Windows 7: Stability Question

I've been having lots of problems with stability in Windows 7 (Ultimate and Professional). Whether it's audio drivers, memory issues, or graphics problems, Windows 7 is not very stable for me.

I know this is a Windows 7 forums so I do expect some bias, but what OS would you recommend for me that is the most stable and would be able to play new games? I was considering XP 64bit but I read the support for that is terrible. Now I'm considering a 32 bit OS if it would provide more stability but I don't want my 4gb of RAM to go to waste. What do you think?

CPU: AMD Athlon II x3 440 3.00ghz
RAM: 4gb 1333mhz DDR3
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD4850

Why do you think the OS is the cause for instability? If so, wouldn't all of us have stability issues? A more rational line of thinking would be to want to figure out what piece of hardware or installed driver is causing the issue. You can accuse me of bias if you'd like, but I'd say that about any OS.

To start, have you tested your memory and your hard drive? Do you have the proper chipset drivers installed? Are you overclocking at all? How are your system temps?

I don't understand, how would 4GB of RAM go to waste using a 32-bit OS?

I would advice using Windows 32-bit if 64-bit isn't stable on your current system specification.

Other OS's do not support a wide variety of games as Windows would.

Temps are very low (32C for the GPU and CPU) and I don't overclock. The newest chipset, graphics and other drivers are installed but they don't seem to work perfectly and that is the real issue - maybe they are not optimized for 64 bit. Maybe Windows 7 just doesn't agree with my system.

32-bit OS would only make use of 3.25gb or the RAM if am not mistaken.

By "other OS" I meant other Windows OSes. That's the reason I want to stick with Windows - everything is compatible.

I see, then I would recommend Windows XP if you're planning to switch, but give Windows 7 a chance, try 32-bit if you wish. Perhaps that may fix your problem.

There is one question that hasn't been asked. When you installed Win 7, did you do a clean install? If you did an upgrade from Vista, then that is your problem.

The first thing I would do is to check your RAM voltage and make sure it is in spec. Motherboards don't always do it right if you let them set it automatically. If you don't have it set to "Auto", and it is the right voltage for the sticks, then ignore this.

Yeah, it was a clean install because it was a new system. Even when I reinstalled, I did it clean.

Will do - I did seem to be having some RAM issues....

EDIT: the voltage was set to AUTO (which I think meant it was at the "standard" 1.50), but I have put it to 1.70 like it should have been

That's why I suggested testing the memory. If you run a long loop with Memtest, you'll know for sure if your memory is having any issues. Bad memory, or misconfigured memory will easily cause a system to be unstable, regardless of the OS installed.

The mere fact you say you are having memory issues proves it is a wild, cop-out guess to blame the OS. 99.99% of all perceived OS issues are caused by something other than the OS.

I ran a prime95 test to stress the RAM a week ago and it worked fine (i only ran it for an hour or so though, not 8). I'm going to do a full memtest for 8 hours tonight.

Could wrongly configured RAM cause issues with drivers "mismanaging PTES" or creating a "page fault in a non paged area"?

I'm not blaming the OS but perhaps its a compatibility issue. I have another indentical computer and it works 100% fine on it. As someone from the drivers subforum said "drivers are strange things, they work on one sytem but not another"