Help me solve my TDR under Vista!

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by samthunder, Nov 29, 2007.

  1. samthunder

    samthunder Private First Class

    System specs:
    Asus A8N SLI Premium
    AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0 ghz
    Nvidia 7800 GT -(163.19 drivers currently, although fail occurs with everything)
    CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)
    Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit

    I'm experiencing the same sort of TDR "nvldkmm.sys has stopped responding and recovered" that 1,000's of people are reporting on Nvidia's driver forums but I had no luck there so I wanted to see if maybe anyone had more insight here.

    The crash occurs most frequently when trying to display video or games, but can occur on displaying the desktop or browsing the web too. Most of the time if I quit the program immediately I can avoid a full crash, but I do get weird blue pixels and yellow horizontal lines corrupting the image on my screen. I just bought my first new monitor in years, an LCD that I'm really excited about and I'm determined to fix this problem once and for all so I can get some use out of my machine.

    Changing drivers versions, deleting the "nvldkmm.sys" file from the windows/system32/drivers folder, formatting and reinstalling Vista (at least five times) have all produced mixed results...sometimes I can solve the problem for a few days, sometimes a few minutes, but mostly not at all. There doesn't seem to be a consistent pattern to getting around the TDRs.

    Today, out of desperation, I unplugged one of my sticks of RAM to see if I have a bad memory module (although Memtest says they're fine). The first one I removed didn't change anything, but removing the second (and replacing the first) let my computer go from the "glitchy" mode to pristine color and performance immediately. So, I thought I might be onto something there.....I gamed for maybe 30 minutes in joy, then I quit and tried some video...and crashed with the same error message. This time it didn't produce the same graphics corruption as usual, just a blackout and a refusal to play video. So my final hypothesis is that maybe its my RAM overheating? I am sorry to type out a freakin manifesto, but I want you to know where I'm coming from.

    Is it my Ram overheating despite having the side panel open, and a 120mm fan in both the front and rear? If so, whats the easiest fix? According to BIOS my CPU is running nice a cool.... (i forget the exact number)Thanks much. (and congratulations if you made it this far)

    Edit: I'm using this add on fan in addition to this case

    Neither one appears to be pushing a whole lot of air now that i look...anyone tell me how to adjust that?
     
  2. gimpster123

    gimpster123 Bring out the Gimp.

    is your GPU overheating?

    you said thousands of people are reporting the same problem? surely someone must have gave a solution

    does your onboard video work?
     
  3. samthunder

    samthunder Private First Class

    On the Nvidia driver forums alone there are threads with 1500 replies, not all of them separate users. I guess I may have exaggerated, but it's not an isolated thing. I never had a problem before Vista (running high-end games, videos etc), and reportedly ATI users have similar problems. I'm assuming Vista is just a lot more taxing on the systems. My GPU doesn't seem to be heating up quite as much as my RAM. BIOS lists my core temperature at something quite reasonably low, but I don't have the exact numbers at the moment. I'm more than willing to try for more cooling, but with my setup I am just wondering the best way to go about it.

    I have a 120mm fan in the front of the case (for the HD's) and one in the rear. I don't have software (or the knowledge) to adjust any fan-speeds but if someone wants to explain that to me I'd appreciate it. Do I need to add another? Would it help to put the side-panel back on my PC? I think they are both blowing inwards, but its hard to tell as it seems like they're not moving much air at all (piece of paper held in front doesn't waver much at all). So yeah, I guess I need suggestions on cooling.

    Yikes, I just installed Speedfan and according to that I have a core temp of 95 F or 35 C but there are two readings that are up to 126 C (258 F). I don't know if that can even be possible, and I haven't figured out which temps those refer to as the interface isn't entirely clear. Help?!
     
  4. samthunder

    samthunder Private First Class

    Sorry to "bump" but i had an update. Removing both sticks of memory and moving them to the alternate slots also solved my problem. So I can pretty much instantly "clear" the problem (at least temporarily) by removing and reinserting my RAM. Does that help suggest how to fix the problem more permanently?
     

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