know that for me personaly I could put up without any "eye candy" however not supporting aero also means that my new laptop can't even run the DVD maker! I really wasn't expecting this when I bought it just under a year ago!

I just wanted to post in here, to give you guys the info, and let you know that it's not like we're sitting on the drivers, or that it's a lack of resources that's holding them up. The fact is that it's an older, less powerful chip that just doesn't have what it takes to run Aero.
- Id also like to point out that the chip did have what it takes to run aero a few moths ago in the earlier pre release versions. If it was displaying all the same aero effects back thensurely the problems with aero aren't harware related? I think this is what has led alot of users to believe that its more of a case of Intel choosing not to support the 915 rather then it not being capable. Would appreciate if you could clear this up???

Please, continue to discuss this here in the ISN forums, or contact me directly (joshua.bancroft@intel.com). I'll be posting the video explanation, soon, and if you have any follow up questions, I'll try my best to get them answered.

Josh is a braver man than I, to post his cell phone number here. Hopefully rabid posters don't take advantage of his generosity.

As far as 915 working on pre-release Vista... Microsoft's certification bodies are the ultimate arbiters of what is and is not allowed to be certified WDDM. It's entirely possible that even though the 915 worked perfectly acceptably on Aero the hardware specs of the chip did not meet Microsoft's final set of criteria, and they were, therefore,rejected in the final version. MS's criteria may indeed be overly restrictive for what users actually want/need, but the bottom line is that users don't get to decide what is acceptable to call a WDDM driver.

If Intel had wanted to screw people over and make people buy the latest and greatest 965, they wouldn't have released WDDM drivers for the 945 either.

i still think the reason for GMA900 lacking aero is that it's lackingREAL DX9 support. nothing more is required from microsoft.

or why can the 2003 nvidia fx 5200 run aero just fine? in 2003 noone could think of aero.

GMA950 was just modified to support at least aero. it isn't a real DX9 card either.

Totally agree, we were sold a card which was said to support DX9 however it doesn't do this fully. According to the upgrade advisor this card meets all requirements except for a having a WDDM driver. If this is true why don't we have a driver? and if a driver can't be made due to it notsupporting DX 9 properly why was it sold as being able to??

because money rules the world

?????????????????????????????????????????????????

http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/915gm/index.htm

Ready for Microsoft Windows Vista*

Mobile Intel 915GM Express Chipset family platforms using 512 MB of system memory or greater meet all current requirements for the Microsoft Windows Vista* Capable PC program.

Intel is really upsetting a lot of people in the market and they are losing face with Intel quick. I'm not talking hundreds or thousands, but there are millions of people out there affected by Intel's refusal to release WDDM drivers for the 900 series graphics chips. I find it hard to believe these chipsets are not capable of support WDDM. I have extensive background working with high end technologies and chips setswith companies like Raytheon and HP and I just dont see the hardware limitations there that Intel talks about that correctfirmware upgradescouldn't correct and make compatible. I am currently the Asst Director of Information Technology with a company supporting over 9200+ users based all over the country. Our IT commitment is to refield computers after 2 years of service. We have been very loyal with IBM/Intel for many yearsand we have hundreds of thousands of dollars in laptop purchases invested. We have started integratingWindows Vista onto our networks, but because of the refusal of correct drivers for Vista for Intel 900 chip sets, we are moving to new vendors that supports AMD technologies. We are quite disgusted by Intel's action or inaction for that matter regarding this issue. I dont know how many other companies, on top of the individual users, there are out there making the same decisions, even today, but the decisions made today will carry through tomorrow and people dont forget easilly. I can only imagine that many other companies will soon make atransition like we did. Any search on the net will yield people complaining about this subject in great detail with no responses from Intel, further promoting the look and feel of bad customer service practices in the eyes of it's potential buyers.

