Bluescreen Terror!!! Np9262

ok, this is really distressing. a 3.5k gaming notebook that doesn't work properly is driving me nuts.

this is when a BSOD happens:

iTunes: playing videos > nvlddmmkm.sys crash
Happauge Nova TV card > usbcontrol.sys crash while trying to eject the device
Fallout 3 > nvlddmmkm.sys crash trying to play on ultra setings
Nvidia driver update > nvlddmmkm.sys crash while installing new drivers.

On top of that, Fallout 3 is virtually unplayable in any setting. including medium. the whole screen is full of artifacts. And it only happens on that game, everything else i try to run works perfectly.

looking into it now, but it seems its a common problem with a lot of people. It seems driver sweeper is required and some CMD work too. I'll let you know if i solve the problem, but any help I get here is GREATLY appreciated

 

Which driver, sir?

 

sorry, i should have mentioned that.

185.20

I've been trying to solve the issue so far myself with no luck. Vista now says the latest driver from Nvidia is no longer compatible and i's using it's own generic driver instead...

 

Uninstall 185.20 and run Driver Sweeper in safe mode. Wipe everything Nvidia, restart, and install 186.03 WHQL.

 

Have you checked the temperatures? I suggest downloading hwmonitor (just google it). Your system might be overheating... if such is the case, you may have to clean the vents with some compressed air and reapply thermal paste on the GPU/CPU.

 

Soviet - I've done just that, and it says quoting literally:

"invalid displays settings

the current selected graphics display driver cannot be used. it was written for a previous version of windows, and is no longer compatible with this version of windows.

the system has been started using a default VGA driver.

Please contact blablabla..."

I am DEAD CERTAIN i installed the Vista x64 drivers.

Just one thing. I have the option to clean both display and chipset in driversweeper, should i tick both or just display?

Purlpo - I have HWmonitor and i use it regularly. I don't think the system is overheating at all. It's the middle of summer over here, outside temp is 25 degrees on a strangely cool day, it's usually over 30. cards idle at around 45, barely get past 60 while gaming. theres a small variation between both cards sometimes. i suppose it's because one of them is closer to other heat sources like hdd's, while one isn't? it's only a 1 or 2 degree difference usually.

 

Wipe both the display and the chipset.

 

Just did that now, then re-installed 186. result: missing .dll, driver is either corrupt or missing. it seems that anything i do just makes it worse. all i wanted was a stable driver...

 

I just looked at your sig, call me crazy, but are the 2 cards are 2 different drivers?

Try to uninstall the driver from BOTH cards (this way neither card has a driver to it), run driversweeper AND ccleaner www.ccleaner.com and run the 2 cleaners while you have NO drivers installed (ie: post-driver-uninstallation) and then go install the new driver to both cards. You might just be forgetting to uninstall the driver from one of the cards and the computer is getting all confused.

Just a crazy idea....

 

install 190.15 from laptopvideo2go.

it seems your driver is corrupt.

have you reinstalled your OS recently.

if you are seeing artifacts, have you overclocked your card??? i know push the memory to high will yield those results.

 

dondadah88 - cards are on stock clocks.

both cards have the same driver ganzonomy so that wasn't the issue but thanks for the input!

after much tribulation, i managed to get the drivers to install. 186.30. driversweeper helped, i still haven't found the exact problem.
Reading on the net, it seems that theres a bug in the Nvidia software that fails to replace nvddmmkm.sys. This causes multiple copies and conflicts.
I didn't see the sys file in the driversweeper list, but maybe removing all the driver files helped sort the conflict. I need to find this file and deal with it somehow.

The missing .dll ended up missing from nTune. Apparently sweeper removed it. Why? I dunno. Maybe it just targets anything Nvidia. It was NvCplUI.dll i believe.

In the end the computer seems to work, Fallout seems to work on ultra now, and iTunes plays videos, but I don't trust it yet.

