Does anyone know any programs I can download to thoroughly scan Vista and list what is causing the blue screen of death?
More than the built-in performance/reliability monitor? That should tell you exactly what caused a crash or shutdown.
All I got from the performance monitor is "OS Stopped Working" followed by a bunch of zeros for failure detail.
Such detail!
I'm not familiar with anything that will offer more detail, unless the MS website has a description of that error.
Sometimes it's not as simple as just looking in some log and having the computer tell you exactly what causes the error. A page fault is one of the most common types of stop errors and can be caused by any number of things, and the only way to find an exact cause (and this doesn't always work) is to look at the actual memory dump file, which contains the entire contents of your RAM at the time of the error, to try to find out what caused it. And you basically need to be a computer scientist to do that. So your best bet, Snugglesworth, is to google the error code (ie 0x0000FE), and see what turns up.
If you don't find anything useful then you'll have to try to figure it out the hard way. First, run a memory test (control panel>system and maintenance>administrative tools>memory diagnostics tool). If it finds a problem then it's probably your RAM causing the problem, it either needs to be reseated in its slot, or replaced entirely. If no error is found, start looking at your drivers. Have you updated any of them recently? If so, that's probably what's causing the error and you should roll the driver back to its previous version. If not, update all of them. If that still doesn't fix your problem then you either have misbehaving software or hardware, and the only way to determine the precise cause is to start removing hardware and software, one by one, until the error stops occurring. Start with the things that were added most recently.
Basically what is happening is every app and device is able to write to and read from certain portions of your computer's memory, and something (most likely a misbehaving driver) is trying to write in an area of memory in which it does not have permission to do so. You can find more info here.
Does anyone know any programs I can download to thoroughly scan Vista and list what is causing the blue screen of death?
More than the built-in performance/reliability monitor? That should tell you exactly what caused a crash or shutdown.
All I got from the performance monitor is "OS Stopped Working" followed by a bunch of zeros for failure detail.
Such detail!
I'm not familiar with anything that will offer more detail, unless the MS website has a description of that error.
Sometimes it's not as simple as just looking in some log and having the computer tell you exactly what causes the error. A page fault is one of the most common types of stop errors and can be caused by any number of things, and the only way to find an exact cause (and this doesn't always work) is to look at the actual memory dump file, which contains the entire contents of your RAM at the time of the error, to try to find out what caused it. And you basically need to be a computer scientist to do that. So your best bet, Snugglesworth, is to google the error code (ie 0x0000FE), and see what turns up.
If you don't find anything useful then you'll have to try to figure it out the hard way. First, run a memory test (control panel>system and maintenance>administrative tools>memory diagnostics tool). If it finds a problem then it's probably your RAM causing the problem, it either needs to be reseated in its slot, or replaced entirely. If no error is found, start looking at your drivers. Have you updated any of them recently? If so, that's probably what's causing the error and you should roll the driver back to its previous version. If not, update all of them. If that still doesn't fix your problem then you either have misbehaving software or hardware, and the only way to determine the precise cause is to start removing hardware and software, one by one, until the error stops occurring. Start with the things that were added most recently.
Okay, I just ran the diagnostics tool, and it confirmed that hardware problems were detected, and that my computer had a memory problem.
So most likely it's the RAM causing this, then? I was fairly certain that it was inserted correctly, so I guess my only option is to open up the tower and try re-inserting it again, making sure it's secured correctly. And if that fails, buy new RAM I suppose.
RAM is easy to replace though, so as long as you're certain it isn't anything more costly (motherboard, etc), then this should be an easy fix (hopefully).
My Vista Ultimate install is about 3 months old and Explorer has started crashing repeatedly (while browsing files it crashes every few minutes at least). Is this a known issue or have I acquired another wonderful Microsoft Windows problem that's only solution is to re-install?
More than likely it's due to an ill-behaved shell extension or bad codecs.
The former can be caused by things that add entries to your context menus in Explorer (like WinRAR). The latter can be caused by installing something like KLCP and when Explorer tries to tell render a thumbnail of a video, it crashes out.
It is rare (since XP at least) for Explorer to crash on its own volition. Keep in mind you don't have to be actively browsing files for these problems to occur either, as your taskbar and start button are also part of explorer.
A workaround that should prevent all of explorer crashing is this: In an Explorer window, click "Organize", then "Folder and Search Options". Select "View", and check the box labeled "Launch Folder windows in Separate Process". Hit OK, or Apply, or whatever you want as long as it isn't cancel. This will cause each window to have its own process which, while consuming a bit more memory, prevents one bad call from crashing the whole thing.
Hm, thanks for the insight. Last night I uninstalled all my codecs and it's still crashing. Is there any way I can debug it and fix it? Or is it a "re-install" problem?
