Windows bought vista, its been interisting

Yes their is a learning curve, but trust me, it's not useless. The folder organization is excellent compared to previous version of Windows. Now you can find your things. And it's easy to backup. I don't think anyone really thought of backuping some folder to carry application configuration when they re-install, as the folder structure was a big mess. I mean look how many "Applications Data". Why so many?!? And then when your restore your system, which "Application Data" do you put your files.... So you see, it's for the greater good, and not useless waist of time thing.

 

application data? I'm not sure what you mean.
When I used xp I would put every program into a directory under my name and then a catagory. so for AVG for example, c:\chris\apps\avg or crysis c:\chris\games\crysis. anything in c:\program files\* could be deleted as I didn't put it there. The only thing I hate is how programs made their own folders in the "documents and settings" folder to store save games and things like that. It seams like microsoft has made windows tell you what to do more and more with each version. I like to keep the hard drive organized my way.
I guess thats what happens when you grow up using dos.

 

It is. I used to have \Utilities, \Graphics, \Net, etc., in several partitions, and use Explorer to wander round the drives. Bite the bullet, a partition for programs (incuding OS) and a partition for Data is enough unless you have more than one OS. Get used to file indexing and typing a few letters to run a program or find a document. That''s why we buy fast processors and lots of RAM.

 

ram is next on the agenda. 2 1gb sticks now and going to look for 2 2gb sticks in the near future.

 

Microsoft SUGGEST ways to organize. You are an organized person, so you live with it. MANY and I do mean MAAAAAAANNNNYYYYYYYY, dump everything on "My Document" (pictures, download, videos, you name it) or on the desktop. Then they are so lost they re-download the file they have, or even redo it as they think it is lost. Trust me on this one.

At least NOW, you have a folder in Vista called "Saved Games". It's still a shame that very little games actually uses it. And still have fun saving the game where the game is located (which leads you to be forced to run the game as Admin, unless you install your software somewhere else then Program Files), or other locations as you mentioned.

I don't know if you realized, but your profile folder can be changed. You can add some, remove... like any other profile. In my case, my music, videos are on my external HDD. I changed the location of the folders (Right-Click > Properties > Location tab), and I added a new folder called Movies, where I backup (ISO) my DVDs as easy access. You can see the Profile folder as a nice place that contains your files, or shortcuts to other destination all gather in 1 place.

 

I'm still finding lots of things. Its differnet in so many ways. After a few hours of installing supreme commander and reinstalling and trying to patch over and over, I finally saw someone suggest right clicking on the patch file and running it as the admin.

If my "user account" is the admin, why do I have to right click and select "run as admin" to get it to work?

Another odd problem, hardware related, windows tells me that there is a problem with me ram. When the dual boot menu comes up there is an option to test the ram, when testing it says there is a problem but wont tell me what it is. I ran memtest in windows and it found nothing.
One other problem is that a few times now the ati driver has... trying to remember, stopped responding, the screen goes black. then a message comes up saying the card reset itself and all is good. except one time the screen went black and the pc restarted.
I'm sure I will get it figured out eventually.

 

Normally a well done patch, when executed, will automatically request elevation. Like when executing a setup. In fact all they have to do is add a stupid file called *.manifest, within the executable file, and say in 1 or 2 lines that it needs admin. But of course... games... have to be extra buggy, due to the overtime that employees do without pay. Oh well...

Anyway, Vista is like in Linux, no one is the true Administrator. See yourself as... Power-User (if you are familiar with Windows 2000). In linux in the other hand every time you need admin you have to fun with Mr. Terminal and keyboard. Then here a click on a button of a dialog box loaded on a secure desktop (generated mini-account, which explains the screen "flash") to needs to be done. If you disable UAC (User Account Control), you should be in real admin mode. However, as explained before, I HIGHLY DO NOT recommend to do this. Heck I am not even worry about anything. If I get a spyware that gets place by my web browser.... it can't do anything as it needs Admin. I install malware, and tries to screw windows over when you start your computer... it will fail as, again it needs Admin privileges. If I download a video from a website that is trusted by me (let's say) but was hacked. I run the video and it asked me Admin privileges.. then I know it contains virus, and so on... So it's very impressive stuff.

I have no antivirus running on the back, same for spyware and such. You have no idea how much my system is nice and fast. Now I do check for these stuff about once every 2 months, and end up with nothing, or if I do I am not worried, as I know it was unable to do anything. In fact I check the work of the virus (online), and nothing was done, which confirm that UAC works.

What do you do to get this error?

It is normal because there is nothing to understand, RAM is just RAM, if something is wrong it's probably miss attached to your PC, or well... broken, noting more. Or you prefer a paragraph in hex code to say that it is unable to access this address at that section of your RAM bla bla bla bla. Useless.
Even if you download any memory test RAM tool it will you the same... meaning giving you no details.

