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Pook
@comcast.net

Pook

Anon

Need help with video driver blue screen of death (unable to boot)

Hi, I've started having trouble with a pc that's a few years old now. It had a video driver crash while starting a game (l4d2) and now it blue screens upon trying to restart it. I cant get into Windows long enough to do anything like view the crash dumps, as it says Windows will now shut down to prevent damage. I was able to boot into Windows once and it looked normal, but the resolution was low (default drivers I assume). When I clicked on the Nvidia control panel it wouldn't let me in as it said I wasn't connected to an Nvidia gpu, even though I was. Windows would also not let me change any display settings, only the lowest resolution was available. I shut the pc down, blew it out with an air duster, and made sure the card was seated properly, but it was of no help. I also tried moving the card to another slot on the motherboard, with no luck. I made sure ram was seated and all connections were secure.

Pc was assembled by my brother about 5 years ago, and no trouble until now. It has a P55 (I think) motherboard, 2.67 gig Intel processor, 4 gigs of ram, Windows Vista, and an EVGA Nvidia GeForce 460.

Please help, I'm desperate.

Thank you.

Camelot One
MVM
join:2001-11-21
Bloomington, IN

Camelot One

MVM

Turn the computer off, then turn it on, and tap the F8 key until you get the Windows Boot Menu. Choose Safe Mode. Once in safe mode, open device manager and remove the nvidia card. Reboot. Assuming it boots to windows, go to nvidia.com and get the latest drivers for the card.

norwegian
Premium Member
join:2005-02-15
Outback

norwegian to Pook

Premium Member

to Pook
Use a boot CD and copy the event viewer logs and any recent crash or dumps.
The event logs can be opened up on another computer and post the crash minidump/WER files here, and someone can check what what happening.

As for the hardware, if something is failing, ie the graphics card, replacing it with another card to see if it is the card, or power supply, motherboard etc.
Have you tried only 1 stick of ram?
Sometimes it can be ram not the video card.

Pook
@comcast.net

Pook

Anon

Sorry for taking so long to respond, I was exhausted last night and I'm also having connection issues as well as pc ones lol.

I forgot to mention last night that when I try to boot with the old card I get strange pixelation on screen, red and green lines... Looks a lot lke the green lines in the Matrix movies lol. I tried booting into Safe Mode and still get the pixelation. I swapped it out with another, older EVGA Nvidia card and the pixelation goes away and my resolution returns to normal. I assume this means the graphics card is bad? I didn't try to get the newest drivers at this point as I assumed that means the new card is bad. If it will do any good I'm willing to try it, but as the computer typically blue screens with newer card, I didn't want to continually try it. The new card is just under a year old I believe. Thanks again.

Camelot One
MVM
join:2001-11-21
Bloomington, IN

Camelot One

MVM

That wouldnt rule out a problem with the power supply, but it does point strongly to a bad video card.

Pook
@comcast.net

Pook

Anon

How would I rule out the power supply? Thanks.

Camelot One
MVM
join:2001-11-21
Bloomington, IN

Camelot One

MVM

A power supply tester would be a place to start. Or trying another card that draws as much power. But it sounds like a video card problem, so I would get that replaced first.
asdfdfdfdfdf
Premium Member
join:2012-05-09

asdfdfdfdfdf to Pook

Premium Member

to Pook
Given that the system hasn't failed I don't think an inexpensive power supply tester would give you any additional information.

As camelot says if you have another card that draws about the same power you can test with that.
You don't give the specific chipset of the test card you swapped. Can you give us this information?

You are not overclocking are you? If you are the first thing you need to do is to set everything back to default clocks.

Otherwise, if you have another power supply to test with, that has enough power to handle the system, you can try that.

I agree, if you have to guess, the graphics card would be the biggest suspect.

If you can give us specifics about the test card please do so.

