@(*#&%*(@!

[Shannon]

Nevermind.

In the previous thread, when I said the new graphics problem I'm having was only one card, I was wrong. It's definitely both.

Any time I fire up a game - Sins of a Solar Empire, or Quake Live - I get the wonderful Vista message saying "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered". With SoaSE, it seems to correlate with how hard I'm pushing the hardware - the higher the settings, the more the screen flickers until the game eventually crashes. With Quake Live, it seems to either crash or it doesn't - in fact, when I disable AeroGlass, it doesn't crash, but when I have Aero on, it crashes as soon as I join a server.

I tried downloading this Windows update, but when I try installing it I get the message "This update is not for your system".

It looks like this error is fairly common for Vista users, particularly those with nVidia cards. Any thoughts?

[danimal]

why not go get the driver update straight from Nvidia?

[Shannon]

I did - it's update 182.50, the most recent for Series 8 video cards. Also the same one the EVGA (my new mobo) site has. No dice. The Windows update was just a patch that I thought might help.

[Shannon]

I figure the best way to test this is install Vista 32-bit on another one of my blank partitions and see if a game like Quake Live runs. If it does, the problem is Vista 64-bit (and my 8GB is RAM is effectively screwed). If it doesn't, the problem has to be the new motherboard (unless I somehow killed BOTH my cards in transit between the old and new motherboards...highly unlikely).

The only thing that worries me is the fact that I ran the FurMark GPU stress test, and it would literally crash on me within the first few seconds. However, I tried uninstalling the nVidia driver and then playing Quake Live - even though the video was extremely choppy and the sound skipped a lot, it actually worked. So I suppose that means the problem is indeed the driver...but whether the driver was set off by Vista 64-bit or the new motherboard remains to be seen.

And the most amusing part? The motherboard and both graphics cards were manufactured by EVGA.

[Suck It Dry]

I run across the nvlddmkm error on Vista-64 sometimes too, but not in a while, but then again, I haven't gamed in a while either.

Maybe I'm just stuck playing Max Payne.

I would try to find someone on the EVGA message boards (tech support) and try to use that as a resource. I had a bad motherboard and posted there and had a response and a fix within a week.

[Shannon]

I've been shooting a few support emails back and forth with the EVGA folks now, and so far they've been disappointingly unhelpful. They've only told me stuff I already know at this point - update Windows, update the drivers, test each card independently, blah blah blah. No dice on any of that. I even set my memory timings and voltages into the BIOS, with no change. I even updated the BIOS, still nothing.

I actually recalled that, before installing the new motherboard, I had gone ahead and installed Vista 64-bit while I still had the old mobo in place. I installed the graphics drivers and played Quake Live, with no issue. That would indicate the OS has nothing to do with this...leaving just the motherboard.

OHWEUGRJFWKEJ:AOISJOIE WTF IS WRONNNNNGGGGGGGG

::Edit:: I used one of EVGA's own overclocking tools to scale way back on the card clock speeds, and also cranked the fan speeds way up. Didn't do an ounce of good - there was literally 0 improvement in the frequency of driver crashes. Either both cards are bad (pretty much impossible at this point - if they were bad, scaling back on clock speeds should have done something), or the mobo is causing driver issues.

Problem is, I don't know how to fix the latter.

[Shannon]

Ok, maybe it is Vista 64-bit.

I just installed Vista 32-bit on one of my blank partitions, installed only the nVidia and sound drivers, and I could play Quake Live no problem. When I wiped the slate clean and did the same thing with Vista 64-bit (just graphics and sound drivers), Quake Live crashed immediately.

This isn't good.

[Shannon]

Holy crap.

I got a tip from the folks at Corsair that, since I'm using 4 DIMMs, I should scale them back to 800MHz (instead of their stock 1066), and it worked like a charm. I can play any game I want now, no crashes.

I never would have thought to try that. Incredible.

YAAAAAAY MY DESKTOP WORKS!

[danimal]

gratz Shannon