Help Re: PSU and GPU
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towelie_swe




Posts: 1400

PostPosted: Mon, 7th Jan 2008 19:26    Post subject: Help Re: PSU and GPU
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
Gefore 7900GS 256 mb
"Unkown" 400W PSU
Amd Athlon 3800+ 2.06GhZ
2*1024mb Kingston ram
Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit

My problem is that I keep getting "display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered" (Screen turns black for a few seconds, then I'll get grainy dots on the screen). More info here
Mind, it's not quite as random for me, it usually only happens when trying to watch a full screen movie (not every time, but fairly often) or playing a game (which has become impossible due to this).
My PSU came with my case when I bought my last computer, which must be about 5 years ago, and I've no idea what make it is. I do know that it's 400W though.
As it doesn't seem to be just one answer on how to fix this (see the link I posted before), I just thought that the PSU is the one that sounds the most reasonable.
I should also add that I've constantly kept my driver up to date and it's happened with every one.

Any help would be much appreciated and if there's some info I've left out which might be useful just tell me.
Thanks again
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suicid4l




Posts: 256

PostPosted: Mon, 7th Jan 2008 19:41    Post subject:
Sounds like you're getting artifacts as well as the lockups? Sounds like it might be overheating?

Would be helpful to know what brand the psu is and how many amps it has on the 12v rail(s). Part of a process of elimination..

Also if you're updating drivers be sure to uninstall the old ones first then use the driver sweeper from guru3d to remove them properly, preferably in safe mode, before installing the new drivers
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towelie_swe




Posts: 1400

PostPosted: Mon, 7th Jan 2008 19:52    Post subject:
suicid4l wrote:
Sounds like you're getting artifacts as well as the lockups? Sounds like it might be overheating?

Would be helpful to know what brand the psu is and how many amps it has on the 12v rail(s). Part of a process of elimination..

Also if you're updating drivers be sure to uninstall the old ones first then use the driver sweeper from guru3d to remove them properly, preferably in safe mode, before installing the new drivers

It's not actually lock-ups. The screen just turns black for a second or two, the computer works fine in the meantime.
I have uninstalled all of the old drivers too.
How do I see how many amps it got? Does it usually say on the sticker? (Problem here is that I have to unplug everything to be able to see the damn thing and I'm too lazy to fancy doing that Razz)
Thanks though Smile
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whoKnows
VIP Member



Posts: 2972

PostPosted: Mon, 7th Jan 2008 19:58    Post subject:
I have the exact same issue, the only difference is i have an ATI 2400Pro and Windows Vista Business 32bit. I've googled a lot, and it seems like many people are experiencing this problem.

Nothing really fixed the problem, usually a simple reboot is helping, and i'll only get it once or twice a week, rather randomly. My guess is the drivers for Vista are still crap, some people are reporting that going back to XP fixed their problems.
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Phluxed
VIP Member



Posts: 4911
Location: Oakville, Ontario, Canada
PostPosted: Mon, 7th Jan 2008 23:46    Post subject:
I had the same problem - turned out to be my video card. Lifetime warranty on my EVGA 7800GT and I RMA'd it. Everything was fine after that.


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Lutzifer
Modzilla



Posts: 12740
Location: ____________________ **** vegan zombie **** GRRAAIIINNSS _______
PostPosted: Tue, 8th Jan 2008 02:44    Post subject:
i had something similar with an older board and it was the ram, although i also thought it was the gfx-card. I didnt get the grainy dots though (but also sometimes other video-artefacts). They usually point to overheating graphic-ram.
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towelie_swe




Posts: 1400

PostPosted: Tue, 8th Jan 2008 12:58    Post subject:
See, this is what's so shit about this. One says ram, one says video card, one says PSU... I don't want to buy an entirely new computer for this like Sad
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Lutzifer
Modzilla



Posts: 12740
Location: ____________________ **** vegan zombie **** GRRAAIIINNSS _______
PostPosted: Tue, 8th Jan 2008 15:16    Post subject:
well, troubleshooting is a bitch. You have to slowly go from one possible cause and work the line down to the most likely one.
Beginning with heat is the easiest one. Open the case, try to have the room as cool as possible. Use canned air (or your lungs) to make the heatsinks of your components dust-free. Keep the case open, so you can touch the heatsinks in operation and check how hot they get. To be certain it s not an overheating issue, you can also use a big fan on the side of the open pc.

If the problems still persist, report back.

edit: btw. it could also very well be a Vista-Fuckup, condisering their fucked up driver model, that rather focusses on securing the data-channels for DRM-purposes than on performance... ...the best solution would then be to go back to xp and install an aero-theme

2nd. edit: if you cant wait with your troubleshooting and want to check for power-related issues, check the bios and see if the Voltages look like they should be (the settings vs. the read-outs). If the read-outs are abit off, consider raising / lowering some of the voltages. Afterwards disable every device you dont need, except graphics (no fdd, no disc-drives, no secondary hdd, usb and so on). See if the problem persists...
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ManMountain




Posts: 793

PostPosted: Tue, 8th Jan 2008 16:41    Post subject:
I used to have a BFG 7900GT, the thing continually crashed with the driver not responding error in Vista. Happened in games and playing back movies. Drove me up the wall. That problem lay squarely with Nvidias then utterly shit drivers. Of course, Microsoft's default Vista drivers were'nt much better either, as they also gave the same error - but not so frequently. At the time there were many other Nvidia users also experiencing the same problem.

Of course, my solution isn't much help to you, but it was to rip the card out and put in an ATI card - I haven't seen the error since, nearly a year later.
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whoKnows
VIP Member



Posts: 2972

PostPosted: Tue, 8th Jan 2008 17:09    Post subject:
I'd still say it's probably not hardware related. A friend of mine went from XP to Vista, got the same error every few minutes, went back to XP and has no problems since.

My computer is two months old and i got the error a few days after i installed Vista, so more or less from day one i bought the hardware. It doesn't seem to make a difference if you have ATI or Nvidia, both are affected.
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