Hiya all, As the topic of this post indicates I'm having a bit of a problem since a recent update. A brief explanation, Recently my Asus 670 TOP graphics card died and currently its at scan waiting for them to let me know when its back in stock again after them agreeing it was definitely a faulty card, I have been using a old GTX 260 in the mean time, this wednesday windows decided to do an update were it failed doing 4 security updates, after looking at the web, it seemed that it worked if you do one at a time. So I proceeded to do this and it booted up fine. When I next went to start the machine up, it refused to get past the welcome screen. After spending time trying various fixes in safemode (turning of all drivers and services but microsoft, using sfc /scannow, removing the recent updates, using system restore etc. Last known working configuration, and start up scanning, It is was still doing it. At this point I had no idea what to do, and coupled with the random death of my 670, my headset wires being chewed by the cat, and now my machine refusing to work I got annoyed and decided to go for a repair install. So I started the process of fixing the drivers but not touching any of the windows updates. I had recently updated a few drivers so I made sure that I only went as high as the configuration previously. Went to restart to finish installs and low and behold, stuck again.... Only this time I get a BSOD this time mentioning nvddklm.dll Great.... I'm kinda pissed at this point because I wonder if I've got another broken graphics card and I've just nuked a windows install just because windows decided to not give me an BSOD prior to this. I tried a reinstall from afresh gain this morning and managed to get into windows properly and proceeded again to try and update. I was alot more frugal with drivers etc, I installed bits at a time restarting regularly to see if I could maybe pin down what it might be. Again it got stuck but also mentioning nvddklm.dll on the BSOD. I tried to rename the windows/system32/drivers on and replace it with the nvidia one but no luck. So basically I feel stuck again. I don't know if this graphics card is dead as well, and if it is the root of these issues. I'm concerned something is killing them on my system. I'm running with CPU - i5-2500k MOBO - MSI P67A-GD53 8 Gigs of 1,600 Ram 128gb SSD Crucial M4
Ok, update, I've removed nvddklm.sys from windows/system32 and it boots into windows and then promptly installs its own drivers, At this point it wants to restart and then won't go into windows again. If I install nvidia drivers instead it won't go into windows either
Hi, nvddklm.dll is the main component of the nvidia graphics driver, but whle that is what is listed in the BSOD it may not actually be the cause. Because the Graphics driver is real time and constantly updating what is on the screen, it sometimes gets blamed for errors where it did not actually cause them. An example of this is if you have some broken RAM or some high end RAM and you have not manually set the timings and voltage, the system may BSOD and blame the graphics driver, because the driver will have flagged an error right before the BSOD, simply because the graphics driver is loaded into the RAM. THings to check - Do at least three full scans in memtest (download the ISO, urn to disk and boot off the disk) Try with just one stick of RAM in the slot nearest the CPU Reset BIOS to default settings and then change anything like boot order. Remove ANY overclocks Check temperatures Good luck
Hey Qazax Thanks for the replies, I removed the O/C and ran Prime95, Furmark, Memtest etc etc For some reason I can now get back into Windows, Both O/C'd and non O/C'd (I'd saved the oc profile) I can run all tests again with either profile and they all go for a good few hours. HOWEVER Prime95 on the O/C Profile and Non-O/C Profile after about 3 or 4 Hours, I tend to get a BSOD stating ntoskrnl.exe and hal.dll I'm wondering if its a hardware fault at this point but I don't know what. I can get into windows perfectly fine now and drivers and windows update are all the latest. Sadly I can't test another graphics card till Scan ships me a replacement, my 260 has been sitting dormant for a good few years now so it might be dieing maybe?
Hi Uggers, No problem at all. It sounds like it could be one of a few things, but mainly you just needed windows to boot and it sorted itself out partly. With regards to the BSOD after a while, it could be something to do with your graphics card, but what PSU are you running? is it an old one? if the PSU is not good enough it could cause this. If it is blue screening with and without the OC, then it doesnt sound like the OC is to cause, but always worth it to check! hal is the hardware abstraction layer and ntoskrnl I am not too sure about but is definitely some part of windows that you don't want to break I would suggest a complete format when you get your new card, just to be sure it isnt windows that is corrupt somehow. Or, you can try more tests to single things out like try many runs through of memtest, underclock your Ram to 1333mhz but keep the same voltages and timings (this will not effect performance in anything but benchmarks) and I will think of others as you progress.
Sounds like a plan, I've ended up getting a EVGA 680 Signature 2, to replace it. So I'll try it then and see how it goes. So far I've had no crashes from general usage. just after 3 to 4 hours of Prime95. I think I will run some more test when the new card turns up. See if anything happens, if it does I'll try a fresh re-re-re-install and take it from there. Thanks again
Well it ran fine for ages, but when I nipped out the the shops today after turning my machine on, an hour later it was sgetting stuck at the welcome screen again I found a old Nvidia 6600 GT and put that in and it booted up fine after install the drivers. I'm leaning towards maybe my 260 is dead/dieing as well I'll have to see when my replacement turns up
Not sure how to test that other than the SMART testing etc. Which seems to not indicate any issues. Is there any other way I can run it through some tests to see if its ok?
