OA video driver crash on GTX 280

[ILJJ 10]

Every 5-10 minutes, my display drivers crash and the game minimizes to the desktop. I have to end the OA process and restart the game every time. I own ARMA 2 and I can run that fine on the highest settings. I read the Nvidia gpu sticky and I tried disabling physx and vsync, neither of those fixed my problem. I've tried lowering the graphics and that didn't work either.

GTX 280

Q6600 Quadcore @ 2.4ghx

4GB DDR2 RAM

Windows 7 64-bit

Anyone know what the problem is?

Edited November 28, 2010 by ILJJ

[secludedsfx 10]

Run a temp monitoring tool in the background like SpeedFan and record your temps whilst playing.

[ILJJ 10]

Run a temp monitoring tool in the background like SpeedFan and record your temps whilst playing.

Display drivers crashed when the temp was at 85 C. My card's been over that temperature before, the fan didn't even go up to 100% yet.

[rscarrab 10]

Ye mate ive got a GTX480 and im crashing to desktop after half an hour to an hour (especially in Chernarus, with large battles).

Im beggining to think theres a connection between Arma2 CTD's and GTX480's and GTX460's (but not 470's).

Try running "Furmark" and post what your max temp is and leave it running at that temp for oh, lets say half an hour. Let us know what the temps are (mine peaks at 100 degrees Celsius and holds strong for half an hour without any issues). I'd be interested to know. :)

Btw, you might wanna fix your thread title for the sake of clarity. Its "480" not "280". :P

Edited November 28, 2010 by rscarrab
Noticed Title

[visceralsyn 10]

If the error message thats coming up, specifically says the nVidia driver is crashing. Why do you not try a different driver?

I've got an Asus ENGTX 480, and have yet to have the driver cause a crash, most likely because I do no use any of the Beta drivers. Only use nVidia WHQL's for best stability.

With that said, if you are using a nVidia Beta driver, try the nVidia WHQL. If you are using a WHQL already, make sure its either the most recent one, or try an old one.

...Syn...

[ILJJ 10]

Ye mate ive got a GTX480 and im crashing to desktop after half an hour to an hour (especially in Chernarus, with large battles).

Im beggining to think theres a connection between Arma2 CTD's and GTX480's and GTX460's (but not 470's).

Try running "Furmark" and post what your max temp is and leave it running at that temp for oh, lets say half an hour. Let us know what the temps are (mine peaks at 100 degrees Celsius and holds strong for half an hour without any issues). I'd be interested to know. :)

Btw, you might wanna fix your thread title for the sake of clarity. Its "480" not "280". :P

Sorry about that. I have no idea how I didn't notice that mistake. I really am using a GTX 280.

VisceralSyn, I've already got the latest WHQL drivers. I'll try downgrading. I'll post results soon.

[ILJJ 10]

If the error message thats coming up, specifically says the nVidia driver is crashing. Why do you not try a different driver?

I've got an Asus ENGTX 480, and have yet to have the driver cause a crash, most likely because I do no use any of the Beta drivers. Only use nVidia WHQL's for best stability.

With that said, if you are using a nVidia Beta driver, try the nVidia WHQL. If you are using a WHQL already, make sure its either the most recent one, or try an old one.

...Syn...

Okay I tried downgrading the drivers. How far back should I go? I changed to October's drivers and it still crashed.

Regular ArmA 2 continues to run fine for me, but I can't play CO or OA for more than 10 minutes

[BHCSAVAGE 0]

I'm gettin the same thing, 5-10 mins into gameplay, I loose both displays. The game minimizes, i can still hear the game running int he background. It wont comeback after clicking on it or tryign to Alt-tab to it. I'm runnign 2 295's in sli with a 9800 GTX for phsyx which i know OA uses none of the phsyx stuff. I just got the latest drivers. version 260.99 WHQL

http://www.filefront.com/17587386/DxDiag.txt

[metalcraze 290]

I have GTX260 and I too have driver crashes with OA the frequency of which change from OA's version to version. I never had them with AA2.

There's a solution that may help some of you:

When it crashed into a black screen with the game still working press 'shift' and 'Numpad -' then type 'flush'

This will bring the video back.

However for me the FPS gets locked at 20-25 due to NV driver obviously "down throttling" the performance because it thinks it may be a hardware problem and I have to reboot. However I've read that for some people the FPS was restored back to normal.

[Undeceived 392]

Same here... :( I have a Nvidia GTX 260 and Windows 7 32bit.

When I updated the graphic drivers, I could play OA without crashing, but yesterday it suddenly happened again (after 5 minutes playing).

Btw. I played Batman: Arkham Asylum the whole night long in the last days and didn't have ONE issue...

@ metalcraze: Thanks for the tip, I'll try this!

[ILJJ 10]

I've tried that "flush" command when it happened but OA doesn't seem to detect anything I type when it freezes that way. Hopefully Bohemia or nVidia can fix this problem.

