[alisbin]

hey all,
i've posted about this before but its gotten worse and i can't find the old post.
when i'm playing FS2O my entire computer will crash, the exact nature of the crash: screen freezes, whatever sound is playing (about an 1/8th of a second of it) loops for a little less then a second. i really can't pin it down as to cause, its happened in major dogfights, but it also happens when all i'm doing is flying from place to place (its POSSIBLE that engaging or letting up burners is involved in it, but i can't say for sure).
my computer immediately restarts after this. i've tried running the game at different res, with no command line whatsoever, tried 3.6.9 and 3.6.10 and i've checked my drivers (XPsp2, nvidia 7600gt running 169.21 drivers and latest openAL). i havnt tried D3D because even if it DOES work in D3D i don't want to play it in D3D, will try later though.
i've checked my ram, and its fine, this doesnt happen with any other games, so it doesnt seem to be a heat issue.
ideas? things i missed in checking?

[Zacam]

Try the 163.75 WHQL drivers for one. Check the card temp right after it crashes.

What is the rest of the hardware involved (Motherboard, Power Supply, Memory (MFG, Type, Amount) CPU)? Potential for a failing power supply, do you have power issues in your area?

Pull up 'System Properties', go to 'Advanced', select 'Startup and Recovery'. For the section marked 'System Failure' if there is a check mark in 'Automatically Restart', remove it and see if your crashes give you a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death). If so, write down what it says (even if you can't make heads or tails out of it. No offense, but some people DO like to omit what THEY think might not be relevant when it could very well be useful, and I don't know your tech level.)

Check in your main FS folder for an errorlog.txt. Make sure it's emptied and saved blank and on the next crash, see if it has anything in it. If it does, post it. (let us also know as well if it stays blank or plain does not exist at all).

If you set up a video profile for FS, remove it or reset the Global back to default settings. If your card has a factory overclock, hit up nVidia's product page for what it's non-overclock values should be and set the card to that instead.

If you have a VIA chipset board AND your BSOD references the nv4_disp and an infinite loop, you may have a known VIA bug that there is an unofficial patch for.

Make sure your motherboard drivers are up to date according to the CHIPSET Vendor's files, NOT the motherboard manufacturers drivers. (EX: If you have an ECS nForce board, use the nVidia nForce drivers, not the ECS package. The CHIPSET vendors drivers are baselined for what the chipset HAS to support to be a member of that chipset, where as the manufacturers drivers may be a multi-board universal package that may support conflicting auxiliary item configurations or make allowances for them.)

[alisbin]

i have 163.71 lying around somewhere so i'll try those first.
other system stats: ECS nForce 570 SLIT-A Socket 775, Core2 Duo E6300 1.86 ghz, 3 gig Corsair TWINX PC5400 DDR2 667MHz, 3 Ultra case fans + standard CPU fan/heatsink, Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy SE, 2 WD SATA 3/gig HDs (total 400 or so gig), Asus SATA DVD/CD, don't remember my exact stats on the power supply but its a 700 watt with 36 on the 12 volt rails i think.
my tech is medium, i'd consider myself a power user but not a true expert since i only keep a moderate track of current electronics. i haven't noticed BSOD associated with it, but i'll check my settings (its a fairly recent windows install so i might not have set auto restart off yet). no video profile i do all my changes in game. emptied the errorlog and i'll see if something new comes up. uh i can't install the mobo drivers, either the ECS ones OR the NVidia ones, they cause my mobo, for some odd reason, goes into shock when i do. it turns off half my USB ports (a different half each time, don't ask i still dunno why) and also screws around with my windows installation (mainly registry corruption and causes power issues, that i don't have without it).
if i have time i'll do a full backup and try the latest nforce drivers again but i don't have the time to deal with the possible fallout right now.

heres hoping the graphics drivers solves the problem and thanks for the help

[ARSPR]

i have 163.71 lying around somewhere so i'll try those first.
other system stats: ECS nForce 570 SLIT-A Socket 775, Core2 Duo E6300 1.86 ghz, 3 gig Corsair TWINX PC5400 DDR2 667MHz, 3 Ultra case fans + standard CPU fan/heatsink, Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy SE, 2 WD SATA 3/gig HDs (total 400 or so gig), Asus SATA DVD/CD, don't remember my exact stats on the power supply but its a 700 watt with 36 on the 12 volt rails i think.
my tech is medium, i'd consider myself a power user but not a true expert since i only keep a moderate track of current electronics. i haven't noticed BSOD associated with it, but i'll check my settings (its a fairly recent windows install so i might not have set auto restart off yet). no video profile i do all my changes in game. emptied the errorlog and i'll see if something new comes up. uh i can't install the mobo drivers, either the ECS ones OR the NVidia ones, they cause my mobo, for some odd reason, goes into shock when i do. it turns off half my USB ports (a different half each time, don't ask i still dunno why) and also screws around with my windows installation (mainly registry corruption and causes power issues, that i don't have without it).
if i have time i'll do a full backup and try the latest nforce drivers again but i don't have the time to deal with the possible fallout right now.

heres hoping the graphics drivers solves the problem and thanks for the help

It seems that you have quite a lot of MB stability troubles. Maybe that's the reason for your strange crashes and not your GPU or drivers.