I loaded Vista on my Dell just recently without checking compatibility, my bad really, but I just expected a Laptop that is a little over a year old to be totally compliant. I'm disappointed to find my Laptop can't run Vista with all features due to a poorly designed GFX chipset.

How absolutely ridiculous, made even worse by the statement on the Intel website that the 915GM drivers are compliant

"Mobile Intel 915GM Express Chipset family platforms using 512 MB of system memory or greater meet all current requirements for the Microsoft Windows Vista* Capable PC program."

Clearly it doesn't.

Isn't there some sort of consumer law being broken here?

OK, guys, here's the deal.

There's "Vista Ready" and "Vista Premium Capable". Microsoft decides which is which:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/capable.mspx

The 915 graphics chip is "Vista Ready". It runs Vista just fine. It is NOT "Vista Premium Ready". From the above Microsoft site:

Some Windows Vista Capable PCs have been designated Premium Ready. These PCs will provide an even better Windows Vista experience, including the Windows Aero user experience. Features available in specific premium editions of Windows Vista, such as the ability to watch and record live TV, may require additional hardware.

Confusing? Yes. Deceptive? Well, some people think so, and have brought a lawsuit against Microsoft for this exact issue:

http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2007/04/04/microsoft-accused-of-deceptive-marketing-bait-and-switch-tactics-over-vista

In fact, since that lawsuit, Microsoft has gone back and made a change to that paragraph I quoted. Read about what it used to say:

http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2007/04/09/microsoft-redefines-vista-capable

So.

To everyone who bought a laptop with Intel 915 graphics, because it was labelled "Vista Ready", you were NOT deceived. It IS "Vista Ready". It runs Vista just fine.

But.

If you somehow thought that "Vista Ready" meant that you could run the cool 3D tab flipper, and the fancy "Aero Glass" high end 3D interface, you were wrong.

I'm sorry you didn't understand what you were getting when you bought a system with an old, low end, legacy graphics chip. I'm sorry the Microsoft marketing material and logo labels confused you. I really am. I wish none of us had to deal with this.

Is Intel ever going to release a "beta"/unofficial driver for 915 graphics?

I'm not the "official" person to answer this, but I'd say "no".

Why?

Because it's an old, low end, "legacy" part. There aren't any people at Intel dedicated to writing new drivers for this part. Intel laid off 10% of its workforce last year - 10,000 people. Ten thousand. The rest of us that are left are trying to get all the work done. Obviously, we can't do the same amount of work. Some things have to get dropped. Decisions have to be made about what projects are going to happen, and which ones are going to get cut. Like I said, I'm not the "official" person to say, but my guess is that there just aren't people sitting around, collecting a paycheck, that could be thrown at writing an unofficial "beta" driver. Wouldn't it cool i
f it happened? Of course. Would Intel like to do it if we had the resources? Certainly! But we live in the same reality that you do, and we have to make our budget balance just like you do. We can't always do everything that we'd like to do.

I hope this serves as a "final word" on this discussion. If you have more questions, please do continue to discuss it here, email me, whatever. But I'm hiding anything or holding anything back - I've laid it all out on the line, here, and I hope it helps you guys understand.

And if I could buy everyone a drink to make you feel better, or a brand new "Vista Premium Ready" computer to run the Vista eye-candy, I would. But there's that whole "reality" thing...

Ill never buy Intel graphics again if this situation is not repaired, as I imagine will anyone who recently purchased a 915. Offering reasons as to why you fail to satisfycustomers is an impotent response to customer loss. So is pretending its out of your power. Why is Intel content with alienating customers?

I have several computers at my house, some have AMD chips and some Intel. I just installed Vista on one computer with an AMD chipset and one with an Intel 915 chipset. I could not get the 3D effects to work on the Intel chip and have now discovered the reason via this forum. I would like Intel to know that I will never purchase another computer or build another computer with and Intel chipset if they do not bother to make a driver for the 915 chipset that will run the Vista 3D effects. How long has Intel known about Vista and had the codes needed to write the proper drivers?