My Vista Ultimate install is about 3 months old and Explorer has started crashing repeatedly (while browsing files it crashes every few minutes at least). Is this a known issue or have I acquired another wonderful Microsoft Windows problem that's only solution is to re-install?
More than likely it's due to an ill-behaved shell extension or bad codecs.
The former can be caused by things that add entries to your context menus in Explorer (like WinRAR). The latter can be caused by installing something like KLCP and when Explorer tries to tell render a thumbnail of a video, it crashes out.
It is rare (since XP at least) for Explorer to crash on its own volition. Keep in mind you don't have to be actively browsing files for these problems to occur either, as your taskbar and start button are also part of explorer.
A workaround that should prevent all of explorer crashing is this: In an Explorer window, click "Organize", then "Folder and Search Options". Select "View", and check the box labeled "Launch Folder windows in Separate Process". Hit OK, or Apply, or whatever you want as long as it isn't cancel. This will cause each window to have its own process which, while consuming a bit more memory, prevents one bad call from crashing the whole thing.
Hm, thanks for the insight. Last night I uninstalled all my codecs and it's still crashing. Is there any way I can debug it and fix it? Or is it a "re-install" problem?
Unfortunately all I can tell you is try to remember when it started, and what you may have installed then. :-\
A system restore should be able to help. A reinstall will definitely fix it. I haven't yet had to do anything like that on my Vista install, so I can't give you any good advice. :-\
jonxp on
Every time you write parallel fifths, Bach kills a kitten.
3DS Friend Code: 2707-1614-5576 PAX Prime 2014 Buttoneering!
Does anyone know any programs I can download to thoroughly scan Vista and list what is causing the blue screen of death?
More than the built-in performance/reliability monitor? That should tell you exactly what caused a crash or shutdown.
All I got from the performance monitor is "OS Stopped Working" followed by a bunch of zeros for failure detail.
Such detail!
I'm not familiar with anything that will offer more detail, unless the MS website has a description of that error.
Sometimes it's not as simple as just looking in some log and having the computer tell you exactly what causes the error. A page fault is one of the most common types of stop errors and can be caused by any number of things, and the only way to find an exact cause (and this doesn't always work) is to look at the actual memory dump file, which contains the entire contents of your RAM at the time of the error, to try to find out what caused it. And you basically need to be a computer scientist to do that. So your best bet, Snugglesworth, is to google the error code (ie 0x0000FE), and see what turns up.
If you don't find anything useful then you'll have to try to figure it out the hard way. First, run a memory test (control panel>system and maintenance>administrative tools>memory diagnostics tool). If it finds a problem then it's probably your RAM causing the problem, it either needs to be reseated in its slot, or replaced entirely. If no error is found, start looking at your drivers. Have you updated any of them recently? If so, that's probably what's causing the error and you should roll the driver back to its previous version. If not, update all of them. If that still doesn't fix your problem then you either have misbehaving software or hardware, and the only way to determine the precise cause is to start removing hardware and software, one by one, until the error stops occurring. Start with the things that were added most recently.
Okay, I just ran the diagnostics tool, and it confirmed that hardware problems were detected, and that my computer had a memory problem.
So most likely it's the RAM causing this, then? I was fairly certain that it was inserted correctly, so I guess my only option is to open up the tower and try re-inserting it again, making sure it's secured correctly. And if that fails, buy new RAM I suppose.
RAM is easy to replace though, so as long as you're certain it isn't anything more costly (motherboard, etc), then this should be an easy fix (hopefully).
It is likely that only one module is causing the problem so you should test them one by one to determine which one is defective.
Well, I opened up my tower, and moved my two RAMs from the red colored ports to the yellow colored ones. I then clamped them as tight as possible, and ran the diagnostics tool.
It said no errors were detected, so I should be home free.
Anything that supplies WHQL certified drivers should be compatible with 64bit Vista. MS will only give WHQL certification to drivers that supply both 32bit and 64bit versions.
Hey guys, I posted this in help as well, but i figure you guys are my target audience anyways:
so i just built a new desktop and because it is free off msdn I installed vista 64 only to find 1 big issue: wireless cards.
Am I essentially screwed? I want to get a b/g pci or usb wireless card and I am having an amazing amount of trouble doing that.
If possible dlink or linksys is preferred (store nearby carries them), but at this point I am willing to hear pretty much anything.
thanks for any suggestions
OK, aside from my usual spiel about going wired if at all possible because it is almost ALWAYS worth it (cheaper, faster, no "lost signals"), which I assume isn't possible for you since you mentioned you get Vista free and that's generally a Student thing, you're going to run into issues when looking for a PCI wireless card. To be honest, desktop wireless cards are at the bottom of the pecking order. Linksys doesn't even have a WHQL certified card out yet. x64 Vista doesn't allow you to load unsigned drivers unless you explicitly set the boot option each time you start your computer. It's a pain, but it's Microsoft's method of attempting to prevent bad drivers from giving Windows a bad name.
