I've had this happen to me before. I run Vista Business 32bit with 2GB of RAM. It only happened once after a couple of hours of play on a large map with tons of stuff going on. If it is happening to you consistently try increasing the single application virtual address space limit. Go to the command prompt (Start -> cmd) and type "BCDEdit /set IncreaseUserVA 3072" without the quotes. Reboot. That should help, but obviously not completely eliminate the problem since I've already had a crash even having done that.

Why not, rather, launch your rabid « class action suit » against Microsoft ?

I visit many game forums, and many Microsoft Windows Vista users are experiencing big problems running many other games than this one.

And also, Vista + nVidia drivers do not constitute, at the moment, the best synergy.

Ironclad is not responsible for the failings of Microsoft and nVidia.

Thanks Kryo, I'll watch for an update. I'm having a similar issue where I'll get a random crash from time to time, Vista Home Premium, NVidia 8800GTX, 4GB RAM.

I've played through the game without problems, but if I play for like, 6 hrs, it might crash. I had it crash 1 hr into a game once (with only one autosave at least 20 minutes earlier *pouts*).

I'm enjoying Vista so far too.

No problems here either. Vista Ultimate 64-bit, Athlon64 Dual Core 6000+, dual 8800GT SLI, 4gb ram. Everything works well at highest.

Although Vista seems to be slower than XP with just about everything I do (not entirely unexpected) it runs Sins without any problems what-so-ever. 8800GT OC. Latest NVidia drivers.

haha i feel the exact same way. Every computer i have installed vista on, about 6, has had no troubles whatsoever, yet i always hear people whining and bitchin about how bad vista is. It's really not a problem for me, they just need to learn how to use computers decently.

Read reply #12 : it produces The Absolute Answer concerning your indecent Vista problems.

USE NVIDIA DRIVER 97.46 - it is only driver working properly w/ certain machines right now. Nvidia will be releasing a Sins patch (new driver) later this month that should fix the issue (or @ least help w/ issue)
here is a link to Nvidia driver (32bit) =
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_97.46.html
and 64bit =
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x64_97.46.html

HOPE THIS HELPS

PoorMan Out!!

This was not a Vista bashing thread/etc thread.

Good question Lord Reliant, not sure what this post is about or how it was revitalized from Feb 17th. The main patch I think that Stardock Mods are talking about is something that has been around for over 15 months and has been plaguing older chipsets and GPUs that were sold with the ole "Vista-Ready" logo on it. That error is the nvlddmkm.sys, driver has stopped responding error. From what I've read, it has to do with some sort of timing / reading issue between the GPU and either memory bus or chipset. If Vista doesn't hear from the GPU in a certain time frame, it reboots the GPU to get it working again and gives you the driver error. Sometimes it recovers and the game continues, other times it'll give you BSOD. Nvidia has been patching it on the fly, having the issue first with Aero, the sidebar, dreamscene, then with newer games and now with SOASE. Seems to be central around 3D and the older GPUs, Geforce 7ks and earlier. They were "promised" to be Vista-Ready, but that obviously didn't mean Vista 3D/gaming ready, so they keep running into issues. The newer hardware seems to be doing fine, just running into isolated issues. Maybe the newer hardware is all CommanderAdam has installed Vista on and that is why Vista runs fine for him. I'm sure the updated driver will be more stable and should fix other performance issues, but I think the main patch should address the nvlddmkm driver error which has been raised as a problem in a lot of other posts for SOASE players.

This post started with maybe a different error in mind or andresi probably would have mentioned the nvlddmkm error. One thing I can see from the get-go is andresi installed 4 GB on a 32 bit machine, that's a flag right there. He should had tried 2 GB, plenty to run SOASE and seen if that helped with his freezing issue.

The Vista-Ready debacle is a problem with Vista and the hardware guys. Just check the news, Intel and Nvidia were "helped" by Microsoft to rush hardware to the market so that Vista would have an easier release. Of course, the market didn't need Vista in the first place. They rushed something that is pretty worthless. Maybe the recent news on Vista price cuts reflects that. Mac and Linux may actually be giving them a run and they have to stop their market share slide somehow... from 95% market share to 90% to maybe 85% here soon. Giants take a long time to fall...

Off course now the constructive part. After tinkering seems that at MP the game was impossible with so much crashes of the video card, which seems not to ocurr if you played it windowed. Just hide the tool bar and it is "quite" the same as a full windowed game. For me it worked to avoid lots of driver crashes

Hi, yeah, I've been having a similar problem on a Vista 32 bit system. Game plays very well for two hours or so, sometimes more/less, then 'hangs' before crashing to desktop. I've only seen the Minidump occur once during these crashes, and it has gotten so that I see a crash everytime I play. Also, it seems to happen MUCH sooner when loading saved games, which makes playing a leisurely multi-day game rather difficult.

I'm running a NVidia 8800 GTS with a .6222 version driver. Is this really an NVidia driver problem? I heard that the game was really stable in the late betas.

Also, Great Game. I can see a wonderful future with it, if only I can start saving games!