8800 Ultra XXX Help!!!

[sinny385]

Hi again all,

Been battling away with the infamous "nvlddmkm.sys" error over the weekend and throughout this week.
I decided to go through and re-test everything again, and start eliminating components.
Started with CPU. Ran a CPU burn in test, whilst running the Intel Thermal Analysis tool. Everything ran like a charm, so on I went to the ram.
Ran both memtest+86 and memtest on each stick for about 6hrs and then ran each test overnight about 12hrs on both sticks. 2 days of mem testing later ... nothing ... no errors in any of the tests.
I reconfirmed the power supply is ok by using a power supply analyser. All rails ok. All voltages reported correctly.
A silly as it sounds I even checked my Hard drive which is also working spot on...
Then the test I feared the most.... the video cards.... thus the reason for this post.
My machine specs for reference are as follows:
Intel Core 2 DUO E6850 Conroe - 3.0 GHz
XFX NFORCE 680I SLI - P/N: MB-N680-ISH9
CoolerMaster 1000w SLi Ready - P/N: RS-A00-ESBA
2GB OCZ2P800R21G DDR II 800 MHz Dual Channel Kit
2x XFX 8800 Ultra XXX Editions - P/N: PV-T80U-SHD9 Running in SLI
Vista Ultimate x64
Now here's what I did.
I played around with 3DMark06 until I found a combination off settings that pretty much killed my system...
Resolution: 1920 x 1200
Anti-Aliasing: 8 Sample AA (Quality: 2)
Texture Filtering: Antistrophic 16x
Running all 3DMark06 tests
As you can imagine my PC went down quicker than a $2 Hooker
Nvlddmkm.sys BSOD

So I pulled out Riva Tuner and down clocked my cards from the original 675\1150 down to 650\1100, and ran the same test..... Bingo..... Worked like a charm.... Scored 9789. I decided to find out which of the cards was causing the fault. So I returned the Settings to 675\1150 and physically removed one of the 8800 Ultras from my system.... BSOD within 2 minutes of testing.... I thought I had the culprit, but decided to test the other card as well.... Now it did the same thing, 675\1150 and BSOD within 2 minutes..... Both these cards are crashing...
When I down clocked again 650\1100. Both the cards work fine.
I even removed both the 8800's and installed a XFX 8600 GTS and ran that with the above settings in 3DMark06..... I made it through no probs!!!
Now my question..... Now I'm not a lucky man by a long shot, but could I have been lucky enough to score not 1 but 2 faulty cards?????
And based on what I've tested, have I missed anything? Or does anyone else know any other tests I can run?
Also I have read about a BIOS floating around here that may work, Could this be worth a try?
Any Ideas would be great
Cheers
Sinny

[mivanx77]

Sounds like a driver and overheating problem. Can you tell us your idle and load temps for each card? Is everything updated, chipsets, nvidia, bios, etc... Has this problem recently been happening, or just now?

My cousin had a sound card installed with dual 8800's and kept BSOD's, until he finally updated his sound card drivers, now it works like a charm.

[Scott]

There are several windows Vista updates that fix these issues. This is a Microsoft issue with their software.

[Miker]

One of the many Vista 64x problems, try what Scott said.

[sinny385]

Sounds like a driver and overheating problem. Can you tell us your idle and load temps for each card? Is everything updated, chipsets, nvidia, bios, etc... Has this problem recently been happening, or just now?

My cousin had a sound card installed with dual 8800's and kept BSOD's, until he finally updated his sound card drivers, now it works like a charm.

The problem has been happening sice the purchase of this sytem in September last year. Just when I think I get closer to a resolution i get BSOD'd.
All Drivers are up to date, chipset, Sound, Video all the latest drivers. The BIOS was P31 up untill this morning, I realised XFX had released P32 so I went ahead and updated to P32.
The 8800's idle at 61 degrees in SLi and I have tested them individually to confirm this, they get up to 65 Degrees when benchmarking or trying to play a game.