I'll let you know

 

uninstall ntune. i just did yesterday and i have nothing but issues with it as well. everytime i accept the end user, i bluescreen. use nvidia system tools.

 

Agreed. nTune is old and you will have a much smoother time working with Nvidia System Tools.

 

That's because Itunes is a virus... Winamp FTW.

Anyways, I've never had any luck running Fallout 3 or HL2 on Official drivers. Both games seemed to crash frequently. I've switched to Dox drivers, and things have been running smooth for a month.

 

Soviet - I do use system tools, but the performance monitor is just a politically correct nTune. If you look at the install directory, it still is *:\NVIDIA\...\NTune

No issues to report for now. Fallout seems to be working still. I installed Prototype and that works well on the highest settings too.

GamingACU - I know, Winamp kicks . I only ever use iTunes for video/audio podcasts anyway. No alternative to that, unfortunately

 

Sorry to pop up so late. Jus a thought. There are some tools to check the memory and the video card without using windows. The tests are simple and just let them go over night. BSOD can come from defective memory or video card.

PL

 

hopefully its the memory.

 

sounds good, how do i check?

 

well run memtest. it will take for ever though
http://majorgeeks.com/MemTest_d350.html

and see if you come up with an error. if you do, then it's your ram.


easy way to find out is pull out one ram and do what you do to see if it blue screens. then do it again with your other. although both seems to be a pain i would run memset.

i pulled my laptop apart and it was easy but a pain.(i recommend you to do it every 3 months thee was alot of dust in mines. just unscrew the fans there's not need to take off the heatsink.)

 

For the testing the video card memory use this program. It can be run from both windows and before windows is booting.

http://majorgeeks.com/Video_Memory_Stress_Test__d5896.html

There is also something to check in windows. The event viewer immediately after crashes it will show some event with red. In my case some adobe component was crashing my computer.

Pl

 

Ok. I'll do the Vid card test first as the Nvidia.sys was causing most of the errors.

I'll report back with that, then run memtest overnight.

 

OK, ran VMT.

"Primary display driver"

Changing video mode to 640x480x16...OK
[7/7/2009 8:16:23 PM] Test started for "Primary Display Driver (NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTX)"...
Trying 16bpp RGB:565 mode...OK
TEST FAIL (Code: 8876017C)
Trying 16bpp RGB:555 mode...OK
TEST FAIL (Code: 8876017C)
Trying 16bpp BGR:565 mode...NOT SUPPORTED (Code: 80004001)
Trying 32bpp RGB:888 mode...OK
TEST FAIL (Code: 8876017C)
Trying 32bpp BGR:888 mode...NOT SUPPORTED (Code: 80004001)
NO PASS COMPLETED

Nvidia 9800M GTX

Changing video mode to 640x480x16...OK
[7/7/2009 8:18:39 PM] Test started for "NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTX "...
Trying 16bpp RGB:565 mode...OK
TEST FAIL (Code: 8876017C)
Trying 16bpp RGB:555 mode...OK
TEST FAIL (Code: 8876017C)
Trying 16bpp BGR:565 mode...NOT SUPPORTED (Code: 80004001)
Trying 32bpp RGB:888 mode...OK
TEST FAIL (Code: 8876017C)
Trying 32bpp BGR:888 mode...NOT SUPPORTED (Code: 80004001)
NO PASS COMPLETED

Apart from the TEST FAIL and NO PASS COMPLETED, the program reported 0 errors on both cases. I don't know what to think...Am I doing something wrong?

 

That's how the test works, unfortunately. But the good news is that your GPU memory is just fine.

If you want something with a friendlier logging interface, try the GPU memory test in OCCT. http://www.ocbase.com/download.php?fileext=zip You know it's good when it's made by the Russians.

 

lol cool I'll check it out. I'm glad the memory is fine. The more I read about the subject the more I'm convinced Nvidia's driver installer is a piece of junk.

So how do i enterpret the results above exactly?

EDIT: Just checked out OCCT. Looks really good! much easier to fathom than VMT.