Help! vista x64 plagued with problems

Ever since I have started up my new pc which I installed with Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit, I have been plagued with problems. I'm probably not going to be able to detail every error message I have recieved, and every problem I have had, but I will try.

At first everything went ok. I installed some programs and they went ok. The first game I tried, Grand theft Auto San Andreas, installed fine, but when I went to play it it would load until the main menu, and then it would crash. I got some nonsense error message.

I then tried Civilization 4, which installed fine. I launched the program after a warning about compatibility issues, but then I got a message saying 'Civilization 4 has stopped working'.

The next game I tried was The Sims 2. After installation of the base game and a good few expansion packs, I tried to play it, and to my joy it worked! But the gameplay was slow and jerky, and every few seconds the screen would turn black for a short time, and then the game would resume. Along with this, The textures were all muddled at times. The game then proceeded to crash, 'The Sims 2 has stopped working'.

I decided to install the utilities that came with my graphics card, which then required me to restart my computer. After the restart, The Sims played with no problems at all and did not crash. None of the other games worked however.

I proceeded to install more and more programs onto my computer. The Sims 2 would sometimes play and sometimes not. Sometimes I would launch the program and nothing would happen. Sometimes I would get error messages when I launched it. Sometimes it would play with the issues I have mentioned, and sometimes It would play normally. usually after a reboot the situation would change.

No other game worked. When I tried to play San Andreas I was no longer able to start it at all, I just got error messages. Now after a reboot of my computer, no applications work. The only things that work are the built in microsoft apps, and windows. The 32 bit versions of microsoft apps do not work. NO 3rd party program is working. The error messages I get are usually some variation of; "The Application has failed to start because it's side by side configuration is incorrect.
Please see the application event log for more detail." I also often get random error messages, and I am often informed that the nvida drivers have stopped working and recovered again.

I am aware that I need to update windows and my graphic drivers, and maybe patch some of my programs, but I do not have internet access on the pc at this stage. I can (with a significant amount of effort,) connect my pc to a very slow dial up connection. So while I will leave the windows updates to run overnight on the dial up, I am worried about the size of the nvida drivers.

Specs
Gigabyte GA-G33M S2L Mobo
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00Ghz
Apacer 2GB DDR2 800 RAM
Asus 8600GT 'Magic'
Western Digital 500GB SATA HDD
Silverstone case & PSU
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM

Please note that every program I mentioned failing runs perfectly on my old Vista Home Premium 32 bit. Any help with any of these problems would be much appreciated!

Have u tried installing SP1?

You do have a number of options here to try and solve your problems, in order of preference:

Drivers
Go to the websites of your hardware manfacturers, then locate, download and install the latest Vista x64 drivers. BETA drivers do not count as the latest until they are no longer flagged as BETA, so don't download BETA drivers.

GIGABYTE - Support - Motherboard - Driver
ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Support-

Vista Service Pack 1
Once you have updated all your drivers, then download an install Windows Vista Service Pack 1.

Download details: Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Five Language Standalone for x64-based Systems (KB936330)

Windows Update
Once you have install the latest drivers, and SP1, do a full Windows Update. There was an update released a few days ago that does address application compatibility issues. Repeat Windows Update as many times as is required, until it tells you there are no updates available.

The Sims 2
You need to go to the Sims 2 website and download the newest update which includes Vista compatibility updates.

TheSims2.com - Updates

As for the rest of the games you're having a problem with, what you can do that might help is don't install them to their default locations. When you install your games, customize the default locations to something else other than "C:\Program Files (x86)", which is protected by the enhanced Vista security features. I install all my games to "C:\Games\GAMENAME", thus bypassing any of the security that may interfere with the game. And I've to date had no problem with any games, even older ones that where release way back in 2001, such as Diablo 2.

Also go to the game manufacturer website and see if there are any updates that resolve Vista compatibility issues.


To resolve this issue, find a friend that has an internet connection you can use, and temporarily hookup to the 'net. This is the only way you'll get by fixing these problems you're having.

If push come to shove, try an internet cafe, or ask your boss if you can use the connection at work...

I would downgrade back to XP Pro SP2.