nvlddmkm.sys under windows 7
Hello everyone,
at first my system specs:
Intel core duo quad 6600g0
Sound blaster audigy 2 zs
4x 1gb Ram (G.E.I.L.) 800mhz
XFX Geforce 8800 Ultra X3
Asus P5N32-E SLI
Enermax Galaxy 850W
Windows 7 X64
Samsung f3 1TB hard drive (new)
Seagate Barracuda 250 GB (with the system installed) - 2 1/2 y/o
--> the processor/mobo/graca are almost 3 years old, the PSU and the RAM modules are newer
As you can read in the title I've got the same or a similar problem concerning the nvlddmkm.sys error. I'm running W7 and the PC was fine for almost 3 years.
Then about a week ago I got this well-known error while starting up Crysis - i wasn't familiar with the whole problem at that time.
I tried out Medieval 2, same problem: Computer freezes, tries to reset the display driver and goes into BSOD. Every time I started up the PC I'd get a BSOD after windows was loaded, the desktop was shown etc. - I couldn't even start to think about doing anything in normal Windows.
Safe mode always worked until now.
What I've tried so far:
- deinstalling all possible Windows updates in safe mode/in normal W7 mode
- replacing the nvlddmkm.sys file by another one from Vista (uploaded on the Inet):
this worked as long as I had my nvidia drivers (latest ones from nvidia) installed (I'm also using nforce). But I couldn't use aero mode or the correct resolutions for my screen and as soon as I deinstalled the Nvidia drivers: BSOD
- I also tried to replace the nvlddmkm.sys with the original one from windows 7, which worked for a short time, then the OS crashed again
- as far as installing the nvidia drivers goes: I removed everything, also with nvidia nasty file remover and didn't restart. Then installed latest drivers... didn't help
- After several other little tryouts I reformatted the PC and installed W7 fresh again. As long as I didn't use Aero everything worked (well I could see my desktop at least)
- I also tried another PCI slot, which didn't bring about change
- I removed the ram modules, let memtest do a check, tried different ram slots and nr.s (1x 1gb, 2x 1 gb usw.) and also tried another 1 gb ram stick - didn't help
- some said it was connected to their drive, so I unplugged the power supply for that and it didn't help
- I cleaned my graphics card removed and added again my fairly old (but still fantastic) sound card
- the ventilation and temps are fine (kept the case open almost all the time these past days + 2 ventilator w/good airflow and a good CPU vent.)
- checked the Power supply of the room again (PC has a 850 W PSU, and it wasn't the least used to its capacity)
- checked the registry delay problem(almost no change)
- tried to change the RAM/CPU MHZ (didn't help)
- installed latest direct x again, because that has also been a cause (no difference)
What I'm going to do now is (only if problem will occur again *see edit):
- try out a different graphics card
- disable UAC
If anybody has come up with a new solution or knows how to fix the problem it would be good to see some new posts since the problem doesn't just disappear and might come back.
Thanks in advance,
Void
*Edit: Would it also be worth it to update the graphics card bios? The Mobo bios is updated but I'm kind of skeptical concerning the graca bios since it's said to be even more risky...?
Oh and I also changed the power settings in W7 to best performance already since that caused problems in the past*
*
APPARENTLY the problem seems to be solved.. for now:
I installed windows 7, deinstalled any existing nvidia drivers.
To begin with I didn't find
any nvl files but I still remembered where I had to put them (drivers and repository).
What I did was: run nvidia nasty file remover, driver cleaner didn't really work with me for some reason.
Since my installer didn't work anymore in safe mode I went to Windows 7(maybe that did the trick) with completely deinstalled graphics drivers and installed the latest ones there from scratch.
Afterwards I used the expand method and copied the expanded nvlddmkm.sys files.
So far I have no problems but I'll keep in touch. *
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Ok it wasn't fixed. I'll try a new installation incl. all the methods described by JenBell and if that doesn't help I'll try out another graphics card.
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Yup, my graphics card seems to be fried. I haven't tried a GPU update yet, but why would it be needed? I couldn't even install Windows 7 anymore and it is definitely not about the nvlddmkm.sys file anymore, at least no old version is causing the crashes otherwise I could at least install Windows 7 which had worked fine before or another OS. A friend of mine tried it on his system and he still has XP. He couldn't even install the driver. So I'm changing to ATI now. The 8800 Ultra xxx was of course a high end machine back in its time and is still darn good
but it's time for something new I suppose. Good luck to all who suffer from the same problem!
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