[R] problem with plot() and R 2.1.0

[Errol Wayne Robinson]

The following line when pasted into an R Console window causes Windows XP to flash a blue screen 
and then restart.

R version 2.1.0
>plot(x=c(1:100000),y=sin(c(1:100000)), type="l")

Windows XP SP2
I installed the precompiled version of R 2.1.0

This isn't the data I was originally trying to graph, but a way to reproduce the error I observed. 
  Plotting without the sin() did not reproduce the error.

I realize this might be unique to my system, but I thought I would report the problem and see if 
anyone else had encountered this difficulty.  I have also tried a variety of other plots and those 
results are summarized below.

Other plot() attempts:

R version 2.0.0
> plot(x=c(1:100),y=c(1:100), type="l")
> plot(x=c(1:100),y=sin(c(1:100)), type="l")
> plot(x=c(1:1000),y=sin(c(1:1000)), type="l")
> plot(x=c(1:10000),y=sin(c(1:10000)), type="l")
> plot(x=c(1:100000),y=sin(c(1:100000)), type="l")
> plot(x=c(1:1000000),y=sin(c(1:1000000)), type="l")
> plot(x=c(1:10000000),y=sin(c(1:10000000)), type="l")
all plotted without problem (if you try the last one it might require some patience to plot)

R version 2.0.1

> plot(x=c(1:100),y=c(1:100), type="l")
> plot(x=c(1:100),y=sin(c(1:100)), type="l")
> plot(x=c(1:1000),y=sin(c(1:1000)), type="l")
> plot(x=c(1:10000),y=sin(c(1:10000)), type="l")
> plot(x=c(1:100000),y=sin(c(1:100000)), type="l")
> plot(x=c(1:1000000),y=sin(c(1:1000000)), type="l")
> plot(x=c(1:10000000),y=sin(c(1:10000000)), type="l")
> 
also all plotted without problem

R version 2.1.0 (further tests)

> plot(x=c(1:100000),y=sin(c(1:100000)), type="p")
works
> plot(x=c(1:1000000),y=sin(c(1:1000000)), type="p")
works
> plot(x=c(1:1000000),y=sin(c(1:1000000)), type="b")
works
> plot(x=c(1:1000000),y=sin(c(1:1000000)), type="o")
works
> plot(x=c(1:1000000),y=sin(c(1:1000000)), type="n")
> lines(x=c(1:1000000),y=sin(c(1:1000000)), type="l")
no plotting
> plot(x=c(1,1000000), y=c(1,-1), type="p")
> lines(x=c(1:1000000),y=sin(c(1:1000000)), type="l")
crashes the computer

> plot(x=c(1:10000),y=sin(c(1:10000)), type="l")
> plot(x=c(1:15000),y=sin(c(1:15000)), type="l")
>works
> plot(x=c(1:20000),y=sin(c(1:20000)), type="l")
The screen resolution is set to a very low level.
The color depth has been set to a very low level.
windows displays an error which reads:
"The ati2dvag display driver has stopped working normally.  Save your work and reboot the system 
to restore full display functionality.  The next time you reboot the machine a dialog will be 
displayed giving you a chance to upload data about this failure to Microsoft"

I was convinced that I had a hardware /driver issue until I saw the plots work in older versions 
of R.  Now I don't know what to think.  So I'm sending out this email to see if anyone else has 
similar problems or can suggest a solution.

Errol Robinson
ewr at berkeley.edu