Vista problems

[rugbydude]

I just installed Vista and i'm gettint a stutter during and then after playing games. This stutter is every 5-6 seconds and effects audio and video. Is this fixable or is it a problem with early drivers?

Spec:
nforce 3 MB
A64 3800+ @ 2.4ghz
1 gig ddr444
radeon x1950
250 gig HDD

[Chocobo]

Re: Vista problems

How much RAM does your system have and which version of Vista do you have also what soundboard do you have.

There is a number of reasons this can happen. It happened to me as well and it for some reason was a conflict between the AGP and sound port. I ended up having to replace the video card with a new one.

[Spongebob]

Re: Vista problems

Check device manager and make sure there are no conflicts going on. I installed a sata raid driver along with IDE raid by accident on one system that Vista didn't like and for some reason that made the sound choppy and the system run slowly but once I got rid of that everything was fine. Make sure you have the latest chipset driver installed for your mainboard. Also try windows update and your mainboards manufacturer for the latest drivers and updates, maybe even a bios update wouldn't hurt if there is one available.
I'm also wondering if using only 1GB of system memory might have something to do with it, Vista is both a memory and CPU hog.
A couple other things to do would be to update the game to the latest version, and check your games settings (audio, ect) if the game is the only thing being affected, you can usually make a few adjustments there depending on the game.

[casecutter]

Re: Vista problems

Drivers are terrrible for Vista right now. You also don't have enough memory for Vista. Vista is also terrible for gaming. Reinstall XP and wait for SP1 before putting Vista back on.

[Chocobo]

Re: Vista problems

Vista is not terrible for gaming

His system is Vista Premium Certified (well the parts are)

So he can stick with Vista

Try turning off Aero Glass and see what happens

[casecutter]

Re: Vista problems

Vista is terrible for gaming. Driver support is worse. Uninstall Vista and reinstall XP until at least SP1 for Vista is introduced. It is proven that Vista is slower due to all the bulk in the background and running only 1GB of ram with an OS that easily munches up 500MB idling on the desktop is not a good OS for gaming for him.

Why anyone has chosen to buy this latest nightmare from M$ before it has even been worked on with a service pack is beyond me. I for one plan on riding out XP for many more years since they have actually fixed most of the problems and it is a pretty stable OS to run. All the people that had to have the latest version which I like to call Vista ME are getting what they deserve.

[PrairieDawg]

Re: Vista problems

Yes and we should all stick to using an abacus untill all the bugs are worked out of Windows XP. We get it ... You do not like Vista. I'm truely not trying to flame but just state that although Vista is not your operating system of choice there are people who have chosen to use it. Like it or not Vista will probably become the most used operating system in the world within the next few years. The early adopters will likely be tommorows' experts on Vista and the ones we ask questions of in a year or two. Yes it has issues. Windows 3.1 had problems too. Windows 95 had it's issues as well. Windows XP as great as it is still has problems several years after its' release. I haven't found a version of Linux that was perfect yet either. Seldom is a program released without some flaws ... let alone an entire operating system. I'm shocked at how many flaws Vista appears to have considering how long it took to release but most of them will be worked out eventually ... partly in thanks to people like rugbydude who are willing to try new things.

[CColtManM]

Re: Vista problems

Yeah, plus you CAN tweak your Vista slightly, as you would in XP, by stopping the bulk of services and start up scripts and programs from running in the background. It has increased my speed, and more specifically my ram 32% on average. This is XP, not Vista. But i can assume Vista is similar.

[ANZAC_ELITE]

Re: Vista problems

casecutters post does have some relevence with regard to ram, 1GB is hardly enough if you wish to game, I've had ram usage (Vista Ultimate RC1, RC2 & RTM) reach 1.7GB when playing Company of Heroes

More ram will help, disabling some of the myriad of services will also improve performance

[rugbydude]

Re: Vista problems

I found that the hit for gaming in Vista was quite substantial so a quick reformat with duel boot set up and i have a clean copy of XP specifically for gaming , and a nice copy of Vista for anything else. Leaving XP nice and clean helps keep things running nice and smooth. As a side note i find it interesting that company of heroes would not play on Vista even though it is the first game to carry the "game for Windows" logo.

[Spongebob]

Re: Vista problems

I found that the hit for gaming in Vista was quite substantial so a quick reformat with duel boot set up and i have a clean copy of XP specifically for gaming , and a nice copy of Vista for anything else. Leaving XP nice and clean helps keep things running nice and smooth. As a side note i find it interesting that company of heroes would not play on Vista even though it is the first game to carry the "game for Windows" logo.

Assuming your using the 32 bit version of Vista......... Company of hero's is listed as being compatible with Vista on every website that I've seen with a Vista game compatibility list. I have it on one of my Vista machines and it seems to work but its not the original version so I can't say I've actually tested that version first hand and I can't say I've played through the game on a Vista machine. I'm guessing you have another issue with the game if it won't run on your machine.

[rugbydude]

Re: Vista problems

Never had a problem with it running on XP. On Vista (32 bit) the game would boot but would crash when loading a level. When searching for the solution i came across a thread on the official site which listed issues with Vista and high texture settings which could be solved by lowering the texture quality. The problem persisted, which is why it ended up on XP.

[Spongebob]

Re: Vista problems

Never had a problem with it running on XP. On Vista (32 bit) the game would boot but would crash when loading a level. When searching for the solution i came across a thread on the official site which listed issues with Vista and high texture settings which could be solved by lowering the texture quality. The problem persisted, which is why it ended up on XP.

Might have something to do with the video card your using. I think I remember reading that certain video cards have issues with the game in Vista. If you haven't already, try the newest driver for your card, I'd guess sooner or later there would be a fix.

[rugbydude]

Re: Vista problems

I had the catalyst 7.3 on at the time and even patching didn't solve it. Haven't tried it on 7.4 but i'm sure it'll be fixed some time. XP works nicely for now though.