Vista 64bit nvidia graphics problems

[stuppy]

Hi

Having problems.

Running 181 nVidia drivers, Windows Vista 64bit SP1. Running games is proving to be problematic. It randomly just crashes. When it does crash the screen is filled with garbled blue and purple lines and blocks over the last image that displayed properly. The system becomes unresponsive and sometimes the screen turns off a few seconds later - screen goes to sleep like there is no signal coming from the graphics card. Have to reboot to fix it.

Also - think its related. When booting up sometimes - just before its about to load the desktop - a black screen with lots of little white dashes all over the screen. Rebooting allows it reboot properly.

Gigabyte GA EP45-DS3R mobo, 4gig mem, Q6600, EVGA 512mb 9800GTX+

Any ideas on what the prob could be? Thanks

[GoNz0]

sounds like bad memory, maybe dirty card ?

try rolling back drivers to see if you can get it stable.

[stuppy]

Hi

Do you mean bad system mem or graphics mem?

I have no other problems with the system with exception of the occasional boot up freeze with the black/white dashes as explained.

Other then that the system is rock solid. Just crashes in games. I also run OSX on the machine (its a Hackintosh) and do not have any issues on that.

The card is also cooled by a Thermalright Rad2 cooler + 120mm fan and the temps are all ok.

Thanks.

[GheeTsar]

I had that problem with my 8800GTS 512 and I contacted BFG. They didn't ask anything else and gave me an RMA number. A few days later the problem cleared up by itself and I never sent it. Pretty weird.

[GoNz0]

graphics memory m8

[aidanjt]

It's the drivers. I have the exact same problem with my 8800GTS, except my screen just goes black. I have to alt+tab back to my desktop and click on the game for it to be playable again. Very, very annoying.

[stuppy]

I can't even alt tab. The whole system dies. I have now noticed the screen goes off everytime. Blue/Purple garbled crap and then 5secondsish later the screen sleeps

[aidanjt]

I can't even alt tab. The whole system dies. I have now noticed the screen goes off everytime. Blue/Purple garbled crap and then 5secondsish later the screen sleeps

I have to kill some games off entirely. But I haven't had a full system lockup. Then again, it might depend on the game.

[stuppy]

Getting no where.

It is definately a Windows fault rather than a Hardware fault.

Something else i notice - on black backgrounds, there is a stripe going down the right hand side of the screen that is slightly a different shade to the rest of the screen. Only noticeable on pure black backgrounds.

This is not present until it boots into Windows. Bootup and MacOSX do not have this problem.

Annoying!

[Webby]

Try removing the driver, using driver cleaner or a sweeper program of your choice to make sure all references of the drivers are gone and then reinstall the drivers or roll back to the last set that were stable for you.

I have to say the artifacting and locking up suggests a graphics memory issue though could be time for an RMA (if its still in warranty) but try the drivers first.

[stuppy]

Try removing the driver, using driver cleaner or a sweeper program of your choice to make sure all references of the drivers are gone and then reinstall the drivers or roll back to the last set that were stable for you.

I have to say the artifacting and locking up suggests a graphics memory issue though could be time for an RMA (if its still in warranty) but try the drivers first.

Hi there,

I have tried 3 seperate sets of drivers now (178.xx, Current and a Beta 185.xx). All the same.

I will however try your idea of removing all references of the drivers and see what happens. The computer is a month old, all bought from Scan. The hard drive Windows was on was faulty so that had to go back - I thought that was the root of the problems but seems something else is wrong.

You are the 3rd person who has suggested faulty VRAM - and while I am not writing that theory off I am having trouble accepting that is what it can be.

I have played GTA4 for 5hrs solid on many occasions and it has been fine. I do recall it crashing a couple of times when alt-tabbing from GTA4 to Windows to do something. Then it would give the garbled crap and the monitor would go into standby mode. One can presume that GTA4 would use all the resources of the graphics card, filling all and using all of the VRAM - so why would I be able to play it for 5hrs without it crashing? Also remember the black screen with white horizontal lines that occasionally happens just as its about to show the Windows desktop. Why would this happen with faulty VRAM?

Also - I have encountered no problems while running in MacOSX. Ok I haven't run any graphic intensive programs (there aint many - dont have any OSX games). But OSX has been less trouble running on a custom built PC than Windows has :/

The most recent crash occured after running 3DMark Vantage. I let it run through a full test - which it did successfully. Straight after I clicked the System Info button in 3Dmark and as it was gathering its information, it glitched and then again the screen went into standby.

I have a 7900GS here that I can also try in the computer. THe problem is the issue is so sporadic that its hard to recreate the fault without spending hours using it.

Another problem I am facing if it is a defective card - I replaced the stock cooler with a Thermalright T-Rad2 cooler. I am unsure whether this will have voided the warranty - and if it hasn't - the heatsinks that came with the TRad will have bonded to the chips now. I have no idea if I can remove them safely, and even if I can I doubt I can reapply them to a new card. Might have problems if the card is knackered.

Are there any programs out there that I can use to specifically test the graphics cards VRAM for faults (like memtest, but for graphics cards) ?

Many thanks.

[stuppy]

Update :

I use DriverSweeper to remove the drivers.

Using the stock Vista driver removes the stripe rnning down the right handside. Now like I said whether the stripe is related to the crashes or not I am unsure - but I am betting the two are related.

I am going to install the 178.xx drivers again and see wot happens.

[dodnut]

Hi all, my first post so hello everyone. I just installed vista 64 bit and am having the exact same blocks all over the place in games problem. I'm convinced it's a 64 bit memory management problem or something.
Using an Asus P5W DH Deluxe - Conroe E6600 - 4 Gig of Ram - Nvidia 7600 GT and when i first installed 64 bit i got this problem. I tried loads of different drivers and also used drivesweeper all to no avail.
I installed Steam the other day and for some reason my Steam games work perfectly now but Battlefield 2 and AIX 2 still have the graphics blocks.
please keep updating this post and hopefully we'll get it sorted as it's doing my head in not getting to play AIX 2 lol.

[tamaron]

Hi,

I have the same problem, but my systems reacts to ctrl+alt+del. Suddenly my screen goes black and a message pop-up saying some nv**.dll is not working, so I must shut down my app (In most cases IL2 sim) and the dll recharge itself...

Researching in th forums I have found this: forums.nvidia.com/index.php?act=ST&f=26&t=65794 It says that the problem is in the use of "AGP texture acceleration" it comes on by default, and turning it off through DXdiag is ok for some users... I have to check it.

It sounds weird that an AGP option affects to a PCIe card...

PD: sorry for the link, you must add the http thing at first. The rules doesn't allow me to use an URL

[blueball]

I had similar with a GTX280. Tried everything; rolling back drivers, cleaning out drivers, beta drivers, underclocking the card - no difference as CoD5 and FarCry would still lock up at some random time into a game. But I did find a solution!

What I didn't realise is that you can download DX10 on its own from microsoft and after I ran that update it has been smooth as silk - so why I didn't get the DX10 update through Microsoft Update site I don't know.

Anyway, link to DX10 for Vista: http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-US...rectX10-a.aspx

[stuppy]

I had similar with a GTX280. Tried everything; rolling back drivers, cleaning out drivers, beta drivers, underclocking the card - no difference as CoD5 and FarCry would still lock up at some random time into a game. But I did find a solution!

What I didn't realise is that you can download DX10 on its own from microsoft and after I ran that update it has been smooth as silk - so why I didn't get the DX10 update through Microsoft Update site I don't know.

Anyway, link to DX10 for Vista: http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-US...rectX10-a.aspx

Hi

I downloaded the Nov 08 ReDist DirectX pack and installed it. I loaded a few games and taxed the graphics card a bit, and it didn't crash. But I dunno whether its solved the problem.

The stripe down the right hand side on black backgrounds is still present though when the nvidia drivers are installed.