Problems with Vista

[QueBert]

I basically posted about my Vista problems in Computer Help, but thought maybe some people who read this one might not check that one. Here's my delima, sorry if this is long but I want to go over what I've tried and the problems I'm having.

new system built in September, running XP, having next to no problems. Decided to install an OEM Vista Ultimate 64 I bought off Newegg. Straight out the box was getting a ton of BSOD's, for whatever reason I think it was a bad partition, I copied the data off, recreated the partition, reinstalled Vista and it seemed to work. I was able to duplicate crashes in exact spots prior to the partition recreation - after none.

I was trying to download Firefox, hadn't really downloaded anything. when the file was finished and I clicked to open it. In the lower right corner I got a popup bubble saying the file was corrupt and to run chkdsk. I reboot and it runs the 5 level chkdsk, it finds orphan files, it deletes a bunch of files, finds bad file index's, it takes A LONG time, the partition Vista is on is 300 gigs. Finally I get back to my Vista desktop, what do you know? same pop up, saying partition is corrupt and to run chkdsk. I reboot, it runs, same chkdsk problems as before. At the end it comes up saying something about MFT or MBR bitmap something error, and fixed it. Sorry I don't remember the exact message. I get this every time I'm at my desktop, typically within a few minutes, usually faster. I can reboot and every time chkdsk takes like 10 minutes, but I can endup back at my Vista desktop 🙁

I've tried another IDE cable and another HD, clean Vista installs on both, same problems still. So now I know it's not the HD or the cable. I've tried about 6 installs total, with/without any extra drivers. I get the same issues regardless. XP is on the same box & same HD with no issues.

Have ran prime95 (in XP) 8 hours no problems, memtest86+ no problems overnight, HD tested fine with the long test from the Segate Diag software.


rig
---
6550 on MSI p35 Neo - latest bios, no overclocking, tried memory @ 1.8 and 2.2 (rated for 2.2)
Nvidia 8600 with latest drivers
Audigy 2 with latest drivers
2 gigs Crucial Newegg branded memory (Ballistix?)

running the HD off the single IDE port, don't have any SATA drives. So I'm thinking maybe IDE port but I don't want to RMA this board unless I'm sure what's causing it. ANY ideas at all from anyone? I would appreciate it, I don't even think I want to run Vista at this point I'm just so fed up. But I hate not being able to have something new work. I want to at least figure out the source of my problems.

thanks

 

[NoelS]

QueBert,

Hate to say it, but with that much trouble, I'd go back to XP... I'm using Vista Home premium on a new laptop, so it came pre-installed and so far no problems, but I'm still an XP fan. If this version starts giving me problems, I'm back to XP pronto.

If you don't want to do it, re-install your Vista and give it another clean try...

You know you could wipe it all, re-install XP, then install Vista, which would give you dual boot to both programs. Then figure out your problems with Vista while being able to fall back on XP...

Noel

 

[QuixoticOne]

Install Vista SP1 (if you wait for it to be released in a few weeks), or install SP1 RC REFRESH 2 which has essentially the same fixes as the final SP1 will have (though ultimately you may want/need to install the final version just to be sure), and which you can do immediately via Windows Update as follows.

Also update all the chipset, SATA, RAID, IDE, motheboard, video drivers for your system to the latest released versions. It is sometimes not wise to trust your motherboard vendor to have all the latest 3rd party chip drivers on their website; sometimes if you go right to the chip makers' web sites like Intel, Nvidia, JMicron, Promise, whatever, you can often find newer drivers for Vista 64 or whatever you need.

Run WIndows Update and be sure you get every Critical, Important, and Recommended update dealng with drivers, fixes, patches, etc.

Here's how you can use Windows Update to get SP1 RC REFRESH 2 with a couple of hours of effort / downloading on a reasonable functional system and net connection:

http://www.ghacks.net/2008/01/...-sp1-refresh-2-is-out/

Snuffy says, January 25th, 2008

@echo off

reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\VistaSp1 /f > NUL 2>&1
reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\VistaSP1 /f > NUL 2>&1

reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\VistaSp1 /v Beta1 /t REG_SZ /d dcf99ef8-d784-414e-b411-81a910d2761d /f
IF NOT %errorlevel% == 0 ( goto ERROR)

:SUCCESS
@echo.
echo ===========================================================
echo Windows Vista SP1 registry key has been set successfully.
echo Please check for updates in Windows Update.
echo ===========================================================
@echo.
goto END

:ERROR
@echo.
echo ===========================================================
echo FAILED to set Windows Vista SP1 registry keys.
echo Please run this script by right clicking and selecting
echo ?Run as Administrator?.
echo ===========================================================
@echo.
goto END

:END
pause

saveas ?sp1_rcr2rk.cmd? = 6001.18000
instructions:
Install Windows Vista SP1 RC Refresh 2 from WU!