I would suggest looking for USB wireless, or even a cheap router that you can install OpenWRT (or dd-wrt) on to act as a wireless bridge for you (meaning it takes the wirless signal and turns it to a wired one).
jonxp on
Every time you write parallel fifths, Bach kills a kitten.
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BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
Hey guys, I posted this in help as well, but i figure you guys are my target audience anyways:
so i just built a new desktop and because it is free off msdn I installed vista 64 only to find 1 big issue: wireless cards.
Am I essentially screwed? I want to get a b/g pci or usb wireless card and I am having an amazing amount of trouble doing that.
If possible dlink or linksys is preferred (store nearby carries them), but at this point I am willing to hear pretty much anything.
thanks for any suggestions
OK, aside from my usual spiel about going wired if at all possible because it is almost ALWAYS worth it (cheaper, faster, no "lost signals"), which I assume isn't possible for you since you mentioned you get Vista free and that's generally a Student thing, you're going to run into issues when looking for a PCI wireless card. To be honest, desktop wireless cards are at the bottom of the pecking order. Linksys doesn't even have a WHQL certified card out yet. x64 Vista doesn't allow you to load unsigned drivers unless you explicitly set the boot option each time you start your computer. It's a pain, but it's Microsoft's method of attempting to prevent bad drivers from giving Windows a bad name.
I would suggest looking for USB wireless, or even a cheap router that you can install OpenWRT (or dd-wrt) on to act as a wireless bridge for you (meaning it takes the wirless signal and turns it to a wired one).
Might I also suggest powerline ethernet? Like these guys?
A little more expensive than buying a wi-fi solution, but they're great since they don't require any drivers, setup, and I've never had any connection problems with my set. Just plug one into a wall socket near your computer and one near your router and you're set.
Hey guys, I posted this in help as well, but i figure you guys are my target audience anyways:
so i just built a new desktop and because it is free off msdn I installed vista 64 only to find 1 big issue: wireless cards.
Am I essentially screwed? I want to get a b/g pci or usb wireless card and I am having an amazing amount of trouble doing that.
If possible dlink or linksys is preferred (store nearby carries them), but at this point I am willing to hear pretty much anything.
thanks for any suggestions
OK, aside from my usual spiel about going wired if at all possible because it is almost ALWAYS worth it (cheaper, faster, no "lost signals"), which I assume isn't possible for you since you mentioned you get Vista free and that's generally a Student thing, you're going to run into issues when looking for a PCI wireless card. To be honest, desktop wireless cards are at the bottom of the pecking order. Linksys doesn't even have a WHQL certified card out yet. x64 Vista doesn't allow you to load unsigned drivers unless you explicitly set the boot option each time you start your computer. It's a pain, but it's Microsoft's method of attempting to prevent bad drivers from giving Windows a bad name.
I would suggest looking for USB wireless, or even a cheap router that you can install OpenWRT (or dd-wrt) on to act as a wireless bridge for you (meaning it takes the wirless signal and turns it to a wired one).
Might I also suggest powerline ethernet? Like these guys?
A little more expensive than buying a wi-fi solution, but they're great since they don't require any drivers, setup, and I've never had any connection problems with my set. Just plug one into a wall socket near your computer and one near your router and you're set.
I was basing my suggestions off of the presumption that he's a student with campus Wifi as his only means of internet access, where the powerline ethernet would be quite overkill. In any case, a far cheaper method than the powerline ethernet would be converting a cheap router into a wireless bridge, while retaining the full speed of the wireless signal, and not being subject to noise in the line if you turn on a hair dryer.
jonxp on
Every time you write parallel fifths, Bach kills a kitten.
3DS Friend Code: 2707-1614-5576 PAX Prime 2014 Buttoneering!
thanks for the responses guys: I have tried to look for usb wireless and to be honest I am having trouble finding one of those.
I was able to find atheros vista x64 drivers that when I get the chance tomorrow I will install, but i have a feeling it is gonna be hella complicated as jonxp was saying.
At this point in time I cant get a wired setup, but in a few months I will be moving and able to wire it all up. Until then however my only option is wireless, and I dont really want to go buying more routers to use as a bridge (I have enough clutter as it is)
As for the powerline ethernet: it seems really rad, but the cost is prohibitive to me, but I will keep it in mind.
When I talked to the guys at memory express he didnt know, but suggested a dlink dwl g520 and that there might be alternative drivers: Just how hard is it to set up for something like that?
thanks for the help though guys, this is not a problem I would have ever envisioned
Downloaded a shit load of updates last night for Vista. Computer was decommissioned for a while so maybe they've been out for a while. It came with an update to the Intel Graphics engine that came with my gateway. Should hopefully stop the issues with WoW and other games where the graphics driver would get all confuckled.
yay!
badfish on
"What you had there is what we refer to as a focused non-terminal repeating phantasm or a Class 5 full-roaming vapor."