You said you have 2GB of RAM, Are both the RAM stick are:
1- properly connected to channel 1 (or channel 2, varies from motherboards), suggested in your motherboard instruction manual.
2- Is your BIOS updated to the latest version.
3- Are all the sticks the SAME RAM (same speed, latency and technology used)?
4- Did you install the latest motherboard drivers for Vista?

That would actually translate into a nice BSOD (blue screen of death) in Windows XP.
Vista has an interesting features, it can restart crashed drivers. In previous version of Windows, it just gave you a blue screen and that is it you lose all your work and such. This is 100% ATI fault. Complain at them. And again, you are not alone, I think pretty much everyone that has a ATI card has such issues. (I think that their is a driver team exchange program.... funny... my latest Creative drivers finally stop crashing and have all the feature work, but now ATI is having all the issues of Creative)

OR, it could be because of your faulty RAM as Vista suggest (or motherboard), which could cause your video card driver to crash, in your situation.

This could be:
- Video card overheating and shuts down.
- Vista was really unable to recover your driver as probably because the drivers or the video card is playing "the great monkey" with Windows.
- The GPU (video card processor) itself crashed

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask!

 

its odd, in xp my system ran stable. I ran prime 95 last night and it failed right away, one time the pc just restarted. I checked the temps and my cpu was getting close to 70 degrees. So I dont know whats going on there, I'm going to take the heat sink off today and remount it. Maybe it got knocked loose. In the mean time I dropped the fsb from 333 to 300 (9 multi)
Before I installed vista I changed the sink onmy 4850. Its the thermalright hr-03 gt. The temps on the video card have gone from around 90 at load to 45 at load. I'm concerned that a ram chip or something may be getting too hot but they dont feel hot to the touch and I have heatsinks on all of them. Also it has only crashed at the desktop. I have been able to install the witcher and play it just fine.

Ram is mushkin 8500 5-5-4-12. memtest cam up with no errors. Not sure what is going on there. seams like its fine. I dropped its speed from 1066 to 800 just in case.

And despite what I said earlier, I was able to install supreme commander. but forged alliance is still not working. sometimes the game wont install, I get a crc error. saying the file on the dvd isn't right. Which makes me think its a scratch, but the dvd is fine. Sometimes the game will install with no errors, but the patch wont work for one of many reasons. sometimes I get an error saying the patch is invalid, sometimes it says that the file its trying to patch is the wrong size.

 

XP works differently than Vista. XP accepts vagueness... but part to increase stability (yea I know, contradiction), security and increase responsiveness of your computer, Vista wants everything exact. This forces companies to adjust their drivers and hardware to Vista specification. When they do fall onto their specifications then the system runs significantly more stable.
But hang on... 2006 has passed... this should not occur!!! What hardware do you have? Something clearly doesn't make sense.

I don't see anywhere where it says that prime95 is Vista 64-bit fully supported.
Are you using the latest Windows 64-bit version and did you follow the warning:
"WARNING: Vista no longer supports services that interact with the desktop. Follow the download instructions below for Windows XP and the first time you run prime95 make sure the "Start at bootup" option is not selected."

Aaaa! What the... You installed an OS while your computer was OC!!!!! Are you mad?!
Before installing your computer always make sure that you run on default settings of your hardware. A core file, or driver might be damage and Windows Setup didn't detect it, so it could explain some issues you are having.
Even for me, I have A.I OC which only OC my CPU and RAM 10% when needed. Every time it's turned on XP (when I used to use it) and Vista end up with a bad install.

90C under load!!! You have bad air flow where the location of the fan was unable to get fresh air. But I guess changing the heat sink made that possible.

Same here.

CRC (cyclic redundancy check) errors means, in simple, that their is an error in the binary code where the computer doesn't understand and error correction fails to correct the problem. In other words the disk is damaged, get a new one. But before doing that, try on a different computer... it might be the optical drive that is in fault, and might explain some of the other problems you were having with OS (or because you OC'ed or a combination, or bad hardware)

 

90 at load on the 4850 is (was) worst case scenario. when the heatsink had gotten some dust in it. They run hot with the stock cooler. but the card still ran fine.
I dont know if prime 95 will work with vista 64 or not, but now that my system is not overclocked at all I get no errors when running it.
Also I updated the bios with the latest. I dont know if it will make a difference with vista or not but its done now. I cant overclock it anymore though, I haven't tried a lot but just getting it to run at the old settings doesn't work.
Maybe I will start this over and reinstall vista now that the system is at the stock settings.

Forged alliance still wont patch, installs fine. dont know what the issue is there. Found other people with the same problem, all with 64bit vista, maybe its the patch program.

I looked for drivers for my dvd, there is firmware but I already have the latest firmware installed, drivers just use the vista ones.
I'll keep pluggin away.

 

Still...

Good.

Always a good idea. Use what you learned.
For myself it was the same. Beta 2, RC1 and Rc2 ran fine, but the official had issues on first try. After disabling my A.I OC feature during install, using what I leaned from first try, I got it, and still run since without re-install.

