GeForce 6800 GS Problems/Driver recommendations required.

Hello,

I have a problem with my NVidia GeForce 6800 GS.
As soon as I'm starting to play a game it randomly freezes for a few seconds or it comes up with an BSOD that says nv4_disp.dll is caught in an infinite loop (minidump included).

I've tryed a lot of things to fix it already like:
-Replacing drivers.
-Formatted my computer.
-Bought new RAM and PSU.
And im browsing forums for a few months now looking for other answers and I'm getting pretty tired of this.

The specs are:
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-8I915PM
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 515, 2933 MHz (22 x 133)
RAM: 1024 MB DDR SDRAM PC3200 (200 MHz)
PSU: 650W
(If there is any more you need, just ask).

Right now I'm using the 84.21 drivers and they seem to last longer without crashing than the newest ones (not 100% sure on this though).

Morgus :)

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

Your minidump crashes at your video card drivers. It has a bugcheckof EA.

This is the meaning of your bugcheck code.

0x000000EA: THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER

A device driver problem has caused the system to pause indefinitely (hang). Typically, this is caused by a display driver waiting for the video hardware to enter an idle state. This might indicate a hardware problem with the video adapter, or a faulty video driver.

As you can see, drivers are often the culprit. However, it can also be caused by a faulty video card.

If at all possible, try the card in another system and see if you get the same results.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave:

Thanks for the quick reply,

It will be hard for me to test it on another system since we only have one.
Isn't there some other way to test it?

Morgus :)

That`s unfortunate.

All you can really do, is try different drivers. If that doesn`t solve your problem and you keep getting the same bugcheck, it looks like a faulty card.

Make sure the card is clean and not full of dust etc and that any fan it has is running properly. You could also open your case and aim a deskfan at your card and see if the crashes become less frequent. If they do, it`s an overheating problem.

Regards Howard :)

Ok thanks.

Are there any recommended drivers or should I just try some random ones?
I do use drivercleaner first while in safemode before the install.

My case was already open to make sure that wasn't the problem.
If other drivers won't work, I'll try to clean it and put a fan on it.

Morgus :)

I can`t recommend any specific drivers for your card. However, I`m sure some of our other members will have recommendations.

I`ll edit your thread title to reflect this.

Regards Howard :)

you mentioned your power supply was 650 Watts? HOw many amps do you have on the 12V rail? and most importantly what brand is it?

The new one is:

Sweex Low Noise (Retail, BA000110, 2 fans)

650 Watts

230V, 50Hz
110/220 V Volt

+3,3V 28 A
+5Vsb 2 A
+5V 45 A
-5V 0,5 A
+12V 25 A
-12V 0,8 A

but I had the same thing on my old PSU (that one didn't have enough Watts. That's why I bought it in the first place).

Morgus :)

Make sure the card is clean and not full of dust etc and that any fan it has is running properly. You could also open your case and aim a deskfan at your card and see if the crashes become less frequent. If they do, it`s an overheating problem.

I've done all the things you said and updated the drivers to 91.36 (from this site) but my screen still froze every few minutes.

Morgus :)

Edit: Sorry for double post. I saw it too late.

any drivers after 81.98 are not stable.

Strange that you go to the 91.31 drivers at the NVIDIA site then, but I'll try the 81.98.

Thanks!
Hope this works.

Edit: I updated my drivers to 81.98 but unfortunatly it still froze..

I suggest you to updateyour mother board drivers & bios too!
tough gigabyte never released GA-8I915Pm but i thout you means GA-8I915P-MF may be you've bought a pretended one!
you could update your bios & drivers from the link below
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=1800
I suggest you to bought a gigabyte Vga next time they're better and also match your mother board too.
Sincerely Sarah

Uninstall the NVIDIA display drivers and let them install through Windows Update. This will install the most stable drivers for ur card.
BTW, 91.36 is not meant for standalone display adapters, only for the Quadro series.

I do notice some difference now I use 81.98. At 81.98+ it froze every 10 minutes and now i only have it 1 time a day so that's a lot better.
About the mother board, I bought my computer instead of building it myself so that explains the GA-8I915PM.
For the updates I used http://download.gigabyte.com.tw/ (http://download.gigabyte.com.tw) but I'll look at the link you gave me aswell as the Microsoft Update site.

Thanks for your help.

Edit: I have updated my mother board drivers with the link you gave me but I don't know how to do the bios and I heard it can go wrong pretty badly so I'd like to have a little more info on that if possible.
When I uninstalled my display drivers and ran Windows Update I got nothing.. So I reinstalled 81.98.

I do notice some difference now I use 81.98. At 81.98+ it froze every 10 minutes and now i only have it 1 time a day so that's a lot better.
About the mother board, I bought my computer instead of building it myself so that explains the GA-8I915PM.
For the updates I used http://download.gigabyte.com.tw/ (http://download.gigabyte.com.tw) but I'll look at the link you gave me aswell as the Microsoft Update site.

