[hipvspec]

I was so excited when i brought GTA IV 30min ago. got home, open up the box, pop the disc in, guess what??

my computer has Vista Ultimate 32bit, Core2 Quad processor Q9550 (2.83GHz), 4GB ram, EVGA geforce 9800GT and couple hundred GB of free space in the harddrive. How can it not work? After some research, It turns out my Vista needs Service Pack 1 to install this sh!t , but have anyone installed Vista SP1? Do you guys know how to get SP1? geez why do they have to make things this complicated?

UPDATE: i found the standalone SP1 here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...DisplayLang=en

and it works. (there is other places that you can find the 65MB version of this update, but to say i can't find that one)

[chinoxs203]

SP1 has been out for awhile now. vista does suck but this has Nothing to do with windows hate to say.

why dont you use the start button > all programs and then look for windows updates? easy enough.

in sure if you dont have sp1 who dont have my other updates

~ reply from a OSX

[hipvspec]

Originally Posted by chinoxs203

SP1 has been out for awhile now. vista does suck but this has Nothing to do with windows hate to say.

why dont you use the start button > all programs and then look for windows updates? easy enough.

in sure if you dont have sp1 who dont have my other updates

~ reply from a OSX

of course i tried windows update(very easy, like you said), but since it doesn't comes up with anything, i began to google, and i soon found this: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/sec...ack_1_n_1.html

quoting from the washingtonpost link above: "Some Vista users won't receive notifications that SP1 is ready to install even if they've turned on Automatic Updates from Microsoft - and this was indeed the case with my Vista (Ultimate) PC. According to Microsoft, there may be several reasons for this. Among the most likely is that Windows Update will temporarily not offer Windows Vista SP1 to systems that have certain hardware device drivers that have shown to cause problems with SP1. Microsoft lists a bunch of these, which includes some pretty widely-deployed hardware drivers, including audio drivers Conexant HD Audio, Creative Audigy, and RealTek AC'97 (you can check for the presence of these driver files by searching for them by name, as listed in this advisory)."

...after reading that helpful washingtonpost link, i found the driver of my Audigy SE soundcard is preventing me from getting that particular update(as SP1) from Windows automatic updates. I always let Windows Updates installl new updates on my computer i just got annoyed at the fact that i need to do so much fiddling to play a video game (i am no gamer, as i admit) on a 2 months old computer, lol. i know every question or comment could be answered with "it depends..." so i guess my thread was more or less a rant and provide some slightest help for those who are in the same shoes as me

[UltimateBMW]

I think the real question here is... why would you get 32bit Vista? If you want 32bit, XP is by far the better choice. If you want to go all out, then Vista 64 is the logical conclusion. Vista 32 is probably the lowest option on the totem pole.

Regardless, since you have Vista 32 and no use continuing that discussion. SP1 has been a pretty positive update to Vista from my understanding. Lots of bug fixes, and it has been said that SP1 is what Vista what it should of been at launch. It makes it 'usable'.

So you should embrace your update. You might find your computer works a bit better after its all said and done. Plus, the SP1 compatibility issue would of hit you eventually. Most games produced now that support Vista require SP1.

[hipvspec]

Originally Posted by UltimateBMW

I think the real question here is... why would you get 32bit Vista? If you want 32bit, XP is by far the better choice. If you want to go all out, then Vista 64 is the logical conclusion. Vista 32 is probably the lowest option on the totem pole.

Regardless, since you have Vista 32 and no use continuing that discussion. SP1 has been a pretty positive update to Vista from my understanding. Lots of bug fixes, and it has been said that SP1 is what Vista what it should of been at launch. It makes it 'usable'.

So you should embrace your update. You might find your computer works a bit better after its all said and done. Plus, the SP1 compatibility issue would of hit you eventually. Most games produced now that support Vista require SP1.

thanks for the kind words man, i am fully aware of the mistake of getting 32bits vista. my original intention of getting 32bit is so i can still use my old softwares and play my old games and i like some of the vista ultimate features(i am not much of a gamer and/or a bt downloader) But even at a marginally performance oriented system like mine, SP1 made my computer start slower, shutdown slower, takes longer to start any game or any program, plus higher core temperature for the benefit(s) which i can not yet to see. since i didn't run into any of those vista bugs with this computer or my laptop(the laptop was brought nearly one year ago, and is ironically a vista ultimate 64bit with only geforce 8600m GT, the reason why i didn't put the game on the laptop) i am not saying sp1 is useless and i will never come across any vista bug, but i just didn't like the side effect of the sp1, and all that incompatibility crap with sound card drivers and stuff etc.. as it took me a long time to find out how to get sp1 working on my computer, and from what i can see, microsoft said nothing about these details on their website(i only knew about them on that Washington Post link above), the complication kinda annoyed me. oh adding some salt to the wound, it's like i paid for 100% of the performance for my computer, and then sp1 just takes 15% of it away. i am not claiming this will happen to everyone with sp1, i just feel sad for why does sp1 needs to add such a high amount of "digital" drag to my computer. ranting completed

[KonigsTiger]

Vista does suck!!!!!!!!! So much so that I even changed to Mac, something I NEVER had contemplated before. Now I am happy as ever.

[GME92]

GTA IV runs on my laptop with Vista 64 SP1

[darkphantom]

GTA IV crashes on my 64bit vista after 10minutes of play. game = fail and full of bugs. =/

[Subw00er]

gta4 runs fine on vista 32. just update I guess. the only reason I have vista is for directx10. otherwise its total crap

[hipvspec]

...and i just found this:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscente...fix_vista.html

[E90SLAM]

Originally Posted by darkphantom

GTA IV crashes on my 64bit vista after 10minutes of play. game = fail and full of bugs. =/

sometimes it does the same to Splinter Cell Double Agent (even tho the game did say XP only)....
but i managed to finish it....somehow

[manuelpolaco]

Get a mac.