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#1
BSOD when I installed nvidia Driver and most times when rebooting
Other than that, things are not too bad.
Per the instructions I read here is some background. I started fixing computers for the Navy in 1968 and got my BSEE in 84. All of that experience revolves around real time controllers (for instance while in the Navy fixing the computer that dropped the bombs on the bad guys, to currently the computer that controls the engine on the cars my company manufactures). So while I am reasonably familiar with how the hardware works and the rudiments of the software, Windows 98 was a mystery to me, and every release since has gotten more mysterious. My hat is tipped to you Windows Wizards.
I am currently running Windows 7 Pro, 64 bit OEM Builders pack on my machine, one where I played systems integrator. Presumably you have all the gory details about it in the attached. It's about 6 months old and I have been plagued with system crashes ever since first power up. Initially the system ran fine with the default video driver Win 7 provided for my Galaxy GeForce 8400GS. The minute I installed the nVidia driver, windows stopped. I have reinstalled Win 7 more times than I remember, and have 27 dmp files to prove it plus the previous ones I deleted. I have exchanged every single bit of hardware at least once, and the video card 3 times. I have used two different versions of the nVidia driver 275.33 and currently 280.26. After the last video card replacement, I accidently discovered that when booting, if I let Windows cycle through bsod's anywhere from 0 to 5 times (when it gets the error, let it restart until Windows does it's thing), Windows does something truely miraculous and the video subsystem works pretty good until I shut it down and reboot. I haven't over clocked anything, or adjusted any settings. I don't know what Windows does to fix it, I just get a popup that says Windows fixed it but neither "it" nor the fix are specified. It also offers some "troubleshooting the issue" help. I took that once, but it resulted in a circle of can't find it or resolve it, then rebooting and going through all that again. Whatever I change, it doesn't seem to matter on any level that I can discern, it always comes down to this:with the default driver I can run for weeks with no issues until the minute I install the nVidia driver. I can reinstall the O/S and the minute I install the nVidia driver, all of the above happens instantaneously and continuosly. In fact, until I stumbled on Win 7 can resolve it for this power on cycle only, I had to reinstall Win7 to get it to work. So what is causing the issue is fairly clear albeit lacking a detailed root cause, it's why and what to do about it that isn't so clear, and why I am seeking help. Especially since I am looking for it, I am finding people all over the place with bsod's involving nvlddmkm.sys although my particular circumstances of having trouble at bootup seems to be pretty singular compared to most others I've seen. They seem to be centered around problems while gaming. Galaxy won't answers my emails anymore, and I just discovered nVidia's forums where I will go through all of this again.