This is my 3rd vista PC, and this is the first one to experience this issue. Comptuer works fine on initial bootup. If the device enters an S3 sleep state, once I resume, after a random period of time (typically no greater then 2 minutes), I get a bluescreen crash, citing the ndis.sys. All windows updates are installed, and I am not using any of the Media Center Functionality. Anyone have any ideas?
Can someone give me some advice? I'm the administrator account and I'm being told that I need to contact the fucking administrator to uninstall stuff including but not limited to Sim City Societies. How the hell do I make it understand that I'm the god damn boss?
This is my 3rd vista PC, and this is the first one to experience this issue. Comptuer works fine on initial bootup. If the device enters an S3 sleep state, once I resume, after a random period of time (typically no greater then 2 minutes), I get a bluescreen crash, citing the ndis.sys. All windows updates are installed, and I am not using any of the Media Center Functionality. Anyone have any ideas?
Ended up being corruption of NIC drivers and some kind of Intel Chipset on the MoBo. Issue resolved, huzizzle.
Can someone give me some advice? I'm the administrator account and I'm being told that I need to contact the fucking administrator to uninstall stuff including but not limited to Sim City Societies. How the hell do I make it understand that I'm the god damn boss?
Is UAC off? If so, turn it on.
jonxp on
Every time you write parallel fifths, Bach kills a kitten.
3DS Friend Code: 2707-1614-5576 PAX Prime 2014 Buttoneering!
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DietarySupplementStill not approved by the FDADublin, OHRegistered Userregular
edited March 2008
Really annoyed with Vista right now, hoping someone can help because all Google does is point me to forums with 6 month old posts.
Scenario: turning on PC for the first time of the day.
1: Computer boots.
2: At the user login screen, I see image "tearing" and black bars cut through the screen. Lasts about a second, then it is fine. I continue to log in.
3: Computer sits for about 10 - 30 minutes. Screen goes black, not responsive at all. I soft-reset.
4: Repeat steps.
5: Log back in. Will stay up for as long as I leave it on.
Any ideas? Far as I can tell, I have all certified drivers. Here's the system specs:
Asus Striker Extreme
4GB (2 x 2GB) Memory
2 x PNY Geforce 8800GT's in SLi configuration
Soundblaster xFi Xtreme Gamer
Vista Home Premium 64 bit
Another ting I've noticed too, is that in games where I get really high frame rates, my monitor goes beserk, and starts flickering purple/pink through the images. Going back to the destop alleviates the issue, but leaving v-sync on makes it not happen. I don't know if the two are related? The only other thing I can think of is... while the two cards are the same make and model, I see different BIOS versions on them. Would this cause an issue and if so, how would one correct it?
Really annoyed with Vista right now, hoping someone can help because all Google does is point me to forums with 6 month old posts.
Scenario: turning on PC for the first time of the day.
1: Computer boots.
2: At the user login screen, I see image "tearing" and black bars cut through the screen. Lasts about a second, then it is fine. I continue to log in.
3: Computer sits for about 10 - 30 minutes. Screen goes black, not responsive at all. I soft-reset.
4: Repeat steps.
5: Log back in. Will stay up for as long as I leave it on.
Any ideas? Far as I can tell, I have all certified drivers. Here's the system specs:
Asus Striker Extreme
4GB (2 x 2GB) Memory
2 x PNY Geforce 8800GT's in SLi configuration
Soundblaster xFi Xtreme Gamer
Vista Home Premium 64 bit
Another ting I've noticed too, is that in games where I get really high frame rates, my monitor goes beserk, and starts flickering purple/pink through the images. Going back to the destop alleviates the issue, but leaving v-sync on makes it not happen. I don't know if the two are related? The only other thing I can think of is... while the two cards are the same make and model, I see different BIOS versions on them. Would this cause an issue and if so, how would one correct it?
Sounds like one of your vid cards is having issues? Do you know how to check event logs? I'd start there to see what direction the errors point.
FaceballMcDougal on
xbl/psn/steam: jabbertrack
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DietarySupplementStill not approved by the FDADublin, OHRegistered Userregular
Can someone give me some advice? I'm the administrator account and I'm being told that I need to contact the fucking administrator to uninstall stuff including but not limited to Sim City Societies. How the hell do I make it understand that I'm the god damn boss?
Is UAC off? If so, turn it on.
It's on. If i go into the admin account I can do it but its ridiculous that I'm an admin and cannot. Also while in the admin account and trying to uninstall SimCity societies, it took, I kid you not, 30 minutes to gather information and it didn't actually finish. I just got tired of waiting and cancelled it. So I can't get rid of the thing without leaving it in admin overnight and hoping it actually progresses.
