Windows 8 Not As Fun On ViewsSonic Viewpad Still Worth Installing

by Chris on September 14, 2011 · 9 comments

by Chris on September 14, 2011 · 9 comments

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I am about 12 hours in to putting Windows 8 on my ViewSonic Viewpad and have to accept that it will not be as awesome on this device as I would have hoped.In a nut shell it seems that you have to have a screen resolution of 1024 X 768 for the metro styled apps to work and the Viewpad only goes to 1024 X 680. Now this is not to say that if you have one you won’t want to try it out just be warned that you won’t get the full experience with the preview.

The Downside

None of the default apps on the new start screen will launch on the ViewSonic Viewpad which is unfortunate however if you install an app it will show up on there. I could not get the SlingPlayer software to install. The external speakers on the Viewpad also don’t work but the 3.5mm jack does work. There is one hardware device that does not install and I can’t figure out what it is.

The Upside

On the upside of things Windows 8 seems to be really responsive on this machine and installing other apps so far have worked well. For a device just to browse the internet and check email and Facebook I don’t see why you won’t enjoy kicking the beta around.

 

I will let you know if anything changes.

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Tagged as: ViewSonic ViewPad

  • Manyamsrini

    i have installed windows 8 on my viewpad10 , the default apps does not work , speakers dont work , OS is responsive.

    • Chris

      Same thing here! The more I use it the more I like it even though the start screen is not working for Metro style apps.

  • Daokuan Ma

    same problems…1024 * 768  WTF

  • http://twitter.com/BradFMJ Brad Johnson

    Is your device that is not working Atheros Valkyrie BootROM? You might want to check that out and see if that fixes your missing device.

    I am stuck with an issue of the touch screen not working on about 50% of its surface and otherwise causing multiple points to be clicked when pressing the screen. Did you experience / resolve that issue? I am figuring it is a driver issue but haven’t gotten very far. There is a firmware update on the viewsonic site for the Touch Panel but I haven’t got that to work yet either.

    • http://twitter.com/BradFMJ Brad Johnson

      Actually for me, installing the Atheros Valkyrie BootROM cleared up the one unknown device and after restarting the touch screen works fine.

      • Chris

        awesome I was about to say that I installed the update from viewsonic but didn’t really see any difference my touchscreen is working great. I will look for that driver and see if there is any difference however it is working great as is. (aside from the resolution thing)

  • Sandra

    To enable metro apps, try the following registry edits to enable higher screen resolutions : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1265544

  • http://twitter.com/RitchiesRoom Ritchie Djamhur

    Hey Chris,
    I read your inital post on the Viewsonic and this follow-up and thought I’d share a tip that I’ve discovered with my Viewpad 10Pro. I had the same issue with the Metro Apps, but the display was actually worse, 800 x 600 after Windows 8 was installed. However, after installing the drivers that were on the CD that came with the Viewpad10Pro, I actually have a 1024 x 768 option, and all apps now work. The one issue is that the visuals are slightly stretched horizontally. Not a big issue and still lets me explore Windows 8 in a touch environment, quite exciting! I’ll be writing about my experiences on my website soon, so we’ll compare notes!
    Ritchie
    http://www.ritchiesroom.com

    • Chris

      Thanks Ritchie I tried that it for some reason i was told the best driver was already installed but I will try again. On another note I did Sandra workaround and it worked but the Viewpad ran really slow.