vista game compatibility

I recently upgraded to vista on my home comp, and although it looks nice i had so many problems running any of my game. I play both civ 4 and rise of nations, even though i play them in xp compatibility mode, they still crash. my comp only crashes when playing these games, and usually just randomly after hours of play. I have tried everything i could think of, xp compat, med graphics, even patches. the only thing i have not done is use vista sp1 yet, but i want to wait a little longer to use it.

the weakest part of the computer is the graphics card, 128MB nvidia 6150, everything else is more than enough.


BTW, when it crashes, it turns into a weird mosiac, so you can tell it crashed.

so anybody have any ideas

 

Is it the 64bit version of Vista? When it crashes you get like a green screen that fades and changes color right? My friend is having the same problem with Vista x64 and power is not an issue. He has a Quad with an 8800GT, 6GB RAM and dual 320GBs in RAID0. I never got to installing SP1 on his, it crashed before it could install. I think it is just a problem with Vista. Vista as of now sucks. Try to upgrade your video drivers as the type of crash you get sounds like a video driver error, can't be hardware because it ran fine in XP.

 

no bud, it the 32 bit version, and when it crashes the screen blends so it becomes a beige brown mix, it weird.
for nvidia, the drivers are up to date, and it usually crashes an hour+ into the game.

some people that i asked say it might be the graphics card (overheats) or the power supply, or vista itself. so i am still confused, but i played halo and it worked fine at slow settings.

so should i just downgrade to xp, cuz vista looks nice but, not much else.

what do you guys think?

 

Try this. Run a game until it crashes. As soon as it crashes, open your computer and touch the graphics card heatsync. How hot is it? Burning or warm? And about downgrading to XP, Why don't you just partition and put both on the HD?

 

ya i heard about that partitioning idea, does it work well, and do i need an original xp disc, or can i use a recovery disc?

i am about to try and see if it overheats.

 

The recovery disc that came with your computer? If thats it then maybe, I wouldn't try it though. You can possibly download a copy of Windows XP via torrents IF you have a LEGAL XP CD key on the side of your computer and you download the SAME VERSION your CD Key says, such as XP Home Edition or XP Professional. Then after you have downloaded and burned it to CD and installed it, the CD Key on the side of you computer will work to activate it.

 

the xp recovery cd is from my last computer, and i still have the cd key and the disc.

and with the computer, the heatsync is that spikey aluminum thing right, because it was boiling hot, hotter than it is now. everything else was fine. also, for the first time the comp went off and it restarted. maybe the power supply.

anyway what do you think, graphics card (and since my pwr supply is too small, a 400+ watt ps) and what amount, 256, 512. or should i try xp first.

 

If it is boiling hot, I would try and use some active cooling such as a fan on the heatsync. Just screw it on there blowing air on it. If that doesn't work, 8600GT's are around 60ish. and far better than your graphics card.

 

thanks, i decided to buy a graphics card so i can get it done with. hopefully no more crashes when i install it. just a $100 upgrade, yeah.

 

Which card did you buy?

 

XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX Video Card

its a little bit of a upgrade from other 8600GT, or so they say.

i gotta wait for it to get here though.

 

Those cards are good. Just let me know what Vista rates it when you get it.

 

Wow the card works great, not a crash for a couple of days. it was definately the graphics card, and it even started crashing during video playbacks. anyway, its perfect now, thanks for the help core2kid.

The rating for the graphics were 3.4 before, now 5.9, and 3.0 for gaming graphics which is now 5.4. a nice 2.5 point bump. now my overall rating is 5.0 for the processor.

 

Good to see that it helps and that is a really good rating for the graphics card. You can start some nice gaming on that.

 

Also, if this problem persists. Try right clicking on your game icons on your desktop and hit "Run as Administrator". As weird as it seems, this allows windows to access additional program files to run games. I found out this worked with games like WoW and Oblivion.

 

just upgrade to windows XP ^^

 

you mean downgrade?

 

well yea...was being sarcastic lol personally i think vista sucks right now...so many incompatabilties its unreal... My OS of choice would be xp.

 

Same here. XP ftw.