Well the company is dumb. There should be no reason why a software works under XP doesn't work under XP64-bit or Vista 64-bit. Try this, if you installed Virtual PC and XP like I suggested, run it, install the game, and patch then copy all the files and paste it on your Vista machine replacing your game. In the hope it game works under Vista 64-bit, and that it doesn't add files onto the system directory and other places. It should work It's a good try, I must say.

They are no drivers for optical drive, like video cards and such. They all work the same, so 1 driver to rule them all. I meant that, of the possibility (just a possibility) that your optical drive is no good (or it could be, as suggest bad game disk)

This is what I learned form my experience in install XP:
- Full slow format on partition set as primary (using OS installer)
- Install SATA-II drivers.
- Install OS.
- Before first boot, disconnect Ethernet cable.
- Install my motherboard drivers (latest), then video card (latest).
- Install all other drivers.
- Plug back the Ethernet cable.
- Update Windows to the first update batch, then to SP1.
- Fix Windows update.
- Perform batch of updates after SP1 then do SP2.
- Fix Windows update.
- Perform batch of updates after SP2, then do SP3.
- Fix Windows update.
- and then the rest of the updates.
Total time = 18-20 hours of work.

This is what I learned form my experience in install Vista:
- Format partition using OS on primary partition (using OS installer)
- Install OS
- Install all updates offered 9order doesn't mater it's smart enough to not screw up)
- Install motherboard drivers, if needed*.
- Install video card drivers, if needed*.
Total time = 30min

* Some user found the driver offered in Windows Update to be better. You have to test and see. It is also recommended to uninstall the old driver then installing the new ones.

P.S: Don't optimize Vista the same way as XP, they are totally different. For a first, with 2GB of RAM, you don't care about disabling services. It won't give you anything other then trouble. Safe to disable services:
- Parental Control.
- Card Space.
- Bonjour service (Comes with iTunes).
- Smart Card
- Smart Card removal policy.

Not much, not even worth to do it, to be honest, it's not that 1-2MB of free RAM will help at anything.

 

I'm backing up all my files right now. transferring them to the old partition. Then I am going to reinstall vista.
I booted into xp, installed forged alliance, that went fine. but the patch had the same issue. so its not vista. I've downloaded the file a few times to make sure it wasn't a bad download. that didn't do anything. I'm at the point where it must be the disk. Its just odd that it will install. maybe I will torrent it and burn to a dvd. thats what I had to do with supcom when it got scratched. But in that case it wouldn't install off the dvd.

Do you know how to run memtest? not the windows one, the one from here:
http://www.memtest.org/
I thought I could boot from my flash drive and it would test the memory. I know that I did that when I first got my pc but I cant seam to remember how I did it.

and I know you wont like the sound of this but I want to go back to the older version of my bios. Reason is that I cant overclock anything. the system will only boot if all values are set to auto. anything else results in... well, nothing. no post at all. I have to disconnect the power and then restart and it loads default values for the bios.

Anyway, I'm going to get a coffe. 57 minutes left in the file transfer.

 

In the BIOS, you have have to set your motherboard to boot from a USB stick. If it is not supported, then put the program onto a disk as instructed, and boot using it.

Contact your motherboard manufacture for more information, maybe you are missing something. I know some BIOS don't like to downgrade, in the sense it won't allow you. If so, contact your motherboard manufacture for assistance. Some hacks exists, but I severely don't recommend it, as you might end up without any BIOS at all, so you will end up with a non-working motherboard, and then you will need to order a BIOS chip if the company allows you.

Something is wrong, you are missing something. When you change your BIOS, you must understand that you need to re-perform your research on how to OC your computer. In my case I had to increase the voltage a tiny bit. HOWEVER, MAKE SURE, this can permanently damage or brake your CPU and other components related to this voltage increase.

 

well, I cant go back to an older version of the bios. so if I cant overclock I will contact asus. but I will keep it at stock for now. Vista has been reinstalled. Installing video drivers now.
I can get the system to try and boot from my flash drive, but it wont boot from the files that are on the drive. I must be either putting the wrong ones on it or something else is wrong.

 

finished installing vista. everything went well, fully updated the OS. Installed forged alliance. tried to patch, failed, same error. Tried again, it worked. ?
ok, so now the game works. anyway, i'll keep putting stuff back on. I noticed the game ran slower, maybe I just had the detail up higher than before.

everything else seams good, haven't had and video driver failures. maybe before installing the ati and then the vision tek ones screwed that up. time will tell I guess.

 

Excellent!
Create a restore point once everything is a done a point in case anything goes bad (ie. Virus attack or something).

 

where... in xp... are internet explorer favorites saved?

 

I have no clue... do a search.
But in Vista it's in your profile.

 

First time I put vista on, i transferred them over. then i re-installed vista, and lost all of my favorites. I died a little inside when I found out what I did.
And I have lectured people in the past not to forget about them. crap.

 

They're in your Documents/Favourites folder.