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TacKom
TacKom
Join Date 04/2006
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Graphics Card errors

"Video card has stopped responding"

February 5, 2008 1:35:10 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Everytime i play Sins it will randomly chug then the screen will go black. then i will get an error from Vista that my video card has stopped responding. Then the screen comes back and the game resumes...

The sound keeps playing and i keep hearing the weapons fire. This happens at random intervals and not neccesarily when a lot of things are happening on screen.



Geforce 7600 gt 512 mb
3.7 GB DD2 Ram
Intel core2 Duo 2.13GHZ

My system isnt top of the line but not horrible either.
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TacKom
Blair Fraser
Join Date 10/2006
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Reply #1 February 5, 2008 1:41:39 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
This sounds like a known ticket item we have with Nvidia regarding their Vista drivers. The latest driver may fix it but it's still something that needs a full solution and we're working with them on it.
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TacKom
TacKom
Join Date 04/2006
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Reply #2 February 5, 2008 3:16:57 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
I already had latest drivers and i reinstalled them and still nothing. I also tried their Betas drivers and it still occurs. I can deal with since i know you guys know about it, a new driver that fixes it is bound to come out soon.
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TacKom
taltamir
Join Date 01/2006
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Reply #3 February 13, 2008 9:22:22 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
same issue here... now I normally preach to people that this sort of crash is usually a hardware issue, as it is caused by your video card crashing (and instead of it freezing the system like on XP, vista terminates the graphics driver and power cycles the video card, you can hear the fan stopping and starting again on the video card if you listen closely when its caused by a hardware issue, like heating.. I don't know if it does the same when its a software issue though).

This CAN however happen due to a game issue. Specific games at specific instances... And this is what i am having now... a rock solid system (so it isn't the hardware) getting those crashes on a core2duo E8400 with P35 mobo, 4GB of ram, and a 7900GS video card.

I am getting my 8800GTS 512MB tomorrow, hopefully it fixes it...

This usually occurs when I have a capital ship select, and I am zooming in or out, a red line towards the current target is ALWAYS present at the exact moment of the crash... so it might be related, it is also usually when the beam weapons fire... The only other place it happens is when finishing a level in the dark avatar official campaign in galciv2. when it loads the next level it crashes the video card as well...

Anyone know of a specific graphical option you can disable to avoid it? Usually such game specific crashes can be circumvented by disabling a certain visual option...
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TacKom
CyBeRiANN
Join Date 12/2003
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Reply #4 February 13, 2008 9:48:40 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
I went through this myself recently with Vista. Long story short, Google DriverCleaner" and grab the PRo version (older, but still free...unlike the newer one). Uninstall the Nvidia display drivers. Boot into safe mode and remove the "nvidia" drivers with DriverCleaner. Reboot and install the latest drivers from nvidia.

If this does not fix the problem, let me know and I will post detailed instructions on specific files to take ownership of and then to delete them.

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TacKom
taltamir
Join Date 01/2006
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Reply #5 February 13, 2008 9:53:06 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
I seriously doubt this has anything to do with it.
My drivers aren't corrupted, this is a specific issue with only this one game, in another thread a developer actually said that they have an open ticket with nvidia about solving this, so its a known bug.

Also do not use driver clearner pro... it was last updated in 2005. I have seen it do a lot of damage with newer drivers (it can't handle ATI's new CCC control center that is .net based).

I heard good things about driver sweeper. But never tried it myself as I have yet to have need.
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TacKom
CyBeRiANN
Join Date 12/2003
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Reply #6 February 13, 2008 10:37:48 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
This issue is actually related to several nvlddmkm.sys files being left behind and possibly the wrong one being referenced.

Technically you do not need to use DriverCleaner Pro, but it does make things easier. The latest version is DriverCleaner.NET, but costs money.

If you do not feel comfortable with DriverCleaner, then by all means, uninstall the driver and remove all nvlddmkm.sys files (this may require you taking ownership and giving yourself full control on the file to delete it).

For advanced users that are willing to try this, go for it. What do you have to lose? It worked for me.
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TacKom
taltamir
Join Date 01/2006
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Reply #7 February 14, 2008 2:46:13 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
I have yet to narrow down the exact feature that triggers this phenomenon. But I disabled ALL the "effects" and turned off anti aliasing (completely) and I haven't had a single crash since...

Occasionally I will get flickering of the menu for a few seconds (which used to predate a crash before..)

But it will go away after a second or two at most and the game continues fine...

I will fiddle with the options, turning on one feature at a time until I find out which one it is that causes this.

(this reminds me the time NWN2 had an infinite loop bug in its "shiny water" function)
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