Windows 7 BSOD - But only when playing games

Hi there

For the past month or so, since I installed windows 7, my machine crashes to BSOD when I'm playing games (primarily City of Heroes). There's no specific time or cause I can see. Sometimes I can play for hours, sometimes it crashes twice within 10 minutes.

I'm totaly lost here and need some help. I've attached the last mini dump in the hope someone can point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Fenris said:

Hi there

For the past month or so, since I installed windows 7, my machine crashes to BSOD when I'm playing games (primarily City of Heroes). There's no specific time or cause I can see. Sometimes I can play for hours, sometimes it crashes twice within 10 minutes.

I'm totaly lost here and need some help. I've attached the last mini dump in the hope someone can point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi Ferrris and welcome

This one is pretty straight forward. It was caused by your video driver (nvlddmkm.sys)

I would download and install a fresh copy

I would also run a system file check
type cmd in search>right click and run as admin>sfc /scannow

Let us know the results

Ken

Code:

Microsoft (R) Windows Debugger Version 6.11.0001.404 X86
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


Loading Dump File [C:\Users\K\Desktop\020610-20077-01.dmp]
Mini Kernel Dump File: Only registers and stack trace are available

Symbol search path is: SRV*d:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
Executable search path is: 
Windows 7 Kernel Version 7600 MP (2 procs) Free x86 compatible
Product: WinNt, suite: TerminalServer SingleUserTS Personal
Built by: 7600.16385.x86fre.win7_rtm.090713-1255
Machine Name:
Kernel base = 0x82a15000 PsLoadedModuleList = 0x82b5d810
Debug session time: Sat Feb  6 11:22:59.086 2010 (GMT-5)
System Uptime: 0 days 0:28:28.740
Loading Kernel Symbols
...............................................................
................................................................
......................
Loading User Symbols
Loading unloaded module list
.....
0: kd> !analyze -v
*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE (116)
Attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed.
Arguments:
Arg1: 86b5e008, Optional pointer to internal TDR recovery context (TDR_RECOVERY_CONTEXT).
Arg2: 948c7150, The pointer into responsible device driver module (e.g. owner tag).
Arg3: 00000000, Optional error code (NTSTATUS) of the last failed operation.
Arg4: 00000002, Optional internal context dependent data.

Debugging Details:
------------------

Unable to load image \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\nvlddmkm.sys, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for nvlddmkm.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for nvlddmkm.sys

FAULTING_IP: 
nvlddmkm+ba150
948c7150 55              push    ebp

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  GRAPHICS_DRIVER_TDR_FAULT

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT:  1

BUGCHECK_STR:  0x116

PROCESS_NAME:  System

CURRENT_IRQL:  0

STACK_TEXT:  
8d898b74 951b9adb 00000116 86b5e008 948c7150 nt!KeBugCheckEx+0x1e
WARNING: Stack unwind information not available. Following frames may be wrong.
8d898b98 951ba8fa 948c7150 00000000 00000002 dxgkrnl+0x8cadb
8d898bbc 9060692c 00000000 00000102 86b98788 dxgkrnl+0x8d8fa
8d898c34 90630a32 fffffcfb 0001ab07 00000000 dxgmms1!VidSchiReportHwHang+0x3c0
8d898c5c 90631153 00000000 00000000 00000000 dxgmms1!VidSchiCheckHwProgress+0x68
8d898c98 9060d8f0 8d898c90 86ba5ad0 86ba5dd0 dxgmms1!VidSchiWaitForSchedulerEvents+0x1b1
8d898d28 906324b7 86b98788 82a513f1 86b98788 dxgmms1!VidSchiScheduleCommandToRun+0xaa
8d898d3c 90632573 86b98788 00000000 86b6bb48 dxgmms1!VidSchiRun_PriorityTable+0xf
8d898d50 82c2366d 86b98788 bccd42fa 00000000 dxgmms1!VidSchiWorkerThread+0x7f
8d898d90 82ad50d9 906324f4 86b98788 00000000 nt!PspSystemThreadStartup+0x9e
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 nt!KiThreadStartup+0x19


STACK_COMMAND:  .bugcheck ; kb

FOLLOWUP_IP: 
nvlddmkm+ba150
948c7150 55              push    ebp

SYMBOL_NAME:  nvlddmkm+ba150

FOLLOWUP_NAME:  MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: nvlddmkm

IMAGE_NAME:  nvlddmkm.sys

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP:  4a5ce288

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  0x116_IMAGE_nvlddmkm.sys

BUCKET_ID:  0x116_IMAGE_nvlddmkm.sys

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

I had tried all the general graphics solutions. I even went as far as getting a new graphics card and download the new drivers and DX systems.

System specs are:
Asus M2V motherboard
AMD 64 X2 6000+ processor
Palit GTS250 1GB graphics card
4GB RAM

The system scan says that Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

Not sure if this makes any difference but the system was all working fine under windows XP, it's only when I switched to Windows 7 that issues started appearing.

I thought the driver may have solved the issue, but then the PC crashed again last night.

This is getting too frusrating, I think I'll just plus in another hard disk and run a Windows 7/XP dual boot system.