To those noting (correctly) that Aero Glass worked during the Vista Beta, ask yourselves this question:

What changed between the beta and now? Vista, or the Intel 915 graphics chip soldered to your motherboard?

That being said, I'm going to try to talk to the graphics group to see if I can get them to release a "beta" or unofficial, unsigned driver for 915. Maybe even open source.

I don't even know the exact people I need to talk to about this, so don't get yourselves too excited, but I'm going to look into it.

As always, in the spirit of transparency, I'll keep you all updated.

The GMA 900 worked perfectly on Beta versions of Vista, so the point here is clearly to make people upgrade their hardware (for laptops, replace the entire laptop).

The previous versions of the Microsoft Windows Vista upgrade advisor even stated that GMA 900 can support full Aero effects.

If I want my system to run at a snail's pace just so I can have Aero, it should be my choice, not theirs.

Even if it happens that Aero runs slower on the GMA 900, there are tweaks such as disabling transparency, removing animation effects, removing Flip3D, etc.

Intel driversshould at least allow the Vista Standard Interface to run on the GMA 900.

The least thing Intel should do now, is to post the old Vista Beta drivers that supported GMA 900 running Aero, and give users the final decision...

There's a simpler explanation that makes more sense than Intel abruptly deciding in the midst of Vista Release Candidate 2 that they wanted you to buy new hardware:

We know that Intel's not afraid to release drivers which provide slower-then-Nvidia-and-ATI framerates on games or other applications-- the GMA900's appeal is that it provides decent-but-not-great graphics for a good price-- and wouldn't have balked at putting out a Vista driver which ran a little slower than nominal. That's why it shows up in the Vista beta drivers. Microsoft, on the other hand, does not want their new OS to look like it's slower than the old one, and has every incentive to shut out hardware it thinks will demonstrate this. Microsoft decided that they didn't like the performance of the 915G chipset graphics (whether or not we, the customers, would care is irrelevant to this decision) and found a legitimate (to them and their specs) hardware reason to refuse it.

The WDDM certification process is not a democracy, where all the hardware and software guys get together and decide by vote whether or not you can certify a driver. Microsoft has full right of refusal if the drivers are not to their liking or don't meet their spec, and in this case, there is a hardware limitation which is not fixable.

I don't know the "legality" of Intel releasing a beta driver for 915G which runs Aero; maybeJosh can shake one loose. But I am willing to bet considerable amounts of cash we will never see a WDDM-approvednon-beta driver for 915Gfor the simple reasonthatMicrosoft has already decided the chipset does not meet their requirements (no hardware scheduler) and will not approve one, even if Intel were to move heaven and earth to submit one.

I welcome the news in Josh's last post, seems he does have the publics interest at heart which is refreshing. It seems silly on microsofts part not to include a graphics driver as they will be loosing out on upgrade sales. I for one would not buy vista, unless it looks better than xp. Sounds vain I know, but xp does everything I want it to do, thus the only reason I would pay for the upgrade is a better visual experience.

Hi there, I absolutely agree. It is good to here from an IT pro such as yourself that you too believe that Intel is basically on a money grab here. I am an advanced home user that relies on my mobile platform (unfortuneatly a 915) as well as other desktop platforms I have built. Intel just does not get how they have already damaged their trademark. Good luck Intel......I'm migrating as well to another platform. Good- Bye!!

Pleaase, liberates a driver for vista with the capacite to consume AEREO in whole, use some technology of renderizacin if the limitations are of hardware, or consuming readyboost of vista.
We are million that we have just bought our portable ones and not to be able enjoy Vista, regards.

(auto translate)

Merci Josh pour ses rponseset aussi tous les utilisateurs qui comme moi sont trs du de ne pouvoir utiliser l'effet visuelde l'AERO. J'espre qu'Intel ou Microsoft feront le ncessaire pour rgler ce malentendu et qu'ils penseront leurs clients. Essayer de leur faire dpenser encore de l'argent pour une nouvelle carte graphique ou un nouveau PC peut avoir pour rsultat de se diriger tout simplement sur un AMD avec Linux, et c'est bien la premire fois que j'y pense...

