Vista - TOTALLY FRUSRATED -- Vista basically unusable

Yep, I switched out sticks to no avail. The thing is, it has been increasingly worse. the first couple of days it would only freeze when it was running multiple processes or when I tried Assassin's Creed. Now, it last more than a minute or two. I was figuring that it was a driver conflict, but I can't see any drivers that would be doing it. I think I may try reinstalling 64 bit and seeing how that goes again only installing very, very few programs, and then running it for a while after each one to see if I can find the one doing it. By the by, how do I eventually install 4 GB of RAM in Vista?

By the by? Hehe...

Just go to BIOS -> Chipset -> Northbridge Configuration -> Enable Memory Remapping and then you will see and use the full 4GB.

Thanks, Axon! I'll do that as soon as I can.

Y'know, it just gets weirder and weirder. I wiped the drive and am trying to reinstall the 64 bit, and it has frozen on the Installing the Updates stage. The thing is, I have reinstalled a couple of times already, as I said, and have never had a problem. So, if there is a problem with the RAM it is progressively getting worse, which seems strange to me.

Hello Oudein,

Try not letting it install updates until after it has finished installing!

It's worth a try.


Later Ted

Thanks, Ted. The install went pretty cleanly, and got all the way through the 3 stages, to point where I updated options, like Windows Defender. Then, just as I was creating (what I thought was a clean) Restore Point, it froze again. I had reset the BIOS to defaults before beginning, , and didn't update any of the Nvidia drivers for the mobo or graphics driver, so I really don't know what driver might be conflicting with the OS. The really frustrating thing is that it just freezes, so I never have a chance to see a log or process report of any kind. At this piont, I am letting it rest and am wondering if it anything is overheating -- even though I am recording 30s and 50s C for the mobo and cpu. I really just don't know what's going on or where to turn to find any answers.

I really appreciate all of the support and suggestions on this thread, though. Thanks a bunch to one and all!

Noticed you are using 9800 gx2. I get the same lockups and sudden reboots with this card. All i could find is that it is southbridge heat related. The card sits too close to the heat sink. The card itself gets very hot too because its two chips sandwiched against each other with the airflow in between. In a cooler environment the system is much more stable.