And now, the exciting conclusion of my Windows 7 upgrade adventure…
I found the Windows 7 beta drivers for the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 here:
http://forums.m-audio.com/showthread.php?t=10175
I uninstalled the old Vista drivers and gave these a try. So far so good – I’m able to go into standby and I’m not hearing any pops or clicks in the audio.
Update: spoke too soon, still getting pops and clicks, but at least I can go into standby. Really looking forward to non-beta Windows 7 drivers!
I also picked up a video card with DirectX 10 support and all the Aero stuff is working now. The moral of the story here is to run the upgrade advisor if you can! Unfortunately in my case I couldn’t, since I couldn’t boot my previous Windows installation.
In the end, the only real issue that I have yet to explain is the blank screen that I encountered at the start of the installation process. I may try booting from the Windows 7 disc with my new video card and see if the results are any different. If so I will post my findings.
Overall I would say my Windows 7 upgrade experience went relatively smoothly, all things considered. If you’re running XP and things are stable for you then I’d suggest waiting until you want/need to do a fresh install, as it’s the only way to upgrade from XP. If on the other hand you are running Vista, I’d say go for it!