Vista - CounterStrike-Source Quits while playing

I'm having trouble with my beloved Counter-Strike! In the middle of game play CS will just close on me, BAM! with no error messages or notifications; almost as if I ended the task.

I'm new to the tech side of computers.

Any help would be MUCH appreciated! I know Counter-Strike misses me.

System Specs:
XFX MB 780SLi
INTEL core 2 quad q6600 2.4ghz
SEAGATE 500gb ST3500320AS SATA300 32mb 7200rpm
ASUS Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-Bit
Corsair DOMINATOR (2GB 2x1) 1066 (PC2 8500)

Doesn't for me. Runs at 10fps for me on 64 bit and 8800GTS 512.

I also had no performance dip with Call of Duty 2 on Vista either with an Nvidia card.

You have a setup very similar to mine - same basic mobo, same CPU, same speed RAM (although I am using OCZ 2 x 2 GB DIMMs), same HD (although I have 2 of them) - only your video card is different, and currently, yours blows my 8800 GTS 512 KO edition away in terms of processing power...so theoretically you should not be having issues.

One thing you'll definitely need to do is to set your BIOS to actually use that PC8500 RAM at speeds of 1066 - according to OCZ (and I suspect this is true across the board) there are no JEDEC standards for RAM speeds above PC6400 (800 MHz) so most 780i based boards will probably have the same problem that I did - the board would default the RAM speed to 800 (400 per DIMM, in Dual Channel mode = 800 MHz). IIRC, XFX and eVGA 780i mobos are damn near identical because they stick very very closely to the nVidia reference specs, so your BIOS should be very closely aligned as well - so you'll want to go into the BIOS and adjust (bump) the RAM speeds and the RAM timings manually. That will tremendously help. Another thing that will help - get 2 more DIMMs of RAM, either 2 more identical to what you have, or else replace your 2 x 1 GB DIMMs with 2 x 2 GB DIMMs - Vista really really *really* needs 3 GB to start running efficiently, and 4 GB is a wonderful thing to throw at Vista.

As for CS closing automatically, not sure about that one - but of course that begs the question - do you have it patched to the absolutely latest version?

I don't have either Halo or Halo CE, but I'll borrow it from a buddy of mine to see if it works - not much of a Halo fan so it will be on and off again after I test - but that may take me a couple of weeks. I don't foresee any major problems, though, as Mass Effect always runs 60+ FPS and Crysis runs 35+ FPS almost consistently....

Well just about every game that's out now runs flawlessly. Can run Crysis on DX10 max at around 25-30fps on my 8800, which I think isn't too bad.

But I had an urge to give Halo another go after I used to play it loads online when it first came out on PC. Smaller maps it's not too bad, but on maps like Blood Gulch it was like a constant 10fps, even after fiddling around with in game graphic options, didn't make a difference.

I had a quick look around on the net and found a few people saying it's the newer Nvidia drivers, so it might be okay on ATI cards. Not sure if there would be a different on 32 bit as opposed to 64 bit, which is what I tried it on.

And I didn't test Halo CE either, don't know if that would be any different.

Johngalt thanks a lot for your input!

I was able to get into my BIOS and get my ram running at the appropiate speed--hooray! I've also invested in 2 more sticks of the same, which should be here Friday.

Anyway, I opened up CS after adjusting the ram settings hoping that it would work because it loves me--there is no love apparently. HOWEVER! This time when it closed on me (immediately after opening) windows alerted me: "Desktop Window Manager stopped working and was closed." I restarted my puter and attempted to reopen CS and was given the same message.

Further input from you, or anyone, would be awesome!