Try just one graphics card. If that fixes the issue, try just the other. If there's still no issue, then something is wrong with the SLI setup (either software or hardware).
Quick question - You know how in Vista, when you go into My Computer it shows the amount of space left on each of your drives? For some reason, it doesn't show that for me anymore - If I click on the drive, it displays in the bottom status bar, but not by default on the icon itself - Anyone know how I can turn this back on?
Can someone give me some advice? I'm the administrator account and I'm being told that I need to contact the fucking administrator to uninstall stuff including but not limited to Sim City Societies. How the hell do I make it understand that I'm the god damn boss?
Is UAC off? If so, turn it on.
It's on. If i go into the admin account I can do it but its ridiculous that I'm an admin and cannot. Also while in the admin account and trying to uninstall SimCity societies, it took, I kid you not, 30 minutes to gather information and it didn't actually finish. I just got tired of waiting and cancelled it. So I can't get rid of the thing without leaving it in admin overnight and hoping it actually progresses.
EA fails at installers.
Do you receive a UAC prompt when you try to uninstall?
jonxp on
Every time you write parallel fifths, Bach kills a kitten.
3DS Friend Code: 2707-1614-5576 PAX Prime 2014 Buttoneering!
Not on that one no. The windows installer opens, takes about a minute saying its preparing to remove and then I just get a message saying that the Administrator (I'm assume they really mean EA) has set rules to prevent this and I need to contact my administrator. Again, i am the administrator. I can go into the default admin account which lets me start to uninstall it but that in itself took 30 minutes and progressed nowhere on the uninstallation bar so I could potentially leave it for hours and get nowhere with it.
I can't for the life of me figure out how to open Fraps without an Admin prompt. I've tried setting permissions for every viable account on the PC, but it still asks for admin permission. If I can figure this one out, then I should be able to finally create a limited account.
Speaking of which, would I have to create a password for my admin account before changing to a limited one?
Also, could someone re-link how to have Vista automatically open an account upon startup?
I can't for the life of me figure out how to open Fraps without an Admin prompt. I've tried setting permissions for every viable account on the PC, but it still asks for admin permission. If I can figure this one out, then I should be able to finally create a limited account.
Speaking of which, would I have to create a password for my admin account before changing to a limited one?
Also, could someone re-link how to have Vista automatically open an account upon startup?
I may have misread what you've done but if UAC is on, you'll need to right click on the program and select "Run as Administrator". With UAC on theres no way to activate it without a prompt.
Really annoyed with Vista right now, hoping someone can help because all Google does is point me to forums with 6 month old posts.
Scenario: turning on PC for the first time of the day.
1: Computer boots.
2: At the user login screen, I see image "tearing" and black bars cut through the screen. Lasts about a second, then it is fine. I continue to log in.
3: Computer sits for about 10 - 30 minutes. Screen goes black, not responsive at all. I soft-reset.
4: Repeat steps.
5: Log back in. Will stay up for as long as I leave it on.
Any ideas? Far as I can tell, I have all certified drivers. Here's the system specs:
Asus Striker Extreme
4GB (2 x 2GB) Memory
2 x PNY Geforce 8800GT's in SLi configuration
Soundblaster xFi Xtreme Gamer
Vista Home Premium 64 bit
Another ting I've noticed too, is that in games where I get really high frame rates, my monitor goes beserk, and starts flickering purple/pink through the images. Going back to the destop alleviates the issue, but leaving v-sync on makes it not happen. I don't know if the two are related? The only other thing I can think of is... while the two cards are the same make and model, I see different BIOS versions on them. Would this cause an issue and if so, how would one correct it?
Sounds like one of your vid cards is having issues? Do you know how to check event logs? I'd start there to see what direction the errors point.
I see that tearing effect all the time when I boot into Vista, but otherwise my system runs perfectly. Should I be worried about it, though?
Issues I'm still having to deal with in Vista (Media Centre, more specifically) -
1. Movies Folder
When I browse to the movies folder, MCE seems to go through each movie file and capture an image, then it displays that image as the folder icon. This is all well and good, but the problem is that I have over 160 films in the movies folder alone, and there's a lot of hard drive access when MCE starts. Halfway down the list, there are no more pictures, just a blank looking folder. This seems to be because MCE is still sorting out the pictures, as even further down the rest of the folders are greyed out, which suggests that it won't or currently isn't looking for images from the movie files within those folders. What irritates me is that it does this every time! Why can't it store an image in each folder and simply load that up every time? Why does it have to do so much disk churning to capture images for all those folders? If I download a picture of a movie poster for any movie and save it into a movie folder, will MCE load this image instead of trying to capture one for itself?