Pook
@98.244.142.x

Pook

Anon

Hi, I apologize for taking so long to update this but it took two weeks for them to warranty my card. The card is an EVGA Nvidia GTX 460. They replaced it for me, and all seemed well for a day, but now I seem to be having blue screens when I shut down games. Not always, but it's happened a few times. I'm using the latest driver from Nvidia. Any more suggestions? I've tried getting the stop code from event viewer in Vista, but I don't see the specific one. I see nothing listed under the System Tab and there seem to be tons of entries for "Information". Can anyone tell me how to get the specific code that's causing the blue screen? Thanks again. (I'm on another computer atm.)
Pook

Pook

Anon

To answer the other question, no, I'm not overclocking. My apologies.
asdfdfdfdfdf
Premium Member
join:2012-05-09

asdfdfdfdfdf to Pook

Premium Member

to Pook
This shows you how to disable the automatic restart on a blue screen in windows vista.

You need to make note of the stop code as well as the 4 hexadecimal parameter numbers in parenthesis after the stop code number.

»pcsupport.about.com/od/f ··· ista.htm

drewis
Premium Member
join:2006-09-04
Hamilton, ON

drewis

Premium Member

your video card is toast. 1% chance your psu is done, 99% chance its your card.. unfortunately you need a new one!

test it out in another system if you can.

Tirael
BOHICA
Premium Member
join:2009-03-18
Sacramento, CA

Tirael

Premium Member

He had his card RMA'd. I would point toward a PSU problem, considering the type of errors he is getting.

Pook
@98.244.142.x

Pook to Pook

Anon

to Pook
My pc blue screened on start up once again and reverted me back to the default driver and low resolution. I've now disabled the automatic restart on blue screen. I notice a few of my USB devices have started to not be recognized the last day or so, requiring me to plug them back in a few times. The even viewer shows these stoppages. Does this possibly point to the power supply? It's happened about twice now, in two days. Sadly, I don't have another power supply to test this with.

I've installed the latest drivers from Nvidia, but the blue screens persist.

Drewis, are you suggesting that the new card EVGA just sent me is also toast? As far as I can tell, it's brand new. It's a brand new GTX 460, sent as a replacement for the dead GTX 460.

I also notice 4 entries near the time of the blue screen that are listed as "Information" and labeled Kernel-Processor-Power. There are 4 events and they all say Processor 1,2,3,4 expose the following: 1 idle state(s) 0 performance state(s) 0 throttle state(s). Would this have anything to do with my issue? Thanks again.
asdfdfdfdfdf
Premium Member
join:2012-05-09

asdfdfdfdfdf to Pook

Premium Member

to Pook
Make note of your next few blue screens and we sill see if there seems to be any consistent pattern.

Does the system still run stable if you use the older evga card? Can you tell us about this card.
If the evga card runs stable and it is a card that is drawing much less power then that could give us more support for the idea that the power supply is failing.
Usb recognition failing doesn't necessarily point to the power supply but you can get all kinds of strange random problems with a marginal power supply.

Unfortunately without parts to swap out to test with it becomes something of a guessing game.

Pook away
@68.54.177.x

Pook away

Anon

I will make note of any new blue screens. As far as I can tell the pc ran fine with the old card, though I only tested it for an hour or so. The older card I swapped in was an EVGA Nvidia GTX 9800. The GTX 460 that just died lived in that pc for just under a year or so, with no problems whatsoever, prior to dying a few weeks ago. Before I swapped in the original GTX 460, that same GTX 9800 lived in the pc for at least 2 years or so, with no problems.
asdfdfdfdfdf
Premium Member
join:2012-05-09

asdfdfdfdfdf to Pook

Premium Member

to Pook
A 9800gtx shouldn't draw drastically less power than a 460 so it doesn't provide the support I was hoping for.

Pook 1
@98.244.142.x

Pook 1 to Pook away

Anon

to Pook away
For the heck of it, I uninstalled the driver and then reinstalled it to see what would happen. The pc worked fine the entire time I was using it (maybe 4 or 5 hours). When I arrived home today I turned it on to try it once more and it didn't blue screen, but instead it started up at low res, using only the Windows drivers again, as if it didn't recognize the card or the driver. Could this mean the motherboard is going bad? Maybe the PCI slots? I'm nearing the point of buying a new power supply to rule that out, but I wonder if this points to something else, since there's no blue screen? I'd rather not spend $100.00 on that if it's not my problem.

On top of everything else, my connection has chosen now to start going down for hours at a time. My apologies if it sometimes takes me awhile to respond. Not my week.

