I am SERIOUSLY pissed right now...

Brand new computer. Q6600, 8800GT, 3.0GB RAM, Windows Vista 32bit. Crysis freezes after playing for a while, The Witcher freezes after a while when I try to save my game, or a game is loading. Company of Heroes crashed in the tutorial. Crysis is at all High settings with 1280x960, no AA. The Witcher is at max with 1680x1050. Company of Heroes is at all High with some small settings on Ultra at 1280x960. I get good framerates on all of them. With Company of Heroes the meter telling me how muchRAM the settings use is a little over half. I stuck another fan in at the bottom of the case shooting air up at my card. Didnt help. Card feels a little warm idle, so I'll have to check under load. I'm suspecting a RAM problem because there really doesnt seem like anything else. Big 200mm fan on top, 2 120mm in from, another 120mm in the back, and an extra in the case. CPU heatsink and all, I seriously doubt theres any overheating problem. Is Windows Vista very RAM hungry? I thought 3.0GB would be MORE than sufficient for Windows Vista and games. I downloaded some memory fix and when I try to download the Windows Vista Hotfix for either 32bit or 64bit it says the update doesnt apply to my system. I have a BFG 800W Quad Rail PSU, and I dont know the specs of the motherboard. Bestbuy transfered high end parts to an Antec 900 for me, but the original computer had an 8500GT, so maybe the Motherboard cant really handle the 8800GT. What do you guys think? I'm seriously pissed that this VERY expensive computer is crapping out on me. I downloaded the latest drivers as well...and the Company of Heroes patch and the Witcher patch.

I could really use some advice. I dont care if Best-Buy has to skin the entire computer to replace the motherboard...Also, should I try moving RAM to different slots, or maybe move the card to different slots as well? There are four sticks of RAM, two on each side with one empty slot in the middle. This looks like generic RAM so I wouldnt mind buying some quality Crucial Ballistix RAM to replace this.

After Best-Buy transfered parts to the other case, did they install Vista themselvees or did you? Soounds like a possible driver issue but I could be wrong

EDIT:

Also when you said you threw another fan into the case do you mean one of those PCI slot fans or just a case fan thrown on the ground? If thats the case its going to kind of fight against the natural flow of air on the case which I assume the front fans are blowing in and the back fans are pulling out as well as the side fans. You might have an unbalance with airflow causing things to over heat and lock up which is what its sounding like

Oh, and it was a Gateway computer and they just transfered the parts from that computer to the Antec 900. So Vista was already installed, neither of us installed it.

Well I got some message about a driver fix after Company of Heroes crashed. Apparantly it automatically fixed it. I'm not sure where to find all of the memory hotfixes, I downloaded the latest drivers for the 8800GT, but what are these Vista drivers you guys are talking about?

Theres an article I cant link but apparantly DirectX10 and DirectX9, some memory reading blah blah, game crashes...I'm pretty sure its recommending getting 64bit Vista, which I'd rather not do...And where can I run a Windows Vista update to get all of the hotfixes? I'm confused...If this memory thing really is the problem, and the hotfixes will solve these problems then please link me to them...or something...If upgrading to 64bit really is the solution then fine, but with the compatibility issues with games and all, then...*sigh* maybe even a downgrade to XP might be needed...but ONLY if things get desperate.

Found this:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/windows_vista_hotfixes.html

Will those help me?

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Download this and burn it out has a lot of memory test tools and various other utilities for motherboards, hard disk and CPU's

I got the 'this update does not apply to your system' and I've never downloaded the ones related to the GPU's...how come I'm getting this message? It seems like it would fix my problems...I'm talking about the second hotfix listed on the page...Myrkan

Probably because its already installed on the system or you don't have the latest 163 or whatever drivers

the 163 drivers...Isnt that for my GPU? I have the latest GPU drivers. If its not, where can I download it?

My games are crashing because its reaching the RAM limit and once it does, it crashes. This hotfix says it greatly reduces the amount of RAM games use, and this would most like fix my problem, if I could download it...

Hell, at this point, I wouldnt mind upgrading to 64bit, since it fixes these issues...That is, as long as all of the games I want to play will work with it, and if I cant download these hotfixes or there arent any other fixes available yet...

Thats sort of my...last resort...

Where can I download a simple memory test that doesnt require floppy drives or anything? I dont want some big software suite, just a simple little program that would give me results, if anyone knows of any, then please link. And as for the Hotfix, I'mpretty sureit would fix my problem, if anyone could tell me how to getthe hotfixes to work, then please do. And btw, the latest drivers are 169 I'm pretty sure...Myrkan

im also wondering the same.

your telling me there is no simple little program? fine, just someone link me to anything that could run a ram-test then.

your telling me there is no simple little program? fine, just someone link me to anything that could run a ram-test then.

Myrkan

When you say you have the 169 drivers, are they the 169.25 or the 169.21, the 169.25 are piss poor of a driver currently and you should try to see if you can get a hold of the 169.21 drivers as people on the nvidia forums are saying works the best right now

Downloaded that and typed in 2.98GB (which is the exact amount of RAM I have) into the little box and ran it for about 30 minutes. Didnt get any errors on it...What now? Would the hotfixes really fix this or not? Should I run dual boot with XP?Myrkan

30 minutes might not be long enough to detect issues, I have had instances in my field of work with servers that have gone 6 hours before detecting issues

169.25...would downloading the 169.21 fix my problem? And when I first got this computer, windows update asked me if I wanted to download all of the crucial updates for my computer right away, I decided to do that, so the hotfix must have been downloaded already...Dont know where I'd find the 169.21 drivers though.Myrkan

Yep 169.25 drivers are bad currently let me see if I can get a link for ya will EDIT it in later

EDIT:

http://www.tweakforce.com/

Try this link XG Forceware Drivers Vista 32/64

These are modified nVidia driver which actually perform better then the official ones, they take all the bloated crap out that nVidia puts in and optimizes it for better use

I'm not waiting 6 hours. The longest I'd wait is one hour. Should I test it overnight? And here are the 169.21 drivers:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_169.21_whql.html

Would downloading those help with games? I apparantly have the hotfixes and everything...I seriously wish there was a way to get more RAM to work with 32bit...Is Vista really worth it? DX10 is dandy and Vista looks cool and feels great, lots of extra stuff, but if it takes so much effort to get games to work then...I'd rather not have to go with XP, but maybe Dual Boot would help. Then I could play the games that dont work as well with Vista without worries. What if I just bought 3 gigs of Crucial RAM and then overclocked? I could even overclock this RAM...I'd imagine it wouldnt need to use as much RAM since its faster...Sigh, I wish this didnt have to be so complicated. I know this is fixable, but this just makes PC gaming, for me at least, no better than console gaming...It will be oh-so sweet once I get it fixed, but as I said, I wish it wasnt so complicated all the time.

First off, let's eliminate a few things:
- It's not a PSU problem, as 800w is really overkill (450w would've done fine).
- It's not a 64 bit problem, as you don't have a 64bit OS (so don't download any 64 bit drivers).

Now, check for any of these problems:
- The CPU is overheating under load (use the stress tester; Orthos)
- The GPU is overheating under load
- You're encountering a RAM issue (use Orthos again)
- Previous uninstalled drivers are conficting with your current drivers (remove all drivers, reboot, install new drivers, reboot)

Also, tell us what motherboard model you have. It could be a RAM incompatability issue with the motherboard.

EDIT; Double check that all PSU connections are made properly (did the BestBuy clerk plug in the six pin PEG adapter to the 8800 GT?).