2. Superfluous Folders
I have family members here who don't know how to use a computer, and they're not interested in learning. Therefore MCE has to be as intuitive and simple as possible. The less they see on the screen in the way of directions the better! So why does MCE insist on showing folders that I don't want to be shown? I've tried deleting them but they keep coming back, which is extremely annoying. Why won't it let me delete them permanently? It just adds it's own folders from the My Documents section of the hard drive. And why does it insist on showing all the folders I've added for each section, within every section? For example, I've got three folders added so far - Movies, TV Shows, and Photographs. I have assigned Movies and TV Shows into the "Video Library" of the "Pictures & Videos" section, while "Photographs" has been assigned to "Picture Library". Why do the Movies and TV Shows folders show up in the Picture Library, and the Photographs folder similarly shows up in the Video Library?
3. Video Playback
To further simplify things for family members, instead of using a wireless keyboard I bought the Microsoft MCE Remote. This remote, meanwhile, seems filled with useless buttons, and the playback buttons are situated awkwardly at the very top in odd positions! There is no subtitles button, and nothing that I can find that lets me change aspect ratios. In fact, I can't find any such function in MCE itself... this is annoying as several tv shows that I have recorded were recorded a good while back when we still had a 4:3 pan and scan television. Our LG 32" tv is obviously a 16:9 widescreen tv and playing videos that cannot be stretched from 4:3 makes them look awful. If simple, less bloated media players such as MPC and VideoLAN have these options, why can't Media Player and Media Centre?
Rohan on
...and I thought of how all those people died, and what a good death that is. That nobody can blame you for it, because everyone else died along with you, and it is the fault of none, save those who did the killing.
Really annoyed with Vista right now, hoping someone can help because all Google does is point me to forums with 6 month old posts.
Scenario: turning on PC for the first time of the day.
1: Computer boots.
2: At the user login screen, I see image "tearing" and black bars cut through the screen. Lasts about a second, then it is fine. I continue to log in.
3: Computer sits for about 10 - 30 minutes. Screen goes black, not responsive at all. I soft-reset.
4: Repeat steps.
5: Log back in. Will stay up for as long as I leave it on.
Any ideas? Far as I can tell, I have all certified drivers. Here's the system specs:
Asus Striker Extreme
4GB (2 x 2GB) Memory
2 x PNY Geforce 8800GT's in SLi configuration
Soundblaster xFi Xtreme Gamer
Vista Home Premium 64 bit
Another ting I've noticed too, is that in games where I get really high frame rates, my monitor goes beserk, and starts flickering purple/pink through the images. Going back to the destop alleviates the issue, but leaving v-sync on makes it not happen. I don't know if the two are related? The only other thing I can think of is... while the two cards are the same make and model, I see different BIOS versions on them. Would this cause an issue and if so, how would one correct it?
Sounds like one of your vid cards is having issues? Do you know how to check event logs? I'd start there to see what direction the errors point.
I see that tearing effect all the time when I boot into Vista, but otherwise my system runs perfectly. Should I be worried about it, though?
What're your specs? I've been trying to work out what's been causing that for ages. At the login screen and when using the Basic theme I get the tearing thing, but when Aero's running all is well.
So, I've downloaded poster .jpg's for each film and, on the advice of another forum, put them into each film's folder. However, while each image is showing up, MCE is not showing the full image, with only a cropped piece from the top of each poster. Does this have to do with the theme I am using for MCE or is there a plug-in I can download? This picture below shows what I mean.
As for the unwanted folders showing up no matter how many times I delete them, here are two photographs to demonstrate. In each library section, all of the folders I have added show up. For example, the Photos folder shows up in the Video Library sub-section, and the Movies and TV Shows folders show up in the Picture Library sub-section. All I did was add the folders into the appropriate sections using MCE's add media function, but they're showing up everywhere. It's also showing stuff like Sample Pictures and Sample Videos... and it keeps showing them no matter how many times I delete them from MCE. I'll bet that if I added a folder to the Games section, it'd show up in the Video and Picture Library sub-sections.
Rohan on
...and I thought of how all those people died, and what a good death that is. That nobody can blame you for it, because everyone else died along with you, and it is the fault of none, save those who did the killing.
Well, so do I, but ideally I want it to look like the following picture (while continuing to use my current theme if possible over the standard Microsoft theme) -
Rohan on
...and I thought of how all those people died, and what a good death that is. That nobody can blame you for it, because everyone else died along with you, and it is the fault of none, save those who did the killing.
I had the same question about the extra folders. Windows Media Player has those folders added to it's library. I don't remember exactly where to look because I'm not at home... but I found the answers with a google search in about 15 seconds.
If you're not running an extender but a dedicated PC for your media center there are plugins that people download and install for stuff like that DVD library in your picture. Otherwise you're stuck with the default.
Also... Media Center should not be trying to parse your library every time for thumbnails... dunno what's going on there it doesn't do that for me.
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Such detail!
I'm not familiar with anything that will offer more detail, unless the MS website has a description of that error.
