Nvidia Drivers Fix 1.5 for 8 Series Cards

[tedhealy]

These drivers didn't help my vista 64/8800gt combo. My rig crashes at completely random times though, not necessarily in games, sometimes on a blank desktop with nothing open, sometimes with lots of stuff open, or a game. My bluescreen mini dump mentions nvlddmkm.sys so I hoped these would fix it but I still get random lock ups. What really makes me angry is I had zero crashes until the past month or two, now I get near one a day or every other day completely randomly.

[Defiance]

Hiya,

What's the weather been like temp-wise in your area ??

Seems if you got on ok before it maybe heat related (longshot as nvlddmkm.sys cropped up you said)

Try this ...........

Uninstall as i describe (think page 1 etc) and try ............

169.02 -> 169.25 -> and if they still play up try the 175.16

Nvidia are in a state over ATI's new card release (more to come )

Drivers are gonna be flying out from nvidia now lmao

Out of all the Vista and nvidia series 8 cards you're the 1st one that's had/having probs with a GT (to my knowledge that i know of) , My problem stems from my older 8800gts 640 and most others are the 8800GTX

All's i can suggest is rollback a few driver releases and try (making sure you have got shut of drivers properly)

Delete any nvkddmkm.sys files from inside the system32 folder which is in C:\windows\system32 in here delete the blighters if any remain

Sometimes if one etc remain there, They don't/can't/won't get deleted or altered so nvlddmkm.sys probs occur

Tell you what, gone 12:20am here now, If you can can ya take screenies of these folders for me so i can see whats what .............

System32 but just a screanie showning all the Nv area (scroll down til you get to nv obviously)

And also the FileRepository which is in system32 folder, again around the nv area inside the filerepository

May help me try and suggest something

ps: How are you at getting into motherboard bios etc and changing settings ??? may need a few more Vcore volts or ram could do with a notch raising or even the northbridge volts (reading again i think your rig may have become unstable so could not be the drivers, another longshot but ya never know and a notch of juice through things to varify aint gonna blow ya pc up (trust me i'm nuts) lol J/K))

Could have a crack at that side of things is you're ok at going into the bios ?? or if weathers been warmer maybe just heat related, That many options i can throw around so just shooting from the hip

pps: You aint got OCZ brand memory at all have you ????

Ciao

Def

[tedhealy]

I just installed 177.39 drivers and I'll see how that goes. Oh I also lowered the factory overclock on the gpu and gpu ram by about 10mhz each. I thought I had it licked as up until today the comp had run 4 days without a lock up. Locked up while idle while I was away. Hard lock up too, no error was trapped, usally I'll at least get something in the mini dump.

I'm overclocked and the system is rock solid (other than this damn random crash of course) - prime 95 run for 12 hours overnight recently, various other mem tests have been run and I'm fairly confident hardware is not the issue.

Temps are fine idle and under load for both cpu and graphics card, heat is not the issue. Idle is a shade under 30 cel and load hits about 45-50. Volts are all good - have a very good corsair 520 HX PSU.

Looking in my system32/drivers folder, the latest nvlddmkm.sys is there, it's not an old one. I can't seem to delete the 4 or 5 hanging around in other folders though, even after uninstalling nvidia drivers and trying in safe mode.

A list of things I've tried - older/new sound + vid drivers, relax ram timings, up ram volt, kill overclock and go stock, increase cpu volt, turn off intel speedstep/C1E, turn on/off ACPI, up NB volt, reseat the ram, reseat the vid card, check all power connections, remove some fans, add some fans, uninstalled quite a few programs, turned off vid card settings + set to performance over quality...as you can see I've tried numerous things. Just about everytime I get a crash I try something different. I've thought about doing a format and reinstall but I've read too many other people doing this and not fixing the issue so I'd rather not go through that.

Some stretches I'll get 2 or 3 a day and others I can go 2 or 3 days without one.

running

Vista64 Ultimate
ASUS p5k-e with latest 1013 bios - was the first thing I updated when I started getting crashes, had a much older bios and I've gone through 1 or 2 new bios as they come out with same results
Q6600 overclocked to 3.0 ghz (333 fsb), about 1.29v
2 sticks of Mushkin 6400 ram, 2 gig each, running a 5:6 divider to stick right at 400 at 5-4-4-12 and 2N
EVGA 8800 GT factory overclocked to 650/950 - right now I dropped that some to 635/940

Things on my list to try in the near future: one stick of ram, move the ram to different slots, underclock cpu/ram/vid card, see if I can go back to a much older bios. Last but not least I'm running ultimate's dreamscene on my desktop and I have previously turned it off and still got a crash, but I think I'll try turning that off again.

[Defiance]

Heya Ted,

Here's a snippit that might help you to remove those last files etc ...........

1. Turn UAC off. If you like it, then you can keep it running.

2. Uninstall any Nvidia drivers, and delete the remaining files from Program Files (the ones windows lets you delete)

3. Restart the PC into safe mode - (F8 at boot)

4. Find any remaining NVidia driver files (normally start with nv) and delete them.

5. Reboot into normal mode Vista

6. Using Explorer or open My Computer and browse C:\Windows\

7. Right-Click on System32 folder and click ‘search’

8. Enter NV*.sys

9. This will show you all the Nvidia system files in the folder. The ones we are interested in is the ‘nvlddmkm.sys’ and how many copies we have.

10. If you tried multiple install/uninstall you will a few copies of it. I had 19 copies. If you look at the location, they were all in the ‘FileRepository’ folder under different subfolder. Something like nv_as***, nv_io***, etc

11. Note down the name of the sub folders where the file is located, nv_as***

12. So we now know that we have X copies of the nvlddmkm.sys file and what folders they are located in under the FileRep folder. There might be one under the main system32 folder as well. Note it down.

