Frequent BSOD

[blacknight100 10]

I have recently downloaded and installed the game off of steam and i have hardly been able to play it at all because I get the BSOD every few minutes while playing. I have only had this issue once with the demo, which otherwise ran fine. I have the latest drivers and the latest patch for the game. my specs are:

Intel Q6600 @ 2.40 GHz

4 GB of RAM

Nvidia 8800 GT

Vista 32 Bit

Any Suggestions as to what I can do? as it is, the game is unplayable.

Edit: I am now getting a "wrong CD/DVD inserted" error, which is ridiculous because I downloaded it from steam and obviously do not have a CD or DVD.. any suggestions? Thanks in advance :)

[private plowjoy 0]

I have recently downloaded and installed the game off of steam and i have hardly been able to play it at all because I get the BSOD every few minutes while playing. I have only had this issue once with the demo, which otherwise ran fine. I have the latest drivers and the latest patch for the game. my specs are:

Intel Q6600 @ 2.40 GHz

4 GB of RAM

Nvidia 8800 GT

Vista 32 Bit

Any Suggestions as to what I can do? as it is, the game is unplayable.

Edit: I am now getting a "wrong CD/DVD inserted" error, which is ridiculous because I downloaded it from steam and obviously do not have a CD or DVD.. any suggestions? Thanks in advance :)

So, first you could play but it BSOD'd your system and now you can't even load the game up because it's asking for the DVD?

The obvious question is, what happened to your PC in the time between being able to play it with BSOD's and now not even being able to load it?

[blacknight100 10]

Another BSOD :P and... a brief loss of internet connection due to an error on the service providers part... and multiple proper system restarts. aside from that, nothing.

[private plowjoy 0]

Another BSOD :P and... a brief loss of internet connection due to an error on the service providers part... and multiple proper system restarts. aside from that, nothing.

Well, if the game is asking for the DVD its clearly an issue on the Steam side. I'd advise checking their forums.

As for BSODs, disable the auto restart in Windows and then write down the file (if one is shown) that's shown on the BSOD screen. That will be your start point to trying to figure out which piece of hardware is the root cause of the BSOD.

[blacknight100 10]

where can I change that auto-restart setting?

[private plowjoy 0]

where can I change that auto-restart setting?

Right-click My Computer > Properties > Advanced System Settings > System Failure disable 'Automatically Restart'.

[blacknight100 10]

Thanks :) I'll post again when I work around that DVD error and get another BSOD.

[Soapy 10]

With any steam error, a good fix is to delete or move the clientregistry.blob file from the main steam folder ( make sure steam is not running ) then restart steam, re enter your username/password etc, let steam update then try to launch the game.

Also in steam/games right click on Arma 2 and select check integrity of files or something along those lines. Both help with a lot of steam issues and will either fix the problem, or eliminate Steam from the fault finding process.

Lastly, what vid card drivers are you using for the 8800 ? The latest official Nvidia drivers solved some "receiving" ( ie blank screen for ages ) probs I had with the retail version.

[blacknight100 10]

ok, got another BSOD...

"Attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed"

"STOP: 0X00000116 (0X86776510, 0X8F61B4E0, 0X00000000, 0X00000002)

nvlddmkm.sys adress 8F61B4E0 base at 8F60F000, Datestamp 4a2Fc069"

none of that means anything to me, does it help identify what the problem is?

and the driver I am running is 186.18

also, the steam suggestion worked. thanks :)

[von_paulus 0]

Related to Nvidia Card.

But it can be caused by a multitude of things.

I'd take a look at the temperature of your graphic card and do a memory test to your ram.

Just ideas:

http://www.driverheaven.net/vista-nvidia-display-drivers/152790-how-solve-nvlddmkm-sys.html

[Bulldogs 10]

The "Wrong dvd/cd" error with steam comes up when you attempt to patch the game with a patch downloaded manually. Steam automatically patches the game so you if you attempt to manually patch it you will destroy your game.

Try right clicking on Arma 2 (in steam), then properties then updates, then click on the options box and make sure it's set to "always keep up to date", then click "Close"

After that, right click on Arma 2 again, then goto properties, then "local files" then click "verify integrity of game cache"

[private plowjoy 0]

ok, got another BSOD...

"Attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed"

"STOP: 0X00000116 (0X86776510, 0X8F61B4E0, 0X00000000, 0X00000002)

nvlddmkm.sys adress 8F61B4E0 base at 8F60F000, Datestamp 4a2Fc069"

none of that means anything to me, does it help identify what the problem is?

and the driver I am running is 186.18

also, the steam suggestion worked. thanks :)

Nice one! Good step in the right direction.

As someone has already posted, thats an Nvidia file so we can at least start to narrow it down.

I've just had arma2.exe blow up on me with an error that the video adaptor had stopped responding. You may be seeing classic memory leak problems, as we all seem to be after a couple of hours of play. Does that fit with when the game crashes?

[blacknight100 10]

Temp of the card with just the OS and Firefox running was 63 degrees Celsius, I manually pumped the fan speed up to 100% and got a 13 degree decrease in temp, and I lowered the memory bus speed from 915 to 890. would these things help?

