nvidia driver problem

[Mike20078800GTX]

System Details:
Windows Vista x64 Ultimate
Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz 1.42v on E-VGA 680i SLI
4GB Ram 5-5-5-15 2T 1067Mhz unlinked
2x Seagate 500 GB Hard Drives 7200.8
1x 8800GTX Video Card and 1x XFI Audio Card
Watercooled by PA 120.3/D-Tek Fuzion2/Laing DDCT-01 Petra's/Swiftech Micro-res/Enzotech SLF-1 SB Fan/Swiftech MCW-30 NB. 8800GTX is still factory cooled

Problem:
When GRID crashes I get driver has stopped responding and my screen will flash on and off from black to the desktop over and over never stopping. Nothing I do will actually fix this looping refresh unless I manually reboot the pc.

Does anyone out there know a way to make it refresh the driver once and then return the desktop to normal rather than go into a never ending loop cycle?

Come on, someone has to have figured out a way to fix this!

Side Note for other GRID and NFSC gamers:
When I set GRID to WinXP SP2 compatibility mode I can complete one race before it crashes and I have to reboot again to fix it. ARGH!

When I set GRID to WinXP SP2 compatibility mode and change XFI console to audio creation mode I can complete three to five races before it crashes and I have to reboot again to fix it so long as I enabled hardware sound inside GRID.

When I play NFSC it will crash within the first 2 minutes on default XFI.
If I change XFI to gamer mode, NFSC will run with zero problems on vista 64.

I paid $39.99 on steam for GRID, now I'd really like to be able to play it. Please tell me how to fix this nvidia driver problem where the driver will refresh and the system will be stable again. Currently when my nvidia driver stops responding it goes into a never ending loop.

If NVIDIA can't do better than this I'm seriously looking into 2x 4870x2's and an ASUS Rampage Formula.

BTW I'm using 177.79 Vista x64 and 2.04.001 XFI Vista x64

[saturnotaku]

First thing to do would be to install SP1 for Vista if you've not done so already. Next would be to reset your system back to its default clock speeds and voltages and see if you get the same errors.

[ragingWS6]

If it is an nvlddmkm.sys error, RMA your card. I had 2 8800GTXs that were causing the same problem. I had to buy two new cards as my cards were no longer under warranty, but new cards solved the issue.

If it isn't the nvlddmkm.sys, try your onboard sound card after uninstalling the X-FI using Driver Cleaner and see if that helps.

For the time being, underclock your video card a bit and see if things get better. If it gets better, you definitely need to RMA the card.

[shivac]

Hey!

I have been having these issues for months.

This is what I did.

Reformatted and reinstalled vista. Problem solved.

I did almost every trick I had up my sleeve to resolve driver issues. But it seems that vista is somehow holding stuff back even better than XP. You will have to reinstall eventually when you have reinstalled and installed new drivers too often!

[SilentMercury]

Anytime someone asks me for advice on computer problems I say REFORMAT and REINSTALL. It's a PITA, but 9 times out of 10 it solves the problem. And if that doesn't work, then you know it is most likely a hardware problem, and you can go from there.

[SLippe]

I'm using the same drivers, both Forceware and X-Fi, that you are under Vista 64 and have no problems whatsoever! I don't have Grid, but I've been playing CoD4 and Bioshock flawlessly.

Why do you set it to XP SP2 compatibility? Or were you just trying it that way?

[Mike20078800GTX]

I reset my bios completely and installed a fresh copy of windows vista

I installed a fresh copy of vista and sp1, then today I found this...

Offline installation of Windows Vista SP1, or of any of the update packages included in the service pack, is not supported. Offline installation will cause the Windows image to be corrupted.


See, rather than leaving my pc open to attacks I installed sp1 using offline wave0.exe backed up to a dvd-r. I did not know that microsoft has done this corruption problem
until I read about it today.

BTW: The error I always get is some nvnamefile.dll or drv or exe
I never really paid any attention to the name of the file as the looping of the driver constantly refreshing my screen was enough to force me to hit the reset button.

One thing I did notice though is the error only seems to start happening anytime I change any setting in the nvcontrol panel. Now, even resetting the nvcontrol panel to defaults does not fix it once it starts happening.

A fresh OS install
-All I did was open nv control panel and change the digital vibrance to 50%
-Next i downloaded amazon unbox and my six "DRIVE" episodes.
-Finally I went into the control panel and set it to multiple displays *Monitor to S-Video out to Big Screen TV.

-Everything was going fine until about episode four when the screen went into its constant looping again and the error returned with only windows vista 64 ultimate + sp1 wave0.exe + 15.17 international + offline installer + 177.79 + 2.04.001 + comodo + nod32 + amazon unbox and six downloaded episodes.

The system was clean, very clean!

The install order was exactly like this:
-Window Vista Ultimate
-Windows SP1 Wave0 SP1 (5 Languages *not online install)
-nforce 15.17
-forceware 177.79 x64
-samsung 226 bw driver x64
-spyder 3 specialized icc profiles for samsung 226bw c-panels
http://arsicles.com/2007/05/26/review-samsung-226bw-lcd-c-panel
-xfi 2.04.001 x64
-nod32
-comodo 3
-amazon unbox
-adobe flash player
-windows updates to finish it off

By installing SP1 directly after vista I thought I was getting a clean SP1 install, then later today I read this...

Offline installation of Windows Vista SP1, or of any of the update packages included in the service pack, is not supported. Offline installation will cause the Windows image to be corrupted.


:( :thumbdwn: :banghead: