Are NVIDIA drivers causing my game to hang?

[poindextermatic]

Hi, I'm having a problem with FEAR extraction point, I get to a certain point in the game (were you are coming out of the L)and it starts hanging, can't get through the level as it just keeps hanging within like 20secs, seems to hang on this one particuler level - I restarted the game from the beginning and it runs fine? Have played the multiplayer for ages and no probs, played COD 2 for ages no probs, have reinstalled all drivers I can think of and the game itself.... but still no luck. Have stress tested PC, it's fine!
So I think it's either a bug in the game or there is somthing wrong with the NVIDIA drivers?
I'm really stuck with this, have googled this problem with no luck...?
Anyone have any ideas as to what may be causing this problem?
Thanks...

[Lucio]

Reinstall the game, it's probably a corrupt file on the level you're trying to load or a bad savegame.

[chuckskull]

What driver and OS?

[acrobat]

I have a similar or the same problem in about a dozen games.

Its the fault of the Nvidia drivers evidently.

[poindextermatic]

Tried reinstall with no luck, everything is up to date...
Tried different save point etc... still same prob..

Latest Nvidia driver 158.22
Windows XP

Should I try an earlier release of the Nvidia driver..?

thanks guys,

[tigerboyce]

you could try 158.18 but make sure you completely remove other one first, but i doubt it will make a difference as that what new patches do

[poindextermatic]

What the new patch makes games freeze?

[DataMatrix]

I had a similar problem with CSS (Counter-Strike: Source) and the 160.03 drivers. I'd play for roughly 10-20 mins then the system would lockup with looping sounds. I restarted many times without any "Windows has recovered from a serious error, blah, blah", until after yesterday I think, I restarted and got the error "Thread stuck in device driver.", I immediately knew it was the graphics drivers since I'm always shuffling with them.

Went to the 158.22 (I think) and a bit stuttery but not crashy.

[chuckskull]

Try using;
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1644
or
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1640

Oddly 158 is newer than 160, but try both see which works.

[poindextermatic]

Try using;
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1644
or
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1640

Oddly 158 is newer than 160, but try both see which works.

These differ from those on the NVIDIA web site?
Have re-started the game again, I'll try these drivers if it has the same poblem at the same level again.

Thanks

[chuckskull]

Yeah the nvidia website rarely releases drivers that are created. God knows why, almost every driver I've used has been one of the leaked one rather than the ones from the site, 9/10 they're better.

[Thoku]

are you sure its not the mobo, sound card or some other piece of hardware?

[acrobat]

Tried reinstall with no luck, everything is up to date...
Tried different save point etc... still same prob..

Latest Nvidia driver 158.22
Windows XP

Should I try an earlier release of the Nvidia driver..?

thanks guys,

You could try, although I've tried almost every driver under the sun and none of them worked There are some big threads about this on the net by the way. There doesn't seem to be a solution yet, and people just way we have to wait it out and hope Nvidia fix it eventually in one of their new drivers. The only possible solution, is to try getting Vista and see if you have better luck with the drivers for that. I saw atleast one person who was having the same problems, and switched to Vista and the problems had gone

Whether he had NEW problems with other games though.. I don't know. I'm going to switch to Vista really soon. I just need to decide if I'm going with the 32 or 64 bit version of it.



p.s. Some people have had some luck with the drivers from Guru 3d (which someone linked above). It didn't help me though unfortunately. Judging by the latest forceware nvidia driver though, they seem to atleast know about the problems and are trying to fix it. Unfortunately they failed with that driver But maybe they will get it right next time.

[poindextermatic]

Well I changed the GFX driver and used the one Chuckskull suggested, once I'd played through the game again the problem did not happen again, weather this was the new drivers or not I don't know, but the new drivers don't seem to be doing any harm so am leaving them on,

Cheers Chucker!

[acrobat]

Well I changed the GFX driver and used the one Chuckskull suggested, once I'd played through the game again the problem did not happen again, weather this was the new drivers or not I don't know, but the new drivers don't seem to be doing any harm so am leaving them on,

Cheers Chucker!

It probably is. Like I said, I've got crashes in a dozen games, and it took me forever to find out why it was happening. Turns out its the drivers fault.

The drivers chuck linked above, are kind of "fan made" drivers, and they are evidently really good. I think they are basically the original nvidia driver and then modified by someone who knows what they are doing. I used one once to fix a problem in a game, and it worked a treat. I need to check the newer ones to see if they fix the crashes I get.

[chuckskull]

The drivers chuck linked above, are kind of "fan made" drivers, and they are evidently really good. I think they are basically the original nvidia driver and then modified by someone who knows what they are doing. I used one once to fix a problem in a game, and it worked a treat. I need to check the newer ones to see if they fix the crashes I get.

No they're not, they are official drivers direct from nvidia, usually sourced from developers releases or internal beta testing. Modded drivers are what you are thinking of and are totally different.