NVIDIA and Windows XP crash - RESOLVED

[Acragas]

So, here is the situation.

I used to have a Geforce 3 TI200 installed on my computer, and I noticed something funny - when I used NVIDIA driver version 23.11, everything ran fine, but if I ever used a newer driver version, my computer would instantly crash whenever I ran a 3D game. Since the 23.11 worked alright with that card, I didn't think much of it.

Now, I have a Geforce 4 4200, and I have the same problem. However, since the 23.11 won't work with this card, I'm pretty much stuck. Whenever I try to run a game in 3D, no matter what driver version I use (and I've tried pretty much all that are still available at NVIDIA), I always crash right away. I've done this with multiple games, so I know it can't be a software issue.

Out of pure frustration more than anything, I tried an operating system reinstall, this time doing a 98/XP dual boot. While XP has all the same instant-crashing problems, everything ran just smoothly with windows 98. So, since this has happened to me on numerous games, with multiple video cards, and only on XP, I'm left to conclude that it must be an issue between XP and the new generation of NVIDIA drivers.

If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

My system specs:

AMD Athlon 1.33 ghz
Asylum Geforce4 4200
IWill KK266 Motherboard with VIA KT133A chipset, newest VIA Hyperion drivers, most recent bios installed
512 MB SDRam
Game Theatre XP
Windows XP with all updates installed (doesn't work)
Windows 98 with all updates (does work)

 

[leolaw]

I dont have to my though.
I am using GeForce ti4200 and windows xp pro.
the driver i am using is 43.45 which is the version now available on nividia.com
I have the same problem as you do when i was using the Personal Cinema Geforce MX 420.
Then I figure out that becuase i have a SIS 650 chip stuck on the motherboard and may be interfere w/ the MX 420 when loading the BIOS b4 booting into Windows xp.

Do u have a graphic chip on the board which you dunno?

 

[Acragas]

No graphics chip on this motherboard, that I'm certain of. Also the 43.45 version is the first I tried, and the first that gave me problems. Those 43.45 work just fine under win98.

Also, because I forgot to be clear, the version of XP I'm running is Pro

 

[WebDude]

Something to try: go into your bios and set all your RAM timings to the most conservative possible. I had a problem with a Ti4200 which would also crash my system whenever 3D games were run, but otherwise gave me no problems. Cutting back on the RAM timings eliminated the 3D game problem. Later I was able to restore the original RAM timings by boosting the RAM voltage, but not all mb's allow this. No idea if this will help you, but couldn't hurt to try.

 

[Viper96720]

power supply maybe?

 

[Insidious]

What is "Game Theater XP"?

 

[John]

Originally posted by: Insidious
What is "Game Theater XP"?

What is Google?

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: Viper96720
power supply maybe?

test..also..

512 MB SDRam

test..esp. if more than one stick..under XP...turn off Reboot upon error...you want an old style BSOD to get some info to work with..Start>Control Panel>System>Advanced(Startup and Recovery..click Settings..make sure AutoRestart is off)

 

[Acragas]

Originally posted by: Viper96720
power supply maybe?

Before I spend money on a new supply (which, honestly, I should probably do anyway) I should ask - if this were the problem, wouldn't I be having the same issues under Windows 98? Or is XP more of a "power-sucker" somehow?

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: Acragas

Originally posted by: Viper96720
power supply maybe?

Before I spend money on a new supply (which, honestly, I should probably do anyway) I should ask - if this were the problem, wouldn't I be having the same issues under Windows 98? Or is XP more of a "power-sucker" somehow?

can be and where's the BSOD info...?

 

[Acragas]

can be and where's the BSOD info...?

Technical information:

STOP: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0xBFA06ACC, 0xEF21775C, 0x00000000)

nv4_disp.dll - Address BFA06ACC base at BF9B8000, Datestamp 3e7a99d9)

 

[chizow]

Looks like the infinite loop bug. Update your board drivers, might be your GART/AGP driver. I'd also pull non-essential PCI cards and see if that stops the crashes. Check your board makers site and see if they have a patch for the GF infinite loop bug. This was a pretty common problem for a while with older VIA chipsets, but I didn't think it affected ALi chipsets.......

Chiz

 

[Insidious]

Originally posted by: Acragas

can be and where's the BSOD info...?

Technical information:

STOP: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0xBFA06ACC, 0xEF21775C, 0x00000000)

nv4_disp.dll - Address BFA06ACC base at BF9B8000, Datestamp 3e7a99d9)

That confirms the video card hypothesis

I've used the following to completely remove all remnants of video drivers with good success in the past. Maybe try this and have an unzipped version of your latest Detonators ready to point to on the next boot:

I found this procedure in the GURU3D forums. It?s great for a total clean-up of old detonator driver before applying the new one.
I have never tried the portions in starz, so I can?t vouch for their effectiveness. The rest seemed to work great!
1) Run Regedit and navigate to this key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr
entVersion
2) Record the locations entered in the "Device Path" value..
3) Search these locations and also, if not included, these below also for any nv3.*nf, nv4.*nf or nv4_disp.inf files and delete them.
C:\WINDOWS\System32\ReinstallBackups (allsubfolders)
C:\DRIVERS\VIDEO (for Dell Systems)
C:\WINDOWS\Inf (which should be the first entry in the device path)
4) Uninstall and reboot - you should be using the standard VGA controller at this point - but if not dont worry.

