8800GTX going south?

Mentasmission · 21 Oct 2009

So earlier today I was working in Blender (in windows) when artifacts start appearing all over the screen. Then it freezes for a little bit and I get a BSOD about the display driver timing out (no "display driver has stopped responding and recovered" errors!). After that, while Windows can boot up, almost immediately after logging in, I get the same BSOD. It's the same thing over and over again. Figuring it's odd driver problem, I boot into safe mode (and everything works fine here), and reinstall the drivers. But nope, same thing. Almost immediately after logging in, BSOD. So I remove absolutely all traces of Nvidia drivers on the system, and try downgrading an earlier driver version (190). Same problem. By now I've tried a ton of different Nvidia drivers (even beta ones) to no avail. However, as long as the drivers aren't running, Windows is jolly, even when not in safe mode.

What has me even more concerned now is that the Linux drivers aren't working anymore. In both OpenSUSE and Ubuntu (latest versions), almost immediately after logging in with the proprietary Nvidia drivers enabled, X11 goes down for the count (screen becomes garbled for a split second, then the monitor goes into sleep mode as if it weren't receiving any signal), and I have to use Ctrl+Alt+Backspace. However, without the Nvidia drivers enabled, everything works perfectly fine.

This has just started happening suddenly for no apparent reason... I haven't even changed any hardware or settings. What's going on here?

System Specs
VGA: Nvidia 8800GTX
Monitor: Apple Cinema Display 23"
MB: Intel D975XBX2
OS: Windows 7 x64 (RTM) / OpenSUSE 11.1 x64 / Ubuntu 9.04 x64
Browser: Opera/Firefox/Chrome/IE
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
Sound: M-Audio Delta 1010LT
Memory: 4GB DDR2 800
PSU: XClio GreatPower 800W
Cooling: Xigmatek Dark Knight

zigzag3143 · 21 Oct 2009

Mentasmission said:

So earlier today I was working in Blender (in windows) when artifacts start appearing all over the screen. Then it freezes for a little bit and I get a BSOD about the display driver timing out (no "display driver has stopped responding and recovered" errors!). After that, while Windows can boot up, almost immediately after logging in, I get the same BSOD. It's the same thing over and over again. Figuring it's odd driver problem, I boot into safe mode (and everything works fine here), and reinstall the drivers. But nope, same thing. Almost immediately after logging in, BSOD. So I remove absolutely all traces of Nvidia drivers on the system, and try downgrading an earlier driver version (190). Same problem. By now I've tried a ton of different Nvidia drivers (even beta ones) to no avail. However, as long as the drivers aren't running, Windows is jolly, even when not in safe mode.

What has me even more concerned now is that the Linux drivers aren't working anymore. In both OpenSUSE and Ubuntu (latest versions), almost immediately after logging in with the proprietary Nvidia drivers enabled, X11 goes down for the count (screen becomes garbled for a split second, then the monitor goes into sleep mode as if it weren't receiving any signal), and I have to use Ctrl+Alt+Backspace. However, without the Nvidia drivers enabled, everything works perfectly fine.

This has just started happening suddenly for no apparent reason... I haven't even changed any hardware or settings. What's going on here?

System Specs
VGA: Nvidia 8800GTX
Monitor: Apple Cinema Display 23"
MB: Intel D975XBX2
OS: Windows 7 x64 (RTM) / OpenSUSE 11.1 x64 / Ubuntu 9.04 x64
Browser: Opera/Firefox/Chrome/IE
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
Sound: M-Audio Delta 1010LT
Memory: 4GB DDR2 800
PSU: XClio GreatPower 800W
Cooling: Xigmatek Dark Knight

Can you go into c:\windows\minidump, zip the dump file (*.dmp) and upload it to us for debugging

let us know if you need help with any of this

Ken

Mentasmission · 21 Oct 2009

zigzag3143 said:

Mentasmission said:

So earlier today I was working in Blender (in windows) when artifacts start appearing all over the screen. Then it freezes for a little bit and I get a BSOD about the display driver timing out (no "display driver has stopped responding and recovered" errors!). After that, while Windows can boot up, almost immediately after logging in, I get the same BSOD. It's the same thing over and over again. Figuring it's odd driver problem, I boot into safe mode (and everything works fine here), and reinstall the drivers. But nope, same thing. Almost immediately after logging in, BSOD. So I remove absolutely all traces of Nvidia drivers on the system, and try downgrading an earlier driver version (190). Same problem. By now I've tried a ton of different Nvidia drivers (even beta ones) to no avail. However, as long as the drivers aren't running, Windows is jolly, even when not in safe mode.

What has me even more concerned now is that the Linux drivers aren't working anymore. In both OpenSUSE and Ubuntu (latest versions), almost immediately after logging in with the proprietary Nvidia drivers enabled, X11 goes down for the count (screen becomes garbled for a split second, then the monitor goes into sleep mode as if it weren't receiving any signal), and I have to use Ctrl+Alt+Backspace. However, without the Nvidia drivers enabled, everything works perfectly fine.

This has just started happening suddenly for no apparent reason... I haven't even changed any hardware or settings. What's going on here?

System Specs
VGA: Nvidia 8800GTX
Monitor: Apple Cinema Display 23"
MB: Intel D975XBX2
OS: Windows 7 x64 (RTM) / OpenSUSE 11.1 x64 / Ubuntu 9.04 x64
Browser: Opera/Firefox/Chrome/IE
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
Sound: M-Audio Delta 1010LT
Memory: 4GB DDR2 800
PSU: XClio GreatPower 800W
Cooling: Xigmatek Dark Knight

Can you go into c:\windows\minidump, zip the dump file (*.dmp) and upload it to us for debugging

let us know if you need help with any of this

Ken

Hi zigzag,

Thanks for the fast reply!

