ArmA II & OA crash to desktop/blue screen

[[general nuisance] 0]

Yet again another thread with the same problem. I just upgraded my system and installed ArmA II OA on a SSD which is dedicated to the game. Whenever I played the game I'll experience screen flickering which pauses the game for a few seconds. Eventually I'll be booted to the desktop with the game still running. If I click on the game icon in the taskbar, I can still move around and things as I can hear the sound effects from the game but I cannot play it and I'm still stuck on the desktop. A few times I've had blue screens and I think the last one said it was "nvlddmkm.sys". Which made me think it was a driver issue. I've saved the dump files and so on. I've looked at the problem reports for each crash and it does say "video hardware error" followed by "A problem with your video hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly". The thing is I've had no problems with my other games so far, only this one. I hope by "video hardware" it means the driver and not the actual card, even though the driver is a piece of software. Could it be overheating? Should I try the beta drivers or go back to an older driver? I was using 260.99, I'm using 260.89 now. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you.

Addendum, here's the details of the crash report:

Problem Event Name: LiveKernelEvent

OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3

Locale ID: 2057

Extra information about the problem

BCCode: 117

BCP1: FFFFFA800B4B24E0

BCP2: FFFFF8800493CD0C

BCP3: 0000000000000000

BCP4: 0000000000000000

OS Version: 6_1_7600

Service Pack: 0_0

Product: 768_1

Bucket ID: X64_0x117_Tdr:2_IMAGE_nvlddmkm.sys

Server information: 67bd4a7b-8cad-4026-b240-6eb384f680b7

Edited January 11, 2011 by [General Nuisance]

[-J4F-Wede 10]

I had nearly the same problems with my system that is similar to yous:

Asus P6T

Intel Core i7-920 2.66GHz

Corsair XMS3 12GB

Samsung 1TB HDD

Nvidia GeForce 8800GT Dual-SLI (v260.99)

Windows 7 64-bit

My complete system freezes in undefinded periods of time while i play Operation Arrowhead. The sound, the picture and the rest of the system freezes. After that i have no other option to "hard-reset" the system by hold the power-button because not even the "reset-button" works.

regards,

J4F Wede

Edited January 11, 2011 by [J4F]Wede

[[general nuisance] 0]

Hi there,

It's odd, since the problem seems to be worse when I play ArmA II but it happens in both games nonetheless. Usually I won't get a blue screen or an 'unrecoverable' crash and it'll just kick me to the desktop while the game is still running. It still happens with the 260.89 drivers. I'm not sure whether to roll back even further or perhaps go for the beta drivers. I'm installing ArmA II to my HDD to see if the problem occurs there.

Edited January 11, 2011 by [General Nuisance]

[-J4F-Wede 10]

Hi,

I didn't play ArmA2 for a while but I'm pretty sure, that the issue isn't only a Operation Arrowhead/Combat Operations thing.

Furthermore we are not the only guys with this issue. I talked to some other players and they had report the same problems....

Hopefully the BIS-Guys fix it soon.

[lazerath 10]

Hi guys,

I used to have that same problem but I fixed it.. and for the life of me I cannot remember how... Grrr... its frustrating me... some things I remember doing I will list below in case it may help.

1. Update all drivers for video, sound, keyboard/mouse hardware.

2. Update to latest version of the game.

3. Download and run Advanced System Care 3 (free Edition) from iObit and run all the utilities for it (they work great).

http://www.iobit.com/

4. Open up device manager and disable/remove any left over junk in there (in Device Manager click on the "View" menu and choose "Show Hidden Devices" and get rid of any garbage in there).

5. If you don't already, start participating in the Beta Test Program. Its free and easy for anyone who wants to help squash bugs and reap the benefits of sometimes major improvements in performance and stability in the game. New beta patches that can improve the game and add new features can be out for weeks (maybe months) before they are released as final versions to general public. Visit the Beta Forum HERE! and start reaping the benefits now if you haven't already!!!

6. If you are running a Steam Version of the game, Verify the integrity of the game files. That can help fix some common problems people experience. Directions on how to do that are very easy and straight forward.

- Open Steam (start the program)

- Right Click on the game in your Steam Library and choose "Properties"

- Click on the "Local Files" menu tab then click on the button "Verify Integrity Of Game Cache".

- Let it run through and make sure all of your game files are fine and fix any that are in bad shape.

7. The last thing I can recommend doing is downloading one other program from the iObit website (talked about earlier by me) and grab the program called "Game Booster 2".

- Incase you have never heard of it or just never used it before it can be something you are very happy to have and run or a pain in the butt. LoL More often then not, its a happy thing! That program will shut down everything you don't need running to play your game (sometimes it shuts down to many things though) so do a little research into what you are turning off before you do so (saves you some possible grief) and you could be enjoying an improvement in your Frame rate of 2-40 frames per second depending on your computer hardware and operating system.

