I upgraded my computer almost a month ago, and after 5 or so format/reinstalls of Win7 64-bit, I finally have an install where it’s not buggy as heck. However, there is at least ONE issue I have yet to correct as of yet. Every game (I think, if not every, then most) I play, I get dumped to desktop. The game is still running, but Windows wants me to answer this question:
“Do you want to change the color scheme to improve performance”
Selecting the “Do not ask this again” option did not have the desired effect. I did not have this issue with my old install, which was a different motherboard/CPU/RAM, but also Win7 64-bit. I’ve played around with some of the games and disabled Aero in some of the games by right-clicking on the game.exe and selecting Properties.
**I guess I could do this with all my games, but I didn’t have to do this with ANY of my games in my previous install. I’d really like to solve this system-wide, rather than on an .exe by .exe basis. What do you suppose is different that this is happening now, and did not in my previous Win7 install? **
Possibly relevant to this is an issue I’m having with my secondary monitor. I’ve got a decent Asus 1920 x 1080 LCD monitor for my main screen, but I also have a 19" CRT I use as a secondary monitor for more desktop space, watching TeamSpeak while I’m gaming, etc. It goes black when I run a lot of games, so that I can only see the game. This, too, did not happen with my old install. This also seems to be fixed when I disable Aero in the game.exe properties.
In my experience, this usually happens when you’re using almost all of your memory. Windows Aero takes up more memory than the basic color scheme, so when your memory is almost all being used, Vista or 7 will ask you if you want to drop down to the basic color scheme to free up memory.
I’d suggest you take a look at how much RAM you’re using when it asks you this, and if need be, put more memory in there.
Interesting. In my last build, I had 6 gigs of unknown spec RAM, and I dumped it for 4 gigs of new, known, more compatible RAM. I figured that would be enough for now, and I’d get some more later. Maybe later is sooner than I thought.
Playing one of the games, my RAM usage is up over 3 gigs. You might be onto something. Think a total of 8 gigs should hold me for a few years? Another 2 2-gig sticks will fill all my RAM slots. I do some Photoshopping, but gaming is probably my most stressful app.
This strikes me as pretty odd. I am guessing you have some kind of bad device driver or bad ram chip in there somewhere. I do not think Win 7 should be that buggy.
Obviously anecdotal and not authoritative, but I don’t think I have ever had Windows 7 crash on me or encountered any major bugs.
I have to agree with this. I’ve done a *lot *of Win7 installs, mainly 64-bit Professional version like yours and I’ve only had one go awry. In that case, it was due to a bad motherboard.
I would suggest that you troubleshoot your hardware and try to find out what’s going on there before spending much time on the software settings. Whatever the problem is that caused you to have to install 5 times is likely still in existence and I bet it will rear it’s ugly head again in the future. Of course, it may be a while, but you know it’s bound to cause a total failure right after you finish an important document or finally succeed in finishing a tough game level. . .
You should still be in the warranty period for your new upgrade hardware, so you might be in luck. I’ve often used the Ultimate Boot CD as a diagnostic aid. Basically, you burn this CD which you can boot from and run a variety of tests to help determine what the problems are.
Before you worry about a minor video game-related quirk, why not find out what piece of defective hardware is causing Windows 7 to be “buggy as heck” and removing it from your system?
Windows 7 isn’t “buggy as heck”, some piece of hardware in your computer is. That’s the real problem. Fix it first, then worry about your games. (Or, more likely, you won’t have to worry about your games because it’ll be fixed.)
another vote for “fix your broken hardware.” nvidia’s WDDM drivers have never been very good; RAM is also frequently a culprit with instability; and in my experience Gigabyte motherboards are hit-and-miss in quality.
I have (in theory) three Windows install disks. The one I used for my previous build is lost. Pity, as it was a rock-solid install. I used another one for four previous installs on this build, and experienced some issues that I don’t really remember right now(some of which may have been user error). I found my third disk and this install seems pretty solid, except for a few issues which might not be a big deal.
