[Cepharos]

Right, its about time this got solved I think. I've been living with a problem for about three months which has prevented me from playing quite a few games that I paid good money for. This particular problem is a certain blue screen which never fails to appear after about thirty or so minutes of gameplay.

Some games do not cause blue screens, for example, I can play World of Warcraft for hours and not blue screen once but if I stay on the character screen for about 30 seconds or more, the game flickers a few times and then the crash happens. Call of Duty 4 and World at War last about 20mins before the blue screen happens and recently I obtained Prototype which blue screens after about 30mins.

Upon Google searching, the blue screen seems to be linked with my graphics card and is possibly a driver issue although I have installed the latest drivers numerous times and still the blue screens occur.

My system info is as follows:

Windows Vista 64bit
8Gb RAM
Q6600 Quad Core @ 2.4GHz (No overclocking here)
8800GTX OC2

My framerate in games is fine and the games work well up until the blue screen. If you need any more information on my system then I can provide it if needed. I will attach some images of the blue screen which I managed to snap on my phone as well.

Any assistance that can be given to me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

[aasimenator]

Prototype is a really bad a** game
You should also try Wheelman & Saints Row 2 if you haven't yet

Now regarding your problem there are many work around for it
one which i have test & works perfectly is
1. download latest NVIDIA Driver
2. Uninstall the previous version of the Driver & restart
3. once restarted install the downloaded drivers
4. Restart the system
5. Now you have to disable it from startup (type Msconfig in run Goto startup tab & uncheck NVidia option) (there are 2 options there)
6. Now start Services.msc from run command then find Nvidia Display Driver service & Stop & disable it from its properties
Restart the system
& if you followed it correct the problem wont occur again
BTW Most of the Vista users have to do this at some point (so i have heard & seen)

[Cepharos]

Thanks for the response. I will try this tomorrow when I have some free time and I will report back.

Thanks again.

[Cepharos]

Originally Posted by aasimenator

Prototype is a really bad a** game
You should also try Wheelman & Saints Row 2 if you haven't yet

Now regarding your problem there are many work around for it
one which i have test & works perfectly is
1. download latest NVIDIA Driver
2. Uninstall the previous version of the Driver & restart
3. once restarted install the downloaded drivers
4. Restart the system
5. Now you have to disable it from startup (type Msconfig in run Goto startup tab & uncheck NVidia option) (there are 2 options there)
6. Now start Services.msc from run command then find Nvidia Display Driver service & Stop & disable it from its properties
Restart the system
& if you followed it correct the problem wont occur again
BTW Most of the Vista users have to do this at some point (so i have heard & seen)

I followed all instructions stated but this has not fixed my problem unfortunately.

Any other suggestions?

[aasimenator]

which driver did you downloaded & installed Version ?

[aasimenator]

according to nvidia's website the latest version is 186.18

after uninstall you also have to delete the old setup file in C:\Nvidia

[Elvandil]

Try an older, archived driver that was released around the time your card came out. Use a driver cleaner after uninstalling the old driver to be sure you get any remaining pieces.

Driver Cleaner Professional
Nasty File Remover

Read the game's release notes to see if it has any tips.

[Cepharos]

Originally Posted by Elvandil

Try an older, archived driver that was released around the time your card came out. Use a driver cleaner after uninstalling the old driver to be sure you get any remaining pieces.

Driver Cleaner Professional
Nasty File Remover

Read the game's release notes to see if it has any tips.

I'm trying this now. Also, how do I prevent Vista from installing drivers on its own? It has a habit of doing this and I have no idea how to stop it.

[Elvandil]

It is all right to let Vista install its own drivers after you remove the NVidia ones. The installer for NVidia will repalce them, anyway.

[Cepharos]

I still seem to have the problem.

I blue screened after 5mins whilst playing Prototype and other games are freezing which eventually leads to a blue screen.

[Cepharos]

I've been reading around and apparantly many people who use the 800 range are getting this blue screen and have been unable to fix it and at this point I'm wondering if I should just buy a new graphics card and save myself the hassle of having to put up with this blue screen. It came out of the blue about three months ago and has prevented me from playing most of my games ever since.

I'm still open to any fixes people might have but I'm at the end of my rope here.

[Cepharos]

I'm no expert but I found this recently and did a search in my System32 folder and found a total of 6 files called "nvlddmkm.sys". Is this normal? If not should I follow the instructions below? As I said before I'm no expert and I don't want to make my computer explode into a raging inferno or what not so any guidance would be appreciated.

"I have found and fixed the problem today. This is what appears to happen.
during the installation of the most current drivers 100.65 Vista, an OLD file
nvlddmkm.sys is copied into windows/system32/drivers and not the current one
in the install. As a result the new drivers are attempting to access a file
dated 11/2006 instead of 2/2007 ver 7.15.11.0065 which is in the newest WHQL
driver ver 100.65 vista 32.

Fix: Go to windows/system32/drivers and rename nvlddmkm.sys to
nvlddmkm.sys.old. Go to the nvidia directory and find the file nvlddmkm.sy_
and copy it to windows/system32. Using the cmd window (DOS box) type
EXPAND.EXE nvlddmkm.sy_ nvlddmkm.sys. When the expansion is complete, copy
the new nvlddmkm.sys to windows/system32/drivers and restart the computer.

Your computer should now work properly.

You will notice that any uninstall and reinstall of nvidia drivers will not
remove the old nvlddmkm.sys file and will not overwrite it with the newer
version. You have to do it manually. I do not know why this happens but who
cares as long it is fixed."

[Rollin' Rog]

I have come across folks with this one many times, and it seems predominantly a 64 bit Vista issue with some games.

I have not seen any one "fix" and in most cases, none at all.

There is an extended thread in an Nivida forum devoted to it, a response from Nvidia, and a link to an Nvidia bug report. I encourage you to use it.

http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion...?t31913-0.html

[Cepharos]

Originally Posted by Rollin' Rog

I have come across folks with this one many times, and it seems predominantly a 64 bit Vista issue with some games.

I have not seen any one "fix" and in most cases, none at all.

There is an extended thread in an Nivida forum devoted to it, a response from Nvidia, and a link to an Nvidia bug report. I encourage you to use it.

http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion...?t31913-0.html

Thanks for the response Rog, at least its nice to know that I'm not an isolated case. I'm still reading this thread and will decide where to go from here when I'm done.