Getting regular blue screens of death and the following error message all too regularly now and game crashes due to display driver error message.
](http://www.flickr.com/photos/mmeako/5556001919/)
Using Vista Home Premium 64 Bit 6 gig ram
i7 Cpu 920 @ 2.67 Ghz
GTX 285 latest drivers installed
What is the best solution ? Do i format and reinstall, do i replace the Video card ?
Your help would be welcome
Hmm, difficult one based on your information.
Are you getting the same issue with other games ?
Have you tried a different driver ? ( or driver download )
Has the game recently started this behavior ?
As a first port of call, make sure you don’t have an infection of some kind.
Virus scanned recently all clear, got kaspersky keeping guard.
PC crashes on on several games and not others.
This has started happening in the last couple of months but is getting worse, seems to be happening every session at least once now.
Got a BSD last night playing ROF that was a first in that game.
I am no techy but i am suspecting the graphics card, but then again it could simply be my rubber band needs winding up for all i know :).
As it seems to be a degenerative condition, that kind of rules out infection or software problems.
Therefore… if the gpu fans and cpu fans are both clear of muck and working fine… and temps are suitably acceptable its a hardware problem *I think.
Try re-seating the graphics card and see if that clears it up.
Ya just took the words outta me mouth Sporran.
I was going to mention the dust/heat build up.
Ive had to do mine again last week although it didn’t appear dusty, and when I blew it out again there didn’t seem to be must dust, but after doing this my CPU temp dropped by a whole 11c at idle and under IL2 load…and I never would have expected that to be honest.
Hope this helps Meeks
Regards
Charlie
Oops…if you do clean the dust from the CPU cooler and other fans etc… dont forget to do the PSU…famous dust gatherers they are.
I’ve been getting BSOD’s when playing Napoleon Total War and have spent a bit of time attempting to resolve.
My system is running Windows 7 64 bit with also with 6Gb memory.
There will be a crash dump file in the C:\Windows folder (Memory.dmp).
You can download WinDbg from Microsoft, which will allow you to open the file. (you’ll also need to put a link to the symbol files). This will give you more info than in the event viewer.
Also check the event viewer to see if there were any critical errors before the BSOD, that could help.
Exception access violation can be associated with a driver accessing memory addresses that it should and can point to faulty drivers, RAM and the things you’ve suggested.
I wouldn’t rule out s/w being at fault, have you recently added any drivers or has windows updated any for you?
download and run driverview to see what drivers the system is loading into your OS.
How long have you been running kaspersky? I’ve seen that referenced in BSOD’s with Windows 7.
I’m not 100% confident I’ve solved the BSOD issue that I have with NTW, but doing various things pointed to either my Saitek Drivers or CH Products drivers. Ripping those out has helped a bit with stability.
Hope this is of use and good luck with it.
Thanks will go through these and try to find the root cause. Based on your list maybe a format and reinstall may be a good way to eliminate most of these. I have already done a backup today with that possibility in mind.
I am also planning on the cleaning out of my pc tomorrow in case dust/fan is an issue .
running Windows 7 64 bit with also with 6Gb memory.
Same here, I had a few BSODs Keets recently that cleared up with Win7 updates
So far anyway <rabbits foot> 
Ming
Me thinks my problem may have been dust, this is my heatsink prior to cleaning.
My Graphic cards fan was very dusty and so was the front of the pc where some of the air gets in.
Time to get online and test.
Aaaaaaatchooooo !
Hows it performing now Meeks?
It’s a lot better but I’m still getting the odd blue screen of death.
If you’re concerned about overheating, downloading and installing speedfan will allow you to monitor temperatures within the OS.
Have you given the debug stuff a go? Anything in the event viewer??
I’m more confident that mine was a driver issue - my system has been BSOD free for over a week and happily running Nap TW.
Trouble is I’ve now got to bite the bullet and re-install my flying peripherals (saitek and CH drivers) which I believe were the cause. For some reason I think I’ll be needing them in a day or two. :rolleyes:
I did not try the Debugging but since the cleaning has not been sucessful in completely getting rid of the BSOD i am trying the debug now.
Speedfan installed and Windbg being installed as i type.
I hope the Debug works Meeks… really I do.
Judging by the dust build up on the CPU heatsink pic that you posted up makes me think something more sinister may be causing the BSOD.
Early days…and as I said before I hope the Debug works ok.
The i7 chip works well when it overheats by shutting itself down. Unfortunately the Mobo socket for the CPU doesnt fair so well.
Good Luck m8
Regards
Charlie
This may help on using Windbg:
http://vista.tutorialref.com/windbg-minidump-tutorial.html
The tutorial specifies using windbg in a command line mode, but you can use it in GUI.
The key bit is to specify the symbol file path.
(create a folder in your c drive root called symbols C:\symbols)
then the symbol file path is: SRVc:\symbolshttp://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols, do this before opening the minidump.
If you’re struggling, zip up your memory.dmp file and email it to me and I’ll have a butchers.
Thnks Keets could not suss Windbg last night but will try the links you have given me.
I do think i have some Software issues with drivers and i suspect Graphics card, i have recently updated my Cards drivers but did not notice immediate issues but i still suspect that.
I am tempted to do a format and reinstall as i have got too much junk on this pc anyway, so while i am messing around i am considering possible upgrades.
Firstly i currently have a EVGA GeForce GTX 285 1024mb GDDR3 card, but seeing what you posted in reply to splash would i benefit from putting this in my system.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-079-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1750
My main board is a Gigabyte EX58-UD3R with a intel Coore i7 920 2.66Gnz chip
with 6Gb of ram
running windows vista home premium 64bit.
Should i put more Ram in ? Should i go Win 7 ?
Should i leave well alone ?
Have you had another BSOD? If so, we need to get the memory dump file to me somehow so I can have a look.
Is the file still v.large?
I might be coloured from comparing running Vista on my laptop and Win7 on my flying PC (with faster CPU, more memory and SSA), but I far prefer Win7. They may look similar, but I think there is a real difference in performance, even if I compare with my PC at work (that is a perhaps 4 year old CAD Workstation).
For upgrades, I wholehartedly can suggest getting a SSD, the Intel SSD I’ve got in this PC is really worth all I payed for it a year ago. If/when I replace it with a bigger one, I will put this one in the laptop, and I bet it will make one hell of a difference in that one as well. So if you don’t already have a SSD, buy one, and install Win7 on it!