13. Vista has a totally awesome function. ACLs for network geeks…Access-Control Lists or Access-Lists or whatever you want to call them

14. Browse to Accessories from the Start menu (win icon>all programs)

15. Right-Click on command and click ‘Run as Admin’

16. OK so in our Admin CMD window we type the following commands in sequence

17. takeown /f C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\*.*

18. The command above will give you ownership of all the files under the FileRep
folder

19. cacls C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\*.* /G Username:F

20. Replace username with your windows account name or login name

21. Like magic we are done. Oh and if your wondering…u cant do the above via GUI. Windows will give you permission but you would still not be able to delete anything ?

22. Earlier we did the search for the nvlddmkm.sys under the system32 folder. Do that again. In the search results, select all the instances of the nvlddmkm.sys file and delete them. OK, next is a totally optional step but I did it to make 100% sure it was all gone.

23. We noted down all the nv_as**, etc folder which had the nvlddmkm.sys file in it, delete the folders and empty your RecBin

24. Fire up your ForceWare drivers for the install. Disabled your Aero Vista before hand, it does make a difference.

25. Restart, login, set your resolution and enjoy the whole error-free nvlddmkm.sys effect.

Credit goes to another person

Reading through that should help you remove stubburn stuff

What i do myself to get an admin prompt, I goto start anf type in cmd.exe, Then i hold ctrl+shift+enter This i find gives a true admin cmd

Have Fun

Ciao

Def

[Defiance]

PS: My rigs overclocked, And my card (soon to be ATI's in crossfire ) i bios flashed with highest mem/core/shaders that i found stable

Don't go thinking the problem is your OC as personally i'm sure it's just the mix of nvidia crap drivers (hmm but now, hey presto as if by magic they have decent drivers) plus vista's UAC (even hidden when you stop UAC) so it comes down to getting unremovable odds n sods removed, Then at least a later/leaked driver has a chance of fixing things

Nvidia imho have been milking us consumers because up until now ati had flagged somewhat, But now prices should come down as we have a decent choice once more

Nvidia ...........
A: With poor drivers that may not address or even try to fix problems !
B: Then having to upgrade a card/s to get a fix or hope it did !

Fact is all drivers i tried and i swear i tried everything i could lay my hands on for vista x64 never worked as they should and didn't attempt to fix the series 8 nvlddmkm.sys problems, BUT along comes a leaked 177 driver and bobs your uncle all is fixed

Fix was in the Driver all along so was Not a hardware issue at all

Heard so many older GTS/GTX owners buying next models up etc to sort a fix and yet nvidia could of fixed things but how would they of sold the next cards

Just think how many people have spent money on other cards to cure this and other problems !! Think nvidia are worried that people have had to buy 2 or 3 cards to get a fix ?? Heck No they're laughing all the way to the bank

Rant Over lol

Ciao

Def

[tedhealy]

Thank you very much for the info, bookmarked.

Currently the rig has been stable for almost 24 hours now after underclocking the gpu and going to the 177.39 drivers. I'll see how it goes as I've been here before thinking maybe it's finally been cured. If I get another lock up I'll give your instructions a try, many thanks again

[snakeyez]

THANK YOU!

For the first time since v1.5 came out, I've been able to play SH4 with no problems whatsoever for over 2 hours.

That's with the 32 bit Vista 177.26 drivers running my BFG NVIDIA 8800 GTS video card.

Yaaay!

[Defiance]

snakeyez,

Glad you're up n running

Have Fun

Ciao

Def

[Doolittle81]

Originally Posted by Rip

Well I have played a few more hours and have yet to make these babies crash. I have watch explosions up close, zipped through fire, smoke and oil fires with reckless abandon and changed cameras while in high TC without regard to crash prevention. It will take a good reason to get me to upgrade my drivers again.

Now back to the war.

Too many numbers being bandied about. Could you tell me precisely which 177.XX drivers you are using so successfully? Thanks.

[Rip]

Originally Posted by Doolittle81

Too many numbers being bandied about. Could you tell me precisely which 177.XX drivers you are using so successfully? Thanks.

I am running the 177.26 drivers linked at the beginning of the thread. Without any crashes I haven't had motivation to try any newer ones. BTW I still have yet to CTD or bluescreen since installing them.

[Defiance]

As Rip said

The actual driver is for the nvidia latest card/s gtx 260/280 177.26

These work with a modded .INF i included (this allows driver to work on non new gtx cards )

I'm rock solid still still, Lovely torp explosions (when i get a victim to torp that is lol)


ps: Tried other later drivers and still finding the 177.26's best

Ciao

Def

[snakeyez]

Originally Posted by Doolittle81

Too many numbers being bandied about. Could you tell me precisely which 177.XX drivers you are using so successfully? Thanks.

DOOLITTLE81! You've gotta try these 177.26 drivers listed in the original post in this thread. You can finally turn on all the goodies (post processing, etc) and not get those darn crashes when torpedoes explode.

Now if I can just make myself not mess with my drivers again anytime soon...

[schurem]

Holy frackin saviour on a horse made out of metal! this stuff works! w00t! i'm back in the game. my gf is SO not happy with you guys

[Defiance]

Lmao,

Well glad you're back up n running

Sorry your GF aint too happy :rotfl:

Could always try to convert her by showing her some nice sunsets/rises :hmm:

Do what i do, Let her click mouse to fire a torp or two, My ones face lights up when a torp explodes lol

Have Fun

Ciao

Def

[Rip]

Originally Posted by schurem

Holy frackin saviour on a horse made out of metal! this stuff works! w00t! i'm back in the game. my gf is SO not happy with you guys

By her a ticket and send her my way. I'll cheer her up.