Nevertheless as Zacam told try 163.75 or the NEWEST 169.xx. ForceWare 169.xx has some troubles with OGL and FS2Open, but at least the last versions more or less work. See this thread: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,50345.0.html

[alisbin]

with the drivers yeah i do have some stability problems (i think xp hates my mobo or something), but seriously as long as i don't install drivers and just let it run on firmware it runs great.

[Mura]

what about new firmware?
That might fix some of the stability problems if there is a new firmware signature for your mobo, but you have to be careful if you do decide to update firmware since you could end up with a very large piece of junk 

[Zacam]

I find it disturbing that using any Chipset driver (ECS or nVidia) destabilizes your board. Though, in order for me to install the PMU Coprocessor driver for my DFI, I actually had to run the "32bit Vista nVidia nForce" driver installer in Safe Mode (XP) and I noticed immediate speed and stability improvements. Also, is yours a 3.1 version or a 5.1 version?

3.1 Has a BIOS Update dated 07/03/14  that has support/fixes specifically for the CPU type that you are running.

Have you made any significant changes to your BIOS settings? If so, try Optimized Defaults and try the drivers again.

Optionally, hit up ECS and nVidia forums and see if any one else has the problem. (Though, I haven't found anything specifically in the nVida forums myself.)

If all else fails, ECS has superb technical Support and a relatively painless RMA process. Mind, I've never had to personally use either.

[alisbin]

ok installed 163.71 and its better, but i havnt had the time to run through a campaign and check it heavy duty situations. probably get a chance this weekend.

i've got the 5.1, and i did update the firmware about 6 months ago, didnt really change things. bios is essentially vanilla (i have the onboard sound card disabled and the boot order changed a bit but thats it).
the main reason i hesitate to think its a problem with my hardware is that nothing else has problems... i don't get unexplained crashes in... really anything. i'll list a few games that work fine just as benchmarks,
oblivion (modded like crazy, though carefully), the whole dawn of war series (including soulstorm which is prone to crashes i've heard), the witcher, FEAR, mechwarrior 4 and mercs, nwn 1 & 2.
all of these work pretty much perfectly, all on really high settings. anyway, next time it crashes i'll update this thread with the crash info, maybe that'll shed some light.
and thanks guys

[alisbin]

just an update, reverted to 163.71 and although that reduced performance quite a bit the crashes seem to have gone away (though i havnt REALLY stressed it yet).
and i can confirm that the nForce drivers WRECK my system, i installed them this afternoon and i'm had about 5 MAJOR crashes and freezes, managed to restore back and this seems to be back to ok again. i dunno what the deal is but apparently my machine is allegic to nforce.

[Zacam]

That is really bizzare. I don't think I have ever managed to hear of a situation where Chipset Drivers have seriously fraked things up.

I take it you are running a 3.6.9? I have massive issues with 3.6.9, which is why I've been using the 3.6.10 builds.

[alisbin]

GAH, i'm i knew i forgot something in my original post, normally i run 3.6.10, i just tried 3.6.9 to see if it was a .10 problem

[Zacam]

The exe was 3.6.10 or the vp's? Because I _do_ have issues with 3.6.9 running the 3.6.10 vp's. I just have issues with 3.6.9 period, which is a shame.

I've also never had a crash in 3.6.10. Pre march builds had some issues with not loading SLDC saved by PCS 2.0.x, but then you would notice that before you even got to the breifing.

Do yau have the sdr1119-0.rar vp in your mediavp's folder?

[alisbin]

i do not have sdr1119-0.rar vp or anything similar in my mediavps folder.  i suppose i'm using the 3.6.9 files with 3.6.10 since .9 is what turey's installer grabs right now right? could that be the source of the problem? and if so how do i go about updating to the .10 vp's
besides the .10 exe itself all my files are gotten via turey's installer, as for the .10 date...  i think i got it around november so whatever build was current then is what i have for that.

[Zacam]

3.6.10 EXE handles 3.6.8 VP's just fine. 3.6.10 of any build handles the content delivered by Turey's installer just fine.
(And that would be the 102807 Build of 3.6.10)

Assuming that the installer correctly downloaded everything without corruption.

If your not running the 3.6.10 Beta VP's or using Normal Maps, the sdr vp won't matter one bit.

3.6.9 EXE's (every time I try it) does NOT however like the 3.6.10 Beta VP's.

[alisbin]

i finally got a chance to do some minor stress testing, downgrading my graphics drivers seems to have gotten rid of the crash. only problem i'm having at this point is some minor graphical issues, the stilleto II graphics when targeted are really messed up, all green. however thats the only issue i've noticed so far.
thanks everybody for the help