8800GTX issue with Vista Ultimate 64bit SP1?

[dannyc]

Hi all,

I am copying my post from another forum in the hopes that someone on this forum can take a look to see if this is a Vista issue.

*******

I've been reading this forum and Nvidia's official forum for help on my issue. I am pretty much at wits end after searching for a solution online and finally calling tech support at EVGA and getting nowhere. My specs are:

CPU: Q6600

RAM: 4 GB (2x2 Patriot Memory)

PSU: 750W Silverstone (SST ST75ZF)

Mobo: Asus P5E

GPU: EVGA 8800GTX 758 MB

Monitor: 3007WFP-HC Dell 30 inch

Heatsink: Zalman CNPS9500

3 Case fans

Vista Ultimate 64 bit SP1

Everything is stock speed, no changes to voltages, etc.

My issue is that I started getting TDR errors (Nvidia Official TDR Response) when playing Bioshock and Assassin's Creed. To try and fix the problem, I installed the 175.16 driver set from Nvidia. I did not uninstall my previous drivers, I just installed 175.16 on top of my previous drivers. Everything seemed to run fine for a week--no TDR issues, games ran smoothly.

Then a few days ago I was playing COD 4 when the game froze and I had to do a hard reset (this had never happened before as COD 4 was a very agreeable game). Ever since then I get TDR errors whenever I play any game. This wouldn't be too big a deal, but now the problem has migrated so that sometimes when I am in Vista I get display issues where the system just freezes up and the current image becomes pixelated even when I am not playing a game!

To rule out other problems, I ran Prime95 to stress test my CPU, Memtest86 to check my memory, and CoreTemp to insure no overheating. I have the latest bios for my mobo, I updated my chipset and so far no issues with any of my HW components...

So I decided to uninstall my Nvidia drivers in safe mode, ran Driver Sweeper in safe mode, until I confirmed that no traces of Nvidia remained on the system. I tried reinstalling 175.16, 169.44, and 169.25 all with no success. The only thing that worked to allow me to get into Vista normal mode without freezing up is going to a restore point where I know I was stable and then uninstalling the drivers with the method above and installing 169.44. However, I don't think my system is fixed because I just got a TDR (nvlddmkm.sys stopped responding) while surfing the net. The only good news is that my system didn't freeze.

I don't want to play any games as I don't want to have to go through the pain in the a** problem of having to reinstall all of the drivers if the game crashes the system. Does anyone have any suggestions? Did I miss anything? I am tempted to RMA my 8800 GTX, but I am not sure if that will solve anything. Input please--I am literally begging for a fresh look at this!

Thanks,

Dan

[Kelsenellenelvian]

Ok sometimes the nVidia cards only run well with the drivers from the manufacturers website so go there and try the drivers they have.

[dannyc]

Ok sometimes the nVidia cards only run well with the drivers from the manufacturers website so go there and try the drivers they have.

Thanks for the reply. I asked the EVGA tech support person over the phone whether I needed a specific driver from their site (EVGA 8800 Drivers) and he said the only difference was that the EVGA driver just had a different inf file that labeled the graphic card EVGA 8800 GTX instead of 8800 GTX in the Device Manager. Do you think he was wrong and its worth uninstalling and trying the EVGA driver?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks.

[Kelsenellenelvian]

It really can't hurt to try...

You've tried everything else.

[dannyc]

It really can't hurt to try...

You've tried everything else.

Haha. Good point. I sent an e-mail to the tech support person from EVGA who originally helped me to confirm again whether there is a difference. If there is a difference, I'll give a whirl. If not, and I don't receive any other replies, I guess I'll still give a whirl!

BTW, what happens if this doesn't work? Do you think its a software or hardware issue? Do you think a clean Vista install will solve the problem or just be a temporary fix? Thanks again for your input.

[Kelsenellenelvian]

Clean installs are ALWAYS very nice to play with!!!

Thats the only other solution I could offer you as you have (or are trying) everything I could think of.

[dannyc]

Clean installs are ALWAYS very nice to play with!!!

Thats the only other solution I could offer you as you have (or are trying) everything I could think of.

Okay, well after another fatal crash while running a movie in VLC Media Player, I decided to follow your advice and install EVGA driver. Unfortunately, the system is still very unstable.

:sigh:

[dannyc]

Clean installs are ALWAYS very nice to play with!!!

Thats the only other solution I could offer you as you have (or are trying) everything I could think of.

Okay, well after another fatal crash while running a movie in VLC Media Player, I decided to follow your advice and install EVGA driver. Unfortunately, the system is still very unstable.

:sigh:

Okay, as a last ditch effort, I ran Memtest86+ since the last time I posted here and it found 4 errors on the 5th pass, 4th test. I am going to RMA my memory modules, but wanted to check here. Do you think this could be the root of all the issues? I am going to do a clean install of Vista as well, but I just wanted to get another set of eyes on this. Does it make sense that this would cause driver issues and game crashes?

Thanks.

[dannyc]

Clean installs are ALWAYS very nice to play with!!!

Thats the only other solution I could offer you as you have (or are trying) everything I could think of.

Okay, well after another fatal crash while running a movie in VLC Media Player, I decided to follow your advice and install EVGA driver. Unfortunately, the system is still very unstable.

:sigh:

Okay, as a last ditch effort, I ran Memtest86+ again for +12 hours and it found 4 errors on the 5th pass, 4th test. I am going to RMA my memory modules, but wanted to check here. Do you think this could be the root of all the issues? I am going to do a clean install of Vista as well, but I just wanted to get another set of eyes on this. Does it make sense that this would cause driver issues and game crashes?

Thanks.

Edited May 30, 2008 by dannyc