Nvlddmkm stopped responding is getting VERY OLD...

[Isola]

eh... my problem has been fixed for almost a year now :lol:
how?

[LORD-eX-Bu]

RMA'd my card and reinstalled Vista Ultimate without even touching dreamscene.

[Isola]

what is dreamscene?

Gonna google it...

[Lashek]

This may not be a valid response to alot of people, but I had constant issues of the same caliber on using both my nVidia card and my ATI card. I searched EVERYWHERE (as many of you have) for a final result to fix the problem and found "tweaks", but nothing to completely do away with it.

I've finally solved the problem (atleast for me), but it does require more hunting. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 was released to manufacturers and has been released on TechNet for download to subscribers. This has solved MANY vista problems for me, including the annoying crashes in the graphics driver (Been gaming for 6 hours straight with no problems now... used to occur every 5-10 minutes). Too those of you (like myself) who do not wish to hunt for it or subscribe to TechNet to download the service pack, it will be made available in March to the public.

I've also installed 171.20 nVidia drivers. Hopefully, this will cure others ailments with Vista and gaming.

EDIT: Just an FYI, Vista Service Pack 1 is labelled as "KB936330", and if you're going to download it, get the RTM version. I went this route because I became desperate and hoped for a miracle to fix my gaming woes without going back to XP.

EDIT 2: My system stats: Windows Vista Ultimate, P4 3.2ghz w/HT, 2x e-VGA GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB in SLI, 3GB RAM, 1TB HD Space

Edit 3:
http://dl.free.fr/bnL33qpa3/Windows6.0-KB936330-X86.exe 434 MB (455,562,200 bytes) for 32-bit users.
http://dl.free.fr/cSDkGrt8O/Windows6.0-KB936330-X64.exe 726 MB (761,740,600 bytes) for 64-bit users.

[Isola]

Hope SP1 gonna fix this **** 'cause it's only a software problem.

[slaWter]

Good point! I have to try that. Installed SP1 last week but had no time to test it in FSX. I'm gonna do that this weekend :)

[d2thez]

Just to stick my head in here. My brother and I have been fighting this issue on his rig and also with sound channels disappearing at random intervals on his X-Fi. We finally thought to look at IRQs and IRQ 16 was assigned to his GTX, his X-fi, the USB controller, the RAID controller, and the IDE controller. Seems like alot huh?

But I have a memory of knowing that Creative soundcards have never liked IRQ sharing, especially when trying to fight a graphics card for time. We moved the X-Fi to a different slot and now it has a new IRQ that it only shares with the Ethernet controller. Sound has behaved fine since.

Luckily, this error has not appeared since then either. I know IRQs are old school and modern OS should share just fine, but for some reason Vista put like 5-6 devices one 1 IRQ, and 2 of those devices happeded to be the biggest bus hogs...a graphics card and a sound card.

Has anybody else thought to look at IRQs?

[Lashek]

Has anybody else thought to look at IRQs?

I had already looked at this on my machine as well based upon past experiences. My IRQ's seem to be pretty decent, only 1-2 devices per IRQ, with the graphics cards on IRQ 17 alongside one of my ethernet controllers (I have two ethernet ports, but they are seperate IRQ's)

[$n][pErMan]

Good point! I have to try that. Installed SP1 last week but had no time to test it in FSX. I'm gonna do that this weekend :)
Keep us posted for sure! :)

[ehathgepiurhe]

I posted a while ago that setting NOD32 to exclude my game installation folders fixed the problem on my PC. Well, that was premature - it didn't. However, I do believe I have now managed to fix it. I upgraded my MSI 8800GTX to a BFG 8800GT, and bang - errors have disappeared. Hopefully now I can use my gaming PC for actual gaming (it turns you off gaming when anywhere from 30 seconds into a game to 30 minutes, your PC totally freezes, both in XP and Vista - nvlddmkm error in Vista, the nv_disp4 error in XP).

CM

[Dragunov]

what is dreamscene?

Gonna google it...

So instead of just a pic as background on ur desktop, u can play a movie

[tisdale36]

I posted a while ago that setting NOD32 to exclude my game installation folders fixed the problem on my PC. Well, that was premature - it didn't. However, I do believe I have now managed to fix it. I upgraded my MSI 8800GTX to a BFG 8800GT, and bang - errors have disappeared. Hopefully now I can use my gaming PC for actual gaming (it turns you off gaming when anywhere from 30 seconds into a game to 30 minutes, your PC totally freezes, both in XP and Vista - nvlddmkm error in Vista, the nv_disp4 error in XP).

CM
So what you are saying is it is all of our cards that is doing this, I have the EVGA 8800 GTX SC

[slaWter]

I posted a while ago that setting NOD32 to exclude my game installation folders fixed the problem on my PC. Well, that was premature - it didn't. However, I do believe I have now managed to fix it. I upgraded my MSI 8800GTX to a BFG 8800GT, and bang - errors have disappeared. Hopefully now I can use my gaming PC for actual gaming (it turns you off gaming when anywhere from 30 seconds into a game to 30 minutes, your PC totally freezes, both in XP and Vista - nvlddmkm error in Vista, the nv_disp4 error in XP).

