Comp crashes now from BSOD after a Display Driver has stopped responding error that keeps happening!!!!

[Gares]

Did you take a temp reading while the computer was peak stress?

Pull out the video card and check it out. Blow it off with some compressed air (Making sure to hold the fan still to not over spin the bearing.)

My system is only 3 weeks old. There is no dust in it.

"Description
A problem with your video hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly."


I wouldn't be trusting that card now. Blow it off, take care of the fan, but I'm thinking that thing is on it's last leg.

As I said above my video card is only 3 weeks old.

The atikmdag error probably.

Note: most of this info is from ~april but I suppose it's still unchanged.

It is a known error for several cards in any version of Vista64.

Either turn of the secondary screen or turn of the aero theme worked for me.


I got introduced to it when AoC was launched and I installed my new computer with Ultimate Vista 64.
It's not related to anything you're doing, some have reported their system crashed before they could even pass the windows login.
Vista tries to recover from the crashed driver, sometimes manages to do so even,
but most of the time gets into a loop of recovering and crashing again, which gives you your BSOD in the end.

The error has been around since vista 64 launched and till now there hasn't been a decent solution which works for everyone.
Some fixed it by setting the gpu fan to a fixed 50% or more,
some fixed it by adding more memory,
and a lot of other things i've tried before turning off the aero theme..
(After all, it's a "new" os, I wanted it's new look,
so I tried all the other options I could find before turning off the aero theme.)

Not only ati cards have this trouble btw,
many reports have been around of people with nivida cards with the same troubles,
they just have "nvlddmkm" in stead of "atikmdag" in the error.

Turn off the Aero theme? How do you do that? Also I have a box setting for using only one monitor which I still had the same problem occuring.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I have another suggestion: download the dual/quad core version of Prime95 and run a stress test on it. If it reports hardware errors, I'd be calling someone to arrange a warranty service.

[Gares]

I have another suggestion: download the dual/quad core version of Prime95 and run a stress test on it. If it reports hardware errors, I'd be calling someone to arrange a warranty service.

You can't do it with Vista: Windows Vista: WARNING: Vista no longer supports services that interact with the desktop. Quoted straight from the website

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I have another suggestion: download the dual/quad core version of Prime95 and run a stress test on it. If it reports hardware errors, I'd be calling someone to arrange a warranty service.

You can't do it with Vista: Windows Vista: WARNING: Vista no longer supports services that interact with the desktop. Quoted straight from the website

lolwut? Are you saying Prime95 isn't compatible with Vista?

[Gares]

I think that is the case, unless I read it incorrectly. However there is no option to download for Vista users but there was some reference to XP within and something else, so I'm not entirely sure.

Maybe I should set all my slaves and main to low settings? (I have all the slaves at low settings ATM but not the main)

Also would the fact that I may not have Keyclone's Maximizer and in game resolution set properly maybe cause some problems like follower lag and hell even this crash?

I'm not sure if this is correct but I am using 2 monitors (22 inch ant 1680X1050) and (17 inch at 1280X1024)

So I have maximizer set to 2560X960 for my main and 1440X1050 for my slaves in keyclone.
My game resolution is 1680X1050 for my main screen and 800X600 for my slaves.

BTW my slave screen is split into 4 equal parts in each side 640X512 in maximizer and my main is 1680X1050.

I'm not sure if I should really fix this or not cause it doesn't really cause me problems when I PIP swap but maybe this is causing my performance issues?

[brandonbwt]

I have received the Nvidia version of this TDR error....after starting WoW, I typically get a game freeze after about 1 minute (whether I'm playing 5 windows or 1) and then the 'nvlddmkm.sys" video driver has stopped working but has been restarted following the 5-6 screen blinks, then straight to a half second BSOD + reboot.

This problem only happens when I'm playing WoW or some other game that starts to juice the graphics card.

I've also tried several suggested solutions including:

1) booting into safe mode, removing the Nvidia drivers using DriverCleaner and reinstalling via the EXPAND command at the Command Prompt.

