crippling problem in vista 64
polycounter lvl 12
I'd recently upgraded my computer to vista 64, 8 gigs of ram, and a Geforce GTX280 thinking it would finally give me the freedom to sculpt higher res characters. Instead, I've run into a nightmare problem that makes any 3d work pretty much impossible.
Basically, if I run mudbox or any other graphically intensive program, it will crash within minutes (or even seconds!) with the error "display driver nvlddmkm has stopped responding." It even crashed when I was trying to check out the 8monkey lab marmoset engine
I've been googling the problem trying to find a solution, and while I'm seeing tons of people running into similar issues, I've yet to find a fix that works for me.
Some of the things I've tried include...
-multiple driver versions ranging between 169.25 to to 182.08
-using driver sweeper to do a clean uninstall of my nvidia drivers before reinstalling.
-manually copying nvlddmkm.sy_ and running expand.exe in the cmd window to manually replace nvlddmkm.sys in the system32 folder
-underclocking my GTX280 as far as it would go and cranking up the fan speed with rivatuner, and removing the side of my computer case. This dropped the GPU temp down to about 46 C but it's still crashing.
It's unbelievably annoying because mudbox runs like a champ with millions of polys and then all of a sudden the screen will go black. When it pops back up 1 second later, the mudbox window is pure white and it's no longer responding. The problem only occurs with 3d programs, it's never happened in windows or even with photoshop.
Has anyone here run into this issue? Or have a solution? I feel like I've upgraded my computer into a worthless paperweight. I guess my next step is to take out the GTX and reinstall my trusy 8600 GT but figured I'd ask here first.
Basically, if I run mudbox or any other graphically intensive program, it will crash within minutes (or even seconds!) with the error "display driver nvlddmkm has stopped responding." It even crashed when I was trying to check out the 8monkey lab marmoset engine
I've been googling the problem trying to find a solution, and while I'm seeing tons of people running into similar issues, I've yet to find a fix that works for me.
Some of the things I've tried include...
-multiple driver versions ranging between 169.25 to to 182.08
-using driver sweeper to do a clean uninstall of my nvidia drivers before reinstalling.
-manually copying nvlddmkm.sy_ and running expand.exe in the cmd window to manually replace nvlddmkm.sys in the system32 folder
-underclocking my GTX280 as far as it would go and cranking up the fan speed with rivatuner, and removing the side of my computer case. This dropped the GPU temp down to about 46 C but it's still crashing.
It's unbelievably annoying because mudbox runs like a champ with millions of polys and then all of a sudden the screen will go black. When it pops back up 1 second later, the mudbox window is pure white and it's no longer responding. The problem only occurs with 3d programs, it's never happened in windows or even with photoshop.
Has anyone here run into this issue? Or have a solution? I feel like I've upgraded my computer into a worthless paperweight. I guess my next step is to take out the GTX and reinstall my trusy 8600 GT but figured I'd ask here first.
Replies
edit: according to this site, http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/251477-33-gtx280-power-requirements that card requires at least a 550W power supply
Thanks for the replies.
Right now I have a 750 watt power supply, plus there are additional cables that plug into the GTX to give it more juice. I thought this would be enough, but maybe it's not... It's something I'll have to look into I guess.
Right now I'm wading my way through this 80+ page thread
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=25381&st=80
on the nvidia forums trying every "solution" someone posts. So far no luck... Sigh...
Thanks again though I'll let you guys know if I ever do manage to pinpoint the issue
Edit: Also...Im assuming by higher rez characters you mean zbrush. It's probably worth noting that your video card does absolutely nothing for zBrush. It's all software render, so get an I7 or other multicore and a ton of RAM if you want to buff Z.
You may want to look into the Aero problems. the Aero theme has been fucking with multiple 3d apps and in fact, Autodesk released the 2nd patch (for 3ds max 9) to address Aero's issues. Basically this patch simply turns off Aero Theme when max launchs and then turns it back on when you close out. They list that the patch does other things, but I think mainly deals with the Aero issue.
Of course you could just sacrifice the glassyness theme altogether.
Anyway try that out. it was an issue for me and a lot of other people using art apps...
Thanks for the suggestion, I forgot to mention that I run Vista in "Classic Mode" so no Aero for me. I'm a bit of a minimalist with my computer; I don't have a wallpaper either just a plain blue BG
The latest thing that I have tried is editing the registry based on someone's instructions on the nvidia forums. I changed the TDR value (Timeout Detection and Recovery) from 2 seconds to 7. I'm cautiously optimistic about it. No crashes since I made the edit. It's only been about 30 minutes of testing though.... I've probably jinxed myself now
TBH, if you run Vista in classic mode, you are only gaining a bunch of growing pains and driver issues on the way to Win7...
I should really go back to XP myself, but self destruction always felt right for some reason... but using vista is like starting up smoking, its all for the looks.
my registry edit didn't fix anything either... too tired to mess with it anymore tonight. Oh well
I have the exact same setup (Vista 64, 280GTX, 8GB RAM). I installed BOINC with CUDA support and I kept getting that "display driver nvlddmkm has stopped responding" message.
I uninstalled BOINC and my machine is now super sexually fast with everything I've managed to throw at it and it's crash free, too.
RE: XP64, whilst it uses hardly any system resources compared to Vista64, I found that quite a few of my apps were unsupported and incompatible with it
I have virtually teh same system... but ill get into some more detail to try and help...
Im running Vista Ultimate 64 SP1 with auto updates off... i wont let a single update in after the release of the initial SP1 and as far as I know that is the most stable point Vista has ever been. I always look for that when troubleshooting.
