Blue Screen Issue

[rip31st 98]

I get random BSOD. Sometimes while playing, sometimes while in the editor. Can happen anywhere from 5 mins in to 2 hours of playing. I've CTD a few times too. All temps in range, memtest good, torture test good, 1000w coolermaster psu checks out fine with all the voltages. Maybe its code in the display drivers 186.16 or somewhere in the code for the game. Dunno.

[Zerolimit 10]

BSOD Displays....

Attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed

STOP 0x00000116

also mentions Nvlddmkm.sys

[von_paulus 0]

It's a problem with your Nvidia drivers and windows 7 I'd say.

I'd uninstall nvidia drivers and use after a program type Drive Sweeper to remove everything related to Nvidia. Then I'd install the latest version of nvidia drivers.

You can google for Nvlddmkm.sys and see that you're not alone.

As an example: http://www.vistaforums.com/Forum/Topic5276-21-1.aspx

[Zerolimit 10]

I've read through most of those other posts. They're are all mainly from 07' and had a different issue that was at start up.

I just tried the Nvidia beta drivers, still no go. I'll wipe the drivers this time and give ARMA 2 another shot.

EDIT::

No luck :(

Edited July 3, 2009 by Zerolimit

[cashxx 10]

I just built a new PC in march getting excited about Arma 2 and OFP2 and I have the BSOD as well. I have tried everything to fix it, but no luck! The game runs and looks great, just randomly blue screens or crashes to the desktop or I get a black screen with the sound still going on. When it crashes to the desktop it says the video card driver failed or something. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling all kinds of drivers, no luck.

Specs:

Vista Enterprise 32bit

HAF Case

V8 CPU Cooler

3GB Kingston Ram

920 Intel Processor 2.66Ghz, Quad

Nvidia BFG 285 OC2 1GB

Asus P6T Deluxe V2

1000w Antec Power Supply

Tried a bunch of NVidia drivers with no luck and all kinds of different video settings.

Edited July 3, 2009 by cashxx

[von_paulus 0]

I've read through most of those other posts. They're are all mainly from 07' and had a different issue that was at start up.

I just tried the Nvidia beta drivers, still no go. I'll wipe the drivers this time and give ARMA 2 another shot.

EDIT::

No luck :(

Even being threads as old as you say, you can, sometimes, obtain precious information that can help to "debug".

But I'm pretty sure, as someone can be troubleshooting this way, that yopur problem is related to Windows7/64 and Nvidia Drivers. ARMA is just the "catalytic" factor. I think you've two options.

Try another OS (it seems the game is running better in XP) or wait for another Nvidia driver and ARMA II patch.

I'm sorry... :(

[enterman 10]

I have a similar BSOD in XP so I'm doubting it's OS related. The bluescreen code varies. Sometimes it is "0x000007E" and other times "0x00000B8". The B8 has this message accompanying it: "A wait operation, attach process, or yield was attempted from DPC routine." The 7E has no message. I've tried using the DPC Latency Checker and I shockingly enough have no problems unless the game crashes to the desktop in which case it will have a massive red spike saying that there is a problem. So far I've tried updating my bios, opening my case and aiming external fans inside, reinstalling latest nvidia video drivers, updating all other nvidia hardware in my computer, reinstalling the game, messing with video settings, but nothing works. My temps still get amazingly high in-game even with an external fan blowing inside (CPU at 76 and GPU at 80, I'm using this Zalman for CPU cooling) however it will stay there a while before I get a BSOD (30 min - 1 hour). My ambient atm is CPU at 44 and GPU at 56. I normally get a few crashes straight to the desktop as well no matter what I'm doing in the game itself.

Specs:

EVGA 680i SLI

E6600 @ 3.4GHz

EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX Superclocked (Running one so no SLI issue either)

Corsair XMS2 Dominator 2GB

PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750 Quad 750W

Edited July 3, 2009 by enterman

[von_paulus 0]

I have a similar BSOD in XP so I'm doubting it's OS related. The bluescreen code varies. Sometimes it is "0x000007E" and other times "0x00000B8". The B8 has this message accompanying it: "A wait operation, attach process, or yield was attempted from DPC routine." The 7E has no message. I've tried using the DPC Latency Checker and I shockingly enough have no problems unless the game crashes to the desktop in which case it will have a massive red spike saying that there is a problem. So far I've tried updating my bios, opening my case and aiming external fans inside, reinstalling latest nvidia video drivers, updating all other nvidia hardware in my computer, reinstalling the game, messing with video settings, but nothing works. My temps still get amazingly high in-game even with an external fan blowing inside (CPU at 76 and GPU at 80, I'm using this Zalman for CPU cooling) however it will stay there a while before I get a BSOD (30 min - 1 hour). My ambient atm is CPU at 44 and GPU at 56. I normally get a few crashes straight to the desktop as well no matter what I'm doing in the game itself.