Tirael
BOHICA
Premium Member
join:2009-03-18
Sacramento, CA

Tirael

Premium Member

All the symptoms you have mentioned (it would be nice to have the error code you get on the BSOD or from the dump) seem to point to one thing. If you want, you can upload the crash dump to pastebin (or some other site) and one of us can run it through the Windows Debugger. That is going to be the real place to find it (short of spending money). My money is on lack of power (you need to replace the PSU).

Pook 1
@98.244.142.x

Pook 1

Anon

Can you walk me through getting the you the codes or crash dumps you need? I'm afraid I'm not finding them in the event viewer. I see tons of entries, but all seem to be listed as information, not system, etc.. There are so many, I didn't know where to start. Things such as USB drivers loading, etc. Nothing jumped out at me, so I guess I'm overlooking it. There never seems to be anything critical in the event viewer near the crashes, but I'm happy to upload the logs if you can explain it to me a bit.

Tirael
BOHICA
Premium Member
join:2009-03-18
Sacramento, CA

Tirael

Premium Member

You need to know where Windows is putting the crash dumps. See if you have the folder:

C:\windows\Minidump
 

If you do, then you will find the dump files (*.dmp, the asterisk is usually a date). You can also use this shortcut in the address bar of Windows Explorer

%systemroot%\Minidump
 

If you find it, then you can upload the most recent dump file to somewhere (Google Drive, pastebin, dropbox, or [insert your preferred cloud-based file sharing solution here]). Then, we can look at it and see what it says. I will also need to know the version of Windows you are running (7 Home Premium/Pro/Ultimate or 8/8.1 [Pro]).

Pook 1
@98.244.142.x

Pook 1

Anon

I actually Googled the procedure and posted the links to the dumps for you about an hour ago, but as I was posting Anon from my other pc, it still hasn't been approved yet. OS is Windows Vista Home Basic. Thanks for your help.

Pook
@98.244.142.x

Pook to Pook 1

Anon

to Pook 1
A little time on Google taught me what I needed to know.

Here are the crash dumps on all 3 days I've had issues.

»www.dropbox.com/s/6rhmou ··· 4-01.dmp
»www.dropbox.com/s/rtkz7t ··· 4-02.dmp
»www.dropbox.com/s/bsyf3k ··· 4-01.dmp

I'm now hearing a faint ticking sound from the pc when it runs. Any ideas?? Would a bad power supply make a ticking sound? Maybe the fan in it?

Tirael
BOHICA
Premium Member
join:2009-03-18
Sacramento, CA

Tirael

Premium Member

Your debug information:

»pastebin.com/NX67m2EC

What it means:

TDR means Timeout Detection and Recovery. Had I been paying attention, I would have noticed you are using Vista. Either way, here is a link that can explain what is going on better than I can. The important thing to note (past all the technical details of TDR) is this:

Common issues that can cause a TDR:

Incorrect memory timings or voltages

Insufficient/problematic PSU

Corrupt driver install

Overheating

Unstable overclocks (GPU or CPU)

Incorrect MB voltages (generally NB/SB)

Faulty graphics card

A badly written driver or piece of software, but this is an unlikely cause in most cases

Driver conflicts

Another possibility that people tend not to like to hear, is that you are simply asking too much of your graphics card. What I mean by this, is that if you have your settings too high and the graphics card struggles and falls to very low FPS, then something graphically complex occurs, the GPU may not be able to respond and a TDR error may occur.

Some users have experienced TDR errors whilst browsing the web with the 280.xx, 285.xx and 290.xx drivers. Please head to this link to clarify if this is relevant to you - this is quite a specific issue which seems to predominantly affect web browsing as opposed to gaming. There are no categoric fixes but some users have found that changing the power management mode to 'Prefer Maximum Performance' has helped.

Examples of specific TDR causes:

Conflict with Realtek drivers causing TDR errors

Driver conflict with Logitech webcam drivers

Unstable overclock on the graphics card

Insufficient PSU

RAM problems (faulty, badly seated or not configured correctly)

Cleaning out dust resolved issue

AMD/ATI cards also have TDR problems

Things to check or consider initially in your troubleshooting:

Check for newer driver version or cleanly uninstall/re-install your drivers. Great description of how to do this here (full credit to DJNOOB for this).
If you have multiple 'GPU tools' like EVGA Precision and MSI Afterburner installed, consider that it is only advisable to have one tool such as this at any one time.

