Is my PC broken or is it vista?

[Citabria]

when running AH the folowing happens...

1. click ah icon
2. about 1-2min total system lockup then ah loads first screen. all computer input has no effect and screen is frozen while it loads. then it finishes loading.
3. click online arenas
4. another 1-2 min total system lockup and screen freeze while the second AH screen loads. then it finishes loading and lists avilable arenas.
5. click on any arena and a third 1-2min loackup and screen freeze then the arena loads and the game plays normally with one exception... unable to alt tab wwithout dc and 1-2min system lockup and screen freeze/ game crash.

this happens with other programs as well on this computer and after using my old computer that has all my skinning files and windows xp etc i booted up ah on it and noticed no delay or any problems like this.

do i need to take my pc to get fixed or is vista really this awful compared to xp?

[Krusty]

Vista is proabably the worst release of Windows since Windows ME (maybe more so). That said, if you put a lot of work into it, you can get it running okay. Do a search for it and you'll find many many posts on the matter.

Here's a good starting place:
http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,200949.0.html

Overall the Vista OS is bad, but you shouldn't be getting what you see. Try trimming the fat, so to speak, and tweaking some settings, and see if that helps or not.

[Skuzzy]

Sounds to me like you have the "Superfetch" service enabled.  After boot time, with that service enabled, it can take a long time to load the game.

Disable that service and things will run much better.

[Citabria]

disabled superfetch but it didn't seem to affect things.

all in all its still about a 4-5 min load time for AH (1.5 min initial frozen pc, 1 min freeze after clicking online arenas, 1 min freeze after clicking LWarena) then game runs normally with one exception.

if i accidentally alt tab pc freeze up showing white screen then windows desktop for about 45 sec-1 min with windows desktop is usable for this 45 sec-1min. mouse moves but no functionality until the freeze ends then the desktop works ok.

but when alt tabbing back into ah its about another 45sec-1min white screen freeze with no response from pc until ah loads back.

when it finally does load back "HOST CONNECTION LOST" displays. every time.

im all for dishing out 120 bucks for windows 7 to get rid of vista if it will fix this but is there some way i could rule out a hardware malfunction?
id hate to load up windows 7 and still have this problem.

even with superfetch disabled it seems to have no effect.

[Krusty]

I'd say it's pretty slim to be a hardware issue. Rather, maybe it's a configuration or driver issue. Are you running something like zonealarm, with a firewall permissions popup? I'm wondering if that delay is waiting for you to provide input (only, you cannot see it?)...

[NormH3]

disabled superfetch but it didn't seem to affect things.

all in all its still about a 4-5 min load time for AH (1.5 min initial frozen pc, 1 min freeze after clicking online arenas, 1 min freeze after clicking LWarena) then game runs normally with one exception.

if i accidentally alt tab pc freeze up showing white screen then windows desktop for about 45 sec-1 min with windows desktop is usable for this 45 sec-1min. mouse moves but no functionality until the freeze ends then the desktop works ok.

but when alt tabbing back into ah its about another 45sec-1min white screen freeze with no response from pc until ah loads back.

when it finally does load back "HOST CONNECTION LOST" displays. every time.

im all for dishing out 120 bucks for windows 7 to get rid of vista if it will fix this but is there some way i could rule out a hardware malfunction?
id hate to load up windows 7 and still have this problem.

even with superfetch disabled it seems to have no effect.

A fresh reload of Vista with all the SP's will probably get you back to working order. You haven't mentioned the specs of your PC. Might help to do so.

[Citabria]

I have completely formatted my hard drive a month or two ago to try to fix this problem. reinstalled vista from scratch.

it has no effect.


if other vista users do not experience minute long screen freezes during each 3 phases of loading and logging into ah and do not get "HOST CONNECTION LOST" after alt tabbing and experiencing minute long freeze to alt tab and another min freeze to alt tab back...

im out of ideas. should i be suspecting a hardware failure in spite of vista sucking? or should i go for windows 7 and cross my fingers that its just vista sucking?

1 224-3365 XPS 730X, Intel Core i7-920 (2.66GHz, 8MB L3 Cache)  
1 311-9781 Aluminum with Clearcoat Chassis  
1 311-9788 6GB Multi-Channel DDR3 at 1066MHZ (3x2GB DIMM)  
1 320-7605 CrossFireX, Dual ATI Radeon HD4850 512MB  
1 341-8304 750GB - SATA-II, 3GB/S 7200RPM, 16MB Cache  
1 420-9845 Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 64-bit Home Premium (English)  
1 330-2997 Dell Resource DVD with Application Backup  
1 421-0323 Windows Live Search,Multiple User Interface  
1 420-7938 Dell Connect 2.1  
1 313-7221 16x CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability  
1 420-8668 POWER DVD 8.0  
1 313-7245 Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio  
1 311-9783 Copper base Heat Sink with aluminum fins  

[NormH3]

McAffee might be part of the problem. If you haven't already, install Vista SP2. These are just shots in the dark. Might look at the number of processes running in task manager. Unless there is a blatant hardware failure, that computer should run VISTA and AH easily. I have a 64bit version of Vista running on a Duo Core Dell laptop and have had nary a problem.

[Citabria]

after i formatted the hd i installed only vista and ah and the problem still exists.

[Krusty]

What Norm said. Apparently SP2 greatly helps Vista users with general performance. Outside of that, I defer to other more experienced tech support (i.e. Skuzzy)

[Citabria]

have sp2 its fully updated

[Skuzzy]

This is rather abhorent behavior, even for Vista.

Bad RAM?  What does DXDIAG show for the total amount of system RAM available?
How about disabling Crossfire?

[Citabria]

seems things check out (shrug)

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 2/10/2011, 15:03:28
       Machine name: SCOTT-PC
   Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.vistasp2_gdr.101014-0432)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: DELL Inc.
       System Model: XPS 730X
               BIOS: Default System BIOS
          Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU         920  @ 2.67GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.7GHz
             Memory: 6134MB RAM
          Page File: 1359MB used, 11124MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\Windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
     DxDiag Version: 7.00.6002.18107 64bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
      Display Tab 1: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 2: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 3: No problems found.
          Input Tab: No problems found.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D:    0/4 (retail)
DirectDraw:  0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)
DirectPlay:  0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow:  0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
        Card name: ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series         
     Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
        Chip type: ATI display adapter (0x9442)
         DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
       Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9442&SUBSYS_05021028&REV_00
   Display Memory: 3816 MB
 Dedicated Memory: 1005 MB
    Shared Memory: 2811 MB
     Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (60Hz)
          Monitor: SyncMaster 226BW(Digital)
      Driver Name: aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx32,aticfx32,aticfx32,atiumd64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atiumdag,atidxx32,atidxx32,atiumdva,atiumd6a.cap,atitmm64.dll
   Driver Version: 8.17.0010.1052 (English)
      DDI Version: 10.1
   BGRA Supported: Yes
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
 Driver Date/Size: 10/26/2010 21:54:22, 645120 bytes
      WHQL Logo'd: Yes

[Citabria]

disabled crossfire. no change in freezes and still "host connection lost" after alt tab and tab back after long freezes.

[Citabria]

only thing i can think of that would cause wierdness was a big gulp being spilled on the old keyboard (soaked it) and the keyboard stopped working.

I can't say for certain if the freezes started after this or happened  or have been occuring since the pc shipped but it is possible they started after.

could a fried keyboard shorting out send a spike into the tower through the usb ports and damage the pc?