Curse

drkn · Mar 23, 2009, 11:55 AM // 11:55

Hiya

I had a Gigabyte's nVidia GeForce 7300 GT 256 (PCIe slot) card - everything worked fine for over a year, until it broke (or burned, well doesn't really matter - i had some nasty artifacts, the drivers couldn't operate and i had to boot in safe mode, etc). Then I've changed it to Gainward nVidia GeForce 9400 GT 512 (PCIe as well). The card seemed cool, quite a bit more powerful than 7300, until i got my first BSOD and i started to have infinite loops.

After loads of googling and trying almost everything i've found, the problem still exists. Here's what i've tried:
- installing the newest drivers;
- installing the oldest drivers;
- installing the drivers from the cd given with my card;
- uninstalling / disabling all nvidia software but the drivers;
- installing the newest cpu drivers;
- upgrading bios;
- running memtest;
- running seatools for hdd;
- formatting my system partition to run a clean OS;
- downloading some 'nv4loopfix' which basically disables a service or something, too bad it's only for AGP cards;
- playing with the lowest details.

And here's what exactly happens.
Most times when i alt+tab my game, the computer just locks down. It also happens when i maximize the game after alt tabbing (let's say that i need to recheck boss' location on wiki, so i just alt tab and boom, freeze). It sometimes also locks when i just browse the internet (i'm using google chrome now, i've earlier used firefox - both 2 and 3 - and it locked more often than now). It happens also in other games (even as old as Counter Strike), but GW seems to be the most problem. Earlier my computer also locked down at completely random moments, i'm not 100% sure what helped to bring the problem down to 'just' alt-tabbing and rare random locks.
Nothing ever works then, just reset. I don't always get a nv4_disp error in eventlog since i've disabled all other nvidia software, but i'm sure it's still that.

Config:
power supply: ATX 400W, Tracer 4life
mobo: ASUS M2V s. AM2
proc: AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800+ @ 2 GHz
memory: 2 GB (1gb + 2x 512) DDR2 667 MHz CL 5.0 by Kingston
graphic: nVidia GeForce 9400 GT 512 by Gainward
sound: integrated
hdd: Seagate 160 GB 8 MB sATA II
OS: win xp sp2

All suggestions are welcome, maybe someone here will finally be able to help me.

Enar. · Mar 23, 2009, 01:20 PM // 13:20

Had same error. At first it was just error. Driver updates and unistall/install didn't work. In the end it threw me red stripes on screen. ._.
Videocard was broken and i had to get new one.
Tho it happened with nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX .

Suggesting you to check if you still have guaranty of that Card and give it back to them for changing new one.

Socrates The Mauler · Mar 23, 2009, 02:21 PM // 14:21

I've had this happen to me. The cause is the Ntune software, that little applet that sits in your system tray, which allows you to change settings like resolution and refresh rate quicker.

It is a memory leak, thats why you see infinite loop error. Oddly, this error only happened to me during one particular system build, which makes me think multiple things must go wrong in order to trigger it, since I've been using that software on multiple driver versions, on multiple pieces of hardware.

Remove Ntune, or whatever they're calling it nowadays. Problem should go away.

drkn · Mar 23, 2009, 02:41 PM // 14:41

I don't have nTune ;p probably already deleted it.

Gift3d · Mar 23, 2009, 04:45 PM // 16:45

a simple search on google or even nvidia forums will give you the nv4_disp fix

drkn · Mar 23, 2009, 04:57 PM // 16:57

Now read the whole starting post please.

Tharg · Mar 23, 2009, 06:31 PM // 18:31

can you borrow someone else's video card and see if you still have the same problems? Preferably try an ATI card. I know it's an obvious suggestion, but still.

Tharg · Mar 23, 2009, 07:02 PM // 19:02

I checked the forum discussions at www.evga.com. I can normally find solutions for my nVidia problem.

The form mostly mentions heat problems causing this nc4_disp error. I also notice that the video card you are using has passive cooling - no fan - so heat might be an issue. It might just be that the memory on your card is too hot. I have a 8800 GTX that worked fine in the summer, until it got too hot in the winter when the heater in the house turned on. I had to move my computer away from the heater.

Are you overclocking your computer and/or your GPU? If so, try to go back to default settings.

By the way, the 9400 GT is PCIe - not PCI. Good luck!

drkn · Mar 23, 2009, 07:19 PM // 19:19

My old card worked fine until it fried. Never had infinite loop errors and the only thing that has changed since then is the graphics.

My computer is far away from any internal sources of heat, but i might want to get additional cooling as soon as i can afford any. It won't make anything worse ;p GPU's temperature is about 70 degrees at stress moments, while in the card's instruction they said that i shouldn't bother as long as it's below 100.
I think i'll just try some external, small cooler we sometimes use for cooling ourselves in summer and see if it helps anything before i buy anything new.

I've never overclocked or tweaked anything but software (some little thingies in OS that is), but i've always tried to reverse the changes and check if i made any mistake, so that's not the issue.

And yeah, it's a PCIe, thanks for pointing that out

Still, any new suggestions but additional cooling are welcome!

drkn · Feb 08, 2010, 07:48 PM // 19:48

hello again.

the loop still haunts my machine. after deleting nearly all software connected, even remotely, to the graphics card, i don't get BSODs. now, the computer just locks down and nothing can be done; after a while of moving the cursor, the beeper starts to whine.
the only way to escape the lockdown is to hit the reset button.

it's not a problem of overheating - i've used an additional fan, even in damn cold room in winter, and it still occured.
sometimes it happens when browsing pages via firefox (oddly enough, chrome seems to work completely fine) and more often than not, when alt+tabing from a full-screen game to the desktop or vice versa.

maybe someone has any ideas now, after almost a year has passed?

e: just read my first post the second time, seems like i just repeated myself as it's the very same problem i always had. well, crap.

Quaker · Feb 08, 2010, 08:34 PM // 20:34

Make sure that Windows and all drivers are up-to-date. "All drivers" includes sound, chipset etc. - it's not necessarily the video card or video drivers that's causing the problem. I've had cases where a Windows update has caused problems with older drivers.

Trinity Fire Angel · Feb 08, 2010, 08:40 PM // 20:40

i had the same PCI card and the same error i could never get rid of. in the end i got a new motherboard with an AGP slot and an ATI card (i had an old P4 chip). or... dig deep and get ye a new PC.

oh, the other alternative is just try and find a good ATI card for PCI slot. sorry... that;s how i fixed this never ending problem.

Bob Slydell · Feb 09, 2010, 11:09 PM // 23:09

My ATi Radeon x1600 used to cause BSOD's followed by the Infinite Loop message. The only thing that got rid of it was time... reinstalling as far as wiping Windows, formatting and reinstalling it didn't actually fix it. I use a Mac (windows installed to play games), and it had problems in OS X as well.

I think there is a VRAM virus out there somewhere, I knew my card wasn't going bad. This was months ago.