First, understand the issue.
Microsoft released XP in 2001. While Microsoft updates the operating system
with various patches for known issue, problems specific to the OS as well as
security patches, drivers are the responsibility of the hardware
manufacturer. There's no way Microsoft could possibly keep up with all the
hardware and hardware changes. Drivers, even the drivers available at
Windows Update and those that ship with XP are provided by the device
manufacturer's.
I don't know how long you've had XP and I don't know anything about the
Philips Soundcard, however, often, inbox drivers are out of date by the time
the user purchases the device so the first order of business is to check for
the latest drivers from the device manufacturer's website.
To answer your question specifically, Philips is wrong, the responsibility
rests with them as the above certainly explains and indicates. If there is
a compatibility issue with Philips' drivers and/or software for the
soundcard it is Philips responsibility to fix it. If you've been updating
XP and they, Philips, has not been updating their drivers for your
soundcard, perhaps they are no longer supporting it and should then say so.
Second, unless this were some core hardware compatibility issue that applies
across the board to most systems, assuming it could be corrected by a patch
to the system, a patch to the OS by Microsoft would be an unworkable
solution since any such change for a specific device such as the Philips
soundcard could ripple across the entire installed base. In other words,
fixing a problem that applies only to this device could impact users across
the board who have no such device. Hence, such changes, patches and updates
for device drivers and device specific software is the responsibility of the
device manufacturer and this is both necessary and prudent.