*********NEW SECTION OF ADVICE**********************
5) Add ";c:\nvidia" to the end of the device path value (without the quotation marks).
6) Create a folder at c:/nvidia and extract new drivers here.

Note: For future updates - extract new drivers to c:/nvidia then uninstall Dets and reboot- afterwards the new drivers will install automatically. Then reboot again and use the RefreshTool and then reboot again and you're ready to go.
***************************************************

7) Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic

es\nv4 and delete this key.

Note: (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servi
ces\nv is the key which is used for detonator drivers whereas the nv4 is only for OEM and stock XP drivers)
8) Got to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro
l\Video
and delete any keys (eg. FF890-7895-7896-3611) which refer to detonator drivers.
(Uninstall drivers if not working under standard VGA) and reboot.
9) Drivers should now be installed automatically. Reboot and use the refreshTool. Reboot and you're ready to go.



****TO DISABLE AUTO-INSTALL OF ALL DRIVERS*********
Export the Device Path value in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr
entVersion for backup purposes.
Now delete the Device Path data (all the locations entered).
XP should not be able to auto-install drivers without you manually pointing to them.
***********************************************
note: the 'uninstall' step refers to using 'add-remove programs' in control panel to uninstall the dets.

PS: DON'T install anything of the software that you received with the video card from it's manufacturer.

-Sid

PPS: When you install your Detonators, DON'T do it by double-clicking the .exe you downloaded from NVidia. Instead, unzip that file and use the device manager to upgrade the driver and point to the unzipped file(s)

 

[Acragas]

Originally posted by: chizow
Looks like the infinite loop bug. Update your board drivers, might be your GART/AGP driver. I'd also pull non-essential PCI cards and see if that stops the crashes. Check your board makers site and see if they have a patch for the GF infinite loop bug. This was a pretty common problem for a while with older VIA chipsets, but I didn't think it affected ALi chipsets.......

Chiz

WINNER!

Took quite some looking to find a new AGP driver for my board, since Iwill was (shockingly) of no help whatsoever. I ended up installing Miniport 5.33 from AMD, and all seems to be well ... for now.

Funny that this problem hasn't shown up before. Was there something unique with the 23.11 detonators that prevented this problem from occuring?

 

[Viper96720]

Um those won't do anything for your board since it doesn't have an AMD chipset. The 4in1's should have the AGP drivers included with it.

 

[Mem]

Took quite some looking to find a new AGP driver for my board, since Iwill was (shockingly) of no help whatsoever. I ended up installing Miniport 5.33 from AMD, and all seems to be well ... for now.

You`ve a VIA KT133A board right so the AMD Mini-port AGP driver should not be installed,you need the VIA AGP driver which`s in the latest Hyperion 4-in-1 pack,the AMD mini-port driver is for AMD chipsets like AMD 760 etc.

 

[BenSkywalker]

You`ve a VIA KT133A board right so the AMD Mini-port AGP driver should not be installed,you need the VIA AGP driver which`s in the latest Hyperion 4-in-1 pack,the AMD mini-port driver is for AMD chipsets like AMD 760 etc.

Is there any reason why not? I have a version of AMD's AGP drivers that I used on all my VIA based AMD boards, would try VIA's drivers and always end up reverting back sooner or later. Never had a problem with the AMD drivers. For the record, I also ran SounBlaster PCI64 drivers for the lifetime of my Ensoniq soundcard, have been running the 'wrong' drivers for my modem for years and also do it with my add in NICs. Yes, you have to ignore the Windows warning about not being written for your hardware when using the 'wrong' drivers, but if they work better...

 

[Mem]

Is there any reason why not? I have a version of AMD's AGP drivers that I used on all my VIA based AMD boards, would try VIA's drivers and always end up reverting back sooner or later. Never had a problem with the AMD drivers. For the record, I also ran SounBlaster PCI64 drivers for the lifetime of my Ensoniq soundcard, have been running the 'wrong' drivers for my modem for years and also do it with my add in NICs. Yes, you have to ignore the Windows warning about not being written for your hardware when using the 'wrong' drivers, but if they work better...

I`m taking about full VIA chipsets ie both the northbridge and southbridge are VIA,those you should install VIA drivers only,as for hybrid chipsets where you`ve AMD chipset for the northbridge(AGP apart) and VIA for southbridge then you can install the AMD mini-port AGP drivers as well as VIA 4-in-1 drivers(apart from VIA AGP driver which should`nt be installed on these hybrid chipsets).

He has a full VIA chipset board so I would just install the VIA recommended drivers only.

If you want to install the wrong or incorrect drivers, fine nobody is stopping you,but you should be able to get it working right with the correct drivers in the first place .