Specs:

EVGA 680i SLI

E6600 @ 3.4GHz

EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX Superclocked (Running one so no SLI issue either)

Corsair XMS2 Dominator 2GB

PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750 Quad 750W

The cause for your BSOD can be different from others. Again does this happen only with this game?

I know that Zalman it's a good cooler. Your CPU should be cooler with it, but then again you are overclocking.

Please don't take offense, but would you considerer to try the game without the overclocking?

As for the DPC do you think it's related with the Nvidia driver?

Edited July 3, 2009 by Von_Paulus

[enterman 10]

The cause for your BSOD can be different from others. Again does this happen only with this game?

I know that Zalman it's a good cooler. Your CPU should be cooler with it, but then again you are overclocking.

Please don't take offense, but would you considerer to try the game without the overclocking?

As for the DPC do you think it's related with the Nvidia driver?

Yes I've been debating trying without the overclock anyways however the strangest thing just happened. Since I made the previous post the game, besides 2 crashes to my desktop never blue screened... I may have jumped the gun when I said my bios update did nothing because that is the last thing I've done and so far haven't seen a BSOD. Maybe it's just a fluke but I'm going to continue attempting to play but I still cannot narrow down the crash to desktop issue besides the DPC Latency Checker which if it identifies a problem doesn't really tell you a whole lot on how to fix it. Oh and yes, this is the only game I've ever seen those particular blue screens. My CPU temp seems to be leveling out at 71 in-game now and GPU at 78-79. Any ideas on the crash to desktop? It could possibly be the Nvidia driver, I updated the driver with a new one released yesterday but I was getting the same crashs before updating the driver (though it wasn't a major update or anything, maybe if I can get a month or 2 older one).

Edited July 3, 2009 by enterman

[von_paulus 0]

Any ideas on the crash to desktop?

There are more people reporting CTD. To be honest it happened once with me but I'm almost pretty sure it was related with my Outpost firewall. For a couple of seconds in the multiplayer menu the game freezed and then CTD. I re-ruled again ARMA II in firewall and never happened again.

But you could (you should) report the crash into ARMA 2 community issue tracker.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=76670

That PSU of yours is a single 12V rail? For 750W it must have a big amperage. I tought nowadays every PSU would have multiple rails. So, it seems, the debate goes on over the advantage of having or not multiple 12V rails.

Edited July 4, 2009 by Von_Paulus

[enterman 10]

There are more people reporting CTD. To be honest it happened once with me but I'm almost pretty sure it was related with my Outpost firewall. For a couple of seconds in the multiplayer menu the game freezed and then CTD. I re-ruled again ARMA II in firewall and never happened again.

But you could (you should) report the crash into ARMA 2 community issue tracker.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=76670

That PSU of yours is a single 12V rail? For 750W it must have a big amperage. I tought nowadays every PSU would have multiple rails. So, it seems, the debate goes on over the advantage of having or not multiple 12V rails.

I doubt it's my firewall, I've only been playing single player and using the editor so far. I got that PSU early 2007 :P I'll report it then, thanks.

[von_paulus 0]

I doubt it's my firewall, I've only been playing single player and using the editor so far. I got that PSU early 2007 :P I'll report it then, thanks.

I was not saying that that was your case. Mine was. :)

[Zerolimit 10]

I just tried it on XP and it locked up with some major screen flickering. Wah! i just want to play :(

[tcbite 10]

I'm on XP and have the same problem...

Haven't tried AA3 but I get a BSOD every time I play ArmA 2, even tried lowering all the settings.

PSU is Corsair 500w and GPU is 9800 GTX

I've pushed my system in Crysis and other games and never had a blue screen, temperatures are usually range somewhere between 60's and 70's...