Nvidia 260gtx - 7.15.11.8122 driver ver.
with my admin account I turned tons of shiit off like UAC ect... here
I work in IT so I have a good idea what to shut off in windows and how to get around their shit ect... I havent searched this issue but without makeing a huge post Id visit this site and do his top vista tweaks... all his tips are not great for every situation, but some parts of his top tweaks are pretty much essential.
Black Viper
also, after turning stuff off - I dont use an admin account any longer.... I use a regular user account.
I belive using a user account is more amicable when using Vista, I cant explain it yet, but im sure its true. it sounds stupid, and wont fix your problem but im sure this is true.
Ill check some of my usual IT hangouts for this problem, but havent seen anything really yet specifically...
Have you tried it with Aero on? I used to have problems with Vista turning 3d acceleration off every time I tried to use Classic.
Also, might want to grab a copy of 64 bit Linux and test if its Vista or your hardware causing the problem.
The only problem I had at first was with Mudbox until I tried to run Max in OpenGL mode and then it clicked that it might be linked to that. I think Mudbox uses OpenGL:icon_question: I had the same crash when I tried to play QuakeLive too, again I think this might be using OpenGL?
Sorry, this isn't a solution but it might help to narrow down the issue - try switching Max to Direct3D and see if you still get the same issues?
glynn;
I've never heard of CUDA or BOINC. Googling 'nvidia Cuda' is turning up that they are also drivers... Are they different from the regular forceware drivers?
Micro;
Thanks, I bookmarked the site you linked to and I'll try out some of the stuff on there.
jrs;
I never thought to try it with it on. I'll give that a test tonight.
stoot;
Funny that you mention that, I run max in Direct 3d and it runs rock solid. So probably OpenGL is the culprit. I have the problem in Mudbox, OpenGL games, and also once with the Marmoset engine (not sure if that uses OpenGL)
I'm at work now so I won't be able to run anymore tests till tonight. Thanks again
I'll post the link to the Microsoft knowledge article when I get to work.
This isn't meant as it sounds but I'm glad to hear you're having the same issue :poly124:
I've had no luck finding a solution so it's good to have found someone else with the same issue.
Hopefully Whargoul's suggestion will save us from OpenGL hell!
One of the latest things that I tested was taking out my new 8gb of ram and putting in my old 4gb of ram. I haven't been able to recreate the problem since. Although, to be fair, I haven't had the time to really test it because I was out pretty much all day yesterday. The only reason why I even considered ram being the problem was because a few people mentioned it as a possibility in the 113 page thread on the nvidia forums...
So now I'm wondering if one of the new ram sticks I bought is bad. I'll have to run some more tests. I'll let you guys know if I make any headway
Thanks
The hardest thing to find drivers on xp64 is old old crap, like 10 year old prints, scanners, webcams etc. Any recent hardware will come with xp64 drivers.
Later it escalated into a bigger problem where the screen would start messing up and green/pink/black dots would appear everywhere at random, until the PC wouldnt start up without waiting for the gfx card to cool down.
In the end it was a faulty gfx card which I had to send back to the manufacturer. Good news is the RMA process only took 4 days after sending it and they upgraded it for free since the 8800 GTX was no longer in production (so they gave me a GTX 260)
All other common hardware drivers is easily available... new software should not have an issue with 64bit oses either.
I ran 64bit xp on my work machine for almost 2 years, no issues at all. The only reason I had to swtich was because we had no free antivirus solution for it.
As a test, I took out my 8 gb of ram and put the old 4 gb back in the machine. The problem at that point completely disappeared. Thinking the issue was the ram, I've just been using the 4 gb for right now since I've been so busy with the Dominance War stuff. I haven't really wanted to take the time to extensively trouble shoot and at least I could run mudbox.
After about a full month, the problem reared its ugly head again a few days ago in mudbox as I was putting the final touches on my high res, crashing 3 times in about 4 hours. I ended up losing some work cause of that (false sense of security after it being rock solid for so long).
Anyway right now I'm not really sure what to make of it. Other than the fact it is a giant pain in the ass.
Didn't you buy that xp64 CD on amazon anyways? You could try to install that and see what happens maybe?
Good luck, that kind of problem you're having is such a pain in the ass!
Illusions, why would a mud2009 x32 version cause issues on XP64? Isn't this one of these sneaky misconceptions? For sure it might not use all the ram available, but besides that shouldn't it run just fine? I thought that a x64 os runs x32 apps just fine (when they actually start, obviously)
Its not going to use all the RAM, but part of the RAM he'd be able to address in the 32bit program would be taken up by the 1 gig of video ram he's using that his GTX280 provides...limiting his mudboxing to a paltry 2.5 gig or less.
I haven't run into the same problem, but I'm unable to use multiprocessing when rendering in Adobe After Effects because its 32bit. It wants to assign an equal amount of ram to each running process for each of 4 processors, then dies when AE tries to use more than 3 gig of RAM (3 gig + my 512 mb videocard). I can use all 8 gig of RAM I have available on the machine though, but each 32bit program looks like it can only address 3.5 to 4 gig of RAM minus whatever your videocard has.
For what its worth at work we use vista 64 bit and I have an 8800GTX and that is what caused the issues.
At home I have a 7950GTX on my laptop with Vista Ultimate 64 bit and a desktop with a 9800GTX with Vista Ultimate 64 bit and neither one of these has had any issues what so ever.
My guess is that it has something to do with the 8 series cards. Who knows...