Yep, everything is set to "Use Application Settings" It does work in software mode, but it's slower =\ was hoping to avoid that. I'm also getting the "SC4 + vista = random crash" wonderfullness no matter what I do. (not trying to hijack =P )
I am having the exact same problem, but I'm on a desktop. I'm running: Vista Ultimate 32bit Core 2 Quad 6700 4Gb ram ATI HD3870 running the most current drivers on everything. I'm thinking it has to do with ATI cards =\ I used to run a geforce 7900 GT without this problem.