I've used the previous version of this program and this version since it was in beta and found it to be very useful. I've shared it with all my friends and those who play Arma II and OA on Mediocre Computers have gone from barely playable frame rates to smooth and playable frame rates in many cases! Don't take my word for it though, try it out and you can be the person bragging about it to your friends ;-)

Well guys, thats all I have. Hopefully one or all of the things I mentioned helps you in one way or another.

Cheers,

Lazerath

[[general nuisance] 0]

Here's some screenshots of what I experienced just now. I had the problem where the game would freeze for a few seconds, in addition to the weird static/pixel thing. Also, just before it happened I saw a opaque firestorm above a forest. I've never seen it before. Really strange. Here they are:

Could it be the SSD? The problem reports have all said it's a "video hardware error".

[W0lle 1050]

Looks more like a defective / overheated graphics card.

I run it from SSD too and never had this with my GTX280 nor my 5870.

[[general nuisance] 0]

My temperatures were in the 50/60°C range so that shouldn't overheat it. I've put my fan on 80% to keep the temperature down. I switched the DVI adaptor w/ VGA cable to a different DVI output. So far no problems but I'm remaining wary.

[Haystack15 10]

Looks more like a defective / overheated graphics card.

I run it from SSD too and never had this with my GTX280 nor my 5870.

My temperatures were in the 50/60°C range so that shouldn't overheat it. I've put my fan on 80% to keep the temperature down. I switched the DVI adaptor w/ VGA cable to a different DVI output. So far no problems but I'm remaining wary.

Yea my friend, This is not a heat Issue. I had the same problem as you when I got my 9800 GTX.

This problem is know as "The Mosaic/Pixeled screen" to NVIDIA users

This problem mainly comes from driver problems. So to solve your pixeled screen problem you can either update the drivers. If that does not work then try downgrading them.

But you also talked about the "nvlddmkm.sys" This is very common. About 99% of the users that have a NVIDIA Card will see that at least once. This problem has played with nvidia from day 1. Only way to fix this is to turn down your settings a bit and it will decrease the chances of that happening. So far the only thing Nvidia said about this is that a random spike in virtual memory will happen in some games when running on high causing it to crash. They also did say that Windows Vista users will experience this more if they are using the Aero UI.

Edited January 12, 2011 by Haystack15

[Hellhound 10]

I Just got this error with the latest beta (Build_77159)

Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.

I was dumped back to the desktop, but couldn't get back into the game, heard sounds and all, but had to quit the program from taskmanager.

This is the first time i got this, and its not a heat issue. Also i sometimes had stuttering with low framerate, even while looking straight up into the sky. I'll go back to the previous beta.

PS, this is even the first Arma2 error i got, since moving from XP x64 Pro to Win 7 x64 Pro 3 months ago (XP x64 was terrible with Arma2).

Nvidia GTX285BE 258.96 drivers

[[general nuisance] 0]

I'd like to add that my problem occurs more frequently and severely when I play ArmA 2. For instance as soon as I start the campaign, the crash problem will happen within minutes. Usually with OA it'll happen after 30-40 minutes. Which makes me think it has to be a driver issue. The strange thing is I played ArmA 2 on my previous system with the same 295 GTX card without this issue? I should try re-seating the card in a different slot and see if anything changes.

[Parrotnut 10]

I see you are using 12GB RAM, if it’s 6x2GB then make sure to use the latest BIOS. I don’t know at what speed your RAM is running but if you are using 6x2 GB you probably need to loosen your timings a bit.

http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=86503 ( I know it isn’t the same RAM you are using, but maybe you can check here for some examples )

[[general nuisance] 0]

Hello,

No it's tri-channel RAM so 3x4GB RAM. I've updated my BIOS to the latest version also (0908).

[Haystack15 10]

I Just got this error with the latest beta (Build_77159)

Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.

I was dumped back to the desktop, but couldn't get back into the game, heard sounds and all, but had to quit the program from taskmanager.

This is the first time i got this, and its not a heat issue. Also i sometimes had stuttering with low framerate, even while looking straight up into the sky. I'll go back to the previous beta.

PS, this is even the first Arma2 error i got, since moving from XP x64 Pro to Win 7 x64 Pro 3 months ago (XP x64 was terrible with Arma2).

Nvidia GTX285BE 258.96 drivers

If your just having that issue than you should'nt have to worry about going to other beta drivers. (It's you Choice though) Just got to turn a few setting down bit.

[Hellhound 10]

If your just having that issue than you should'nt have to worry about going to other beta drivers. (It's you Choice though) Just got to turn a few setting down bit.

Beta drivers? , mm dunno what you mean but 258.96 are WHQL drivers , nothing beta about them. Anyway, after half hour playing i got it again today, high FPS drops and stuttering so I installed OA Beta Build_77068 and so far so good. I'm sure it's an issue with Build_77159.

[gavin 1]

This seems to be a recurring theme, Is there not any one from BH able to id this issue, and provide a firm resolution to this problem?

many of us spent good money for this game, not to be able to play it on our supped up hot rod computers.

most of the responses have all been shots in the dark with no effect or help.

Is there not another cool game, just as good as ArmA, that includes dedicated support?