[Solved] nv4_mini.sys BSODs Everything
Hey, all. This is a solved NVIDIA graphics card problem, not exclusive to Guild Wars. I'm posting it here because it took me forever to figure it out, there's almost nothing on the net about it, and my quest involved digging up a thread made over two years ago.
So someone should say something! Especially on a site as web-crawled as this one.
The Problem: Guild Wars (and probably most other games) nukes the system with a BSOD immediately upon asking for some 3D-processing love. Blue Screen Error 0x00000050 PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA because nv4_mini.sys exploded. OS fancies a memory dump and then reboots.
The Solution!: Microsoft Terminal Services shafts Direct3D!
Symtoms:
nv4_disp.dll went untested by WHQL according to DXDIAG. Run Guild Wars and the OS blows up. Test Direct3D Acceleration from DXDIAG and the OS blows up. Sneeze and the OS blows up. You're running either Windows XP (Pro?) or Windows Server 2003.
Quick Fix:
Uninstall Terminal Services. Yes yes I know it's really cool, but this will work. (There may be a slim chance you have Terminal Services installed and don't know it for some reason... to check, go to Control Panel --> Add/Remove Programs --> Windows Components (it's a button on yer left) --> Terminal Server. If that box is checked, uncheck it and rejoice.)
Not-So-Quick Fix:
...I don't know if there is one. If you've got a workaround, post it.
Naturally this means that if you need Terminal Services on whatever system you're using, you're kind of shafted. Unfortunately I haven't found a way around this. This is an NVIDIA problem, so far as I know. Good luck!
(Please don't post here asking something silly like "Y would you use Server 2003 to run games?". Anyone who gets this error on Server knows what they're doing and has their own reasons for doing so.)
Cheers. ^_^
--Gwen
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