steam lock up kills nvidia card drivers...

[Cadaver]

    ZPS locked up to the point I had to turn off the computer to reboot.  Then get the Blue Screen of Death,  pointing out an issue with the nvlddmkm.sys file. 

Going back to the last known good boot did NOT work.  Startup repair did NOT work.  Reloading the Drivers enable 2D work, but attempt to open any game (even Solitaire) and there is a Direct X error...  Or, the computer freezes, and the screen flickers occasionally...

Nvidia 8600m series on Vista 32bit (yeah, its vista, yeah its 32bit, but it was a replacement computer at the time when XP was not available and 64bit Vista was unstable...)

There are others with this issue, apparent in the Nvidia.com forums, but NO response on how to fix the issue. 

[Kwaurtz]

DEATH TO NVIDIA, ATI SHALL RISE AGAIN

[G-man]

Update or reinstall your video card drivers. If a system restore doesn't work, it's probably a hardware issue. Check inside your computer to see if there's anything funny looking/sounding going on.

What exactly caused this to happen? ZPS lock up? ???

Providing Specs(use CPU-Z) can help us help you diagnose the problem.

[Jorgen]

ATI HD 5870 all the way baby

[symbolzzzz]

GTX 470 baby. My prev one was an ATI and it was good.

[Cadaver]

8600m GS 256mb in a HP 9700t custom built 17in laptop (ironically free replacement for a HP that died before...)
Vista 32bit OS
Dual Core Centrino Intel 2.2ghz 4gb Ram 2x120gb 7200rpm drives

Was entering Zombie Panic Source - on the intro screen when it locked up - had to use the power button to reboot...

When it restarted, it gave the Blue Screen claiming the nvlddmkm.sys file was corrupt and then memory dumped and shut off.

After this, the following reboots, the computer would hang after the bios and before the windows sign on.  The screen would be back lit, but blank (meaning the LCD was active...)

It would allow getting into safe mode, where I loaded the newest nvidia drivers available 258.96... No difference in the reboot.  I then went back to drivers 186.03, and this allows me to completely boot, and get into the OS.  I can surf, and watch online videos, etc.

However, NO games.  Nadda.  Not even the solitaire or minefield games... The laptop will lock up, and the screen will periodically flicker. 

After describing this to Nvidia's Online Tech "Support" they were not very helpful...

Trying again.

Wont be gaming til I gets my comp running again... Bah.

Yeah Yeah, kinda hard to stick a desktop card in a laptop tho guys...

Sure the heck wont be buying HP or Nvidia next time...

[Jorgen]

hehehe HP has never been a good buy =P atleast not from what i've seen.
try asus if you can afford it ABSOLUTELY GREAT LAPTOPS =) might be alitle pricey but sure is worth it it has desktop components integrated into a laptop quite beautiful actualy

[Cadaver]

yeah.  Well. I will, once I am employed again...

But that does not aid in the fixing of this piece of ...

Their so called Tech Support advised to "download our new beta drivers"

Sigh.  Crock...


Funny thing is, when I got this Laptop its retail was $3200... now, well, not so much...

[Jorgen]

i see your problem, let's see if you came from another place then America you'd have better aid, from what i have noticed your help contains 90% stupid indian people lol
Norway tech = 100% norwegian bread eduacated people =P and I have been set up with your tech help IT IS HORRIBLE... i had a indian lady trying to make me do shit that i knew wouldn't work, so she forced me to do it guess what it messed things 5 times more upp =D, hapily since she messed my shit up even worse when i called Norwegian tech suport they just colected my damn pc because of the fuck upp and fixed the god damn piece of shit it was =)
anywho out from what you can do... do ya have a console maybe? buy dead rising 2? XD
well, i won't be much help... have you reinstalled your whole pc yet? if not maybe you should lo

[Cadaver]

LOL yeah.

the person's ID in the Chat was "Farzana"

So... yeah. Spot on...