If you don't find anything useful then you'll have to try to figure it out the hard way. First, run a memory test (control panel>system and maintenance>administrative tools>memory diagnostics tool). If it finds a problem then it's probably your RAM causing the problem, it either needs to be reseated in its slot, or replaced entirely. If no error is found, start looking at your drivers. Have you updated any of them recently? If so, that's probably what's causing the error and you should roll the driver back to its previous version. If not, update all of them. If that still doesn't fix your problem then you either have misbehaving software or hardware, and the only way to determine the precise cause is to start removing hardware and software, one by one, until the error stops occurring. Start with the things that were added most recently.
Okay, I just ran the diagnostics tool, and it confirmed that hardware problems were detected, and that my computer had a memory problem.
So most likely it's the RAM causing this, then? I was fairly certain that it was inserted correctly, so I guess my only option is to open up the tower and try re-inserting it again, making sure it's secured correctly. And if that fails, buy new RAM I suppose.
RAM is easy to replace though, so as long as you're certain it isn't anything more costly (motherboard, etc), then this should be an easy fix (hopefully).
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Hm, thanks for the insight. Last night I uninstalled all my codecs and it's still crashing. Is there any way I can debug it and fix it? Or is it a "re-install" problem?
Unfortunately all I can tell you is try to remember when it started, and what you may have installed then. :-\
A system restore should be able to help. A reinstall will definitely fix it. I haven't yet had to do anything like that on my Vista install, so I can't give you any good advice. :-\
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It said no errors were detected, so I should be home free.
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so i just built a new desktop and because it is free off msdn I installed vista 64 only to find 1 big issue: wireless cards.
Am I essentially screwed? I want to get a b/g pci or usb wireless card and I am having an amazing amount of trouble doing that.
If possible dlink or linksys is preferred (store nearby carries them), but at this point I am willing to hear pretty much anything.
thanks for any suggestions
OK, aside from my usual spiel about going wired if at all possible because it is almost ALWAYS worth it (cheaper, faster, no "lost signals"), which I assume isn't possible for you since you mentioned you get Vista free and that's generally a Student thing, you're going to run into issues when looking for a PCI wireless card. To be honest, desktop wireless cards are at the bottom of the pecking order. Linksys doesn't even have a WHQL certified card out yet. x64 Vista doesn't allow you to load unsigned drivers unless you explicitly set the boot option each time you start your computer. It's a pain, but it's Microsoft's method of attempting to prevent bad drivers from giving Windows a bad name.
I would suggest looking for USB wireless, or even a cheap router that you can install OpenWRT (or dd-wrt) on to act as a wireless bridge for you (meaning it takes the wirless signal and turns it to a wired one).
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Might I also suggest powerline ethernet? Like these guys?
A little more expensive than buying a wi-fi solution, but they're great since they don't require any drivers, setup, and I've never had any connection problems with my set. Just plug one into a wall socket near your computer and one near your router and you're set.
I was basing my suggestions off of the presumption that he's a student with campus Wifi as his only means of internet access, where the powerline ethernet would be quite overkill. In any case, a far cheaper method than the powerline ethernet would be converting a cheap router into a wireless bridge, while retaining the full speed of the wireless signal, and not being subject to noise in the line if you turn on a hair dryer.
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I was able to find atheros vista x64 drivers that when I get the chance tomorrow I will install, but i have a feeling it is gonna be hella complicated as jonxp was saying.
At this point in time I cant get a wired setup, but in a few months I will be moving and able to wire it all up. Until then however my only option is wireless, and I dont really want to go buying more routers to use as a bridge (I have enough clutter as it is)
As for the powerline ethernet: it seems really rad, but the cost is prohibitive to me, but I will keep it in mind.
When I talked to the guys at memory express he didnt know, but suggested a dlink dwl g520 and that there might be alternative drivers: Just how hard is it to set up for something like that?
thanks for the help though guys, this is not a problem I would have ever envisioned
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102006
yay!
This is my 3rd vista PC, and this is the first one to experience this issue. Comptuer works fine on initial bootup. If the device enters an S3 sleep state, once I resume, after a random period of time (typically no greater then 2 minutes), I get a bluescreen crash, citing the ndis.sys. All windows updates are installed, and I am not using any of the Media Center Functionality. Anyone have any ideas?
Ended up being corruption of NIC drivers and some kind of Intel Chipset on the MoBo. Issue resolved, huzizzle.
Is UAC off? If so, turn it on.
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Scenario: turning on PC for the first time of the day.
1: Computer boots.
2: At the user login screen, I see image "tearing" and black bars cut through the screen. Lasts about a second, then it is fine. I continue to log in.
3: Computer sits for about 10 - 30 minutes. Screen goes black, not responsive at all. I soft-reset.
4: Repeat steps.
5: Log back in. Will stay up for as long as I leave it on.
