Vista - Vista 64 not recognized

After researching an error last night for Half-Life 2, I find a promising solution: A certain update (Windows6.0-KB940105-x86) would supposedly solve the problem instantly. I followed the link directly without checking if it was for 32 bit or 64 bit Vista, so this might be the incompatible 32 bit, but when I attempted to install, I got an error message saying that it doesn't apply to my system. I'd quickly go see if this was for 32 bit, but instead I went to play some Halo 2 for PC. It crashes once with one of the display drivers failing (it had never done this before). I decide to uninstall and then reinstall my VGA driver, which is the latest. I used the exact .exe file from the internet I saved. Since it worked the first time, it should work the second, but instead I get the same error message as before with the other update (it doesn't apply to my system). So now, I'm without a video card driver that was working just two days ago, with no changes made to the computer.

BTW, I back when my keyboard driver was failing and a recommended Vista update was downloaded and I got the same message. Thankfully, that problem has been fixed with a reinstall of Vista. Right now, there is so much set up now, that I don't want to reset the whole computer.

Can someone please help?

Hello da8472,

HL2 has worked on Vista since its release last year, Im using it right now via GMod and you do not need any Updates for Vista gaming unless they are Steam content.

Vista does a good job detecting all the updates you need via Windows Update you dont have to downlaod extra ones from the site especially since SP1 includes all the updates available right now...

As for your Graphics card what do you use?
This program can report all the details about your graphics card if your unsure, If your not using a standard Display Device we can help you find the right driver.
GPU-Z Video card GPU Information Utility

The Microsoft update you installed is not a video driver.
You did not uninstall the update, therefore you still have it, and no longer need it.
You uninstalled your Video Driver, thereforeyou still need it, and should retrieve same from manufacturer's website.

Sorry, I must have been unclear. The video driver and the update to fix HL2 are two completely different stories to point out that anything that needs to be specific for either 32 or 64 bit systems doesn't seem to recognize that I'm running 64 bit. I did uninstall my video driver when Halo 2 failed, and it explicitly told me that I'm running 32 bit when that is not the case. As for the not needing to install HL2 update, it wasn't an update for the game, it was for Vista. Somehow the ram was allocating but having trouble deallocating whenever HL2 loaded a new area. The Vista, not HL2 update, would have fixed that.

Anyway, just keep in mind that the driver failure and the Vista update are seperate events that happened near the same time. The fact that both the video driver reinstall and the update install have the same error points out my ultimate problem of my 64 bit Vista being seen as 32 bit.

I'm using two Geforce 8800 GTS's with SLI, not that it matters though since I know I have the same driver that was working just fine before since I saved the downloaded .exe

Also, if it matters, the HL2 error stated something like:

can't load lump 53 with some number* of bytes allocated
*i can't remember the number and i'm on a different computer right now

Sorry - Without better and more clear information, I'm afraid I won't be able to help, then.

Never mind, problem solved...just magically started working after about the 6th reboot

Hello da8472,

As I mentioned SP1 includes all the updates you need, extra ones from the Microsoft site will not help you one little bit thats why it will not install the update and HL2 does not have any probelems with dealloc memory and if it did Valve would have informed me via e-mail some time ago being a developer myself and then taken measues to prevent it because its nothing todo with Microsoft or Vista thats a Valve issue.

The other issue might be resolved if you use a beta driver from NVidia found here...GeForce Release 174 but the GPUZ program in the link I provided earlyer can tell you the same thing.


dmex