If the issue is only with a specific game, check for patches.

If this is a new problem for you, have you just added any new hardware or updated/installed any new drivers? Consider rolling them back.

Check temperatures. Its important you check these at load, which is generally when a TDR event will occur. Everest Ultimate Edition is a good tool for this, or OCCT's GPU stress test. If things are too hot, you can use tools such as EVGA Precision to increase GPU fan speeds on graphics cards. Cleaning your system of dust can help temperatures significantly. Common sense will normally tell you if something is too hot, but if you aren't sure, the information is generally available online.

Check that your RAM is running at the correct settings as defined by the manufacturer.

Remove any overclocks on your system and test with stock clocks. This includes memory, CPU and GPU (even factory OC'd cards). Best to try each separately so you can be sure if one solves the issue.

Attempt a CMOS reset to return all BIOS settings to default. This is a good hardware troubleshooting step as it also resets the IRQ assignments - you can normally reset the CMOS either through a jumper on the motherboard (see manual), or by disconnecting the mains power and taking out the motherboard battery for 5 minutes. You will likely need to go in to the BIOS after this reset to check the memory timings/voltages are correct, as these will not always do so automatically.

Additional steps:

Run memtest (memtest.org). This should complete with NO errors.

If you have just installed a new graphics card, check your PSU ratings. Is it providing enough power, and most importantly enough Amps on the 12V rail.

If you are using SLI, try each card separately to see if the fault lies with one.

Try graphics card/cards in another computer if you can.

TL;DR

Do a clean install of the drivers and check for issues. If you still get issues, reset the BIOS by pulling out the CMOS battery. If they still persist, turn the power settings in the computer to prefer maximum performance. If they still persist, then check the temperature of the GPU. Since the card is EVGA, download EVGA Precision X for checking temps. If all of that doesn't fix it, get a new PSU.

Edit: If none of this works, build a flamethrower (which is illegal) and turn it into a molten pile. You could also use a hammer. My personal preference is the hammer. Burning things is cool, smashing them to tiny little bits is cooler.

Pook 1
@98.244.142.x

Pook 1

Anon

Haha, at this point a flame thrower seems like a great idea. I'm so sick of these issues lately I could scream lol. I'm pretty certain my pc is set for maximum performance, but I will verify that. I've actually been monitoring the temps of the pc for days now with Speccy and according to that program, my GPU seems to be running about 125 degrees F. and my Processor runs at about 132 degrees F. From what I've read on Google, this is a little warm, but not unheard of with my processor. I'll download Precision X and monitor things from within that.

I've done a complete uninstall, and then reinstall of the latest drivers from Nvidia, but I didn't do it from within safemode yet, so I guess i can try that as well. (Intended to, but got frustrated and forgot lol). I'll also give the resetting of the bios thing a try.

Based on the crash dumps, does it still seem like my power supply is the culprit? If you still suspect that it is, I will go ahead and order one. Thank you very much for your help, I appreciate it.

Camelot One
MVM
join:2001-11-21
Bloomington, IN

Camelot One

MVM

I would uninstall and reinstall the latest audio driver as well.

Pook 1
@98.244.142.x

Pook 1

Anon

Alright, I will do that also. Thank you.

Tirael
BOHICA
Premium Member
join:2009-03-18
Sacramento, CA

Tirael to Pook 1

Premium Member

to Pook 1
To be honest, the symptoms "point" to the PSU, considering all the things you have already tried. It is difficult to diagnose hardware issues and it can get expensive quick.

If your PSU is 5 years old, that is the place I would start looking first. Of course, I have had a Thermaltake Blackwidow PSU that I bought in 2008 that still works today, but YMMV.

Pook 1
@98.244.142.x

Pook 1

Anon

Alright, I will order a new power supply and see what happens. Thanks everyone for your help.
Pook 1

Pook 1

Anon

Power supply ordered and on the way. I notice that the pc seems to not see the card and also the USB devices seem to not be recognized every other power cycle or so. I can start it up and it is at low res, but if I power it back on, it seems to return to normal, though the USB still sometimes isn't recognized.