[liquidpinky 11]

I got similar with my SLi 285s.

The 258.69 BETAs and the following 258.96 WHQL drivers have always been bombproof for me with ARMA2 and OA.

If the game minimises on driver fail you can re enter the game, press escape and you will see the menu mouse pointer appear them press alt&enter to switch to full-screen/windowed then alt&enter again to go back to your original setup.

I have no problems doing this but some naysayers will advise you against it.

If in doubt use evga precision or similar to monitor your cards temps etc while doing it.

[ILJJ 10]

Has anyone tried the latest patch? Has it fixed this problem? I won't be able to try it until later tonight or tomorrow.

[metalcraze 290]

Nope. Crashed for me just 30 minutes into the game which brought the frequency of crashes to twice per day for me.

Don't know what BIS did in 1.56 but since then crashes are all too frequent. In 1.54 there were just memory leaks instead and first 1.55 betas were near perfect.

Looks like OA hates this kind of GPU (260-280-295 which are basically the same tech)

Edited December 23, 2010 by metalcraze

[liquidpinky 11]

Okay I tried downgrading the drivers. How far back should I go? I changed to October's drivers and it still crashed.

Regular ArmA 2 continues to run fine for me, but I can't play CO or OA for more than 10 minutes

258.69 beta and 258.96 whql. Both I found alleviate any problems with my SLi 285s.

The beta ones worked best but I think they had fan problems, doesn't affect me with liquid cooled cards though.

If the drivers crash, you can go back into the game which will be black screened. press escape and you will see the control cursor appear, then alt&enter to change the window mode followed by alt&enter to bring it back to your previous window mode. The game will will now be playable again.

I have had naysayers saying this can damage your card, well I have been doing it for a loooooooooooooooong time now to no effect on my GPUs.

But the risk is up to you.

[rundll.exe 12]

I have the same problem, after 5-10 min playing, the game minimizes to desktop, but sound keeps playing.

I got a GTX260 with Windows 7 64bit. I havent updated the drivers in a while tho. (im on 8.17.12)

What could be the problem here?

[metalcraze 290]

Poor BIS programming. Because no matter what driver version is used the issue is the same.

For now you just do what Liquidpinky wrote. Press ESC - if you will see a cursor - press Alt+Enter and then Alt+Enter again.

If you play at stock frequencies the performance will be restored to previous levels and so you won't have to stop your fun coop gaming to reboot. Continue playing as normal. The crash is an annoyance of course.

If you OC'ed the videocard the performance will most likely drop to 2D profile and will stay there.

I have to double-check the last bit though.

[Undeceived 392]

Shift+ -(Numpad) and then flush did the trick for me. :) Thanks for this suggestion - the crash happened yesterday again... :(

[metalcraze 290]

You can do ESC- alt+enter - alt+enter too. I checked and it works like FLUSH.

[seelix 10]

I told it in another threads too.

Just get rid of your gtx2xx cards.

I had a 285 once,and never had a CTD anymore since iam running a 460 card.

[ILJJ 10]

I told it in another threads too.

Just get rid of your gtx2xx cards.

I had a 285 once,and never had a CTD anymore since iam running a 460 card.

Thanks, I'm going to go out and spend $150+ just to fix a problem with Arma.

[nomadd 66]

I also get this same problem. I have a gtx 280. It may take an hour or may take 3 hours but I will crash. I can hear the music ,usually I am hosting a game. Talking on teamspeak, with friends still playing, the hosted game seems to be playing fine. I have just lost my video.

I will try the flush trick next time it happens. I have been closing and restarting to get OA back up. This is not something new for me with OA it also happened with Arma2. It is pretty infrequent so I just haven't really worried about it. I just downloaded the newest video drivers so will see what happens.

Hopefully I will be getting a new video card this coming year. I just built a new system ,but could not afford a new card ( not the one I want anyway). So, I know heat is not an issue. If I had my new card I may think heat was an issue.

I play other games, just as or more graphic intense as OA and never have this happen. It is just something with nvidia and Arma2/OA.

Nomadd

[MJK-Ranger 0]

I have GTX 285, not a problem here. Can play for hours in OA or ArmaA2 online...

[Parrotnut 10]

I have 285 GTX SLI and had the CTD’s once in a while, I solved it by lowering the speed of my system RAM a bit.

You can try to loosen your timings a bit ( 8-8-8-24 instead of 7-7-7-16 i.e. ), lower the speed ( Mhz ) or up the voltage of your system RAM a bit ( be careful with this )

My overclock is, and was, Prime95 stable but Prime95 don’t stress your system RAM and video memory.

I did this a month ago and haven’t had a CTD since. <knocking on wood>

hope this helps

[Undeceived 392]

I told it in another threads too.

Just get rid of your gtx2xx cards.

I had a 285 once,and never had a CTD anymore since iam running a 460 card.

I might come back to your suggestion when I can spend some more money. :p