First plunge into vista (Ulitmate x64)

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Spirkus

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May 27, 2008
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So I put together my new computer last night (e8400, 8800gt, 4GB ram, 500GB HDD etc...) and now I have some questions. I installed vista, (yes, I pulled out 2GB of ram as I've read here) and now everything is.... mostly running. I haven't used vista before, but is it normal to have programs crashing randomly? Granted, I was multitasking (installing stuff/ music/ internet) But about every 15 minutes I'd get a visual c++ assertation (sp?) failure pop up, where I'd say retry and it would not come back for a bit more. sometimes programs would crash seemingly for no reason. Is vista really that unstable, or is something wrong with my installation. I just have nothing to compare it with to find out for myself.
 
It isn't normal for Vista to crash that much. You'll find many people on this forum have good experiences with it. I don't believe multitasking would be the culprit, as I've had two VM's open, several Firefox tabs, Trillian and Skype, and iTunes all open at once, likely while transferring files as well.

Some more information would be helpful. Can you narrow it down to certain programs?
 
No, it is certainly not normal to have applications crashing. I have been using Vista 64 home premium for weeks and so far no crashes. Make sure you are using the correct memory for your mother board and that the memory is seated correctly and works properly.
 
If he didn't have the correct memory for his motherboard, he wouldn't be booting at all.

I will also say I wouldn't think random applications crashing is a memory problem, but if you'd like to test it anyway (no harm in making sure), use a program called Memtest86.
 
the only part that isn't "up to snuff" would be the PSU, which I took out of my fileserver (only 250 watts) while I wait for my 600 watt OCZ.

But I doubt that's the problem. Full specs:

note: everything at stock:
E8400 w/ stock HS
evga 8800gt w/ 2 slot cooler
4x1gb ballistix tracer
ASUS rampage formula
7200.11 seagate 500gb HDD
Lite-on DVD-rw

crappy old 15" crt before I get a nice lcd

I've installed all the drivers off the cds I got, and I plan on getting the latest nvidia drivers today.

I got vista x64 off of technet with SP1 preinstalled, installed fine.

I expected power to be a problem until I got the 600 watt, but I doubt programs randomly crashing is a result of overtaxing the psu
 
read the hardware FAQ, run the stability programs mentioned there, and post the relevant statistics here. this is not a vista problem.
 
I used memtest86 on a different motherboard with this ram, looped through several times while i slept fine

I did change the timings to 4-4-4-12 from 5-5-5-18, because they were advertised at running at those.
 
Maybe you loaded 32 bit drivers somewhere instead of x64 drivers. Also, which vista exactly did you get off of technet? I downloaded a vista ultimate x64 without really reading it and turned out it was a debug build and that caused alot of problems, once I installed the production release, everything ran great. If you have a build number of vista on the lower right corner of your desktop, then it's not a production release.
 
I was wondering why that little number was there. bah, more downloading time

I'm glad someone knows what they're doing, thanks
 
I saw that it was smaller by 400 MB, and I thought, a checked version should be better than the normal version, right?

I guess not. Ah well, at least I didn't spend a week trying to figure it out myself
 
Spirkus said:
I was wondering why that little number was there. bah, more downloading time

I'm glad someone knows what they're doing, thanks
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And not to mention that a 250W power supply is way under powered for the system that you have listed, even if everything is at stock settings. Also over loading your power supply will cause things to crash, with the 600W power supply that should help even if you are running a full copy of vista.
 
I wasn't even expecting it to boot, let alone run vista. I'll get my 600 watt friday, then I can start using it without fear of shuttign down randomly
 
Spirkus said:
I wasn't even expecting it to boot, let alone run vista. I'll get my 600 watt friday, then I can start using it without fear of shuttign down randomly
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Ya I would be surprised to that it would boot and be even a little stable with that power supply, but I would not risk the chance that you could blow out that 250 power supply and damage your system. I would power it down and wait until you get your new power supply so that you dont damage your computer if the power supply were to fail due to the very high load that you are putting it under.

And I do understand that it sucks to have your system ready to rock, and not be able to use it because you are missing one part. But it is better to wait than to risk damaging your system and having to wait even longer for new parts to get there.
 
The system probably doesn't strictly use 250W, but it's not going to be a million miles away, and it doesn't really give much headroom for transitory loads. If it's a good 250W PSU then I'm not so much surprised it works, but it must be pretty much on the edge.

