Curse

lakatz · Oct 06, 2008, 04:50 AM // 04:50

This is driving me crazy. It started soon after I got my new computer (with Vista 32-bit). I installed new drivers... and that fixed it... until... some new Vista updates.. then it started all over again. But... right behind the Vista updates, came the nVidia driver update. However, they made zero difference.

So tonight I went to the nVidia site, d/led 178.13, installed it three times... and there was no change three times. I still get black screen, then "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding blah blah blah."

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Thanks for your help if you do.

Lord Sojar · Oct 06, 2008, 05:07 AM // 05:07

The nvlddmkm.sys file embeds itself into ring0 very well. The only way to get rid of it is as follows:

Boot into normal mode.
Uninstall your current nVidia Display Drivers.
Restart the PC, this time booting into Safe Mode.
Once in Safe Mode, run Driver Sweeper (google it, quick and easy program to download)
After Driver Sweeper has finished its process, restart again.
Boot into normal mode.
Install the newest drivers and restart one last time, again booting into normal mode.

This should fix the issue.

However, if it doesn't, we will have to go in and remove nvlddmkm.sys manually. Post here if the problem doesn't go away with Driver Sweeper in Safe Mode.

lakatz · Oct 07, 2008, 04:34 AM // 04:34

Thank you so much Rahj... I followed your instructions, and then put my system through some pretty rigorous graphics testing tonight... the programs that crashed the most yesterday... and so far so good.

I'll let you know if we have a relapse. Otherwise, your method seems to have worked.

deluxe · Oct 07, 2008, 08:34 AM // 08:34

Ati and Nvidia users experience the same problem, this is not a driver issue although it says it's the nvxxx.sys or atixxxx.sys.
Thousands of people have this same problem, and there's not a real fix as of yet. Sometimes it recovers, and you can play on, sometimes it fully crashes.
For some people, disabling transparency helps. For me it didnt, so I went back to Windows XP

lakatz · Oct 09, 2008, 04:49 PM // 16:49

Hi Rahj...

Just a quick update. Things are still moving along smoothly since I tried your fix. Another good thing that came out of it is that soon after I got my computer, Vista started loading really slowly. When I was researching the dread mvlddmkm driver problem, I learned that one of the things it does is slow down start up, and that has been about 200% improved since I used your fix.

Again... many thanks.

Lord Sojar · Oct 10, 2008, 07:54 AM // 07:54

No problem.

Glad to hear everything is running smoothly.

JaiceKarsa · Oct 14, 2008, 10:05 PM // 22:05

I've also had this problem, and only with Guild Wars. Not only is the performance for the game terrible after a few minutes of play, but eventually I get distortion in colors and textures with screen tearing and a BSOD for nvlddmkm.sys. Bioshock, Mass Effect, and others run at full settings with great performance and no crashing.
My card is an 8600m gt (512mb) and i have 4 gb of ram (ive never seen evidence of a memory leak either) The card is not overheating

I reformatted my hard drive (vista ultimate x64) and installed fresh updated drivers, tried using Driver Sweeper for different component drivers (sound card etc) to see if there was conflict. No solution. The problem returns.

Gonna try this, reply, and if it didnt work I'll try installing 32-bit vista or xp.
This PISSES me off.

zamial · Oct 20, 2008, 04:29 AM // 04:29

Ok this looks like the right thread. When the 780i Mobo came out I got 1. I was very happy until NVLDLKM errors and/or BSoD. For months I fought this error, about 3. There are 1000's of fixes for this all "guaranteed" to work Tried them all. I under clocked/overclocked, tried different video card drivers and kept meticulous logs of the whole ordeal.

What is true: NVLDLKM error is a graphics error, when your hardware messes up the last thing to glitch pulls the error. guess what the last thing in the stack to error is? yeppers your video driver, because it was drawing to the monitor at the time of SNAFU. This may or may not have anything to do with the video card or its driver.

What I can not prove but believe: Nvidia/ ATI errors of this nature are actually caused by variations in motherboard lots and surface when driver version changes. Some motherboards work great with 1 bios version while others draw different problems.(like RAID stops working) I believe this is actually caused by chip set "lot" variations. As long as these "variations" exist there are no "perfect" drivers that will work they way they were globally designed to.

Test different bios and video card drivers, the "most current" may not work for you.

While it is true that it is generally a good idea to keep the drivers current, I have learned a valuable lesson, "If it aint broke don't fix it."

Brianna · Oct 20, 2008, 06:22 AM // 06:22

This is about what happened to me and my Vista 64 bit, all was fine for months until one day it just magically decided to start black screening and crashing with video hardware failure errors. I tried updating drivers but I didn't use driver-sweeper, should have probably. I just stopped using it and I use XP now though since I need all the ram I can get atm and I was sick and tired of folders taking 500 years to open for no apparent reason.

Funny thing: After a few months of not using Vista, I used it to play Half Life 2 randomly and I didn't freeze or get black screens at all, somehow it just magically decides when it's going to mess up apparently, because before I could barely be on for 30 minutes without crashing. Whatever though, I'm just going to fully re-format Vista if I start using it again for real, I messed up a lot of programs on it and I can't get Riva Tuner to install on it anymore because it's not ''Signed'' or some crap, and I *need* Riva Tuner unless I want my 8800 sitting at a nice toasty 85C+ with any game up.

At any rate I'll probably note this information if I do use Vista again in the future and it happens to me again. Though my multitude of other problems in general will probably keep me away from it.

Nothing against it though, just couldn't do things I needed to do.

Snograt · Oct 20, 2008, 07:06 PM // 19:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rahja the Thief

The nvlddmkm.sys file embeds itself into ring0 very well.

That might explain his strange behaviour this week. Peace and love.

(Sorry)

FrEaK40 · Oct 22, 2008, 03:31 AM // 03:31

also been happening to me lately, but my comp seems to recover and GW just starts loading slower;however, if I go to windowed mode and back, or close GW it works fine lol

Chronos2k · Nov 15, 2008, 02:00 AM // 02:00

I'm having the same issue. I tried what you said Rahja and the night I did it....I had no problems at all. The next day everything is right back to not working again. Any other ideas? GW is now unplayable. If I'm on for 5 minutes or so it starts going blurry then recovering over and over again until it finally just doesnt recover anymore. Please help.

Chronos2k · Nov 19, 2008, 10:29 PM // 22:29

Heya peeps, I got mine fixed. I pulled the side panel off and found a ton of dust in my fan and heat sync. I cleaned that out and everything it working great!! It amazes me how much dust accumulated in 6 months.