CM

A few weeks ago I did a similar test with a BFG 8800GTS 512MB. It didn't fix the problem but it was still quite a good improvement, FSX crashed after 1h+ instead of 20min :p

[Lashek]

Upon further studying, it was a combination between Service Pack 1 and the 17x drivers that fixed my problem. I rolled back to 169 drivers for a few days to test somethings and it appears the problem still occurs, even though it's not as often as it used to be (crashes random in every game every few hours). However, upgrading to the 171.20 drivers or later, I'm not getting anymore issues other then the loss of SLI. Personally, I'll eat the loss of SLI for a little while as long as I can have stable gaming. Let's hope nVidia fix the 17x drivers soon so that SLI support is proper and working now.

[D-Knight]

Just wanted to add to the knowledge base on my Nvlddmkm.sys error experience. Since I put together my rig last Christmas I have constantly gotten the dreaded Nvlddmkm error at random, hoping that the next driver release will fix it. Sometimes the error occurs 5, 10, 30 minutes when playing a game, other times it can work fine for hours, but eventually my screen will turn black and then the BSOD with the Nvlddmkm.sys error shows up forcing me to press the reset switch. This can occur even when playing back movies or watching video files. Like many of you, I have searched every forum looking for a solution and never could I find any consistencies in results or solutions. Many blame issues with Nvidia drivers or Microsoft Vista, it's software related, other say it's hardware, or both. So I've tried all the driver releases up to date, no luck, tried swapping cards (8800 GTX and 8800 GTS), PSU, etc, still gave same error. I've tried cleaning drivers, deleting all old copies of the Nvlddmkm.sys methods too, nothing.

My SOLUTION: I'm not sure if this has been posted as a "possible fix" already, but here's what worked for me. I have been testing using stock speeds and various OC settings which all gave the error until I set my FSB and Memory in linked and sync mode which I have never tried until recently. Now, no matter what stable settings I choose to use I have never gotten the error again. I have not even reinstalled the drivers since the error occurred. Not sure if this will work for everyone, but I don't know how many of you are running in sync mode, but if you haven't already tried, it might be worth giving it a shot. Good Luck :)

My Specs:
Vista Business x64
Core 2 Duo X6800 FSB:400Mhz (linked and sync mode)
Striker Extreme 680i
2GB OCZ Reaper 8500 (@400Mhz 4-3-3-13)
1x Asus 8800 GTX Aquatank
Enermax Liberty 620W PSU
2x WD Raptor 150 RAID0
3x Seagate 1TB RAID5

[ehathgepiurhe]

So what you are saying is it is all of our cards that is doing this, I have the EVGA 8800 GTX SC

No, not at all. That's misinterpreting what I said. If you read this thread, you will realise that there is no such thing as a single cause for either the nvlddmkm error or its XP equivalent. Like everyone else in this thread that no longer has the problem, I simply posted what solved it for me, so that anyone who hasn't managed to get rid of the error has something else to try. For me, since my upgrade a week ago, I've been gaming a two-three hours each day to test - and I haven't had one nvlddmkm or the XP equivalent crash.

CM

[ehathgepiurhe]

A few weeks ago I did a similar test with a BFG 8800GTS 512MB. It didn't fix the problem but it was still quite a good improvement, FSX crashed after 1h+ instead of 20min :p

Hi,

It seems to have fixed it for me. A week or so with 2-3 hours gaming per day and no nvlddmkm or nv_disp4 errors. The only other thing I did apart from the hardware upgrade was to install the latest Intel chipset driver from http://downloadcenter.intel.com/download.aspx?url=/14528/a08/infinst_autol.exe&agr=N&ProductID=2842&DwnldId=14528&strOSs=All&OSFullName=All+Operating+Systems&lang=eng

Regards,

CM

[ragingWS6]

This just came back for me with the 174.16 driver set. I am going back to the 173.65s for now.

[$n][pErMan]

Anyone try Vista SP1... and has the issue gone away? I'm DL'ing now but will not have time till the weekend to test myself :)

[yummy]

Just installed Vista SP1... no good :(

I will wait for the next driver release before RMA'ing my XFX 8800GTX.

Anyone else tried Vista SP1?

[hell_of_doom227]

Try 174.51...

[slaWter]

Try 174.51...

Indeed! That driver improved the situation a lot! FSX was pretty stable with the 8800GTX this week (20-30min flights).

[slaWter]

Well FSX just crashed again with this error message. Back to DX9!

[lduguay]

[pErMan']Anyone try Vista SP1... and has the issue gone away? I'm DL'ing now but will not have time till the weekend to test myself :)
I think it's a bit better with SP1, at least for me. I was testing a "soon to be released" game and i can say that i can play for 20-30 minutes before it crashes to desktop. PRE-SP1 was crashing after 10 minutes.

[hell_of_doom227]

Microsoft is destroying PC as gaming platform. Vista totally destroys it among other things.