Nvidia EVGA 8800 GT crash loop

Von Drunky

Von Drunky

Sonny, I Watched the Vault Bein' Built!
I had my card for two months now and other then the few game related crashes it was working fine, Oblivion and Mass Effect looked great. Today I wanted to replay STALKER: SOC with the full screen so I patched it up to 1.0005 and began to experience crashes 2-5 minutes into the game either movie or game play. After trail and error of messing around with the visual functions all ending with my computer freezing or getting a blue screen with the nv4_disp.dll errors. Then these weird statically line started to occasionally appear on my secondary screen. At that point I gave up on Stalker and put in Fear which started showing weird graphic glitches and eventually crashing, Mass Effect also crashed early into game play. I downloaded the 175.19 driver from the Nvidia website but the crashes continued in addition my computer started to crash randomly when I’m not using my computer for gaming purposes. These dudes had similar problems http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=27747
and one of them managed to fix it by doing the following
I was able to fix my problem with the n4_disp driver. Lots of hours logged in Vanguard now and not the first problem

I'm just going to copy/paste here from my thread in the EVGA forums. I'm too lazy to retype it out. Since we have the same motherboard/video card, I hope it might help you.

I'm playing Vanguard....alot. When I got my EVGA 8800GTX, I was constantly crashing and receiving the nv4_disp.dll error message. After reading several threads, I was able to fix it. I've now played for 2 solid days without the driver crashing (now 4 days). The game still has the random crash, but it's from the game's memory leaks and chunk crossings.

Here's what I did in the exact order.
Downloaded the latest bios for my EVGA 680i motherboard and created floppy (thank god I had one in the closet).

Downloaded the latest firmward bios for the video card and created floppy.

Downloaded and installed Driver Cleaner Professional (guru3d.com) - Don't run yet.

Downloaded the 97.92 drivers. I wanted them ready to go.

Flashed bios - I made sure I didn't get in a rush and let everything finish. Remember, floppy's are slow.

Once it fisnhed I hit the power button to shut down...and unplugged the power cord. After a few minutes, I plug the power cord back in and powered up.

I then went straight into the bios and loaded defaults. It automatically rebooted.

Went back into bios and checked memory voltage..good to go.

I then booted into Windows to make sure everything is good.

Restarted pc
Flashed the firmware on the video card. Again...floppy's are slow. Rebooted after that.

Unplugged network cable.

Loaded Windows and went to add/remove and uninstalled Nvidia drivers. I uninstalled all the drivers only because I still have my motherboard disk. Rebooted.

Loaded in safe mode (F8) and ran Driver Cleaner Professional and emptied recycle bin. Reboot

Loaded Windows normally. Installed the 97.92 drivers.

Loaded missing drivers from motherboard disk.

Finally reboot.

It fixed it for me. That's the only problem I had with my video card or motherboard. All my temps are great and no more nv4_disp.dll errors!
Thought I would pass this along.

This post has been edited by SmilesLikeJoker: Feb 11 2007, 11:36 PM
Click to expand...

My questions are:

1. Are all these steps necessary, what needs to be changed in my case?
2. Everything was working fine until Stalker, how did this game affect my card?
3. What should I do with stalker in order to make it work properly?


Here is my system, let me know if I need to included any other details.
Windows XP home edition
Dell Dimension DXP061 2cpu
6300 @ 1.86GHz
1.86 GHz, 2.5 GB of RAM
Two monitors
 
1. Get Driver Sweeper and fully clean out your display drivers after uninstalling your previous ones and prior to installing your new ones. If you don't you're bound to get fuckups.

2. Download the new beta drivers (something like 177.92).
-Uninstall your old drivers.
-Boot to safe mode and run driver sweeper to clean out the mess left behind.
-Install your new drivers.
-Reboot normally

3. Install Rivatuner so you can monitor your temps (stay the fuck away from ntune).


Open up the hardware monitoring graph in rivatuner (looks like this) and start up a fairly graphics intensive game (besides stalker). Play for a good 15 minutes and alt tab to see your temps. If you're in the upper 70s or 80s, you need to set up a fan profile in rivatuner to keep it cool (the profile built into the 8800 GT won't ramp up the fan until it's well into the "your hardware is now cooking" zone). If your temps aren't ridiculous, and you aren't crashing with other games; I'd give stalker a go again because it shouldn't be breaking your card.

ps- installing and running ccleaner wouldn't hurt either.
 
Thanks dude for the 3 step guide it seems very straight forward. ill try it out tonight when i get home. I might need additional info on Rivatuner.

Would you also happen to know why my driver spazed out after installing Stalker?
 
I've never heard of a game (directly) breaking your drivers; although it does use securom, which is notorious for fucking shit up. The fix that's listed in your quote is just a chain of anecdotal shit that you really don't want to do (Something goes wrong while flashing your mobo/gpu? You just fucked your hardware AND your warranty). It's the equivalent of "I was having computer problems: Then I spun around seven times while masturbating, blew a load on my grandmother's tits, punched her in the face and repeatedly slammed my cock in a car door.... and then my computer worked! YOU SHOULD DO THIS".

If you aren't up and running after you try the fix, post up your dxdiag and I'll see if I notice anything amiss. Then there's always the possibility of a faulty card (8800 GTs seem to have a disproportionately high failure rate); I had a similar experience with an 8800 GT (suddenly started shitting bricks and giving me pink screen crashes about two weeks into use). RMAing it should be the last resort though.


If you need help with rivatuner, I'll dig out some easy FAQs that'll teach you to set up multiple fan profiles.
 
Everything seems to work fine again. I am going to pass on Rivatuner for now. Increasing fan usage will consume more power which i currently short on by 25 watts. Thanks for your help.
 
Nope, STALKER still crashes but i played FEAR without a problem. The bug is pretty common, i have seen it on a multiple forum. I hope I can play the prequel.

Edit: I come home today, my father is like "guess what?" "umm, what?" "the card broke, it was defective" "blyat!... wait, i have the lifetime warranty they will just send me a new one " "That depends did you register the card within 30 days of purchase?" "No.." "Thats ok because i did, go call them" "Thanks dad!"

I'm back to my 7300 le until my RMA form gets reviewed
 
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