I swear to go.......

[ManWithNoName]

Originally posted by: MmmSkyscraper

Originally posted by: Aflac
I've never had nvlddmkm.sys stop, ever.

Same here.

Same here, under XP and Vista.

Edit:

However, when I had one of my many ATI cards I did get the following errors once or twice ....

atidvag display driver stopped responding or device driver was stuck in an infinite loop or something like that.

I'm not going to trash ATI over it though. If I remember correctly the problems went away with the next driver release.

 

[ManWithNoName]

Originally posted by: nRollo

Originally posted by: ForumMaster

Originally posted by: Aflac
I've never had nvlddmkm.sys stop, ever.

ditto. only error i've ever had, was a BSOD from nv4disp.sys which i found was actually caused by an old audio driver i had. this happened onl in GTA:SA. updated the driver and have never had a problem since.

ofcourse, i am still using an old 6600...

This is one factor that would be common to all my rigs- I put my XFi on the shelf when I went to Vista.

I read the way Vista handles the audio stack is different, and Creative's OpenAL workaround had some issues.

Whether that's the reason for my largely good fortune or not, I don't know, but I knew I needed SLi for my monitor more than XFi.

For the record nRollo, my X-FI hasn't caused me any issues since moving to Vista 7-8 months ago. So far I've used a 2900XT, 8800GT, and a 8800GTS 512MB in my current Rig and have around a 120 games installed for myself and my kids. I have titles installed new and old ranging from the Original (EVGA Remake) King's Quest Search for the Crown (son) to Barbie's Royal Horse Show (daughter) to Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Bioshock for me. Yeah, Castle Wolfenetin. Never played it before, pretty good (old) game. RTCW ocassionally starts up without sound and I need to restart it, but no biggie. So pop that X-Fi back in and "Listen to Your Games Like They Were Meant to be Listened to".

 

[v8envy]

0 problems with a 7600GT in about 10 months with xp. Never a blue screen. Of course, the same rig with an X1800XT never had a problem until the card started to die either.

Just ordered an 8800GT, let's see how that goes.

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: taltamir
Oh science preserve me! how many times do I have to say it? can't you guys SEARCH THE FORUMS! I made a specific thread just for that.. someone should sticky it so people stop making such complaints...

Again and again I see people saying "I am switching to ATI cause nvidia drivers crash on me" or "I am switching to nvidia cause ATI drivers keep on crashing on me"... NEITHER is the case... its either a game crashing, or MORE LIKELY, your HARDWARE crashing. Solve your hardware error, or RMA your video card

What you've listed aren't the ONLY causes of the driver stopped error. When I had my GTS 640, I installed a new set of drivers and I started getting that error. I tried numerous things including downclocking and changing to a new PSU and didn't solve the problem.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling about 3 sets of different drivers, beta and WHQL. Finally what I had to do was uninstall the driver...run driver cleaner...boot into safe mode...install the driver in safe mode...then boot as normal and everything was fine....I used the driver that had been working fine up until then. In my case it WAS a driver problem and that specific error is a real pain to troubleshoot since it can be so many different problems. So again...what you've listed doesn't always work and it CAN be a driver issue, not only a hardware issue.

 

[TheDrake]

I have the 8800GTS 640mb for over a year now and never ran into any issues under XP or Vista. I only use the drivers directly from nvidia.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: ManWithNoName

Originally posted by: nRollo

Originally posted by: ForumMaster

Originally posted by: Aflac
I've never had nvlddmkm.sys stop, ever.

ditto. only error i've ever had, was a BSOD from nv4disp.sys which i found was actually caused by an old audio driver i had. this happened onl in GTA:SA. updated the driver and have never had a problem since.

ofcourse, i am still using an old 6600...

This is one factor that would be common to all my rigs- I put my XFi on the shelf when I went to Vista.

I read the way Vista handles the audio stack is different, and Creative's OpenAL workaround had some issues.

Whether that's the reason for my largely good fortune or not, I don't know, but I knew I needed SLi for my monitor more than XFi.

For the record nRollo, my X-FI hasn't caused me any issues since moving to Vista 7-8 months ago. So far I've used a 2900XT, 8800GT, and a 8800GTS 512MB in my current Rig and have around a 120 games installed for myself and my kids. I have titles installed new and old ranging from the Original (EVGA Remake) King's Quest Search for the Crown (son) to Barbie's Royal Horse Show (daughter) to Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Bioshock for me. Yeah, Castle Wolfenetin. Never played it before, pretty good (old) game. RTCW ocassionally starts up without sound and I need to restart it, but no biggie. So pop that X-Fi back in and "Listen to Your Games Like They Were Meant to be Listened to".

I think people can use XFIs better now than they could around Vista launch as well, but it's become a moot point:

No Slots!

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: nRollo
I think people can use XFIs better now than they could around Vista launch as well, but it's become a moot point:

No Slots!

I think you need another fan in there. Those 9+ fans you have just aren't enough for me.

Seriously though, that's a pretty spiffy rig you got there.