And yes, I think I'm going to need some help here.

zigzag3143 · 21 Oct 2009

Hi and welcome

Well as you suspected this dump pointed to you video driver. the file that probably caused it was nvlddmkm.sys.

There was one other file that was involved it was
dxgkrnl.sys which is part of the directx graphics system.

suggestions:
Re-install the video driver with the newest one available.
run dxdiax to find out the version and state of directx

I also wonder if you have a heat problem. either in gpu, or cpu. Are you overclocking either?

If after doing the above you continue to get BSOD please upload the dumps so we can narrow the problem down.

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

Loading Dump File [C:\Users\K\Desktop\102109-51062-01.dmp]
Mini Kernel Dump File: Only registers and stack trace are available

Symbol search path is: SRV*d:\symbols*Symbol information
Executable search path is:
Windows 7 Kernel Version 7600 MP (2 procs) Free x64
Product: WinNt, suite: TerminalServer SingleUserTS
Built by: 7600.16385.amd64fre.win7_rtm.090713-1255
Machine Name:
Kernel base = 0xfffff800`02a56000 PsLoadedModuleList = 0xfffff800`02c93e50
Debug session time: Wed Oct 21 10:00:00.721 2009 (GMT-4)
System Uptime: 0 days 2:07:28.581
Loading Kernel Symbols
...............................................................
................................................................
.................................................
Loading User Symbols
Loading unloaded module list
.......
Unable to load image \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\dxgkrnl.sys, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for dxgkrnl.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for dxgkrnl.sys
*******************************************************************************
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 116, {fffffa8008a57010, fffff88004bb1220, 0, 2}

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
Probably caused by : nvlddmkm.sys ( nvlddmkm+e7220 )

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

0: kd> !analyze -v
*******************************************************************************
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
*******************************************************************************

VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE (116)
Attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed.
Arguments:
Arg1: fffffa8008a57010, Optional pointer to internal TDR recovery context (TDR_RECOVERY_CONTEXT).
Arg2: fffff88004bb1220, The pointer into responsible device driver module (e.g. owner tag).
Arg3: 0000000000000000, Optional error code (NTSTATUS) of the last failed operation.
Arg4: 0000000000000002, Optional internal context dependent data.

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

FAULTING_IP:
nvlddmkm+e7220
fffff880`04bb1220 803d31c0960000 cmp byte ptr [nvlddmkm+0xa53258 (fffff880`0551d258)],0

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: GRAPHICS_DRIVER_TDR_FAULT

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT: 1

BUGCHECK_STR: 0x116

PROCESS_NAME: System

CURRENT_IRQL: 0

STACK_TEXT:
fffff880`05f449c8 fffff880`044d1ef8 : 00000000`00000116 fffffa80`08a57010 fffff880`04bb1220 00000000`00000000 : nt!KeBugCheckEx
fffff880`05f449d0 00000000`00000116 : fffffa80`08a57010 fffff880`04bb1220 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000002 : dxgkrnl+0x5cef8
fffff880`05f449d8 fffffa80`08a57010 : fffff880`04bb1220 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000002 00000000`00000000 : 0x116
fffff880`05f449e0 fffff880`04bb1220 : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000002 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : 0xfffffa80`08a57010
fffff880`05f449e8 00000000`00000000 : 00000000`00000002 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 fffff880`044d1c02 : nvlddmkm+0xe7220

STACK_COMMAND: kb

FOLLOWUP_IP:
nvlddmkm+e7220
fffff880`04bb1220 803d31c0960000 cmp byte ptr [nvlddmkm+0xa53258 (fffff880`0551d258)],0

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX: 4

SYMBOL_NAME: nvlddmkm+e7220

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: nvlddmkm

IMAGE_NAME: nvlddmkm.sys

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 4abfff56

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: X64_0x116_IMAGE_nvlddmkm.sys

BUCKET_ID: X64_0x116_IMAGE_nvlddmkm.sys

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

dxgkrnl.sys dxgkrnl.sys+5cef8 fffff880`04475000 fffff880`04569000 0x000f4000 0x4ac5509e 10/1/2009 9:00:14 PM
nvlddmkm.sys nvlddmkm.sys+e7220 fffff880`04aca000 fffff880`0558da80 0x00ac3a80 0x4abfff56 9/27/2009 8:12:06 PM

Mentasmission · 21 Oct 2009

zigzag3143 said:

suggestions:
Re-install the video driver with the newest one available.
run dxdiax to find out the version and state of directx

Hello,

As I said in my original post, I have done this more times than I can count by now. Including different versions. And yes, I have made sure to remove all traces of Nvidia drivers from the system before installing the drivers again. I suspect that all of the later stop error dumps (there are quite a few now) will be quite similar, each time it's pointed back to the video driver.

I'm also not overclocking. From memory, the highest the GPU has ever reached is 66C, and that was under load. Right now it's 41C. The last time I dusted the computer (including the VGA) was last Sunday. I do this every two weeks.

bobkn · 21 Oct 2009

At a guess, yes, the 8800GTX is on its way to becoming an ex-graphics card. (Feeble echo of the Monty Python "Dead Parrot" sketch.)

I had similar problems (artifacts, nVidia driver crashes, etc.) with a GTX280. The card was not overheating, at least according to the software temperature monitors.

After the RMA, all was well again.