Last, desperate cry for help!

[Helme]

Seeing as im a unemployed bum stuck in Sweden's overqualified requirement work market I can't afford a new computer, which wouldn't really be a problem if my current one actually wasn't somewhat semi retarded when playing.

First of all, I'm pretty good at computers, I've asked for a replacement card and got the same issue, I have about 5 full formats, and about every single nVidia driver version compatible with my card tested, including the custom drivers which name escapes my mind at the moment. It's not a cooling issue(I've checked, it's actually way below what is the standard of this card). I can't test the card in another computer sadly, but apart from that I am up to try anything.

The card is an Asus EN7300LE, 256mb with the ability of TurboCache for another 256mb(I got it turned off, but I have the same problems with it on).

Rest of the computer is an AMD Athlon 3200XP+ 2GHz(AM2) running at 2.4GHz OC'd(tried without overclocking aswell, same problem).

Motherboard is an ASUS M2NPV-MX

Ram I can't remember the exact name and I can't find it anywhere but I know it's 1GB of Kingston 533MHz DDR2 Ram.

Other than that I use onboard sound/lan and I have 2 IDE hardrives, one reaching 7 years of age and one at around 3 years - I've also tried different HDD's and I get the same result, I've narrowed it down pretty much to the graphic card.

The problem is that whenever I play ANY game, no matter what it is - after a certain amount of playtime the game suddently drops EVERYTHING in it's memory and reloads it, this means models, textures particle effects etc. This might not sound that bad but it's basically like rebooting the game without turning it off, and after it's done this the first time - it starts to happen more frequently until either the game crash or I restart the game.

I've found a temporary fix for 1 game, World of Warcraft - forcing the game into OpenGL mode seems to prevent this completly, problem is that most games can't be forced this way and whenever they aren't - I get this problem.

One thing I first figured it to be would be a too weak power supply but I borrowed a friends brand spanking new 520W Corsair PSU and I still experienced the same problem, I'm really all out of ideas at the moment - I can't afford a new GFX card, not even the cheap 8600 one's and it's getting more than annoying having to constantly restart games, it can't really be heavy graphical load either since it does this in fucking Crusader Kings.

Anyhoo, hope someone has any ideas, thanks in advance.

 

[inactionman]

I take it you are on XP?

If you were on vista you'd probably get the message "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered", this is normally either a problem with cooling or a (system) memory issue.

Looking at the tests you've done, run memtest and see if you have duff memory.

 

[Helme]

Yeah it's on XP, I'll give that a whirl and report back.

 

[inactionman]

If that doesn't work, there's also another (unconfirmed) thing you can do. Apparently Nvidia don't clean up after themselves properly, they can leave old versions of files in the system32 folders which can cause these problems when you change drivers. Run Drivercleaner, reboot and then re-install the latest drivers.

 

[Gahn]

Whenever i had problems with either Nvidia or Ati drivers i found my solution here OmegaDrivers.net - Home of the ATI & NVIDIA Omega Drivers. NVIDIA.
Try it

 

[Cromcruaich]

And ensure you have the latest directx distributable.

They update it but dont incrememnt the actual version (just the build) - its been at 9c for a while (for xp) but infact there are quite a few different 9c builds, so grab yourself the latest.

Just to say as well, good advice from gahn, i had older games that werent working - a switch to the omega drivers for my radeon x800 solved my woes.

 

[Helme]

My RAM is fine according to Memtest, and I tried doing a fresh reinstall with drivercleaner, no changes.

Omegadrivers was what I tested before, the name just escaped my mind at the time of the original post, and no they didn't solve the problem

 

[inactionman]

Ok, we're now in the realms of motherboard problems. Are the chipset drivers up to date?

 

[Helme]

Yep, everything is the latest version.

 

[Gahn]

Yep, everything is the latest version.

Firmware wise also?

 

[Helme]

Aye.

 

[inactionman]

Well, I'm stumped. I had this problem as well, and eventually it went away, but that's not acceptable!

Tried installing rivatuner and setting the fan to maximum? Sometimes the fan controls on nvidia cards can be crap.

 

[Kryten]

Can we take it back a step, is this a problem that "just started to happen", happened after an upgrade/software change or has it always done it?

 

[inactionman]

Kryten, TBH the whole nvlddmkm is very weird and almost defies logic.

 

[Kryten]

Aye, had a fair bit of trouble myself back at the start of Vista with that exact issue. In XP though, god knows.

Still, worth a shot before money someone doesn't have is spent

 

[Helme]

No this isn't really a new error, I've had it since I got the computer it just started bothering me now as I stopped play WoW and started play other games who I can't force into OpenGL.

I can't get RivaTuner or nTuner to adjust the fanspeed at all, they options are grayed out - but it really shouldn't be an issue as the card is running at around 65" C under stress.

 

[Kryten]

Strange, that one.

When I had issues previously with Vista, I was originally running on a 7900GS and basically "put up" with the game crashing out/restarting the display driver nearly constantly, but mostly in certain games (EA Games only, notably more Tiger Woods 07).
The problems stopped entirely when I shifted up to an 8800GT, but there's no real explanation to why it would have been doing it in the first place.

Had a brief google around, and a couple of folks with similar issues have suggested disabling hyperthreading for your CPU in the bios. or even disabling (if possible) Turbocache.
Worth a shot if you haven't already.

 

[Helme]

Hyperthreading is an Intel only feature as far as I know, and I have Turbocache disabled via Rivatuner. And ye, this is probably the most weird thing that has happened to my computers over the years, the only thing coming close was the HDD that refused to boot in 1 computer but worked fine in another.

 

[Kryten]

Do check, it's not Intel only
My dual Opteron has HT, can't imagine the same wouldn't apply for AM2 based systems (but then again my knowledge of newer AMD kit short of server-based stuff is limited)

 

[Helme]

Can't find anything in the Bios and after googling it doesn't seem like the XP's has HT.

 

[Kryten]

Fair play

Entirely lost as to what else to suggest. No way you can grab a second hand card from Ebay or something? 7900's going for only 30 euros.

Saying that, no guarantee the problem would be solved

 

[Helme]

I'm looking into selling some of my old CRT monitors at the moment to shake loose some cash to get an 8600GT, the 7000 cards have all been very poor both driver and performance wise from everything I've gathered, it seems it was just a 'jump' series like the 9000 cards are.

 

[Kryten]

That depends on the perspective. I jumped from a cracking 6800GT (bought on release with Doom3) to a then midrange 7900GS, and the difference was astonishing. As I said though, had similar problems to yours with the 7900 until I went up to my 8800GT.

I'd guarantee though, performance is not shit. In fact, a 7900GS/GT will shake a big performance beating stick at an 8600GT. They're far better cards. The change is certainly more noticable there than, for instance, an 8800GT to 9600GT where performance is very similar (8800GT still slightly quicker).

Point being of course, £20 for a 7900GT compared to £60 for the 8600.
I've seen a couple of 7950GT's go for £35 and they're stonking cards. All a help to know when the pennies are tight

 

[Helme]

The 8600 are more like £30-35 here in Sweden, and im expecting a pricedrop on the 9600 card pretty soon aswell with the release of the new series.

 

[Kryten]

Ah, that is indeed true. Fingers crossed then

 

[Gahn]

Can't think of anything else, bar eventually that somehow the combination of Ram speed and Processor clock speed of your Video Card is fuxxored.
Try to tweak a bit the system with this: EnTech Taiwan | Utilities | PowerStrip.