Rivatuner issue!

First of all, I want to say that I have two weeks worth the troubleshooting on this issue. So, I am not starting this thread blindly. Also I apologize for the length of this posting, but it is necessary.

I installed Vista ultimate about six weeks ago on a new home built system. Here are some of my system specs:

MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card

Anyway, I use imaging software extensively to create images of my system. Example: Load clean install of Vista....create image. Load all drivers......create image. Make personal settings......create image. I basically create an image before making any changes to my system, that way I can easily recover if problems occur.

So, after my install of Vista, I slowly start adding windows updates, drivers, personal software, etc. All the time creating images in between, and logging what each image contains for future reference. I am also a gamer, so my games also get installed. So, I had been gaming with no issues at all for weeks. One day, I stumbled across Rivatuner, and liked what I saw, so I installed it. I had it set up to show my GPU temp, and dual core temps with the dual core pluin down by the clock. That same day I also installed the nforce memory controller from windows update. Anyway, later that evening I was gaming, and ended up getting the error message that you will find in this thread.
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=25381&hl=nvlddmkm+error

I didn't think much of it, and ended up getting the error two more times the next day. That led me to do a google search, and I found the above thread that I linked to. Alot of people in that thread commented that everything was working fine for a long time, and then out of nowhere, the error popped up. That is exactly what happened to me. This led me to believe that it had to have been something I installed along the way. So, to troubleshoot this, I restored from an image that put me back to a fresh install of vista, with all my drivers installed, and JUST one of my games(BF2142). Rivatuner was not included in this image, nor were some windows updates, including the nforce memory controller. I have windows update turned off so I have to manually install the updates. The image that I restored from is one that I know from my image description, that everything was working fine. So, I did not do anything to the system after restoring from this image. I gamed for a week with no issues. After that week, I started to only install the recommended security patches from windows update. I then gamed some more with no issues. Basically, I slowly put my system back together, and did alot of heavy gaming in between trying to duplicate the error, and pinpoint what was causing it. I could not duplicate the error again. Finally, about three days ago, I decided to install Rivatuner again. I got it set up again to show my GPU temps, and CPU temps down by the clock. NO gaming done yet at this point. I then set up OSD, with alot of help from Unwinder so that I could see stats in BF2142 during game play. Finally, I was ready to do some heavy gaming with my new set up of Rivatuner. BAM, 20 minutes into the game, and I crash, with the same error mentioed above. I start playing some more, and crash again. I then crash a third time.

So, I decided to restore from an image that contains everything except Rivatuner. I then game for 1.5 hours with no issues. I then restore from the image that contains Rivatuner. I again start crashing with the error message. So, before bed, I once again imaged back from my image file that does not contain Rivatuner. Then this morning, I gamed for a solid three hours with no crashing. Keep in mind that the two images I am using to restore from are identical in every way, except one image file contains Rivatuner, and the other doesn't.

Now I do realize from reading the documentation that turning on back ground monitoring(needed for OSD) can affect performance, but can it also be the cause of my crashes and the error message?

To me, my testing proves that something in Rivatuner is causing the error message "on my system". I can image back and forth between the two image files, and only crash when Rivatuner is installed.

I am in no way bashing this software. I am simply telling you the results of a few weeks worth of testing. I was acctually thinking/hoping that the problem was from the nforce memory controller that windows update was offering. By the way, I still have not installed the memory controller back on my system. So it is not even this issue.

Any ideas on what might be doing this? I would really like to be able to use this software. I was going to set up my fan controls next, but it too requires background monitoring to be allowed. I am not sure if the back ground monitoring is what is even causing the error. I will image back to the image file containing Rivatuner, and turn background monitoring off, and try gaming and see what happens.

Anyway, that is my issue, and I know it is a tough one.

 

Sorry if my post sounded like an attack. It was not meant to be, and I tried saying that in my earlier post.

I know what the error is caused from like you mentioned above. I also know from reading most of that thread I linked to, that many different things are/can cause it to appear.

I do not overclock in any way. I also know from the temps that Rivatuner reports, that I do not have any type of heat issues. I just found it odd that I can duplicate that error when restoring from the image that contains Rivatuner. It's probably just coincidence.

 

Got it!! I will give that a try.

I have never received that error message outside of gaming. And even in gaming, it has never been bad. During the crash I had last night, Vista was actually able to recover, and I continued game play. I new there was a bit of a video and sound glitch at the time, but I just continued right along. It wasn't until I looked in event viewer, that I confirmed that it was the actual error message.

Actually, I really should not call it an "error" message. It never shows up as an error in event viewer with the red icon. It shows up as a "warning" with the yellow icon.

Anyway, just so you know, I just played a round of BF 2142 with OSD running the whole time with no issues.

