M17x R1 BSOD nvlddmkm.sys

Well, I've had the same blue screen since I got my computer, which was in 2009. Any blue screen I received told me the culprit was my video driver, which is currently the beta drivers released in 2011 on the dell website. I have a picture of the latest crash info, as well as the device manager driver info for my graphics cards.

What I do know is that my cards are not over-heating. I tend to experience this crash either in a game or while using photoshop. Particularly, during League of Legends, my screen will freeze for about a second and then continue as if nothing happened. At times, the sound will repeat on whatever tone was taking place when the freeze occurred until the freeze is over (same thing that happens until the screen goes black and comes up with a blue screen). I'd like to know if it is hardware related, or if it is purely a driver issue, as my warranty ends in 2 days. I have reformatted my computer god knows how many times in the past, the most recent being about 6 months ago. I'd like to avoid that if at all possible.

Let me know if you guys need any other information to help diagnose the issue. I was reading another post with a similar blue screen problem, but it started to deviate from my problem and I'm not sure if they're in fact the same. Could be wrong though..

Thanks for your help, and I've attached two pictures, as mentioned above.

~Ryan

Spoiler

 

did you ever disable the pcie gen2 in bios?
even when running the dell drivers I had blue screens and random video driver crashes until i disabled the pcie gen 2 and the hybrid and integrated graphics in bios.
I now run the latest drivers from nvidia with no problems as long as those remain disabled in bios.

 

Yeah I disabled that when I first learned about that solution a year or two ago. It has been working fairly well ever since, but recently, I have been experiencing more and more graphically related problems. Which drivers are considered the latest? I've heard praise and complaints for 296.10 and I also downloaded a 300 series driver (at work right now so I don't remember the exact number but I think it had to do with 3xx.23). I have tried newer drivers in the past with worse results. I do use ccleaner in safe mode, so I don't think it was leftover clutter... Just frustrated is all. I had a lot of problems when I first received this computer, including the old audio stutter dpc latency issue that plagued the R1, so I'd just like for my computer to last a little longer until I can afford a replacement. Also, with the warranty up in two days, I'd like to figure out if it's hardware related as to get it fixed under warranty. Thanks again for the reply.

 

Right now im running 301.42
I did have issues with it to start with, but it turned out to be the bigfoot wireless software that i had installed when I upgraded my wireless card.... It took some uninstalling and reinstalling to get everything worked out, plus i ditched the bigfoot software all together. I even started a thread asking for help through the process, and got some pretty good help from the forum.
but if you are having that blue screen and all your graphics options are disabled in bios, It would seem to me like a hardware issue.... Im not sure what software conflicts could cause the nvidia driver to crash, but my only other suggestion is to check dell's site and make sure everything else is up to date, from bios to audio drivers... just check through it all and see if there is anything else that should be updated. Wish I could be of more help, maybe someone else can give you more suggestions.

Quick question...... are you running vista or win 7?
i have seen issues with vista not updating the nvlddmkm.sys file when updating drivers.... you have to completely uninstall and reboot and clean before installing an update video driver

 

I am running windows 7.

I have also made sure that all of my drivers are up to date, although the video driver was the most stable driver dell gave me for my video card. There might be one that is more updated on the dell drivers page for the R1, but it gave me more problems than this driver did, so I chose to stick it out. I did download the 301.42 drivers, but I have yet to install them. Just hoping for some helpful replies.

I'm currently taking the computer down to Best Buy to have them order me a new hard drive, as I have had a click and beep accompanied by a freeze for a second that 3 previous hard drives have done to me in the past (This has been happening for a year). My warranty ends tomorrow with square trade, so I want to get a new hard drive before I have to pay out of pocket. I'll have them look at the error logs as well, but I doubt they'll be able to help any more than any of you can.

I can post more information on my system if that helps figure out my config and possible conflicts, just let me know.
Thanks again for the reply Slate.

 

Hello, Slate, welcome to NBR.

If you're planning a clean install of Windows 7, when installing the chipset driver for the M17x, deselect the ethernet driver and the nvidia storage controller to avoid known issues.
Regarding the graphics driver, see my post here for the 301.42 and follow those steps correctly.

DON'T use Dell's graphics drivers, the beta one is very outdated and the other one is crappy since its release and will give you more issues.

 

Hey Slate,

Here are some steps you can try to fix the 0x116 BS

I'll leave you a guide for the Windows 7 Clean Installation, make sure to do as katalin says and deselect the ethernet driver and the nvidia storage controller.