There are several windows Vista updates that fix these issues. This is a Microsoft issue with their software.

You are right Scott, this is a windows thing.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/display/wddm_timeout.mspx

I have tried those updates with no success. 2 in particular for Vista and DX10 Compatability. I tried looking around this morning for anything new, but did not manage to find anything that resolves the TDR.

Do you know of any inparticular I should try?


One of the many Vista 64x problems, try what Scott said.

I porbably should have noted this in my original post.
I have tried Windows XP and XP x64. Vista 32 and 64 bit. Crashes on all 4 diferent operating systems.The only differevnce is that I don't get the nvlddmkm.sys error in xp since xp doesn't use that driver..


I did get ATITOOL this morning to do a few more tests. I get artifacts within 3 seconds when using the stock overclock of 675\1150 on both cards and individually.
If I downclock to 650\1100, all artifacts are gone. Ran for about 15 min with no artifacts.

Cheers again gents

[david.hill64]

I have a similar problem with factory overclocked 8600GTS cards in Vista 64 Ultimate. Reducing the clock speeds marginally results in a stable system. There are hints on the Microsoft website that the Vista service pack improves system stability with modern graphics cards, but I have never found a link that specifically suggests that the nvlddmkm.sys error has been resolved. I haven't found anything in the vista service pack forum that gives much hope either.

As you have the problem with XP and Vista we cannot really blame Vista. However, as Scott says it is worth installing the Hotfixes: these are linked on the NVidia site.

The XFX support guys on this site are great. They have been able to offer a BIOS update that has resolved the issue for others.

[sinny385]

I have a similar problem with factory overclocked 8600GTS cards in Vista 64 Ultimate. Reducing the clock speeds marginally results in a stable system. There are hints on the Microsoft website that the Vista service pack improves system stability with modern graphics cards, but I have never found a link that specifically suggests that the nvlddmkm.sys error has been resolved. I haven't found anything in the vista service pack forum that gives much hope either.

As you have the problem with XP and Vista we cannot really blame Vista. However, as Scott says it is worth installing the Hotfixes: these are linked on the NVidia site.

The XFX support guys on this site are great. They have been able to offer a BIOS update that has resolved the issue for others.

Thankyou David,
Went to the nVidia wepage and found the hotfixes that you and Scott have mentioned.

Here is a link, to help others looking for these updates. Might pay to sticky these for easy access:)

http://www.nvidia.com/object/windows_vista_hotfixes.html

I have downloaded all of them and installed the first three on the webpage. Hotfix 4 and 5 where not for my system ( As the nice little promt pointed out when I tried installing them).

Ran 3DMark06 after the PC re-stared and..............BSOD........

I really am hoping that the BIOS update is avilable and helps fix this........That's if it is a hardware error :(

Cheers again gents

[xfxsupport]

Toss me a PM with your email address, I have a BIOS that might be able to help with your situation.

[sinny385]

Toss me a PM with your email address, I have a BIOS that might be able to help with your situation.

Thankyou ir the BIOS uppdate, however I can't en get the update to run.
I get the following

Searching for display adapters to update...

ERROR: Unable to start service <0x00000241>

Running Vista x64, UAC off

Is there something else I am supposed to do?

Cheers

[sinny385]

UPDATE:

After several failed attempts to flash the Graphics card firmware, I decided to try something different. I did a complete OS install of a different flavour.... XP 32bit.
I had tried XP64 and Vista64 but not the 32Bit variety.... I was a little supprised with the results.... Of the two cards I have, 1 of them works perfect.... I had 3DMark06 running on it constantly for 2 hours no hickups.
The second freezes my PC not even getting through the 1st test.

I then tried the BIOS update again and this time in XP it went ahead and completed the flash, Unfortunately nothing changed, it still crashed in the 1st test on 3DMark......

So I'm starting to think that I have 1 8800 Ultra xXx faulty and not two (which is good news).

Any thoughts on my next course of action?