Vista, XP, and the nvlddmkm crash

[algol]

I've seen it hinted at that the nvlddmkm crashes are a Vista-only problem (some thread or another here). Is this valid? Vista has its perks, but I'd reinstall XP64 if it would get this thing to go away permanent-like.

The other thing I've seen to try is disabling secondary monitors...comp's currently in pieces for maintainence, but back to trying that in time. Also doing the usual fun with Memtest & Prime95 to make sure there are no issues there (bad memory address will crash anything...OTOH with only nvlddmkm crashing and only in WoW that's a little specific for a memory issue...OTOH not much else is using a substantial portion of 8GB right now...).

[Tdog]

I've seen it hinted at that the nvlddmkm crashes are a Vista-only problem (some thread or another here). Is this valid? Vista has its perks, but I'd reinstall XP64 if it would get this thing to go away permanent-like.

The other thing I've seen to try is disabling secondary monitors...comp's currently in pieces for maintainence, but back to trying that in time. Also doing the usual fun with Memtest & Prime95 to make sure there are no issues there (bad memory address will crash anything...OTOH with only nvlddmkm crashing and only in WoW that's a little specific for a memory issue...OTOH not much else is using a substantial portion of 8GB right now...).

Had the same issue with the nvlddmkm crashes when I upgraded to Vista. I tried downloading tons of different drivers that were supposedly going to fix it that didn't really seem to do jack shit. I even bought me a 9800 gtx+ card that clearly stated vista certified on the side of the box (needed to upgrade the card anyways) still didn't really help. Then I upgraded my ram and I haven't had a single problem since. I had 1.5gb prior and 4gb now so since you have 8gb I already know it's not a question of how much memory but perhaps vista isn't liking your brand of ram? I had Kingston ram prior and now I have corsair. /shrug Don't know much else to tell you. Hope you figure it out though, it was a freaking PITA

[algol]

Hmm, I'll try swapping it out too then. Thanks for the suggestion. Although the other batch of DDR2 I have without cannibalizing is a 4GB array that needs to be RMAed first. Hate RMAing stuff so I put it off - now see where it got me.

[algol]

It hasn't happened on XP64 yet...but that could mean any of several things, since it necessarily meant swapping all my drivers and doing a clean install. No guarantee that it wasn't a software issue, or that blowing the dust out of my case when I installed the SSD didn't do it. Also busy week, so less prolonged play to (over)load the system.

[pengwynman]

i was getting this error a TON on my system... tried RMA'ing several components of my system... the problem persisted and steadily got worse, to the point that my system wouldn't even POST. took it to a shop to get it tested (i was tired of troubleshooting at this point) and they found out ALL 4 sticks of ram were bad... RMA'd the ram, haven't had a single problem with the new sticks.

[Babbaganoosh]

I had Kingston ram prior and now I have corsair. /shrug Don't know much else to tell you. Hope you figure it out though, it was a freaking PITA

i have the problem currently, and i'm using kingston memory as well. I'm going to try corsair and see how it goes. I'll post back with results sometime. Man, i hope this actually works.

[Ozbert]

I too had this problem, but it hasn't occurred with the latest NVIDIA drivers yet.

I don't believe the problem has anything to do with hardware, but rather how the driver interacts with Vista. Swapping out RAM etc. probably won't make any difference.

I think Vista has some method of polling drivers to check that they're still responding and the NVIDIA drivers aren't responding quickly enough to the polls when they're under heavy load. Vista then decides the driver has crashed and resets it. It's probably something NVIDIA need to fix, and it appears that they might have done so with the latest version.

This is speculation, I don't know if it's true.

[algol]

It absolutely can be caused by memory. But other things can do it too, inadequate PSUs for one and a "bad" driver iteration for another.

The best way to prevent / check for memory issues is to Memtest each new memory stick on its own for a few hours, then run another pass or two with all installed. It's a pain to spend a day doing this when you want to install it and go, but it catches the majority of memory issues, and the alternative can be phantom crashes driving you nuts if one of the sticks was bad or if the settings in the BIOS don't work for the installed set.

Vista does do some things differently, so what you're thinking isn't too far-fetched. I think the main effect would be that it's a little more finicky about less-than-stable states that XP will continue unaware of. If you take the time to do rigorous checks of a new part / system, it should eliminate it in many cases.