Vista - Is Vista64 stable? What's your uptime?

When I say not ready for primetime - I mean for mass consumption and ease of use.

If your system comes with vista pre-installed you are fine with >3GB Ram - just letting you know about some EXTREMELY common install problems before you start - if you are installing the OS yourself.

Since my reinstall - things have been fine for 3 days - with SLI and 4GB RAM running - just waiting for the nv, and my attempt to make a dual-boot system failed. I think maybe my drive letters are squirrely so I am going to do a little more research before trying again.

If you are running SLI - look up this error code on the Nvidia forums - it was what forced me to do my re-install of Vista64. "nvlddmkm" - is a recurrent driver failure that has no reliable fix and has been widely reported for months.

Good luck.

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound "off" or anything. It's just that with my Operating System I had to copy and paste 2 commands, one for codecs the other for encrypted DVD playback, and run one script to setup flash for 64bit Firefox. (How's that for ease of use. ) So I think you mean Windows64 isn't ready for primetime yet. But what can you do if you want to game on vista with loads of RAM?

I really, really hope I don't get any of these errors though. I wont be having SLI so thats O.K, but the RAM thing scares me a bit. - That's the whole idea of 64bit - more RAM.

No sweat . You can RUN Vista64 with more than 3 GB RAM - you just can't INSTALL it. You have to install it with less than 3 GB - I would do 2GB to be safe. Then you install a hotfix available from Microsoft to fix the bug, restart your system, and you can add as much RAM as you want after that and it will all work fine.

Another suggestion. I believe the nvdlkkm error may be due to a bad early install of Nvidia drivers that can't be erased with subsequent updates. I would recommend when you install your system that you refuse to let windows do any driver installs, and turn OFF automatic updates until you have a chance to download the latest drivers from the vendors. That vieo driver error is not just for SLI - it even occurs with the 7000 series of Nvidia cards - and I have seens reports of ATI cards doing similar things.

For my new install - I did all my driver installs manually - not through Windows Update, and it has worked like a charm.

So in summary:
1 - do not try to install Vista64 with more than 2 GB RAM - add it later after doing hotfixes and updates.
2 - do NOT let Windows download drivers, and check your updates before installing so it doesn't sneak them in with the big initial update.
3- before installing ANYTHING - do these three hotfixes from Microsoft.
- Microsoft Hotfix 929777 (4GB RAM memory addressing problem)
- Microsoft Hotfix 938194 (General compatibility fix)
- Microsoft Hotfix 938979 (Overall performance update)

4 - After those hotfixes, you can add RAM until the cows come home, and you can download and install your video and sound card drivers and install them. If you don't do it in this order - there is a really good chance you will have lots of problems - like I did - but now - everything appears to be fine (knocks on wood)

Not really. I can easily install with all 4GB installed with no problems. It affects many systems, but not all. Next problem is the mobo. I just don't need to overclock anything, so I went for directly Intel board, works absolutely flawlessly. Yes, it's not as "fancy and colorful" like other, mainly Taiwanese boards, but who need it anyway? I got everything i need, RAID and Firewire included.

So, try with all 4GB first, if it BSOD on you, then remove the 2 gigs, but it's not necessary to do it if you don't know if you are one of the "badly chosen"

from M$ site about KB929777:

This problem occurs if the following conditions are true: •The computer uses more than 3 GB of RAM.•The computer uses a storage system that is running the Storport miniport driver. •The computer uses a controller that uses 32-bit direct memory access (DMA).
Well i'm only guessing here, but i'm probably not using storport. Maybe it's being used with RAID or AHCI setup. My SATA is set to IDE emulation mode. No problem, since NCQ usually only decreases HDD performance anyway

Also, if you install 938979, RivaTuner (among others) will not work anymore, because it needs driver signing to be turned off. This update changes the way signing is being used and there is no way of disabling it with the update, yet. So my 8800GTS is now unecesarilly hot, 'cos i can't control the fan, but it's still safe.

Thanks for the info. I definitely had the BSOD on initial boot-up (was expecting it though - just had to see if it would happen) and again on re-install.

I am curious about the driver-signing issue as well - is it possible to turn that function off after installing the hotfix - or would I need to uninstall the hotfix?

Also - can you recommend a program to control fan speeds of CPU, one case fan (side fan blowing on the GPUs) and the 8800 GTX cards? I haven't gotten around to attempting one yet - but would like to know if there is a reliable one before I start the trial and error process.

Thanks again,

Craig

As far as i know, there is no way of disabling diver signing with update installed, uninstall of update is necesary. But maybe someone found a way already, search Guru3D forums, Rivatuner section. Unwinder (creator of RT) said, that he can't do anything about it and he will not pay 500$ for a year just to sign RT, it will stay unsigned, unless RT is making some profit.

As for the fan control software, i used RT just to control my 8800GTS fan plus other minor D3D and OGL settings. Nvidia ntune is supposed to have this capability too, but unfortunatelly, the area with fan control is greyed out in Vista I didn't try Ati tool, maybe it will work, but i really don't know. I also tried Speedfan (for a different reason), but it's just not recognizing anything in my system, doesn't work. But RT works great if u don't have that damn update

That's it, hope it helps.

Vista x64 is quite stable for me...again my setup is simple and their are x64 drivers for all my stuff.

Supreme Commander,Half-Life 1,2,Lost coast,CSS,Madden 2008,Company Of heroes all play great. It's having trouble understanding my batch file for my daily backup to server...I am asuuming this is a Vista thing because on Xp it ran fine.

Other than that runs smooth...I run dreamscene, Dual monitors no lag at all.
Download,Office 2003,Web browsing,moving files all fast... some programs like AIM 6 tend to take a while to go to "settings" not sure if this is a aim thing or vista x64 thing.

Hope this helps (please do reserach make sure your motherboard has good support)