That's basically where I'm at,too.   No matter what fixes I've tried, Vista still blows.   I actually started to install XP on my new computer, but it has the newer Serial ATA disk.  XP didn't play well with it & I didn't have the drivers to preload.   

Of course, I couldn't help but open up the new box & have a look around.  I noticed it had the older style ATA connector on the motherboard.  I just found out by experimenting that I can hook up my old ATA disk with XP already on it and it will boot off that disk.   I'll have to muck around with my hardware profile, but with any luck I can start using XP without a complete reinstall.  gnarly...

I used the instructions from here to remove Securom.  My computer ran okay for a while, but I'm still getting the crashes (although less frequently).  My guess is that it may be contributing to the problem but is not the direct cause of it.

I'll have to give the shaders cheat a try.

(My specs in case anyone's interested -- an HP box with NVidia 7600GS, 4G of RAM, Intel Duo chip, 250G SATA disk.  )

dano

Whoopsie, spoke too soon.    This is still happening occasionally, although with much less regularity than before.   Never mind...

dano

Thanks to Zazazu for this info.   I was really ticked off when I learned about the securom spyware crap & logged onto MATY because I knew there would be info here.

FYI, ever since I started using this fix, my graphics problems have apparently gone away.  I have a fairly recent Nvidia video card (7600GS) & ever since I installed BV I've been having crashes.  The whole screen would freeze & then get corrupted (like random pixels were shifted right or left).   My computer would either reboot by itself, or I'd have to do a hard reboot myself.  I kept updating my drivers to the most recent beta drivers from Nvidia, but it never helped.

After I did these steps, I haven't had this happen.  I even tried to cause it, by setting all my graphics options to high and going to the CAS screen.    Not sure why this fix would have that effect, but I'm glad it did.

dano

I use Suse 10.0 on my new laptop and both my home and work desktop computers.  It's definitely my favorite.  It installed with no issues on all three.


dano

No, he attacked the game because he's a grandstanding gasbag who will exploit any issue and a gullible public to keep his name in the news.   Even he gave up on attacking the Sims 2 when enough people pointed out that he was full of crap.

If you don't like it, don't use it.  Personally, I wouldn't play without it.  It's one of my favorite hacks.

dano