Any ideas? Far as I can tell, I have all certified drivers. Here's the system specs:
Asus Striker Extreme
4GB (2 x 2GB) Memory
2 x PNY Geforce 8800GT's in SLi configuration
Soundblaster xFi Xtreme Gamer
Vista Home Premium 64 bit
Another ting I've noticed too, is that in games where I get really high frame rates, my monitor goes beserk, and starts flickering purple/pink through the images. Going back to the destop alleviates the issue, but leaving v-sync on makes it not happen. I don't know if the two are related? The only other thing I can think of is... while the two cards are the same make and model, I see different BIOS versions on them. Would this cause an issue and if so, how would one correct it?
That's the real bitch of it: there aren't any errors in my event logs.
It's on. If i go into the admin account I can do it but its ridiculous that I'm an admin and cannot. Also while in the admin account and trying to uninstall SimCity societies, it took, I kid you not, 30 minutes to gather information and it didn't actually finish. I just got tired of waiting and cancelled it. So I can't get rid of the thing without leaving it in admin overnight and hoping it actually progresses.
I'd think one of the vid cards has issues, or the SLI interface has issues if the OS isn't getting any errors reported
EA fails at installers.
Do you receive a UAC prompt when you try to uninstall?
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Speaking of which, would I have to create a password for my admin account before changing to a limited one?
Also, could someone re-link how to have Vista automatically open an account upon startup?
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I may have misread what you've done but if UAC is on, you'll need to right click on the program and select "Run as Administrator". With UAC on theres no way to activate it without a prompt.
I see that tearing effect all the time when I boot into Vista, but otherwise my system runs perfectly. Should I be worried about it, though?
1. Movies Folder
When I browse to the movies folder, MCE seems to go through each movie file and capture an image, then it displays that image as the folder icon. This is all well and good, but the problem is that I have over 160 films in the movies folder alone, and there's a lot of hard drive access when MCE starts. Halfway down the list, there are no more pictures, just a blank looking folder. This seems to be because MCE is still sorting out the pictures, as even further down the rest of the folders are greyed out, which suggests that it won't or currently isn't looking for images from the movie files within those folders. What irritates me is that it does this every time! Why can't it store an image in each folder and simply load that up every time? Why does it have to do so much disk churning to capture images for all those folders? If I download a picture of a movie poster for any movie and save it into a movie folder, will MCE load this image instead of trying to capture one for itself?
2. Superfluous Folders
I have family members here who don't know how to use a computer, and they're not interested in learning. Therefore MCE has to be as intuitive and simple as possible. The less they see on the screen in the way of directions the better! So why does MCE insist on showing folders that I don't want to be shown? I've tried deleting them but they keep coming back, which is extremely annoying. Why won't it let me delete them permanently? It just adds it's own folders from the My Documents section of the hard drive. And why does it insist on showing all the folders I've added for each section, within every section? For example, I've got three folders added so far - Movies, TV Shows, and Photographs. I have assigned Movies and TV Shows into the "Video Library" of the "Pictures & Videos" section, while "Photographs" has been assigned to "Picture Library". Why do the Movies and TV Shows folders show up in the Picture Library, and the Photographs folder similarly shows up in the Video Library?
3. Video Playback
To further simplify things for family members, instead of using a wireless keyboard I bought the Microsoft MCE Remote. This remote, meanwhile, seems filled with useless buttons, and the playback buttons are situated awkwardly at the very top in odd positions! There is no subtitles button, and nothing that I can find that lets me change aspect ratios. In fact, I can't find any such function in MCE itself... this is annoying as several tv shows that I have recorded were recorded a good while back when we still had a 4:3 pan and scan television. Our LG 32" tv is obviously a 16:9 widescreen tv and playing videos that cannot be stretched from 4:3 makes them look awful. If simple, less bloated media players such as MPC and VideoLAN have these options, why can't Media Player and Media Centre?
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
What're your specs? I've been trying to work out what's been causing that for ages. At the login screen and when using the Basic theme I get the tearing thing, but when Aero's running all is well.
As for the unwanted folders showing up no matter how many times I delete them, here are two photographs to demonstrate. In each library section, all of the folders I have added show up. For example, the Photos folder shows up in the Video Library sub-section, and the Movies and TV Shows folders show up in the Picture Library sub-section. All I did was add the folders into the appropriate sections using MCE's add media function, but they're showing up everywhere. It's also showing stuff like Sample Pictures and Sample Videos... and it keeps showing them no matter how many times I delete them from MCE. I'll bet that if I added a folder to the Games section, it'd show up in the Video and Picture Library sub-sections.
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
If you're not running an extender but a dedicated PC for your media center there are plugins that people download and install for stuff like that DVD library in your picture. Otherwise you're stuck with the default.
Also... Media Center should not be trying to parse your library every time for thumbnails... dunno what's going on there it doesn't do that for me.