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: covert24
If my nvlddmkm.sys driver stops responding one more time, im snapping shit in half. You would think that with the 8000 series gpu's out nvidia would get off their ass and start making good drivers. but nahh too busy buying aegia crap. Its honestly getting old and cant help but thinking that going to ATi would be a beneficial decision right now

Do one of the following if you havent already:

A - Update to the latest drivers, dependant on your situation this may help, the latest ones from laptopvideo2go solved these errors for me on my 8600GT on my lappy.

B - Ditch vista for windows XP

C - Ditch Nvidia for ATI

Whichever is more feasible/cheapest for you.

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Originally posted by: zeroburrito
thats called vista. upgrade to xp. unless you're one of the smart ones that dual boot and ONLY uses vista for dx10.

Quit the FUD. I'm running Vista x64 with no issues at all.

 

[solofly]

Originally posted by: Aflac
I've never had nvlddmkm.sys stop, ever.

I didn't before but with my newly built rig, Asus P5E3 with 4 gigs of ddr3 and so on, I do now. I'm scared of Ati drivers otherwise I would already be looking for an alternative. I had many Ati card over the years and I AWAYS had problems with their drivers. I might give them another chance if Nvidia doesn't smart up but I hope that doesn't have to happen.

 

[ManWithNoName]

Originally posted by: nRollo
I think people can use XFIs better now than they could around Vista launch as well, but it's become a moot point:

No Slots!

No slots? No problem. Just yank one of those 8800GTX's out of there and send it to me. Then you'll have plenty of room.

 

[v8envy]

Hey Rollo, have you considered replacing the side panel and 4 80mm fans with one 20" walmart box fan? Could probably put a furnace filter on it to keep the environment clean.

With that you could remove all the other fans and keep the case nice and cool. And cut down on noise too.

Real suggestion: time for water cooling.

 

[Soulkeeper]

ati cards are actually pretty good imo
i'm looking at the 3850/3870 or whatever they release next for a potential upgrade in another month or two
time to give ati a try

perhaps even moresoo than cpu's one should consider all aspects of a choice between the leaders.
not just who has the highest score on a chart on a review site(big whoop the fastest thing on the market is 5% faster than the second fastest, still tons faster than last year or the year before).

rants are good

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: thilan29

Originally posted by: taltamir
Oh science preserve me! how many times do I have to say it? can't you guys SEARCH THE FORUMS! I made a specific thread just for that.. someone should sticky it so people stop making such complaints...

Again and again I see people saying "I am switching to ATI cause nvidia drivers crash on me" or "I am switching to nvidia cause ATI drivers keep on crashing on me"... NEITHER is the case... its either a game crashing, or MORE LIKELY, your HARDWARE crashing. Solve your hardware error, or RMA your video card

What you've listed aren't the ONLY causes of the driver stopped error. When I had my GTS 640, I installed a new set of drivers and I started getting that error. I tried numerous things including downclocking and changing to a new PSU and didn't solve the problem.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling about 3 sets of different drivers, beta and WHQL. Finally what I had to do was uninstall the driver...run driver cleaner...boot into safe mode...install the driver in safe mode...then boot as normal and everything was fine....I used the driver that had been working fine up until then. In my case it WAS a driver problem and that specific error is a real pain to troubleshoot since it can be so many different problems. So again...what you've listed doesn't always work and it CAN be a driver issue, not only a hardware issue.

thats not a DRIVER issue, thats a corruption issue in the OS where files get corrupted and then "stuck" and would not be replaced on driver reinstall.
OS corruption is a better name for that...

You could try reformatting as a last resort. And installing vista again afterward, not downgrading to XP.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: spittledip
Wasn't there a time when Nvidia had the good drivers and ATI the crappy ones?

The evidence is so anecdotal. I havent had any issues with Nvidia drivers except some weird bug between a 6800GT and the Nforce 3 250 chipset if I installed the Nvidia drivers for the chipset. If I used the standard MS generic drivers it worked flawlessly on any drivers newer than the 67.xx series.

On the opposite side I had a 9600 AIW that was a real bitch to get installed. It required a certain order to install the drivers, control panel, AIW stuff, codecs ect. If you did it incorrectly it shat the bed. And even if you did it correctly it still had a high chance of shatting the bed. Something in the control panel on occasion would cause the CPU to go to 100%. It basically locked the system. You could move the mouse but only in short spurts.

The thing that finally got me was it required the original CD to install the AIW software. Eventhough I owned the card it wasnt enough to let me install the newest software downloaded from ATI's site. Well I lost the CD when I moved and the card is collecting dust in a bin downstairs. And that is most likely the last ATI card I ever buy because of it.

 

[taltamir]

ha, that sounds like creative.

Actually I originally switched to nvidia because of superior drivers. However recently it seems AMD drivers have the edge. (at least in terms of age of cards supported in windows vista 64bit and the scaling of xfire vs sli).

But it really depends, they both have their issues. But the chances that is actually a driver bug are infinitesimal. It might be a driver corruption issue which require cleaning or os reinstall, but thats not a driver BUG.
And 95%+ chance its a hardware issue. I have seen it happen more times then I care to count and it was ALWAYS a hardware issue.