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 RC Refresh 2 is available to Beta testers through Windows Update. Experience the WU installation path for Windows Vista SP1 by following 4 simple steps and give us your feedback to improve our quality.

Systems running on Windows Vista RTM typically require two or three updates before SP1 can be installed. These updates are permanent on your Windows Vista systems. Windows Update will detect your system configuration and offer the prerequisite packages that are applicable to your system. Based on the state of your system, Windows Update will offer you all the applicable prerequisite packages and SP1 in a sequential order. For details, please see the instructions below.

If you already installed the Service Pack to your machine, you must uninstall the previous build before installing RC Refresh 2.

Here are 4 simple steps to get SP1 on your machine.

On Vista RTM?
1. Download the script to your machine and run it on elevated prompt after removing ?.remove? from the filename.
? To run the script on elevated prompt, after you download the script, right click on the file and select ?Run as administrator? option.
? The script sets a registry key on your system. The registry key is required for WU server to recognize your machine as a valid target for Vista SP1.
? After running the script, Windows Update automatic updates will automatically update your machine over the next several days with the appropriate prerequisites and then offer the Service Pack. If you would like to install SP1 quicker you can manually do the next few steps to speed up the process.

2. Install all pending ?Important? updates and the pre-requisite updates for SP1. You may have to repeat this several times to get fully up to date.
? Check for updates on Windows Update. Go to Control Panel ? System and Maintenance ? Windows Update and check for updates by clicking on ?Check for Updates? in the top left of the task pane.
? You will be offered all previously released Windows Vista updates that you may not have installed on your system. Install all applicable updates.
? If you have Windows Vista Ultimate, or Windows Vista Enterprise, Update for Windows (KB935509) should be in this list. If you have any other version, Update for Windows KB938371 should show up in this list. Reboot your machine when prompted. If you do not have Vista Ultimate or Enterprise, Update for Windows KB938371 should show up first and KB935509 is not required.
? If you reboot and rescan on Windows Update right away, sometimes times you may not see all updates. This may be caused by the installer service completing the install of the prior update. Please wait 5-10 minutes and scan again. (This delay should not be required for the final SP1 release.)

3. Install Update for Windows (KB937287).
? Update for Windows (KB937287) it does not require a reboot. This is the ?installer? code for the service pack.

4. Install Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (KB936330).
? Wait for 10-15 minutes prior to checking for updates again, to enable the installer to complete it?s self installation.
? Check for updates on Windows Update again. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 IKB936330) should be available.

 

[Aberforth]

On s side note...I am using Vista SP1 RTM (because RC2 is a trial version), didn't spot any problems.

 

[QueBert]

good advice QuixoticOne, but I won't be able to get SP1 on my box, as everything I download is saying it's corrupt before it even finishes the damn download. I've tried drivers from MSI and the ones directly from Intel. Unless Vista is a POS I shouldn't absoultly need the Bearlake drivers for Vista to run, I've ran XP fine without the Nforce drivers when I had no internet. My system just seemed a bit slower.

I'm done with Vista until I get my new MB+CPU, there's no logical explanation why I'm having so many issues with it right out the box on a new system.

 

[DaveBC]

Originally posted by: QueBert
I basically posted about my Vista problems in Computer Help, but thought maybe some people who read this one might not check that one. Here's my delima, sorry if this is long but I want to go over what I've tried and the problems I'm having.

new system built in September, running XP, having next to no problems. Decided to install an OEM Vista Ultimate 64 I bought off Newegg. Straight out the box was getting a ton of BSOD's, for whatever reason I think it was a bad partition, I copied the data off, recreated the partition, reinstalled Vista and it seemed to work. I was able to duplicate crashes in exact spots prior to the partition recreation - after none.