Sometimes I wonder if game server issues can cause glitches with your GPU ??? Or poor connections on my end through the router with multiple players? Maybe the GPU trying to process data that is poor from server lag?? I don't know enough about it.

I am sure programmers like you sit back and laugh at guys like me. I will say this though, I have discovered problems with commercial software in the past, and reported back to the authors, who have then made fixes. But only on software that I think is worth doing so like Rivatuner!!

Thanks!!

 

Speaking of the background monitoring graphs, I had a question. Ok, I have background monitoring on. Because I am using background monitoring, this may affect performance, and slow down my system. Is this an all or nothing deal? Meaning, if I have background monitoring enabled, will performance be affected the same no matter how many items items I have set up in the graph to monitor? Or, does performance get affected more and more as you add more items to monitor? Example: Say I am only monitoring fan speed, and GPU temp. Will performance be affected less with this setup compared to if I had six different things I am monitoring? I would assume so, but I am not positive.

Thanks!

 

Hmmmm, this just confuses me. Ok, I restored back to the image that does NOT contain Rivatuner. I then installed Rivatuner, and set it up just like before. Again, I crash in the first game of BF2142. So, I TURN OFF backgraound monitoring, but leave Rivatuner running down by the clock. Basically since background monitoring is off, Rivatuner shouldn't have any affect on my system I would think. The only thing I had been using Rivatuner for so far is showing CPU temp, and GPU temp down by the clock, and OSD during game play. Both of which work great. Anyway, I go back into game play, and again crash after about 20 minutes. Again getting the warning that nvlddmkm stopped responding.

Next, I restore from that same image that does not contain Rivatuner, and game for over four hours without a crash. Then, this morning, I gamed for another hour with no issues.

I agree that Rivatuner being the cause of this crashing seems absurd. However, I can duplicate it over and over by installing, and un-installing Rivatuner. I have never crashed with Rivatuner off my HDD.

The problem is, I want to use the software really bad. I think it is good stuff, and easy to use and setup. Can you think of anything that could cause something like this?? Remember, I am using Vista and not XP. Could it possibly be a bios setting that could be clashing with Rivatuner?? I have my RAM timings and voltage setup properly in the bios, according to the manufacturers recommendations. My dual core CPU was automatically detected with the proper settings.

I am stumped here!!

 

Well, I installed the latest Beta Nvidia graphics drivers for Vista this morning. I will re-install Rivatuner and see what happens.

As far as increasing the fan speed, I don't think that will fix anything. According to the OSD during gaming, my GPU is only at 56C. I was told that BF 2142 is not that big of a stress on graphics cards.

Maybe this issue is game specific? Maybe BF 2142 and Rivatuner combined causes this.

 

Yep. The statistics server was not on, or down by the clock. Also, I pressed the little red button on the hardware monitoring page that enables/disables background monitoring to turn it off. Then, to double check, I looked in background monitoring again, and it doesn't start to show any activity until the screen pops up on the desktop. So no monitoring is going on.

What other back ground activity is there? Do you mean background activity outside of Rivatuner, such as other software installed?

I turn off the Vista side bar, and my AV before gaming. That's about it.

By the way, is this going to be a problem? (See screenshot) I have the latest beta drivers 158.43 installed. I want to try them with Rivatuner and see what happens.

 

The only things I had set up through Rivatuner were background monitoring, with the cpu temp, and gpu temp displayed down by the clock. Also, I had OSD set up to show gpu temp, and fan speed, as well as cpu temps. Nothing else was touched in Rivatuner.

No.......I will try that.

158.18

By the way, I installed the beta 158.43, and reinstalled Rivatuner and set up OSD. Crashed in the first game with the same warning in event viewer.

This has me baffled.

 

I will read that thread real quick.

No, currently I do not have any other games that I play. But you know what.....I will download and install a demo of another game and see how it goes.

I mentioned this before, and it may be worth mentioning again. When I installed BF 2142, there was a popup window that said it had not been tested on Vista.

I will report back after I install another game.

 

Interesting thread! The poster does not mention what OS he is using......unless I overlooked that part somewhere.

I wonder if it is BF 2142 specific? Like I said before, my temps are nice and cool, on both cpu cores, and gpu.

By the way, I disabled back ground monitoring, and re-booted my system. I then just had Rivatuner sitting down by the clock. The game once again crashed. THAT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE! I am going to disable rivatuner from starting with windows, and reboot. Then I will play another game session. I can't imagine it causing the crash just sitting down by the clock. If my system also crashes with it not even started, then something weird is going on.

During the initial install of Rivatuner, it builds a registry database. Excuse my ignorance, but is it possible that it is making some change to the registry that might cause this?