I've been reading this post with a wry smile, I know how frustrating misbehaving software can be... as in, hit the monitor frustrating!
I used to Works with an application that wasn't always so Solid. In the end we bought very expensive hardware and graphics cards and that sort of solved the problem. Other guys in my office having the same hardware and software never had as many issues as I did. We then swapped desks, and my problem was solved, but the guy I swapped with now had a problem... I reinstalled everything (including OS) on my PC and that made a massive difference. You might want to try this as a last resort.
My experience with Inventor 2010/9 has been sterling with regards to stability (and otherwise), I've had one crash and admittedly I did something stupid.
FYI -
My PC: Dell Vostro 220, 2 Gig RAM, NVIDIA Quadro FX 570, 3DConnexion SpaceNavigator.
OS version: Vista business SP2, 32-bit
Drivers: All the latest ones (I check weekly).
AutoCAD Inventor Suite 2010
I use the SpaceNavigator extensively (F4 doesn't do it for me), no problems.
Good luck, hope you can sort it out.
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Edit: And now a wry cry -- I've been having crashes about a day after this post... In my case it seems it is the SpaceNavigator's sw: unplugged it and no more crashes.
I didn't have problems previously, until I upgraded the SpcNav's software. Haven't rolled back the software to check.
Edited by: whunter on Jul 22, 2009 7:56 PM