Hi, Im posting this here but may not be a Vista problem. I have a brand new machine build. Here it is:

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-MA790x -ds4
Graphics Card - VGA Diamond 3870PE45125sb 512 mb
AMD Phenom 9850 2.5 gb black edition
Win Vista Business SP1
Geil 2gx2 ge24gb1065c5
plus dvd and 500 gb hard drive (seagate)
RaidMax Smildodon case with 500 watt psu

I have ran this for 3 days, following problems are happening

First and foremost, when playing City or Villains of Far Cry, after about 15 minutes, i get a black screen for about 5 seconds , then a prompt that the game has stopped responding. (Playing GTRII, game crashes but recovers.) After you exit the game, you get an error message that the display adapter has stopped responding and has recovered. Windows seems to be normal at that point. Obviously this is very annoying. These are the only games i have installed at this point.

My Graphics card drivers are directly from ATI website and are latest and greatest. Windows updates are current.

Also, Internet Explorer locks up at will, if is virtually useless. I can start a new instance and get back to where I was, but again, annoying. I installed Firefox and have had no problems.

This is kind of my last resort, but im at the point where I either change graphics card or go back to windows xp.

There are a TON of posts on line, but they are all over a year old. Someone has to have a handle on this problem. I couldnt find anything on this site tho.

Any suggestions or points in the right direction, or to a thread that would help would greatly be appreciated.....

Thanks

Rob

This post has been edited by Blade131: Nov 16 2008, 05:24 PM

Hello,
Instead of double clicking the games try right clicking, and

• Select properties.
• Select compatibilaty.
• Check run this program in compatibility mode for:.
• Select Windows XP service pack 2

Then right click and select run as administrator

i will try that out, thanks!

Rob

Ok, far cry and gtr2 seem to work ok, no hangups etc so far in limited testing, City of Villains froze up 1 time after about 30 mins, but just totally froze up, I had to hard reboot, which has NEVER happened to me in 2 years of playing it on my old computer. I guess I have to monitor the situation unless you have any more suggestions. Thanks for your help!!!

Rob

This post has been edited by Blade131: Nov 17 2008, 10:41 PM

Ok, this is getting aggravating. the Freeze up thing happens with regularity The Video freezes and audio just starts looping (na na na na) you get the idea. I ready to flush the 100 plus bucks i paid for Vista down the toilet and install XP. I will try anything at this point.

Rob

You have Vista business
Business does not come with media center, and is not designed for gaming.
Downgrade to home premium, or upgrade to utimate.
But it may be a conflict with the video drivers, or a hardware issue.
Have you tried a different video card?

This post has been edited by hfcg: Nov 18 2008, 09:29 PM

Any version of Vista should be able to run your games because a game is a program. You just need to make sure the program is Vista-compatible.

Do you have any errors in the System Event Viewer? Post them here.

Has this system ever been running stable? If the 500W PSU came with the case, then I strongly recommend you to ditch it and upgrade to a better quality unit.

Have you run a memory test to check your RAM?

Troy

EDIT: Is this 32 or 64 bit?

This post has been edited by Troy: Nov 19 2008, 03:30 AM

I am such an idiot!
All of the signs are there.
When you use graphic intense programs the processor has to work harder, the video card has to work harder, and the power supply has to work harder.
This hard work producess more heat.
The issue happens over time, not right away.
Do you have a small fan?
Try taking the side off of the computer and blow the fan in to the case.
If you do not have a fan just take the side off.
Where the machine is sitting, is there plenty of space for air flow?

You're not an idiot - heat is also a good thought. Proper in-case airflow is essential, and I should have thought of that as well.

I should have seen it sooner.
All the signs where right in front of me.

Hi guys, sorry to be so long on response but im treading lightly here. I wanted to make sure machine was running right before I posted this. Ok, when you mentioned memory, I remembered something I did during setup. My ram auto-detected at ddr2 800, while it is 1066. So I thought something was wrong and changed this manually in BIOS. So anyway, I removed and reseated mem and let system autodetect at 800 again, and all is well. I read a post from someone who had a similar problem on the Geil forum, so I figured it was worth a try. Machine was heavily used this weekend with out a blip, knock on wood. Thank you for all your suggestions, you pointed me in the right direction.

Rob

Hi Rob,

Can you post a link to the exact model of RAM you have? (On the GeIL homepage).

Troy

Uh, couldnt find it on the Geil Website which is kind of scary, and shaky. But here is the newegg link as well as description.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...6820144213Model
Brand GeIL
Series Evo One
Model GE24GB1066C5DC
Type 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM
Tech Spec
Capacity 4GB (2 x 2GB)
Speed DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
Cas Latency 5
Timing 5-5-5-15
Voltage 2.1V - 2.3V
Heat Spreader Yes
Recommend Use High Performance or Gaming Memory
Manufacturer Warranty

Here is my mother board just in case.

Model
Brand GIGABYTE
Model GA-MA790X-DS4
Supported CPU
CPU Socket Type AM2+/AM2
CPU Type Phenom FX / Phenom / Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64 X2
FSB 2000MHz Hyper Transport (5200 MT/s)
Chipsets
North Bridge AMD 790X
South Bridge AMD SB600
Memory
Number of Memory Slots 4×240pin
Memory Standard DDR2 1066
Maximum Memory Supported 16GB
Channel Supported Dual Channel
Expansion Slots
PCI Express 2.0 x16 2
PCI Express x1 3
PCI Slots 2
Storage Devices
PATA 1 x ATA100 2 Dev. Max
SATA 3Gb/s 4
SATA RAID 0/1/0+1
Onboard Video
Onboard Video Chipset None
Onboard Audio
Audio Chipset Realtek ALC889A
Audio Channels 8 Channels
Onboard LAN
LAN Chipset Realtek 8111B
Max LAN Speed 10/100/1000Mbps
Rear Panel Ports
PS/2 2
COM 1
USB 6 x USB 2.0
IEEE 1394 2 x IEEE 1394a
S/PDIF Out 1x Optical, 1x Coaxial
Audio Ports 6 Ports
Onboard USB
Onboard USB 4 x USB 2.0
Onboard 1394
Onboard 1394 1x 1394a
Physical Spec
Form Factor ATX
Dimensions 12.0" x 8.8"
Power Pin 24 Pin


Thanks, Rob

Hi again,

To get the memory working properly at 1066MHz, have you increased the voltage first?

Troy

I have not tried that, but would be more than glad to give it a shot. Obviously i want to get the most out of my new system. I am assuming this is a simple bios setting. Once again help would be appreciated here, im not real comfortable changing bios settings, as I have already screwed things up once lol. Will I see a noticeable performance boost with the mem set at 1066?

Thanks,

Rob