Thanks for your help.

Edit: I have updated my mother board drivers with the link you gave me but I don't know how to do the bios and I heard it can go wrong pretty badly so I'd like to have a little more info on that if possible.
When I uninstalled my display drivers and ran Windows Update I got nothing.. So I reinstalled 81.98.
try link below it's from gigabyte site
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/HowToReflashBIOS.aspx
and this if you need more.
http://www.cyberwalker.com/columns/jul98/073098.html
I think it's necessary cause you're motherboard is unknown maybe too old , are you sure it's agp 8 maybe it's agp4! if it's agp4 you're problem will solve by updating bios it also increas proformance.

I'm having the same problem, with the same vid-card and I can't get proper drivers becuase I'm running Windows XP Professional x32. 1.5 gig RAM, 3.00 Ghz Dual-Core Processor, 480W power supply.

Did u try using Windows Update and\or getting the 81.98 drivers?

81.98 doesn't cover anything to do with 6800GS, I have one newish of the betas, unfortunately.

Whatever do u mean it has nothing to do with the 6800GS? And using beta drivers will cause problems because they're just that, BETA, so they will be buggy. Try switching to 91.31 and see if it helps.

Nothing to do, meaning doesn't support and doesn't accept or register that it's there.

Funny, I wonder how Morgus got them to work.

The version drivers compatable with the card, is the only one that doesn't exist, x32-bit XP Professional. Actually, the only requirement I don't meet with the card is a x64 bit Windows, and I don't feel like spending hundreds of dollars on that, when I have a $450, nonfunctional videocard.

Sorry for the late response, I had some other things to do..

Funny, I wonder how Morgus got them to work.
It's still not working but the 81.98 drivers made it crash less (it freezes once a day instead of every 10 minutes and no more BSOD's so far) then when I used 81.98 or higher drivers.

Thank you for the link Sarah07. I will try it this week and let you know if it helped or not.

I have a different 6800GS then, I have one of these: http://www.gainward.net/products/product.php?products_id=21 (In AGP)

Is there any way I can modify 81.98 to detect it?

Edit: According to the dxdiag, I have a Geforce 6800GS/XT.

Morgus might have a PCI-Express one then. Not sure coz I can't find any info on his mobo. And I have no idea if it's possible to modify 81.98 to detect them. But that brings me to these drivers, from Omega and DNA. Try both and see if they sort out the problem.
Omega Drivers for NVIDIA (http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1027)
DNA Drivers for NVIDIA (http://www.dna-drivers.com/page.php?id=33)

All the Omega drivers seemed to do was delete the videocard from the registry and uninstall EXPERTool. I'm guessing the DNA drivers will do little else.

and no more BSOD's so far
I'm afraid I have to take that back (included minidump just in case someone needs it).

Yes, my card is Nvidia 6800GS PCIE NX68G series Graphics Accelerator(Gigabyte Technology) and you're right about the motherboard. It's not even listed on the Gigabyte website.
But when I looked at the website where I bought it and searched on "6800 GS" the card I bought didn't show up...

Actually it is listed. Here. (http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/VGA/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=1297)

Sorry but I think you understood me wrong.
I meant the motherboard is not listed on the Gigabyte website (modified model?) and the graphics card is removed from the online catalogue where I bought it.

I think I found the ur mobo(maybe it's missing part of the name?). Is it this one (http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=1800&ModelName=GA-8I915P-MF)?

That could be the one, yes. It looks a lot like it on the image.
I'll try to contact PB (http://www.packardbell.com) for some info.

Edit: I found my pc at the PB site which includes multiple downloads (drivers, bios etc.) so I'll try those things.
It also says there is an important bios update avaible so I hope it solves it.

Edit2: I've updated my BIOS to Sunshine 2.0U but the problem still remains (and still using the 81.98 drivers).
But this time it was different (not sure if it's just a one-time thing). This time it was DirectX which "stopped". When it froze I saw the in-game location where I was a few minutes before (so it jumps back?) and then it stops. But the strange thing this time was (has happend before but it's usually a complete freeze) that I could still go to Task Manager so only the 3D Renderings stopped. If I try to restart the game now I get: "WoW was unable to start up 3D acceleration. Please make sure DirectX 9.0c is installed (which it is) and your video drivers are up-to-date".
It gets solved by rebooting.

Edit3: The above thing is only recurring sometimes. Now it completely froze again instead of only the 3D part.

Sorry for the bump but could you please look at the edits from the previous post.
If really noone can help me anymore I would like to thank you all for the things you have done and try some other places.
Ofcourse I will still stay at techspot and give an update on this topic if it ever gets solved (maybe it's usefull to other people's) but atleast I know I won't have to keep this topic up. :)