[enterman 10]

Update: After playing a lot since I made my post yesterday, I haven't had single crash to desktop or bluescreen The only thing I can attribute this to my Bios update. Considering it hadn't been flashed since April of 2007 I guess it's not so surprised (thought I had flashed a lot more recently than then lol) but regardless, anyone having problems should look into that!

[roadrunner20 10]

^^ bios update, how do you even know if you need one of those....

on another issue, how do you check to see if all your drivers for your pc are utp date???

[von_paulus 0]

Update: After playing a lot since I made my post yesterday, I haven't had single crash to desktop or bluescreen The only thing I can attribute this to my Bios update. Considering it hadn't been flashed since April of 2007 I guess it's not so surprised (thought I had flashed a lot more recently than then lol) but regardless, anyone having problems should look into that!

Thanks for reporting. :)

---------- Post added at 11:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:00 PM ----------

^^ bios update, how do you even know if you need one of those....

on another issue, how do you check to see if all your drivers for your pc are utp date???

You just check your bios version and then see in your motherboard maker's site if there is a newer version available. But be careful. Follow the maker's instructions to update, otherwise, you can damage your motherboard in the process.

As for the drivers the most important are:

Motherboard chipset drivers, Graphic drivers and sound drivers. As far as I know there are programs who check this for you but I never have used them. Also Windows Update sometimes do this for you. Not all drivers but some.

[roadrunner20 10]

i personally only update windos, and my graphics drivers, have never uodated my motherboad/bios before.

is this really needed? as you dont hear much about those sorts of driver updates mainly graphics and windos.

[enterman 10]

i personally only update windos, and my graphics drivers, have never uodated my motherboad/bios before.

is this really needed? as you dont hear much about those sorts of driver updates mainly graphics and windos.

You, perhaps, do not hear about them much. It's the kind of thing you have to look up and update on your own in a very tedious and scary fashion. The only reason ever to do it is if you're having issues (like the ones with ArmA 2 which no other update could fix). If you are having blue screening or crashs to desktop in ArmA 2 then you should do it otherwise DO NOT under any circumstances do it as it can seriously mess up your computer if you do it wrong. As in you could do irreparable damage to your motherboard. So if you do decide to do it, make sure you have instructions you understand for your specific board and bios.

Edited July 5, 2009 by enterman

[Fuzzy Bandit 10]

Ok, well, thanks to a number of member's contributions and efforts in trying to isolate and solve the problem, I bought a new PSU yesterday.

I bought a 750W PSU for £44.99 and fitted it earlier today. It was a bit scary to be fair, didn't quite know what I was doing, but I just replaced all the wires I unplugged and everything seems to be working ok! :D

Anyways, I've been playing ARMA 2, and I've had no BSODs so far! For me, buying a new, more powerful fixed the issue.

Thanks ya'll - obviously some people still have issues unrelated to BSODs, so keep on using this topic if you like. I'll post what worked for me and any other solutions I find in the top post of this topic.

[GunRage 10]

Hi,

I have all of these problems, been working on it for day’s, blue screen’s, crashes to desktop and complete lockup’s, forcing a system reboot.

Tried every driver version I could get my hands on, although, the nvidia 186.18 with the EVGA SLI enhancer, did help a lot, when I first installed, it would crash during boot camp before I could even pick up my first weapon, about 5 seconds into the game. With the new driver and SLI enhancer, it at least lasted about 30 min’s before crashing, so the campaign has been hard work to say the least, lol.

Then it hit me this morning, I remembered having similar problems with two other games, not to the same extent, but they would crash also. What I did was unplug my modem, leaving only my router connected to the computer, with no internet connection, the nvidia driver or the game cannot connect to the internet, I have been playing the campaign for the last six hours without a single crash, awesome game, lol.

Now this has worked for me, hope it works for you, and no, I have no idea what would happen with multiplayer mode.

I have posted this here and in the “ NVIDIA video card(s) owners read here! “

thread, not spamming, it’s the two main threads with this problem.

For interest the two game were, Assassins Creed and Mass Effect.

One last thing, does anyone know why this game has created a user account called “ INTERACTIVE “. This account inherits rights from the main system owner, why is this necessary?

Win XP Pro 32bit, and Vista Ultra 64bit, (I had same problem with both OS)

AMD 3800+ Dual core

Asus A8N32-Sli Deluxe

2Gb DDR OCZ Memory

2 * BFG 8800GT OC2 in SLI

600W OCZ SLI 80Plus PSU