Vista woes..

**Aus_Karlos** · 12-20-2008, 08:13 AM

Ive run into a wall here. My OS expertize is limited (But my gaming knowledge is top quality

).
I have recently upgraded some Hardware, two graphics cards infact. 2x ASUS GTX280 which for now seems like a good buy.
The new cards and drivers where giving me a bit of instability but ive sorted that out.
Now the problems..

I decided after 2 months i should do a backup and i might give Vista's restore points a try to i turned them back on. It took a while to create some shadow files but that was fine. I started the Full system backup (2.2TB) and waited for 3hrs to complete.
After that i decided a little GTA IV was inorder. Loaded the game and i was smacked with an error (Out-of-Video Memory), restarted and tried again, this time the game loaded with no textures so i though sod it im re-installing. Once i had uninstalled the game i noticed that my HDD light was solid. I left it for 30min and yet the HDD light was still lit up.

I check my task manager to find that 20 svhost where using 250MB of pagefile and 50MB of RAM each. Which also put my CPU up at 100%.
And the system.exe was writing 65mb/s to C:\$LogFile.
This was on going for another 2hrs with count less restarts.
So i decide to close some of the svhost. Not a good idea, seems i corrupted half of Vista in the process.
I ran chkdsk via cmd as explorer kept crashing and flagged the HDD to be checked.
Restarted and chkdsk found no errors.. ok i though.

Now ive just booted back in to find that all my Vista themes are gone and im unable to run RockStars Social club to even play GTA IV.

So.

1) What is svhost and why is system.exe write a crap loads of data for 3hrs straight?

2) Where has my themes gone?

3) Why all of a sudden does RockStar Social Club crash with a "not responding error" after it was working a few hours ago? (When un-installing GTA IV i left this on my system still)

Thanks for reading guys...

**nickster_uk** · 12-20-2008, 09:14 AM

Quick question....

svhost.exe or svchost.exe?

**Aus_Karlos** · 12-20-2008, 09:29 AM

Yeah, svchost.exe. I forgot the "c".

**Aus_Karlos** · 12-21-2008, 07:27 AM

Well in the end i decided to Format and do a clean install. Still had the BSOD after the new install and i have been ripping my hair out for hours trying to figure out why its been so unstable since the recent hardware.
Then i noticed something in the top right corner of my motherboard. There labeled was a 4pin Aux connection called PCI-E 12v. I consulted my manual and it just so happens that my motherboard requires extra power from the 12v line when you have 2 graphics cards.
I completely missed this as it was hiding behind all my cables. :facepalms .
So now im just going to stress test my system to see if the BSOD still occurs.

12-20-2008, 08:13 AM	#1 (permalink)
Aus_Karlos Moderator, Games Team Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Western Australia Posts: 3,449 OS: Vista Ultimate x64, Windows XP 32-bit/64-bit, Ubuntu x64, Windows 7 x64 Beta My System Blog Entries: 2	Vista woes.. Ive run into a wall here. My OS expertize is limited (But my gaming knowledge is top quality ). I have recently upgraded some Hardware, two graphics cards infact. 2x ASUS GTX280 which for now seems like a good buy. The new cards and drivers where giving me a bit of instability but ive sorted that out. Now the problems.. I decided after 2 months i should do a backup and i might give Vista's restore points a try to i turned them back on. It took a while to create some shadow files but that was fine. I started the Full system backup (2.2TB) and waited for 3hrs to complete. After that i decided a little GTA IV was inorder. Loaded the game and i was smacked with an error (Out-of-Video Memory), restarted and tried again, this time the game loaded with no textures so i though sod it im re-installing. Once i had uninstalled the game i noticed that my HDD light was solid. I left it for 30min and yet the HDD light was still lit up. I check my task manager to find that 20 svhost where using 250MB of pagefile and 50MB of RAM each. Which also put my CPU up at 100%. And the system.exe was writing 65mb/s to C:\$LogFile. This was on going for another 2hrs with count less restarts. So i decide to close some of the svhost. Not a good idea, seems i corrupted half of Vista in the process. I ran chkdsk via cmd as explorer kept crashing and flagged the HDD to be checked. Restarted and chkdsk found no errors.. ok i though. Now ive just booted back in to find that all my Vista themes are gone and im unable to run RockStars Social club to even play GTA IV. So. 1) What is svhost and why is system.exe write a crap loads of data for 3hrs straight? 2) Where has my themes gone? 3) Why all of a sudden does RockStar Social Club crash with a "not responding error" after it was working a few hours ago? (When un-installing GTA IV i left this on my system still) Thanks for reading guys... __________________ MemTest86 / Nvidia Drivers / ATI Drivers / DirectX 9.0c / Sys Requirements / Everest Folding@Home

12-20-2008, 09:14 AM	#2 (permalink)
nickster_uk Moderator, Microsoft Support, Happy to support TSF! Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 7,043 OS: XP Pro SP3, Windows 7 Ultimate, Ubuntu v8.04 My System	Re: Vista woes.. Quick question.... svhost.exe or svchost.exe? __________________ My system: ASUS P5K-E WiFi \| Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz (OC 3.60GHz) \| 4GB Corsair DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 RAM (4-4-4-12) \| PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro Xtreme 512MB GDDR3 GPU \| Maxtor DiamondMax 22 500GB, Maxtor DiamondMax 23 500GB & 2xMaxtor DiamondMax 21 250GB SATA HDDs \| Thermaltake CL-P0114 Heatsink + 6 LED Case Fans \| Corsair HX620W Modular PSU \| Enermax Black Knight (CS-527) Case \| Pioneer DVR-216 SATA 20x20 DVD±RW In a world without walls or fences - who needs Windows and Gates?

12-20-2008, 09:29 AM	#3 (permalink)
Aus_Karlos Moderator, Games Team Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Western Australia Posts: 3,449 OS: Vista Ultimate x64, Windows XP 32-bit/64-bit, Ubuntu x64, Windows 7 x64 Beta My System Blog Entries: 2	Re: Vista woes.. Yeah, svchost.exe. I forgot the "c". __________________ MemTest86 / Nvidia Drivers / ATI Drivers / DirectX 9.0c / Sys Requirements / Everest Folding@Home

12-21-2008, 07:27 AM	#4 (permalink)
Aus_Karlos Moderator, Games Team Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Western Australia Posts: 3,449 OS: Vista Ultimate x64, Windows XP 32-bit/64-bit, Ubuntu x64, Windows 7 x64 Beta My System Blog Entries: 2	Re: Vista woes.. Well in the end i decided to Format and do a clean install. Still had the BSOD after the new install and i have been ripping my hair out for hours trying to figure out why its been so unstable since the recent hardware. Then i noticed something in the top right corner of my motherboard. There labeled was a 4pin Aux connection called PCI-E 12v. I consulted my manual and it just so happens that my motherboard requires extra power from the 12v line when you have 2 graphics cards. I completely missed this as it was hiding behind all my cables. :facepalms . So now im just going to stress test my system to see if the BSOD still occurs. __________________ MemTest86 / Nvidia Drivers / ATI Drivers / DirectX 9.0c / Sys Requirements / Everest Folding@Home