Recommendations for stable vista 64 based computer?

GN
Posted By
Gary_Noonan
Jan 12, 2009
Views
470
Replies
10
Status
Closed
I recently purchased a Gateway LX6810. During the 2 hours in which it ran it did great with photoshop cs4. Bridge happily used almost all of the 8 gigs of memory and ran fast, Photoshop ran fast. However, after that initial stable period, the computer began producing blue screens of death with the error message "DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE STOP 0X0000009F", along with a set of 4 long numbers in parenthesis.

I researched on the Internet and found other people had the same problem with many different causes cited. I turned off the sleep mode and made sure all drivers were the more current ones. No help at all. Gateway had no suggestions.

Best Buy provided a second computer which had the same error messages, except that the second one began crashing so soon that I was not able to load any software on it. Research on the Internet suggests that Vista 64 may not be very stable. A former Vista programer has told me that the Stop message means there was a software conflict. After reading on the Internet about many other people with similar problems, I don’t know what computer to buy.

Best Buy Geek Squad had made sure that the second unit had all latest drivers. But the unit had problems before I could even load programs onto it

I want vista 64 because of the extra RAM it can address and its greater speed with Photoshop.

Are people having happy experiences with stable vista 64 based computers, and is so what brand and models and what video cards?

Many thanks, Gary.
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BL
Bob Levine
Jan 12, 2009
Running it here quite nicely but I built the machine myself. Something I strongly recommend.

Bob
CF
chris_farrell
Jan 12, 2009
Vista x64 is very stable – however some poorly written drivers will cause crashes in any o/s

Have you tried this?

<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931671>

I first though was a network issue as it seems to be happening on both computers.
GN
Gary_Noonan
Jan 13, 2009
Thanks, link quoted by Chris refers to different symptoms than those my computers had. I had disabled sleep, also windows was updated and should have had the fixes mentioned in the link.

I might consider buying a computer built locally, more expensive than Best Buy units but might bemore reliable

Gary.
LH
Lawrence_Hudetz
Jan 13, 2009
CS4 runs well on the Intel x58SO board with the 17 920 processor. It’s a killer combo. 3-2G Corsair XMS ram sticks, running at 1333MHz.

With Vista 64, the installation took 5 minutes and runs with no particulat video card preoblems even versions of the nVidia 7 series. I tried 7100, 7200 and 7300 versions, all with the same driver version and all handled 3D with no complaints.

Oh, and I had the board well overclocked. I didn’t intend that, but the board had been overclocked and i didn’t reset to defaults before installing CS4.
CF
chris_farrell
Jan 13, 2009
Sorry about that …Gary
LZ
Loretta_Zupko
Jan 13, 2009
I build my own computers. I can buy my own motherboard, cpu, ram, video card, and others. This way I know that I am building a computer with more quality items. Store or mail order computers are built on the cheapest parts they can find and sell them at a rediculous price.
JJ
John Joslin
Jan 13, 2009
Store or mail order computers are built on the cheapest parts

That is not 100% true, you can get graphics workstations with matched components that have been tested together for compatibility.

And most store or mail order computers are better these days than they used to be. I look after quite a few.
CF
chris_farrell
Jan 13, 2009
The worst example is Apple. They charge 5K to upgrade to 32gb ram!!!!……If I was to buy the ram separately it would cost £800ish.

Dells – you just don’t know what motherboard/ram/hard drives you’re getting until it arrives and you open up the box. – Usually it’s OK but I’d like to know before I buy….but, at least they don’t rip you off ( too much 😀 ).

If you have the courage a self build is the way to go – I find it’s the best way too and it’s actually quite easy as long as you do your research ( usually a months worth on components ) and get the correct parts.
T
timlewis6
Jan 15, 2009
So does anyone have recommendations for specific (current) motherboard/GPU combinations that work for a Vista64 system? Lower to moderate price is preferred. I am leaning toward an ASUS P5Q board but I am very open to other ideas.

Thanks,

Tim Lewis
CF
chris_farrell
Jan 15, 2009
Tim, I have a P5Q Deluxe with an intel q9650, nVidia 8800gts 640mb and it runs vista x64 very well…but, I would have thought all motherboards and gpu’s made during the last two years ( or more ) would be capable.

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