Video driver crashes + BSoD

Darkwyndre

So,

About a week ago I logged in to Lord of the Rings Online and almost immediately crashed out with the "Your video driver stopped responding but we've restarted it for you!" message that windows gives. I had heard of this error before, so I had a tinge of doubt but logged back in and carried on playing.

A few days later I experienced a series of crashes in Dungeons and Dragons Online, from the same error. (Both games are made by the same developer). I even had a BSoD once. There were some reports of this being a problem on the forums for both games, and quite a few different culprits were identified, including ram voltages, cpu overclocks, Windows Aero, and driver conflicts.

I went through the process of uninstalling the nVidia drivers, deleting all nvidia folders, and did driver sweeper in safe mode, then did a fresh re-install with only the driver and the physx driver install. I also put everything back to stock speeds.

Everything ran fine until this afternoon when playing Portal 2 and the game stopped responding and crashed. I did not see the message that the driver had stopped responding this time, so perhaps it was just a legit crash and I'm freaking out over nothing.

On the nVidia forums, they suggest that if a fully clean driver re-install does not solve the problem, then it's best to get the GPU replaced (which I can do, lifetime via EVGA). I guess I just want to know if there's anything else I should troubleshoot before I do that ... because I did not pay EVGA the additional $30 when I registered my GTX 580 for cross shipping, so I would have to buy a back up video card or go without while waiting for this one to RMA ... either of which would be sucky.

I've also noticed that at each crash some new sound began to play, so I'm wondering if maybe it's actually an audio issue. I've got a Creative X-Fi Titanium which has quite frankly been nothing but a gigantic headache since day one. A friend I sent my old GTX 260 to was going to send me the X-Fi Fatal1ty Pro that he had since he doesn't play shooters anymore, but so far it hasn't come.

Additionally, I just ordered the new Intel 510 series SSD 120 GB and a 2TB WD Black HDD today to replace my ailing 1TB Black drive I have now (Reading S.M.A.R.T. bad and noticeable performance loss and loud chatter) and I will be doing a clean system re-install when they arrive on Thursday ... so I guess any advice on how to thoroughly troubleshoot this would be appreciated.

I can provide dxdiag's or whatever else might be helpful, just tell me what you need.

TetraNitroCubane

Since you mention that you think it may be a sound issue, I'll note that EVGA does indicate that conflicts between sound drivers can lead to freezing/crashing behavior with the latest Nvidia drivers. They have a FAQ page on the matter here, but here are the choice bits:

EVGA wrote:

This issue can be caused by a conflict with the Onboard audio controller on your new Nvidia card and your Motherboard audio.

You can try the following uninstall method which will fully disable the audio and should help eliminate the issues you experience.

1. go into device manager- In the Display adapers area right click on the 400/500 series card, and select "properties" this will give you a listing such as "PCI Bus 3, device 0, function 0" If using multiple cards please check and note each listing.

2. go under system devices, you will see HD audio devices.. check them to see which one matches your GTX 400 series pci bus location. disable (not uninstall) the one that matches your 400/500 series card.

4. check under sound devices and it should no longer be there (this step might or might not require a restart)

There are further recommendations in the article (Apologies if you've already looked into this possibility).

Additionally, you can find more information from minidump files if you're still getting BSoDs. I don't know what OS you're running, but I'm assuming it's either Vista or 7 from your mention of Aero, and you can set either up to collect minidumps automatically. Take a look at these instructions on how to prevent automatic restart from a BSoD, and ensure the "Write Debugging Information" options are set correctly. You can then use this tool to analyze those dump files, if your computer is set up to collect them on a STOP error.

Darkwyndre

TetraNitroCubane wrote: »

Since you mention that you think it may be a sound issue, I'll note that EVGA does indicate that conflicts between sound drivers can lead to freezing/crashing behavior with the latest Nvidia drivers. They have a FAQ page on the matter here, but here are the choice bits:

EVGA wrote:

This issue can be caused by a conflict with the Onboard audio controller on your new Nvidia card and your Motherboard audio.

You can try the following uninstall method which will fully disable the audio and should help eliminate the issues you experience.

1. go into device manager- In the Display adapers area right click on the 400/500 series card, and select "properties" this will give you a listing such as "PCI Bus 3, device 0, function 0" If using multiple cards please check and note each listing.

2. go under system devices, you will see HD audio devices.. check them to see which one matches your GTX 400 series pci bus location. disable (not uninstall) the one that matches your 400/500 series card.

4. check under sound devices and it should no longer be there (this step might or might not require a restart)

There are further recommendations in the article (Apologies if you've already looked into this possibility).

Additionally, you can find more information from minidump files if you're still getting BSoDs. I don't know what OS you're running, but I'm assuming it's either Vista or 7 from your mention of Aero, and you can set either up to collect minidumps automatically. Take a look at these instructions on how to prevent automatic restart from a BSoD, and ensure the "Write Debugging Information" options are set correctly. You can then use this tool to analyze those dump files, if your computer is set up to collect them on a STOP error.

There was only one HD audio entry in the system devices and it didn't match (Card was 3,0,0 and the hd controller was 3,0,1)

Darkwyndre

Well things just went from "mildly irritating' to "holy fucking shit" level in a hurry. No game will launch now. The screen goes black to attempt to launch and then it's back to the desktop with a notice that the game has stopped responding.

I installed service pack 1... (windows 7 64-bit).

Darkwyndre

The redistributable c++ package updated along with SP1, but had to update a SECOND time ... this was (apparently) the problem. Re-booted after installing it and stress tested the machine for hours, no driver crashes or BSoD's ... weird.