Help! Vista keeps crashing

Hi Folks.
I seem to have a problem. Vista HP 64 bit keeps freezing on me after just a few minutes, the mouse won't move and there is no keyboard response so I have to reboot. Everything is fine for a few minutes and then it happens again. I've been trying all sorts for the last two hours but have got nowhere.
Luckily I dual boot Ubuntu so I'm writing this from it. When I tried to post in Vista I never got to finish my post before it froze.
Yesterday I got a new monitor (Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP) and it set up fine. I used it for about ten hours yesterday without a problem- both gaming and general use. So I don't think it's that.
Today I installed and purchased 3Dmark06 and ran that. I also ran Ntune. Therefore I suspect these programs are the problem.
I have used System Restore. I took it back a couple of days but the problem remained even though 3Dmark06 seems to have disappeared from Programs.
I have then taken the restore point back a week but still no luck.
I tried to uninstall Ntune in Safe Mode but I can't, I get a message saying that Windows Installer must have not installed properly(?)
If I try it in Normal mode it starts to uninstall but then the freezing occurs.
I have a BFG 8800GTS 512MB GPU and have been using the latest 177.83 drivers for the last week. System Restore has rolled me back to 177.19 so I downloaded the 177.83s again but the system froze before the install is finished.

I just tried to access my Windows volumes from Ubuntu but it won't mount them.
So I'm locked out of Vista and I can't get into it for very long at all to do anything.
Hope somebody can help as I desperately need to access some files for work tomorrow.
Thanks, John

Ntune runs at startup so you need to disable. boot into safemode disable
ntune and then reboot and see if thats helps. once it's disabled the freezing
should stop and you can try uninstalling it.
mike

Thanks Scrooge, I tried that. I booted into Safe Mode and opened All Programs through the Start panel. I clicked on Ntune an unticked the box that says run on startup.
Sure enough Ntune no longer appears in the programs list , just Nvidia monitor and Nvidia drivers.
So I booted back into normal mode and tried to uninstall Ntune using Revo uninstaller. That seemed to be working, creating a restore point etc, but then froze again.
So I went back into safe mode. Ntune still not appearing in start menu-programs.
Revo won't start in safe mode so I tried to uninstall Ntune through Control Panel-Add/remove but got the message again-
"Error1719 The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed. This can occur if the Windows Installer is not correctly installed. Contact your support personnel for assistance".
So I am no further forward and still cannot get into Windows for any more than a couple of minutes if that.
This is driving me nuts, what can I do?
Thanks for your help,John

Hi John.

Did you purchase and install the RAM you were considering?
(I think that was you)








Later Ted

try booting into normal mode and then check windows task manager and see if ntune
is running . if it is click end task . what are your temps like?

Hi Barefoot. No I didn't get the RAM. Got a new monitor instead- Dell Ultrasharp2408WFP- it's fantastic but not much use to me now as I'm having serious problems with Windows.
Scrooge, I went back into Vista and looked for both 3Dmark06 and Ntune in programs.
They are both still there. In fact I have 2 Ntune folders, one is Win64.
I tried to delete 3Dmark06 but can't-need permission.
I then tried to delete the first of the Ntune folders-same result.
I tried the Win64 folder and as soon as I clicked on it Windows froze. Could this mean that this is the culprit?
By the way I meant Nvidia Control Panel above, not drivers.

I do hope someone can help, I'm going frantic here.
Thanks (from Ubuntu), John

Bare Foot Kid said:

Hi John.

Did you purchase and install the RAM you were considering?
(I think that was you)

Click to expand...

I was just wondering if you had; could that be causing the problem.




Later Ted

ok what are your temps like? also are you overclocked at all? maybe ntune changed
some of your bios settings when it was running. check your bios settings make sure
the cpu is running at the right speed.

Hi Scrooge.
I went back into Vista normal mode and opened Task Manager. Actually I have something called Process Manager installed following advice on these forums.
Anyway Process Manager shows 2 instances of nTune-nTuneService.exe and nTuneCmd.exe.
I was not allowed to "kill" either process but was able to "suspend" the nTuneCmd.exe.
The nTuneService.exe gave the message "unable to suspend. access is denied".
When I tried to "kill" them I got the same message.
I have not tried to uninstall again yet and am still in Vista so I'm making progress as there have been no freezes whilst I'm typing this.
Shall I try uninstalling again? Shall I use Revo or just Add/Remove?
Cheers, John

Yes I think it did try to tune my card but I think that failed and it reverted to what it was. I'm not ocing anything as far as I know.
Do you mean GPU temps?
I have RivaTuner and that tells me my core temps on the GPU are 58c so that's ok.
I don't know how to check any other temps. I take it you mean CPU temps.
John

try going to Control Panel\Administrative Tools .then click on services and then standard . look in the list and see if ntune is in there. i think it is . if so disable
it in there and see what happens.
mike

Just tried nVidia monitor and it stopped working right away. Rivatuner tells me that my GPU is set as follows-675 core clock-167 shader clock-972 memory clock.
This is a BFG 8800GTS OC so it was already overclocked a bit but I'm not sure what the original settings were. Riva tuner has defaults greyed out so I don't think it's ocd
Thanks very much for your support, John

Ok. I seem to have stopped it in Admin\services\standard.
I'll see if I can uninstall?

Scrooge/Mike.

Well I seem to have uninstalled nTune succesfully following your suggestions and hopefully my freezing problem has gone with it. So far so good anyway.
I also reinstalled the 177.83 drivers for my GPU so now the only nVidia item in my start menu is Nvidia PhysX properties- monitor and control panel must have gone with nTune.
Do I need them?
Was this problem something I did or is nTune a pile of xxxx?

Anyway, thanks very much for spending time to help me out. You're not Scrooge, he mean.
Thanks again, John:D

back when i had tryed ntune it didn't work right for me at all . i'd say just use the drivers and not ntune. anyway glad to see you got it..

mike

Hello again John.

Though I wasn't much help, I'm glad to see you're getting it sorted!









Later Ted

Seems to me I've read threads with people having problems with nTune in the past now I think about it.
Makes one wonder why nVidia don't do something about it. Cheers guys, John

it may just be something with ntune and vista working together.
i think it worked ok with xp .
scrooge