Solved Previously BSOD Nvlddmkm.sys, now just crashes during gameplay.

[Kuma]

I have a fairly new MSI Gt70 gaming laptop that started acting up about 2 months ago when I used driver professional to update all of my drivers in one go. I am using windows 7 home premium 64 bit incidentally that came pre installed on the laptop.

My problem:
At first after I updated the drivers, I started getting a BSOD quite frequently only while playing games about the Nvlddmkm.sys. After trying a lot of solutions to no avail, I used windows recovery to reinstall windows 7. After that the BSOD stopped, however now every time I play a game without fail, my laptop freezes with a looping sound after a few min- hours of gameplay randomly. I cannot reset the laptop unless I do a hard shutdown with the power button held. It is completely unresponsive to the mouse or trying to light up caps lock etc.

Solutions I have tried so far:
Tried updating with a clean install of the latest Nvidia drivers prior to the windows restore without success.
Updated my Bios from the manufacturers website.
Disabling the Realtek Hd sound driver.
Updating the Realtek Hd sound driver.
Turning off Physx.

I tried a lot more stuff but off the top of the head I cannot recall honestly. Please let me know if more information is required and what steps I can take to provide said infomation. Any help would be tremendously appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Dsprague]

It looks like your Graphics driver is very out of date:

kd> lmvm nvlddmkm
start             end                 module name
fffff880`0f414000 fffff880`101e3000   nvlddmkm T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: nvlddmkm.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\nvlddmkm.sys
    Image name: nvlddmkm.sys
    Timestamp:        [COLOR=Red]Sun Mar 18 16:04:01 2012[/COLOR] (4F663FB1)
    CheckSum:         00DB3E76
    ImageSize:        00DCF000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

Please start by updating the driver from here: Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers

If this does not solve the problem post back here with the new files and we can continue trouble shooting.

 

[Kuma]

These were the default drivers from the manufacturer. Going to update from the Nvidia site and stress test to see if the crash occurs again.

 

[Dsprague]

Looking forward to your results.

 

[Kuma]

So I did a clean install using Driver fusion and the latest drivers from the Nvidia website. Instead of the complete freeze now I got the BSOD again with it stating Nvdlmkm.sys as the culprit or I dunno. Uploaded the newest diagnostic file.

 

[Dsprague]

The BSOD stop code you are getting is a 0x116 which indicates either a hard ware failure, over heating problem with the bios or problem with the driver, so since you have the latest driver please do the following:

First and foremost if you are doing any over clocking please stop it can cause all sorts of problems.

Run furmark, untll the temperature of your GPU levels out or untill furmark begins to cause errors. If you get errors please report what they are here, or if your temperature levels out first report what it maxes out at:FurMark: Graphics Card Stability and Stress Test, OpenGL Benchmark and GPU Temperature | oZone3D.Net

FurMark Setup:
- If you have more than one GPU, select Multi-GPU during setup
- In the Run mode box, select "Stability Test" and "Log GPU Temperature" (BurnIn test in newer versions).
Click "Go" to start the test
- Run the test until the GPU temperature maxes out - or until you start having problems (whichever comes first).
- Click "Quit" to exit

Next run the system file checker to ensure there is no corruption:

SFC.EXE /SCANNOW
Go to Start and type in "cmd.exe" (without the quotes)
At the top of the search box, right click on the cmd.exe and select "Run as adminstrator"
In the black window that opens, type "SFC.EXE /SCANNOW" (without the quotes) and press Enter.
Let the program run and post back what it says when it's done.

and report back the results of that.

Run Memtest86+ for at least 8 passes to test for bad ram:

RAM - Test with Memtest86+

Tip: Do this over night it will take a long time to complete 8 passes.

Clean out your fans and vents, overheating due to dust build up can often cause this sort of error.

 

[Kuma]

The Furmark temp test was 46 min and 97 max, no errors.

No system file errors either.

Will start running Memtest tonight.

 

[Dsprague]

97 Fahrenheit or Celsius?

 

[Kuma]

Celsius I believe.

 

[Kuma]

Thank you for taking the time to help out btw. I honestly really appreciate it.

 

[Dsprague]

It sounds to me like your GPU may be over heating that temperature is really high try cleaning out the fans/vents or lifting the laptop some how to get better airflow under it. The best solution would be a cooling pad, but those can be kind of expensive.

 

[Kuma]

I actually have a cooling pad underneath it.... so I guess it's not doing it's job. Any advice on how to clean out a laptops graphic card?

 

[Dsprague]

Innovera Compressed Gas Duster - Newegg.com

Also a lovely how to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0BQ6YUFaoY

 

[Kuma]

I will try to find something similar to the gas duster on this island (In Aruba in the Carribean currently). Odd how the problem started after updating windows, but most probably just an unfortunate coincidence. I will try to run the mem test tonight regardless.

Thank you once again for your time.

 

[Kuma]

Memory test came back clear. I don't think it's an issue with the temperature since the temp is now lower after cleaning out the laptop as much as I could. However I got a previously never gotten BSOD when I tried running the Nvidia stability test and it crashed instantly. Uploaded the latest diagnostic file.

 

[Kuma]

Sorry, disregard the last message. The BSOD was due to fault of my own for installing improper software.

 

[Dsprague]

OK so a few more things to try that may help with your BSOD problem:

Reset your page file using the following steps:

Use this technique to "reset" your pagefile:
a ) Go to Start...Run...and type in "sysdm.cpl" (without the quotes) and press Enter.
-Then click on the Advanced tab,
-then on the Performance Settings Button,
-then on the next Advanced tab,
-then on the Virtual Memory Change button.
b ) In this window, note down the current settings for your pagefile (so you can restore them later on).
-Then click on the "No paging file" radio button, and
- then on the "Set" button. Be sure, if you have multiple hard drives, that you ensure that the paging file is set to 0 on all of them.
-Click OK to exit the dialogs.
c ) Reboot (this will remove the pagefile from your system)
d ) Then go back in following the directions in step a ) and re-enter the settings that you wrote down in step b ). Follow the steps all the way through (and including) the reboot.
e ) Once you've rebooted this second time, go back in and check to make sure that the settings are as they're supposed to be.

Run prime95 to check for problems with the CPU:

Prime95 Setup:
- extract the contents of the zip file to a location of your choice
- double click on the executable file
- select "Just stress testing"
- select the "Small FFTs" test.
- "Number of torture test threads to run" should equal the number of CPU's times 2 (if you're using hyperthreading).
The easiest way to figure this out is to go to Task Manager...Performance tab - and see the number of boxes under CPU Usage History
Then run the test for 6 to 24 hours - or until you get errors (whichever comes first).
The Test selection box and the stress.txt file describes what components that the program stresses.

In addition to the instructions keep an eye on your CPU temperatures as well.

 

[Kuma]

I reset the pagefile and am currently running the cpu tests via Prime95. In between I tried playing a game, and got the BSOD again with the temperature sitting at 40 Celsius.

 

[Dsprague]

Let us know the results

Also If you could run ooct video memory test to check for problems with your video memory:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/160729-nvidia-amd-video-card-test-occt.html

start from Test 2 on the tutorial

 

[Kuma]

So I got no errors with Prime95. But incidentally I haven't gotten a BSOD for 2 days now so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the problem is solved. In between I did another recovery of windows and after doing a clean install of my video driver I installed the rest via a different drivers software. I also uninstalled Daemon tools since others had had problems with getting the same BSOD due to that software.