Reinstall - oh man.  I am trying to avoid that like the PLAGUE it is ...   Vista reinstall is THE SUCK and - I only have the HP on disk reinstall which equals this:  "Lets put your OS and laptop back to the original SHIT condition you bought it in.  ALL the Junk, Spam, and Spy ware back on, back to the ORIGINAL NON-service packed Vista 32bit whore software...

I would then have to 1) remove the defiling bs software 2) spend 2-3 DAYS downloading and updating Vista to service pack 2, and getting all the additional "safety" updates... 3) Having to deal with Micro$oft's  jackassery on whether or not this is a "legit" copy, even though the damn thing came from HP...

Not to mention attempting to reload and redo Steam... and other software...

I truly am lazy, but really, I do not want to have to format and reload.  I do not need the loss of a week and the migraine headaches that come with...

NOTE: This might be the last post for a while... If this Damn thing does not behave...

[Kwaurtz]

hehehe HP has never been a good buy =P atleast not from what i've seen.
try asus if you can afford it ABSOLUTELY GREAT LAPTOPS =) might be alitle pricey but sure is worth it it has desktop components integrated into a laptop quite beautiful actualy

ASUS? GOOD? DOES NOT COMPUTE

[Jorgen]

in all honesty kwaurts the ones i have had, have been great lol

[G-man]

Cadaver, back up all your shit on an external hard-drive

COMPLETELY REINSTALL WINDOWS. ITS YOUR ONLY CHANCE.

Well...I found this solution. Give it a try, there's nothing to lose.

I have found and fixed the problem today. This is what appears to happen.
during the installation of the most current drivers 100.65 Vista, an OLD file
nvlddmkm.sys is copied into windows/system32/drivers and not the current one
in the install. As a result the new drivers are attempting to access a file
dated 11/2006 instead of 2/2007 ver 7.15.11.0065 which is in the newest WHQL
driver ver 100.65 vista 32.

Fix: Go to windows/system32/drivers and rename nvlddmkm.sys to
nvlddmkm.sys.old. Go to the nvidia directory and find the file nvlddmkm.sy_
and copy it to windows/system32. Using the cmd window (DOS box) type
EXPAND.EXE nvlddmkm.sy_ nvlddmkm.sys. When the expansion is complete, copy
the new nvlddmkm.sys to windows/system32/drivers and restart the computer.

Your computer should now work properly.

You will notice that any uninstall and reinstall of nvidia drivers will not
remove the old nvlddmkm.sys file and will not overwrite it with the newer
version. You have to do it manually. I do not know why this happens but who
cares as long it is fixed.

[Cadaver]

G-man,  so far I have found approx 13 different "fixes" for the issue. Yes, it seems to be software, and yet, people pull hardware and "resolve" the issue... Sigh.

Yes, it does not reload a new version of that file.  However, removing the file (and its 19 back ups - yes Vista is hyper about backing itself up, and stores a copy for each driver refresh...) and deleting all back ups and then reloading has not "fixed" the issue...

FYI:  Format and reinstall does not necessarily "fix" the issue either, as the driver sets put out by Nvidia somehow recreate the flaw...  Some kind of compatibility issues with Vista vs Nvidia drivers...

IF I find a fix I will post it... IF not, no gaming for me until a job (miraculously) appears...   

I reiterate, I will no longer put $ in Nvidia's pocket from hereon. 

[G-man]

I think at this point, buying a new graphics card seems like the best solution, and the NVidia 8000 series is kinda outdated anyway. It's really your decision however, I think getting your computer professionally repaired costs around the same as an entirely new graphics card. I recommend any of ATI's latest cards.

Sorry that this happened. I also apologize for not being of much help. I'm inexperienced with hardware, and it seems that if your computer can boot correctly, there aren't any internal memory errors. Perhaps a program you have recently installed is interfering. I'm really not sure.

I hope you can get it fixed soon.