nVidia display driver stopped working

nicked on 30/7/2008 at 20:02

I'm getting a sporadic and strange error with my nVidia 8800 GTX on Windows Vista. Occasionally, the screen will go black randomly, and then go back to normal a second later, and a windows tool tip thingy pops up saying that "an nVidia display driver stopped working and has recovered". I don't have the exact name of the driver at the mo - if it happens again I'll write it down.

It's also happened a couple of times in Thief - twice when reading a book (i.e. changing resolution, although it's happened ingame as well so this may be coincidence). When it happens in Thief, the colours go all screwy and psychadelic and text pops up like a readable saying something like the game is incompatible with the current screen mode, then it crashes to desktop.

I have just updated to Vista service pack 1 in the hopes that that'll clear up some bugs.

Some thoughts on what it might be:

1. Overheating? It's been pretty hot here recently, although I can't say there's a definite correlation.
2. I read on a google search that it may be insufficient power supply. How do I find out what power supply I have? I don't know what numbers to go by on the label on the side.
3. Overclocked? I haven't overclocked it, but I wonder if it may be "factory overclocked", and playing up because of it. Anyone know any diagnostic software I can use to check the GPU clock speed?
4. Something to do with Thief? It has happened just on the desktop, but if I recall correctly, I think it's only ever happened on the desktop after playing Thief or if it has crashed.
5. Something else?

Anyone else had this problem, or have any thoughts on what it could be? It's not happening often enough to be a major problem at the mo, but if it gets worse I won't be happy - this computer was brand new in April! :confused:

Thanks in advance for help! :)

Bjossi on 30/7/2008 at 20:11

If there is a newer driver available on nvidia.com, install it (after uninstalling the old one of course) and see what happens. Maybe your current driver just decided to fuck up.

As for overheating; as far as I know overheating-related artifacts don't appear on screen captures, so take a screenshot when the weird colors show up in Thief and then look at the screenshot. If it appears normal, then there is a good chance overheating is involved.

EvaUnit02 on 31/7/2008 at 11:47

Try reseating it in the PCI-e slot.

bikerdude on 31/7/2008 at 15:59

Quote Posted by nicked

I'm getting a sporadic and strange error with my nVidia 8800 GTX on Windows Vista. Occasionally, the screen will go black randomly, and then go back to normal a second later, this computer was brand new in April! :confused:

Hi Nicked

As I have an 8800 ultra and done lots of testing with it in this forum alone, so I should be able to help you figure out whats wrong.

do the following for me:-

* is anything loose - double check everything.
* complete system specs, more importantly whats the rating of your PSU and have you got all (2x) the PCI-e power cables plugged into the card?
* What driver version are you using?
* whats the make of your card..?

If nothing is amis then then I would suggest the card is DOA and get the place you bought the PC from to replace the gfx card.

biker

Xenith on 31/7/2008 at 16:30

I recall having the same issue appear about three days after buying my new video card. the problem was the driver and I received the error only in TES: Oblivion. I fixed it by installing an older driver (I upgraded recently to a newer driver but haven't started Oblivion to see if there are any issues).

If you think it might be overheating, you an try opening the case of your pc and put a fan to blow air right in it (from a reasonable distance of course). if the error still appears then it's something else.