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Environmentation Responsibility of Manufacturers

Forum Site Feedback : Future Article Ideas Environmentation Responsibility of Manufacturers

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Box293   10-14-2010 at 05:44:33 AM
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With every new Windows release there is a lot of older hardware that you can no longer get drivers for. The manufacturers insist that you buy the latest hardware and throw the old stuff away.

I have two examples.

1) A Logitech USB WebCam. I haven't used it for a few years but when I connected it to Windows 7 it couldn't locate a driver. Driver is not available on the Logitech website.

2) I have an XP MediaCenter with 2 x Hauppauge WinTV-Nova-T-500 dual digital TV tuner cards. These cost me about $450 in total. There are no Windows 7 drivers available but I want to upgrade my MediaCenter machine to Windows 7.

There is nothing wrong with the existing hardware. It works perfectly and there is no technical reason why these could not have drivers released for Windows 7. Why should I be forced to spend another $450 on two more dual tuners just so I can upgrade to Windows 7?

Sure the manufacturers can say "we don't support these devices anymore so we don't update the drivers". I'm happy to pay $10 to be able to download the latest OS drivers for this hardware.

The most frustrating this is not that I am trying to save money, but I think about the impact on the environment because of this. Throwing away perfectly good old hardware just because I cannot get drivers for them makes me feel very uncomfortable.

I beleive the manufacturers have a responsibility to provide a longer lifespan for their products. Computers are at the point now where you may want to go to the latest OS and your existing computer is powerfull enough to do it. The only reason you need to buy new hardware is so you can get working drivers.

It would be good for Tom's hardware to do an article on this.

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jpishgar   10-14-2010 at 04:26:32 PM
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I'll pass along the suggestion.

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Shadow703793   10-14-2010 at 05:48:06 PM
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@OP: Is this your TV Tuner: http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/site/pr [...] at500.html

If so, realize that it has Win 7 support. Even if it doesn't have specific drivers for Win 7, you should be able to use the Vista drivers.

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Box293   10-15-2010 at 03:20:43 AM
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Shadow703793 wrote :

@OP: Is this your TV Tuner: http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/site/pr [...] at500.html

If so, realize that it has Win 7 support. Even if it doesn't have specific drivers for Win 7, you should be able to use the Vista drivers.



Thanks for the tip ... I have a friend with these tuners and has some issues with Win 7. We're working on making them work but I really wanted to express my opinion about how manufacturers use a new OS as a reason to sell new hardware.

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Shadow703793   10-15-2010 at 03:27:12 AM
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^ It's all about cost and profit. There really is not much you can do. Most companies are only now starting to adopt RoSH certification. It'll be a while until most PC manufactures start thinking "green".

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tigsounds   11-11-2010 at 02:05:34 AM
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"Only after the last tree has been cut down, the last river poisoned and the last fish caught, will you find that money cannot be eaten." Kalu Amadiora

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If you're going to tell someone where to go, supply a link to get there.
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