Spec:
Windows Vista Home Premium
Abit IP35 Pro
150gb WD Raptor
EVGA 8800GTX
Intel Q6600
4gb RAM
SATA CD ROM
OCZ GameXtreme 700W

Ok so I have had my computer for a about a year, and I thought it would be good to reformat it to get some more performance and space. I thought it would be easy because all i do is game and did not need to back up really anything. So i reformat my drive and reinstall vista home premium 64bit. Install goes fine and I get to my desktop. I put in my motherboard driver cd, and then my graphics card drivers cd. I know they are old, but I need them to run and get the newer drivers. Vista keeps freezing even after the drivers install. It will freeze with the HD light usually on, and for about 30 sec after that it either totally crashes or it comes back only to freeze again later. I remember something happening like this when I first installed windows, but i think it went away after the drivers were installed. I have defraged and checked my disk and I'm pretty sure there is nothing wrong with it. I want to update and see if it will run smoother, but it crashes while downloading/installing. I am really frustrated so please help

Ask me if you need any more info.

Use 1 GB RAM only if you have to, but go into BIOS and set up your RAM properly. PC6400 is 2.0-2.1v especially with 4GBs. The BIOS probably defaulted to 1.8v. which is not going to properly power 4 gigs. Set the timings to 5-5-5-15 manually and adjust from there if needed.

why would the bios change?

All I did was reformat/reinstall...

I will check anyways

I would update the system drivers from the MB product download page and especially install the latest video driver. Have you installed SP1.

Yeah, I had to get the drivers to my computer via flash drive because it kept crashing before the download finished lol

So I installed the latest video driver and chipset.

I am installing SP1 now.

Yeah, latest drivers may solve the roblem. SP1 was a year in the making, a lot of 'fixes' and enhancements to performane as well as stability.

its installed and all the others now.

Im all up to date with my updates!
I havent crashed yet or froze, but its only been 5 min

You hardware looks solid. I have VISTA installed on 4 machines now, two with 64 and two with 32 bit. Vista appears to be solid approaching two years after release. I have no stability problems at all on any of the machines. All have latest drivers throughout the system.

Ugh I froze

Programs start to become unresponsive 1 by 1 and then windows explorer does too and then bam im just stuck there.

UPDATE

Uhh so I took out 2gb of my 4gb, that leaves me with 2 RAM sticks in it and it seems pretty stable right now. Been on for 30min or so and even played 10min of counterstrike source. I don't know why...

It could be there is not enough voltage to power the 4 DIMMs. Bump up the voltage to the RAM. You might also increase the voltage to the Northbridge. 1.45-1.5v for NB.

run memtest on ur ram if u set it up correct in bios a stick or 2 could be defective. that would deffently explain ur probs

Well it ended up crashing a few minutes after posting that it was good lol.

I put the chips back in. I am going to go into BIOS and set voltage to to 2.1 or 2.2
You think I should change the voltage on the NB, I get kinda uneasy changing voltages =S

The NB voltage likely defaults at 1.3v or slightly higher. Try 1.4v manually. 1.45v. would work also.