Frequent freezes on fresh Vista install

I finally managed to get Vista to install on my computer (after much wailing and gnashing of teeth). Unfortunately, it's very unstable and locks up at seemingly random times. It does it almost every time I install something (which I've been doing alot of lately, as it is a fresh install), forcing me to restart the computer and try again. I can usually get it to install after three or four attempts. It also freezes sometimes when I open a folder or a program. Sometimes it even freezes if I leave it alone and don't do anything; I come back and I can't move the mouse. I've tried repairing the installation, but it said there was nothing wrong with it. I ran a memory diagnostic and it turned up clean. I ran a virus scan, but it was clean too. I was thinking it was a conflict of some kind between two programs, but it was doing it before I put anything on it. I was also thinking it might be a driver issue with the motherboard or something, but I installed and updated all of the drivers (again, with much gnashing of teeth) and it still freezes. What's going on?

 

My guess would be you don't have enough RAM in your machine. Even if you do have what Microsoft considers to be the 'recommended' amount, you may still see performance issues.

Do you have Aero enabled? Maybe your video card isn't good enough to truly handle Vista?

The rule of thumb that a bunch of friends of mine and I use is to go one or two "steps up" from whatever Microsoft recommends for video cards and memory (in 1Gig increments), especially in Vista's case.

 

I have 2GB of DDR2 ram and a 9800GT video card. I do not believe Aero is turned on. I'm planning on getting 2 more gigs, but this should at least be enough to get started, shouldn't it?

 

Sounds like you have plenty of RAM> I would start thinking about the power supply maybe not being large enough.

Also check the event logs for possible problems.

If not the psu, then look at other componets, including memory. I'd download and run micosofts mem check and let it run for at least 24 hours.

If all the above checks out ok, I'd then re-install Vista. I would also make Vista reformat my hdd, making sure you have a ghood starting place.

 

I have a 500W power supply, so I think that should be enough.

When I installed Vista, I had it format the hard drive. I would really like to not have to install it again because it took me several days of trying to get it to install the first time and I really don't want to go through that again, but I'll check the event logs and the memory and get back to you.

 

It's not even stable enough to download Memory Check; it keeps freezing before I can even navigate to the page to download it. I used the built in memory scan and it didn't find any problems. As for the event log, I don't really know what I'm looking at, but since I installed Vista yesterday, there have been 389 warnings and errors. I don't know what that means exactly, but it can't be good. What exactly should I be looking for?

 

I have a Foxconn P9657AB motherboard with a Intel Q6600 Quad Core processor, a 500GB 7200RPM Hitachi hard drive, a 44x LG DVD-RAM drive, an XFX 9800GT Graphics Card with 512MB of GDDR3 memory, and 2GB of Corsair XMS DDR2 RAM.

I recently purchased the video card, the DVD drive, and the hard drive and installed them in my machine that was running XP Pro SP3 at the time. Shortly afterward, I got a bunch of viruses due to the unwise use of a torrent, decided not to mess with trying to disinfect my computer, and formated the hard drive.

When it came time to reinstall the OS, I figured I might as well put Vista on it. It took me several days of trying to install, reformatting, and trying to install again, but I finally got Vista Ultimate installed. I don't yet have a CD key, so I have 30 days. I decided I wanted to test it out before I dropped $400 large on a copy.

 

I borrowed the disk from my cousin, who successfully installed it on his computer some time ago. If I can get it working, I'll buy my own registration code. If not, I'll put XP back on it.

I installed all of the drivers for motherboard, video card, and DVD burner. I have a USB wireless mouse (Microsoft Optical Mouse 2.0), a generic Dell PS2 keyboard, and a Dell CRT monitor, but they shouldn't need drivers, should they? I don't have any other devices hooked up at the moment, although when I get it running smoothly and reliably, I want to use my iPod.

 

Ok, I'm done with it. I've had 3 people come and look at it and none of them have a clue as to what is going on. I'm just going to put XP on it and get my computer back. Thanks for the help.