Windows Vista Help

**uscwest** · 01-10-2010, 03:57 PM

When I am not playing a game I have no trouble opening multiple windows in Firefox. However, when I'm playing a game (FB Mafia Wars) it locks up my system. I know VISTA uses cached memory and puts memory away that it thinks it will need. Is this why I lock up and is there anything I can do about it?

**Keith** · 01-10-2010, 04:35 PM

It's not vista and you won't hear me say that too often since vista is a truly awful operating system and everyone on it should get windows 7 asap.

It's actually some rather memory leaky coding of mafia wars using a shockwave plugin. Various browsers deal with the resources in different ways but my understanding is that google chrome and apple safari do far better than the others.

(I dont play mafia wars myself so this is somewhat third party info but there's a very detailed tech discussion of why it should be so)

**uscwest** · 01-10-2010, 04:48 PM

But it doesn't happen on Donna's Windows 7 or on my XP tower, only my laptop. Do you think adding memory would help?

**Keith** · 01-10-2010, 05:46 PM

Originally Posted by uscwest

But it doesn't happen on Donna's Windows 7 or on my XP tower, only my laptop. Do you think adding memory would help?

Yep, almost certainly a lack of memory meaning that it runs out faster on your vista machine than the others. EVENTUALLY if you leave it open on any machine/browser, the tech. discussions say it'll eventually lock them but it'll happen sooner on machines with less resources

**ieuanr** · 01-10-2010, 06:31 PM

It may not be a straight memory issue - these games are very processor intensive as well. Unless you have a dedicated graphics adaptor the Flash/Shockwave programs will use the main CPU to generate the graphics. They will not run at all on the majority of 'netbook' style mini laptops.