2) wholesale uninstalling the Nvidia drivers and reinstalling from within the normal Vista 64 environment

3) manually removing and re-pasting a freshly unzipped nvlddmkm.sys file from an unzip folder

Nothing has worked so far...it has made WoW unplayable on my desktop since the bug popped up a few weeks ago. I've cleaned the case, monitored the temps on GPU, CPU and Northbridge. I've also run memtest86+ on all 4 2GB sticks and have 100% error free over a 18 hr test period. Prime95 reports no 'under load' hardware errors afte a 48 hr stress test.

Just an anecdote, this driver/hardware/whatever issue has generated a 113 page thread on the Nvidia support forums with no official response from the company. It has been present over the last 10 driver releases from Nvidia and I would take a wild guess that ATI/AMD has seen a similar response from the community.

[Zub]

sorry didnt read the whole thread (wouldn't understand half of it anyway >.<)

I used to have BSODs every now and again on my machine (after 2 minutes, or after half an hour, or anywhere in between), while boxing three WoW on the one machine.
Then someone mentionned having separate wow folders to avoid libraries clash etc.
I duplicated my wow folders - never had the BSOD again.
(i have since sym-linked all the data/interface fodlers and it's still running fine.

Try disabling all the wow display options as well, at least to test it.
Maybe that would help.

Good luck
-Zub

[Gares]

I'm not sure if that is the case. I do run seperate folders for main and slave only, but not one for each.

Problem is I have this problem on a normal basis in windows sometimes as well (Not BSOD) but the graphics error, however my comp recovers from this each time and doesn't go to BSOD.

So I'm really thinking its not a wow folder etc issues its a driver/windows issue.

[Vyndree]

Not only ati cards have this trouble btw,
many reports have been around of people with nivida cards with the same troubles,
they just have "nvlddmkm" in stead of "atikmdag" in the error.

Both Suvega and I had the dreaded "nvlddmkm" error on our "main" PCs that we just recently purchased (random reboots, sometimes with a bsod with "nvlddmkm"). It plagued us until just recently -- a nvidia driver update appears to have fixed it for our computers. These two computers are identical except for the video card -- Suvega's running the 9800 GX2 and I'm using the 9800 GTX -- very similar.

A driver update appears to have fixed my issue (I rarely, if ever, run into reboot problems. The reboot issues I do run into is usually on a very hot day, when our cooling in the room hasn't yet turned on. So I attribute the few reboots to heat.)

I believe Suvega hasn't run into too many problems recently either, now that he's updated his drivers. He still will lock up every once in a while -- often enough for it to still be suspicious. Often, Suvega's reboots happen during raids, so it's quite frustrating.


In any case, both machines are Vista x64 -- and if you search for "nvlddmkm" (and, I'd assume the ATI version of "atikmdag") you'll find the problem is notorious on many forums. There's much theorycraft about not overclocking anything, changing RAM, mobo issues.... NVidia refused to take responsibility -- they claim it's a vista problem (even though it's their driver listed in the bluescreen). However, I've updated my drivers and I seem to be totally fine, which makes me think it's a driver issue. Suvega also experienced reduced lockups/reboots after he updated drivers.

[brandonbwt]

@Vyndree:

Quick favor: can you post the full version details of the Nvidia drivers that you are using? (version, date, etc)

For Vista Ultimate 64x, the most recent Nvidia driver package could find was 175.19 [dated 5/16/2008] which I downloaded from the Nvidia website.

I reinstalled the nvlddmkm.sys file again using this version of the driver...previously the Nvidia uninstaller wasn't removing an older version (dated 12/7/2007) of the nvlddmkm.sys driver file from my C:/WINDOWS/System32/drivers folder.

After manually removing that old .sys file and pasting the new 5/16/08 version into my system32/drivers folder, I assumed it would be fixed, but upon reboot and starting up WoW, got the same TDR error after 45 seconds of being logged onto the server.