I was trying to download Firefox, hadn't really downloaded anything. when the file was finished and I clicked to open it. In the lower right corner I got a popup bubble saying the file was corrupt and to run chkdsk. I reboot and it runs the 5 level chkdsk, it finds orphan files, it deletes a bunch of files, finds bad file index's, it takes A LONG time, the partition Vista is on is 300 gigs. Finally I get back to my Vista desktop, what do you know? same pop up, saying partition is corrupt and to run chkdsk. I reboot, it runs, same chkdsk problems as before. At the end it comes up saying something about MFT or MBR bitmap something error, and fixed it. Sorry I don't remember the exact message. I get this every time I'm at my desktop, typically within a few minutes, usually faster. I can reboot and every time chkdsk takes like 10 minutes, but I can endup back at my Vista desktop 🙁

I've tried another IDE cable and another HD, clean Vista installs on both, same problems still. So now I know it's not the HD or the cable. I've tried about 6 installs total, with/without any extra drivers. I get the same issues regardless. XP is on the same box & same HD with no issues.

Have ran prime95 (in XP) 8 hours no problems, memtest86+ no problems overnight, HD tested fine with the long test from the Segate Diag software.


rig
---
6550 on MSI p35 Neo - latest bios, no overclocking, tried memory @ 1.8 and 2.2 (rated for 2.2)
Nvidia 8600 with latest drivers
Audigy 2 with latest drivers
2 gigs Crucial Newegg branded memory (Ballistix?)

running the HD off the single IDE port, don't have any SATA drives. So I'm thinking maybe IDE port but I don't want to RMA this board unless I'm sure what's causing it. ANY ideas at all from anyone? I would appreciate it, I don't even think I want to run Vista at this point I'm just so fed up. But I hate not being able to have something new work. I want to at least figure out the source of my problems.

thanks

Hi QueBert,

I was using an old IDE PATA66 drive with Vista64 and got the same stuff over and over.
Thought it was the cable. Then, I Figured out it was the drive. Replaced it with an SATAII never had another problem. That was Wifey's machine.

On this one I'm using now, I have one IDE PATA100 drive and 2 SATAII drives and all is well.

That PATA66 drive that wouldn't work in Wifey's PC, I put in son's WinXP PC and it works fine.

Do you have another drive you can try?

GL :beer:

*Edit* for spelling

 

[QuixoticOne]

Originally posted by: DaveBC

Hi QueBert,

I was using an old IDE PATA66 drive with Vista64 and got the same stuff over and over.
Thought it was the cable. Then, I Figured out it was the drive. Replaced it with an SATAII never had another problem. That was Wifey's machine.

On this one I'm using now, I have one IDE PATA100 drive and 2 SATAII drives and all is well.

That PATA66 drive that wouldn't work in Wifey's PC, I put in son's WinXP PC and it works fine.

Do you have another drive you can try?

GL :beer:

*Edit* for spelling

I've noticed that sometimes bad cabling (including good cables with kinks or routed in ways that cause more crosstalk) can cause drive data errors.

Also many system BIOSes / system hard drive controller drivers & chipsets / hard drives don't work well together in the faster Ultra DMA modes. Usually I've been able to update BIOS or the device driver / OS to solve the problems, but one can certainly get a lot of corruption until one finds the solution.

As a work-around you can set the drive to PIO-4 mode with all the ultra-DMA modes disabled and see if that works any better; if it does then it's a pretty good indication of a Ultra DMA related problem that'll need some change to BIOS/cables/driver/disk firmware to fix. It's also possible / sometimes necessary to disable the Ultra DMA / IDE-DMA settings in WIndows driver/drive control panel settings too.

Of course sometimes the driver software is just broken, nVidias LAN and IDE DMA drivers for XP anyway have long been notoriously bad at causing people problems. Usually using the "Microsoft" drivers and not Nvidia's has helped.

 

[QuixoticOne]

I can't argue with that. Although I've gotten Vista 64 to work "relatively tolerably", I can't say that it's as well debugged as XP SP2 is at this point.

I've certainly had a couple of occasions where on the same system I've installed XP, had zero problems, and then had to *fight* for hours just to *install* Vista with zero hardware changes between the incidents. It is much more "picky" about the system configuration in order to get it installed and working than XP IMHO.