I agree. I have a 915 and am unable to use the full features of Vista. I have just build a new computer and I used an AMD chip in it. Good bye Intel.

So Josh, are there any news regarding the WDDM drivers?

Go read this post on the Intel Software Network blog for an update on the quest for an unofficial/beta/open source WDDM driver for Intel 915 graphics that the community has been calling for, that I, your unlikely hero, have taken upon myself.

Short answer: please be patient, Im still trying to find the right people to talk to. Plus I have a day job. ;-)

Since Intel has the intellectual capital in it's open source OpenGL drivers for the Linux platform, which are implicated in running Beryl on Linux, couldn't somebody clever port them to Windows?

(I guess one must have microsoft's permission to develop for the WDM, in addition to crossing their palms with silver)

I believe Windows Aero can use OpenGL in addition to Direct3D.

Alternatively, I suspect it is a small matter to re-enable comprehensive support for the Intel GMA platform in the existing Windows Vista 7.x.x.x GMA9xx drivers. Perhaps a handfull of choice engineers of those 90,000 or so clever employees at Intel could spend a few man hours on it? Or an appropriate contract, similar to the Tungsten Graphics firm's, could be tendered.

Any which way, our partners in Intel should break out of their administrative paralysis on this issue. Before we all flee to more reliable sources for our computational platform needs.

I think what Josh and all the other Intel representatives are forgetting here is that aero was supported during the beta of windows vista with these chips. You didn't need WDDM back then to run Aero. It's not that the hardware is incapable of running aero. It's MICROSOFT that is to blame. MICROSOFT decided to put restrictions in place to gain control over the drivers installed on it's platform. Their restrictions are too tight or Intel doesn't want to pay royalties (If there are any I don't know) . This is about money and control. These chips can run Aero just fine. Someone will come out with a hack for it sooner or later I bet. But in the mean time I have a solution for you : http://fedoraproject.org

Well my company just received a shipment of 165 laptops that have the 915express video, and I installed Vista Enterprise and discovered that the Aero Glass and associated features ie: Movie Maker and DVD Recorder were not functional. Consiquently, we have obtained an RMA for the whole shipment and have arranged to have all units replaced with AMD/ATI processors/chipsets for the same model of laptop. Guess Intel better wake up and come up with a Firmware upgrade and Driver for their products to remain compatible with the latest OS that Microsoft is producing. Fairwell INTEL or is that NUNTEL.

Next quarter we are buying another 200 laptops and 365 desktops and those also will not have INTEL inside...

I myself are in a similiar vote. I have a new Toshiba Laptop that is capable of playing Doom 3 and Call of Duty 2 yet now Aero, The funny thing is they say our cards are not up to the requirements to run Aero yet I am sure that Intel can sit down and come up with a patch or driver that will allow our "Old Video Cards" LOL, to be able to run Aero. To look at this at Intel's point how can they sit and let hundreds of thousands of users and there customers go without any resolution, If they want us to continue to be happy with there product and continue using it then they must come up with a solution, If no support for this product then give us options of what we are supposed to do without spending thousands of dollars on another laptop . Are we to just to say thanks for nothing and keep on making more applications and addons that we cannot use.

Dear Josh Bancroft:

Can you give me 915 Graphics Vista driver "beta" unofficial WDDM driver for me?

Dennis

Given the fact that this whole issue is blowing up, in terms of
mainstream coverage, talk of class action lawsuits, I've decided to
lock this thread. The discussion has run its course as it
pertains to Intel Software Network and this forum. I'm sure there will
be other, more appropriate places to continue this conversation. This
is no longer the place.

Please do not start any new threads discussing this topic, as they will be locked. Thank you for understanding!