Nv4_disp display driver has stopped working normally.

I've been having this error pop up for a while now.

About a month ago, I did a hard reboot on my computer when my monitor wouldn't power on (accidentally hit a switch). I lost my RAID configuration, but worse, I'm getting this error.

What happens is I'll be playing a graphic-intensive game such as X3: Reunion, Half Life 2, or Unreal Tournament 3. At some random point in the game, a freeze happens coupled by a looping sound. Waiting a minute or two, texture errors appear where either :

a) Most of the textures turn to a purple or white color,

b) One of the textures from the game becomes an overlay on the screen (I once had a smoke sprite become my only view in a game of Frontlines),


Waiting further gives the game a chance to CTD, with the "nv4_disp driver blah blah blah" error appearing in beautiful 4 bit color.

Some games give me a black screen on start-up. Rebooting and trying again has let me start the games only to reach the error above.

This only happens on games with upper-end graphics. I can play Mount&Blade no problem, though I might have not played long enough to have seen a crash yet.

I have updated, rolled back, deleted, reinstalled, and done anything possible with my drivers. I even used another of the same card to see if that helped, but to no avail.

Specs:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.40 Ghz
Video Card: eVGA 8800GTX
RAM: 2 x 1GB DDR3, Corsair
Motherboard: Asus Maximus Extreme
OS: XP professional

Otehr things:
-It's not overheating. It reaches 60 Celsius in games at most.

-The rig is watercooled.

-Reinstalling windows with reformatting does nothing.

-There is no way the graphics card is going bad, if another one gives the same error.

-The card I experimented with came from another computer that could run games just fine.

I've googled this endlessly, with every response being to reinstall drivers. That doesn't help, and no one bothers to post a real fix.

Has ANYONE here had this problem, and has ANYONE managed to fix it without replacing too much hardware or switching to ATi?

Edit: I figure this goes here since it's reported as a driver error. If I'm wrong, please say so.

 

A hard reboot, you mean you did a reboot without properly shutting down through Windows? So after that happened you have been getting the nv4 error or was the nv4 error always present?
I would have to say it's either a piece of your hardware got damaged or you have driver files left over that are causing a problem. As for you and trying to use another card, well I know for a fact that you can try another card but if you have a bad driver/install that other card probably won't work and still show/give the same problems/sympthoms.

If your overclocking, try resetting back to factory setting and see if the problem is still there.

I would uninstall,mobo,video card drivers,maybe even to a bios update. Run CCleaner,driver sweeper. All of these can help.

You can also go into your Event Viewer and see if you are getting any errors codes. I bet you are. It may tell you your problem, if not google the error or you can even download a program called Microsoft Debugging Tool to read the error.

 

You've got it.

My point was that it was a driver issue, and that I used another 8800GTX to rule out hardware failure.

Overclocking, Underclocking, or running stock speeds changes nothing.

I've used Driver Cleaner Pro or something similar to clean drivers, as well as driver sweeper. It didn't occur to me that the motherboard might be at fault, why would that be? The hard reboot might have corrupted something there?

I looked, and haven't seen an error relating to any kind of game crash.


I remember reading about .dmp files and how they can be used to find the cause of the error, could I look at them and see what the problem is?

 

Have you looked into the PSU (power supply unit) yet? Unless I read your post wrong it seems like the only probable cause is either (1) bad motherboard (unlikely since it's only nvidia driver BSODs) or (2) bad PSU. What is the other card that gave you the same error?

 

Your processor could be overheating due to the water cooled heat sink not making good contact to the processor or coolant not flowing properly? My stepson left his computer off for a week and the coolant was not flowing in the tubes when he decided to turn it back on. What I did was just laid the tower on it side for a few seconds and it started flowing again. It works fine now.

 

I had a very similar thing happen to me w/ my 1st GTX 280 card. It was on liquid and the temps where still reading "ok" (80) when a) started to happen. Turned out that the card was faulty (suspicion is that the IHS/die contact wasn't very good). Chances are that your card is bad.

 

Did you miss the fact that he tried TWO cards? It's highly unlikely that you fail to properly mount a heatsink twice. If he tried two different cards and gets the same results I fail to see how this is a bad video card.

 

Its a driver issue, seriously! ever gtx ever has this problem

 

My PSU is around 1000 watt, so I'm sure there's power to spare.

The water cooling fluids have just recently been replaced, so the CPU should be ok.

The second card I tried was another 8800GTX, so Ajoobajabajeeba might have a point.

I attempted to reinstall my chipset drivers to no avail. I'm hesitant, but as a last resort I could try updating my BIOS. Unless there might be an option in there I need to change?

Anyway this has been giving me a headache the entire month, any kind of advice is greatly appreciated. I'll even appreciate it more if we can get it working before Mercenaries 2 is released.

 

Updating your bios may or may not help but it's good to have it updated anyways.

If you tested the same card and had the same problem as before, did your friend have any problems with his or your card in his computer? If so then that would prove that the viceo card could just be bad but if your card or his card plays fine in his computer then it's either driver related or something else in your computer is causing the error.

I would just RMA the card or ask the company who sold you the card that you have issues with the card not running properly and you have tested the exact same card from another a friend and still have the exact same problems, then ask if you could either upgrade to newer/similar card. You may have to pay the difference but that would be better than dealing with issues that could be driver related and may not be fixed for awhile.

 

I hope it doesn't come to that. The water cooling system I have is meant for the 8800GTX, so if two cards don't work I doubt a third will.

Maybe contacting customer support will help, though with threads on the internet *SPAM* back to 2002 I doubt the issue has a fix. A a crippling error since 2002, and still hasn't been fixed? Christ, there's just something WRONG with that.

 

Had that error once, but it was after overclocking this already hot piece too much

 

Check the RAM.

 

Move it, run a memtest on it, look at it, or set stuff for it in BIOS?

 

You can move you ram around(reseat it) in different slots, see if that does anything or just use one ram stick at a time and see if that doesn't fix it. If one stick works but the problem comes back when 2 sticks are installed then you know you have a bad stick of ram. You can always run memtest for a few hours or for best results overnight/all day.

 

start out basic...stock bios with video card, 1 stick of ram and cpu stock with stock coolers for all.

if still problem then
underclock the video card and lower the multiplyer on the CPU....to ensure a PSU problem is occuring
a PSU tester is pretty cheap too

sure its a hassle, but you have to start at the most basic point and go from there to rule out anything.
substitiuting with an old video card can help to see if its the card itself.

 

Would a hard reboot damage the power supply, limiting the amount of juice my hardware is getting?

 

no, not the reboot itself.
a PSU can die all out or simply gradually or sudden have intermittent dips or spikes in voltages. even new ones can be defective like that.
PSU testers come in handy

 

the nv4_disp error is more likely due to driver but since you said you even reinstalled Windows and nothing changed then I'd go with hardware.

The error is usually the video card or the driver to the video card but also having bad ram or sound card/driver has been known to be the culprit.

In your Bios, make sure you don't have any onbaord sound on if your running a sound card. You can only have one on at a time. Not sure if you are but just letting you know. They same would go if you have onboard video but that usually turns itself off automatically but check in your device manager to make sure you don't have multiple cards.

Since you have done almost everything. Try running prime95 to see if you get any errors. If you do, then something is diffenately wrong. Either your OC is to high,bad ram,video/sound card or psu failure. If you are not OCing anymore then that only leaves ram or hardware.

Here's an old link that i'm sure you seen by now but just in case, maybe this will help.
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=4432

 

What settings should I run prime95 at?