Unless you need VIsta 64 for > 4GB of memory or are doing development / testing work specifically for Vista, I'd have little reason to suggest anyone upgrade to Vista as opposed to sticking with XP.

With SP1 it's probably possible to get Vista to work tolerably well for many uses, but honestly it's probably often easier to do the same thing with XP.

Originally posted by: QueBert
good advice QuixoticOne, but I won't be able to get SP1 on my box, as everything I download is saying it's corrupt before it even finishes the damn download. I've tried drivers from MSI and the ones directly from Intel. Unless Vista is a POS I shouldn't absoultly need the Bearlake drivers for Vista to run, I've ran XP fine without the Nforce drivers when I had no internet. My system just seemed a bit slower.

I'm done with Vista until I get my new MB+CPU, there's no logical explanation why I'm having so many issues with it right out the box on a new system.

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: DaveBC

Originally posted by: QueBert
I basically posted about my Vista problems in Computer Help, but thought maybe some people who read this one might not check that one. Here's my delima, sorry if this is long but I want to go over what I've tried and the problems I'm having.

new system built in September, running XP, having next to no problems. Decided to install an OEM Vista Ultimate 64 I bought off Newegg. Straight out the box was getting a ton of BSOD's, for whatever reason I think it was a bad partition, I copied the data off, recreated the partition, reinstalled Vista and it seemed to work. I was able to duplicate crashes in exact spots prior to the partition recreation - after none.

I was trying to download Firefox, hadn't really downloaded anything. when the file was finished and I clicked to open it. In the lower right corner I got a popup bubble saying the file was corrupt and to run chkdsk. I reboot and it runs the 5 level chkdsk, it finds orphan files, it deletes a bunch of files, finds bad file index's, it takes A LONG time, the partition Vista is on is 300 gigs. Finally I get back to my Vista desktop, what do you know? same pop up, saying partition is corrupt and to run chkdsk. I reboot, it runs, same chkdsk problems as before. At the end it comes up saying something about MFT or MBR bitmap something error, and fixed it. Sorry I don't remember the exact message. I get this every time I'm at my desktop, typically within a few minutes, usually faster. I can reboot and every time chkdsk takes like 10 minutes, but I can endup back at my Vista desktop 🙁

I've tried another IDE cable and another HD, clean Vista installs on both, same problems still. So now I know it's not the HD or the cable. I've tried about 6 installs total, with/without any extra drivers. I get the same issues regardless. XP is on the same box & same HD with no issues.

Have ran prime95 (in XP) 8 hours no problems, memtest86+ no problems overnight, HD tested fine with the long test from the Segate Diag software.


rig
---
6550 on MSI p35 Neo - latest bios, no overclocking, tried memory @ 1.8 and 2.2 (rated for 2.2)
Nvidia 8600 with latest drivers
Audigy 2 with latest drivers
2 gigs Crucial Newegg branded memory (Ballistix?)

running the HD off the single IDE port, don't have any SATA drives. So I'm thinking maybe IDE port but I don't want to RMA this board unless I'm sure what's causing it. ANY ideas at all from anyone? I would appreciate it, I don't even think I want to run Vista at this point I'm just so fed up. But I hate not being able to have something new work. I want to at least figure out the source of my problems.

thanks

Hi QueBert,

I was using an old IDE PATA66 drive with Vista64 and got the same stuff over and over.
Thought it was the cable. Then, I Figured out it was the drive. Replaced it with an SATAII never had another problem. That was Wifey's machine.

On this one I'm using now, I have one IDE PATA100 drive and 2 SATAII drives and all is well.

That PATA66 drive that wouldn't work in Wifey's PC, I put in son's WinXP PC and it works fine.

Do you have another drive you can try?

GL :beer:

*Edit* for spelling

I've tried 2 HD's both 500 gig so they were plenty new. I haven't tried SATA yet, I suppose I could buy an IDE -> SATA converter but I'd like to know why if that's the case the IDE doesn't work with Vista. updated BIOS to latest and tried with IDE busmastering on & off. Since it's a P35 board I don't actually have any options for the drive, like setting it to LBA or auto, I can't even see the IDE stuff in my BIOS outside of the busmastering issue.

I tried 2 cables too, no dice 🙁

the MB is Intel, tried the Intel drivers from MSI's web site and the ones directly from Intel. Oh well XP still is good enough for me.

thanks for the suggestions guys.