Vista Help !

I downloaded SL on my Vista and it keeps freezing. I can't get it past the login screen.







My Computer Specs Are

Intel® CoreTM 2 Extreme QX6850 Factory Overclocked to 3.67GHz

Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium

NVIDIA nForce® 680i SLITM Chipset for Intel (D)

Up to 4GB312 Dual-Channel DDR213 SDRAM (667MHz or 800MHz, 2 or 4 DIMMs)
XPS 720H2C Supports up to 8GB12 of Dual-Channel DDR213 SDRAM (667MHz or 800MHz, 4 DIMMs) when a 64-bit Operating System is installed
XPS 720H2C supports EPP Memory for simplified memory overclocking>

Up to 2.75TB8 Multiple Serial ATA Hard Drives
Up to 1TB68 Single Serial ATA Hard Drive

Dual 768MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX graphics cards - SLI enabled








Could any of you please help me.

Lot's of background task you'll need to close. Do a control alt delete. Select task manager and close several items you don't need like dwm and adobe and other updating things...just don't close taskmgr.exe . See if this helps.

How brand new is your computer? Judging from your specs, I'd believe that Vista was a pre-install? You may need to clean out some trash that came with your computer. I had to delete almost all the programs that came on my HP when I first got it. Most were nanny-wear (I'm perfectly capable of checking for new drivers myself, thank you HP.)

That said, I've downloaded Windlight, SL Normal, and OnRez to my Vista Home machine and usually the OnRez viewer is the most lag free and least crash-able. However, on occasion Windlight beats OnRez. So it may be your viewer choice.

Two last thought: Are you running the viewer as Admin? You should be.

And have you downloaded the updated nVidia drivers? The one nanny program I left on my computer pointed out that nVidia released an updated set of the drivers last night.

Some of the specs you give aren't worded to convey what the machine actually has they are phrased to convey the maximum the machine could have.

For example, "Up to 4GB312 Dual-Channel DDR213 SDRAM" doesn't tell what the actual memory installed is.

I'm sure Vista has a system information screen that tells you what you actually have.

Other people are reporting problems with the 8800 series cards.

Can you find your log file?

Your spec list reads like an advertisement for buying options, not a defined list of what your particular computer actually has in it. For example, you don't actually have two different versions of Vista on the same machine, right? And you don't have two different kinds of memory in there, right? And you certainly don't have "upto" anything; it can only be that you have a specific amount of everything. And in the places where you've got either/or options listed, which is it, option A or option B? What are the specs of YOUR actual machine?

If you do have a bunch of mismatched stuff in there, like multiple types of memory, then that would explain any number of malfunctions. I'd be surprised if the thing would even run at all in that case, though, so I doubt that's what's going on.

The "factory overclocking" could certainly be the culprit. In my experience, the small gains from overclocking never outweigh the problems that go with it. Often the processor ends up talking faster than the memory is able to listen, causing the machine periodically to freeze, randomly restart itself, or otherwise behave strangely. In that case, highly resource intensive programs like SL can help trigger the problem.

There's no such thing as "intelligent overclocking" or "easy overclocking", despite what the buzzword-filled labeling on motherboard packaging would have you believe. And don't assume factory guys are any better at not screwing it up than anyone else. It can take weeks of careful, attentive monitoring and fine tuning to get an overclocked system to be stable. Obviously, no factory in the world can do that. I'd strongly recommend clocking the thing back down to normal speed.

It could also be a driver issue. You should uninstall SL, update all your device drivers to the latest versions for each, and then reinstall SL.

And, of course, you should disable any unnecessary processes Vista has going. By default, Vista has a ton of bloatware features enabled that really slow things down. Get rid of all that stuff. Turning off User Account Control is a good place to start, as it's a big resource hog with little if any benefit for you. And disabling Aero graphics is usally a good idea. Aero is pretty to look at, if you like that particular aesthetic, but it can cause instability with graphics intensive programs like SL. See http://www.techsupportalert.com/make-vista-run-faster.htm for some additional tips.

If none of that turns out to be the problem, then hopefully someone else will have more suggestions for you.

Got any links to those reports, Suzanne? I've been running SL on 8800's for about a year now, virtually trouble free. I'd be curious to see what those people are doing differently than I am.

To get links to threads about the 8800 card, put 8800 into the forum search.

Specifically about the 8800GTS, there were posts about it today, I've given a link already today.

Didn't realize you had a one link per day limit, Suezanne. Silly me. Wow.

I reiterate, nVidia released a new set of drivers last night. I'm scared to update mine.

OVERCLOCKING to 3.67GHz?!?!?

Do you know what you are doing to your memory memory bus or PCI bus when you are doing that?

SL maxes out the CPU the GPU and the PCI and memory busses. You may be "stable" at idle but crank up the max bandwidth on all components with that kind of overclocking and well... you may be seeing just how fast that falls apart.

First thing, put everything back to spec, then see if it runs...

its a powerful cpu. "Core 2 Extreme QX6850 3GHz 2x4MB" ........it can handle it OVERCLOCKING to 3.67GHz reguardless. There indeed is a problem. what about your drivers? are they updated? Its that 8800gtx that might be causing the problems...


Version: 169.25 drivers are the current builds..............
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_169.25_whql.html