Vista - Vista 64bit or XP 32bit

I've bought a new laptop and obviously it came with vista installed. I've used it for a couple of weeks with Vista, however can't get on with it. The main reason is that when using Adobe CS4 it seems to keep crashing on vista, however when I install it on my brothers pc which has XP it doesn't ever crash.

I'm thinking of taking vista off my new laptop and replacing it with XP, it's not a question of cost (I already have a xp disc and key from my old laptop, which is broken). Would you recommend not to do this?

I've been reading some posts about 4gb not working in 32bit OS however would I notice a massive performance decrease? And will I have trouble with XP and playing games on it, my brother mentioned something about direct x 10?

Thanks for your help/views in advanced!

"Nixeon" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:f80c167d6c567506374694f5c73946bb@xxxxxx-gateway.com...I dont know how well Adobe CS4 works with Vista or if theres a known
compatibility issuse there, but i doubt it. Almost all software that works
on
XP works on Vista just fine nowdays. Have updated to the latest version?

Are you doing something special to make it crash?

You could end up installing XP and then having the application crashing
there aswell. For instance if your computer has a faulty/defective component
that could cause instability in both Vista and applications. That would most
likely continue to plague you even if you switch OS.
If you dont have any performance or otherwise major issues with Vista i
suggest
keeping it.
If you have 4gb (or more) ram you will need a 64bit OS to be able to access
all of it. There is no real reason not to install a 64bit OS today if your
hardware
supports it. Only problem is if you own a really old device like a printer
or scanner
that doesnt have a 64bit driver.

Note that XP has a 64bit version aswell. If you run out of free usable ram
you
would most likely run into a massive performance decrease but otherwise you
should not.
DX10 only comes into play when talking about 3D applications (games) or
possibly demos or benchmarking software. If the software and graphics card
in your computer supports DX10 you get nicer looking graphics. You can
google
DX9 vs. DX10 or some such to get a side by side picture comparison.

It just randomly crashes for no reason, even if I'm not doing anything, like the other day it crashed when I tried to create a new file, and then later on while i was talking to my mum and on pc it randomly crashed while i was in dreamweaver. It only happens in Adobe CS4 suite. Perhaps I'll just ring Adobe and see what they say.

Would XP 64bit use all 4GB of Ram and is it better or worse than Vista x64?

Although I will probably stick with Vista if you believe I might have the same problem on XP.

A problem you might get going to XP some features of your laptop may not work I tried on my laptop once before and the graphics card didn't work correctly with XP it was only designed to work with Vista.

I don't think it will have too much of a problem. The drivers disc that came with the laptop has to 4 sets of drivers on it . XP (32bit and 64bit) and Vista (32bit and 64bit) I also got two copies of Vista Home Premium (32bit and 64bit).

However I haven't tried the XP drivers so wouldn't know 100% if they work without problems.

"Nixeon" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:f80c167d6c567506374694f5c73946bb@xxxxxx-gateway.com...Well, that doesn't ncessarily mean the problem is with Vista. Chances are
you have a hardware problem, probably flaky RAM. I would do a clean
install of *something* (Vista or XP) and try again. If that doesn't help
then restore the machine back to the way you got it, and return it for
warranty repair/replacement.

However, if you don't feel like messing with it, you could just return it
without doing the test installs.

"Nixeon" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:9f53b7f96a28315152a1c733f200ef24@xxxxxx-gateway.com...You can check with Adobe but you may also want to try the following to make
sure its not your computer that is the problem:

1. Run latest memtest86+ (free, small) overnight to make sure your ram is
functioning as it should.
2. Run latest prime95 (free, small) blend torture test for 24 hours (can run
in background while you do other stuff, even play games).

If those dont report any failures.

3. Update all your drivers, go directly to the manufacturer instead of
store's webpage
4. Update the application to the latest version, check adobes webpage.
Any 64bit OS can access 4gb or more ram provided the application you run is
64bit aswell. New games are more and more frequently supporting it and as
they will require more resources it will probably be even more common.

As a comparison i have 8gb of ram and both XP x64 and Vista x64 work just
fine for me. Both are completely stable and do what they are supposed to.
Vista is better in the way that it has more features and also supports DX10
rather then DX9 you get with XP.

Downside with Vista is that its a bit more memory hungry and has not been
quite as 'refined' as XP yet. It will come with time.
Hard to say, check the above hardware tests before trying XP, could save you
alot of trouble.