A buzzing sound in my microphone that occurs only when I game (any game) A buzzing problem with my microphone - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board
This spontaneously stopped a few days ago. I already had an Antec 650 PS ordered on the assumption that my Kingwin 450 was getting old and might be the cause (the buzz only happened when gaming, so maybe the draw under load was too much for it) but the problem disappeared before I replaced it, and hasn’t returned since I did.
The issue with “Do you want to change the color scheme to improve performance” issue that I started this thread about.
A tricky ‘sound ducking’ issue that turned out to be a setting in Teamspeak that I couldn’t find. Problem solved.
I’m stuck with this video card for now, and the latest drivers seem to work OK. I hope to be replacing this with a Radeon in the near future.
All-in-all, this install seems good, and I’m just trying to straighten out a few things, the last of which (barring a return of the mic buzzing issue) is the problem I opened this thread about.
I’ll give the ultimate boot disk a look-see, and if it’s idiot-proof, I’ll run some of the diagnostics on it. I haven’t had a good track-record with boot-disks since WinXP. If I have to slip-stream stuff, my head may explode.
eh, don’t bother with that. what I would try, in this order:
get Memtest86+, boot from it and run it overnight. Any errors indicates a problem with the memory system. If the errors are always at the same addresses, it could indicate one or more bad DIMMs.
run the Prime95 stress test, overnight.
run Furmark for a while to kick the graphics card’s ass.
The reason I recommended the UBCD is that it contains multiple tools for stress-testing and a ton of other good stuff as well. Memtest86+ is one of the tools, as well as the Mersenne Prime Test. It’s about as foolproof as it can get (no slipstreaming!) so it’s no more bother than getting just Memtest 86+ and you’ll have some additional helpful tools as well. Anyone who works on computers might find it handy to have a copy the UBCD sitting around.
Microphone return, random clicking sounds from the speakers etc. can be due to a bad earth connection. I had the same problem on my computer and the culprit was that the earth pins on the power strip were kinda bent out of shape. I got a new power strip and the problem disappeared.
Did you unplug and replug the power cables? Maybe that fixed your problem.
Another chiming in that Win 7 (64 bit) has been rock solid, excellent OS. A very worthy successor to XP (note the lack of mentioning the Win V… OS)
Mismatched memory has been a historical reason for computer hickups. You may be far better off with the 3GB of name brand memory then the 10 gigs of mismatched memory or 4GB of ‘no-brand’ memory. I would start there, go to the 3 GB’s and see how it runs.
If that runs good you can try adding the no-name sticks one at a time though it may be a bit tricker then that to determine what is wrong with them.
I had forgotten about that. I gave up on the Windows version (based on BartPE) because I wasn’t able to get it to work on Intel 6-series chipsets and I didn’t have the time to try to find driver packs.
I believe there’s a good chance the problem outlined in the OP is related to RAM usage, as Captain Amazing suggested. I shall be purchasing another 4 gigs of the same RAM I have now, in the near future.
The microphone ‘buzzing’ problem recurred. Since then, I pulled my motherboard, made sure all the stand-offs were in place (one was missing), and put it back in. I vacuumed all the dust off everything (heatsinks/fans especially, but as it’s only a month since I had it all apart, there wasn’t much), removed the ‘thermal pad’ from my CPU and replaced it with proper thermal paste (it turned out the pad wasn’t covering the CPU too well anyway). I put the video card back in, and all cables plugged back in. Someone elsewhere suggested moving my hard drive to a different location. I thought that to be an unlikely source of trouble, but I did it anyway. All cables plugged back in.
24 hours later, the microphone is once again NOT buzzing. We’ll see if that lasts. If the buzz recurs (again!), I’ll replace the power strip with a new one.
Another thing I noticed when I had the buzz problem was that if I touched the front USB ports I would get a mild electrocution! When I was charging my iPod which has a metallic back, the whole damn thing would get electrified. When I fixed teh power strip both problems solved themselves.
But in your case it might not be the power strip. There can be a faulty connection anywhere from the socket in the wall, then the cabling, the UPS (if you have one) and the PSU and finally the motherboard.