You can't install 32-bit drivers by accident, they just wouldn't work rather than causing system instability. But it's correct that checked means debug, not that it's been checked out to see if it's okay :)
 
When I first built my system I was having some issues with Vista x64. Found out I had bad memory, via memtest 86. I replaced the memory and was still having issues. I knew the CPU was fine becuase it worked flawlessly in the last system so I just RMAed the mobo ... that was bad also.

It's all working fine now and the only problems I've had running anything in Vista 64 is that Word 2000 assistant (paper clip guy) won't work, but that's OK becuase he's stupid anyways. All games/apps/system tools function properly. And I don't even have to run in XP SP 2 mode either.

One thing I will recommend to the OP is to make sure you are running things in Administrator mode, if you have left UAC (User Account Control, that box that pops up and ask for confirmation on everything). A lot of programs not designed for Vista won't run right unless you are running them as an admin. If you disable the UAC, then you don't have to run as admin anymore.
 
kirk121 said:
Ya I would be surprised to that it would boot and be even a little stable with that power supply, but I would not risk the chance that you could blow out that 250 power supply and damage your system. I would power it down and wait until you get your new power supply so that you dont damage your computer if the power supply were to fail due to the very high load that you are putting it under.

And I do understand that it sucks to have your system ready to rock, and not be able to use it because you are missing one part. But it is better to wait than to risk damaging your system and having to wait even longer for new parts to get there.
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QFT
QFT
QFT
 
kirk121 said:
And why would I do that? You would rather he run his system on a 250W power supply and risk that it could fail due to the load that his system is putting on it? Maybe you should QFT
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Generally speaking, website QFT is quite freaking true, or quoted for truth....not quit freaking talking like in the real world :p
 
There is a known problem with 64-bit Vista, 4GB or more RAM and a motherboard with the Intel 965 north bridge chipset. Check to see if your mother board uses this chipset, if it does, the solution is to flash your BIOS to a particular older version.
 
m131s04 said:
What is this about? Pulling 2GB of ram? This intrigues me. Can someone explain this to me?
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When you install Vista 64 (not sure about other versions of Vista) you need to only have 2 gigs of ram in other wise it will give you an error during the install. But once it's installed you can put the rest of your ram in and everything works like it should.
 
Mopower said:
When you install Vista 64 (not sure about other versions of Vista) you need to only have 2 gigs of ram in other wise it will give you an error during the install. But once it's installed you can put the rest of your ram in and everything works like it should.
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Well, this is only actually the case for a fraction of motherboards (some Nvidia ones I think?); I installed Vista x64 RTM with 4GB RAM in place with no problems at all. But taking out 2GB during the install does avoid any potential problems with that bug. I'm sure it's fixed in SP1, so if it's an SP1 install disc then that should also avoid it.
 
Mopower said:
When you install Vista 64 (not sure about other versions of Vista) you need to only have 2 gigs of ram in other wise it will give you an error during the install. But once it's installed you can put the rest of your ram in and everything works like it should.
Click to expand...
It was a fraction of the motherboards, most often Nvidia based ones, and the hotfix to resolve this issue has been incorporated into SP1.
 
SuperSubZero said:
It's obvious the Vista FUD has reached some kind of epic level when people seriously think that the OS crashing randomly could possibly be "normal."
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LOL, since I knew I wasn't going to use vista for a while, I stopped looking at anything to do with it since I heard it was so buggy, and everyone complaining for a service pack. Now that I have the correct version installed, with a brand spanking new 600 watt power supply, I can see that it actually is pretty stable. I haven't had a single program crash or error message pop up yet on this install, me likey.

It didn't help that all my RL friends detest vista, and only use XP, so I had no help there. But I have to say my experience is a positive one.
 
Spirkus said:
It didn't help that all my RL friends detest vista, and only use XP, so I had no help there.
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I wonder, have they used Vista, or maybe did they use it for a week when it first came out and never since? Things might well have been different immediately after release, but I see these sorts of stories now from nearly everyone who uses Vista - that, now they use it, they've found it to actually be a surprisingly decent OS. The people who hate it have more often than not never used Vista at all, but absorbed the miasma of negativity which unaccountably surrounds it.
 
Mopower said:
When you install Vista 64 (not sure about other versions of Vista) you need to only have 2 gigs of ram in other wise it will give you an error during the install. But once it's installed you can put the rest of your ram in and everything works like it should.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this screwed me up for a little bit. Fortunately I was able to find an answer online pretty quickly.
 
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