Vista - Random crashes in games

Hi all,

I'm having a problem with every game I play crashing to desktop. I always get the error stating something to the effect of "this program stopped working and will now close". I have had a bit of a look at other posts with similar errors yet the solutions seem to be mostly based on the specs of each computer.

So here are my specs:

OS: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.vistasp1_gdr.080917-1612)
CPU: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 940 Black Edition Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.0GHz
MB: ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe
PSU: ZALMAN 850 watt
RAM: 8Gb @ 1066mhz
GRAPHICS CARD: ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2Gb (made by Sapphire)
CASE: Antec TwelveHundred

At first I thought it was a cooling issue, however I don't think so as the majority of things are running at about 55 deg (celcius).
Additionally, all my driver's are up to date and I have also re-installed my graphics card drivers and the problem still occurs.

Attached is a system Diag so you can see what's what. If you need any more info I'll gladly provide it. I could also provide performance and reliability results if you wish.

I would really appreciate your help


Thanks.

Ok, after a fair bit of research, apparently this has been a bit of a problem for users of ATi Crossfire x2 cards.

Microsoft released a hot fix for this problem. Check details here: Performance issues may occur on a Windows Vista-based or Windows Server 2008-based computer if Active State Power Management is enabled

nobes <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in
news:4731ed4f1ca951abed3015f1d3bdd938@xxxxxx-gateway.com:
I've always been of the firm belief that SLi/CrossFire is a crock. Why
spend $600 on 2 video cards when you could buy one $400 card and get
similar performance, with less crashing?

Sorry, I'll get off my soap-box now.
--
Joe

I agree with Joe that SLI is a pipe dream unless you're working within a
graphical industry and you need them to store huge amounts of data within
their on-board memory. The only upside I can see to SLI is when you've
bought a brand new card, say the GTX280 and 3 or 4 years down the road you
want to double your cards performance by adding what will then be an
extremely cheap card (another GTX280). I did this in the past and it worked
out great. Be aware that SLI sucks a lot more juice and creates a lot more
heat than a normal configuration though I learned that the hard way.

--

EN4CER
"nobes" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:e7e02d09ffd34884fe8c70910d61cfd6@xxxxxx-gateway.com...