---------- Post added at 02:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:32 AM ----------

also, it only takes a few min to get a BSOD. in total I have "played" the game for a bit over 2 hours.

[-s!Gm4- 10]

ok, got another BSOD...

"Attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed"

"STOP: 0X00000116 (0X86776510, 0X8F61B4E0, 0X00000000, 0X00000002)

nvlddmkm.sys adress 8F61B4E0 base at 8F60F000, Datestamp 4a2Fc069"

none of that means anything to me, does it help identify what the problem is?

and the driver I am running is 186.18

also, the steam suggestion worked. thanks :)

Now, thats kind of weird to me.

I'm experiencing kind of the same problem.

Either I get switched back to windows and the "driver not responding, [...] was restored" balloon pops up (that is the case with driver version >182.50 for me)

OR I get a BSOD like you. I havent been able to make out the exact phrasing, but I believe its very similar to your reported error message. This happens to me with driver 181.71 (which, btw, solves the 8GB RAM problem...)

Card temp is around 88 degrees - but I really dont think this is error is caused by an overheating issue.

Now, I tweaked a bit and now crashes dont come so frequent as before.

I dont know what OS ur running, but try deactivating the aero theme.

Also - and that IS rather strange to me - try running background applications. I ran CPU-Z, GPU-Z, Coretemp and an empty FireFox and the game went quite well for over 3 hours.

Also, try deactivating your screensaver, check your nergy saving options (deactivate monitor on inactivity of xx minutes) and stuff like that.

------------------------------------------------

The following is not _directly_ related to your post, OP, but highlighty several aspects of the error, which I believe is in many cases the same.

Now, theory time.

Could it be that the nvidia driver messes something up in the background of arma2?

The "driver not responding, has been restored" thingy _could_ relate to the wddm, the windows driver display model. The driver is restored once the wddm "finds out" that frames drop below 10 for a specific amount of time. Since this is not the case in Arma (at least for me it is not, my fps are alsway above 25) AND since running background applications which kind of prevent the "background" Win with the desktop falling into some kind of inactivity I suppose theres something wrong with that background-capability of the driver.

Another lad once mentioned, he had kind of the same error message, but only that it was an OpenGL error that was reported. Now, as we know Arma does not run on OpenGL. So maybe this could be another step to finding the culprit.

[PJ-CZ- 0]

Hi,

i had simmilar issues in the past. The bluscreens were really much more frequent during multiplayer. I solved this by disabling asus' tray center and reverting to 182.50s nvidia drivers. No bsods now

I believe it was more related to the aactray which is some kind of asus' BS which is supposed to disable inactive components to save power :S

[blacknight100 10]

hmm, I think I have solved it for the most part. I think it might have been an overheating problem, since I made those changes I haven't gotten any blue screens, Thanks for all the help! :)

[von_paulus 0]

hmm, I think I have solved it for the most part. I think it might have been an overheating problem, since I made those changes I haven't gotten any blue screens, Thanks for all the help! :)

Glad it worked with you. :)

But I'd also look at your PSU. Is it functioning well? What is the power and the maker?

Edited July 15, 2009 by Von_Paulus

[Bulldogs 10]

Good to hear. The first solution I usually get people to try is to blow a fan in the side of their PC, as I've heard overheating CPU and graphics card is a major cause, but in most cases I either get a response of "no, that couldn't be the cause", or "not going to try that since I don't think my card is over heating", then again, in a lot of cases people say they've tried it and it hasn't worked.

One main thing to keep in mind is that.... hmm, name has completely slipped my mind, think it's called electromigration. Anyways, that thing I'm trying to remember, it occurs on GPUs and CPUs when they get passed a certain point in heat. This differentiates between manufacturers (usually about 90 deg C for AMD, 110 for Intel/ATI/nVidia) but it also differs based on the make of core and such.

Basically if you are getting around 90 deg C then start to worry. The way it works is that if it operates at such a high temperature then the electrons on the GPU/CPU start to migrate around, and this stops data from getting across which starts to cause crashes, errors, artifacts and eventually CPU/GPU death.

So if you start getting artifacts/errors and such, monitor your temps closely and look for a better cooling solution. In most cases it's just a case of placing a chassis fan in your case for extra heat dissipation, investing in cheap cable ties helps as well (to allow more air flow), or if you have a really closed case, consider buying a new case with good ventilation or run the PC with the side of the case off

But be warned, the fans in the case act as dust magnets so if running with the side of the case off and you have the PC on a carpeted floor then you should place a plastic sheet under the PC, and any which way, the PC should be cleaned using a preventative maintenance guide at least once every 3 months.

[von_paulus 0]

Good to hear. The first solution I usually get people to try is to blow a fan in the side of their PC, as I've heard overheating CPU and graphics card is a major cause, but in most cases I either get a response of "no, that couldn't be the cause", or "not going to try that since I don't think my card is over heating", then again, in a lot of cases people say they've tried it and it hasn't worked.

True.

I know that most of the times the problems are not caused by heat. But I think it's the first thing we should check always. I too have noticed a lot of people getting (almost) angry when we ask to check the temperatures of their rigs. And when we mention the overclock? That's seem to be the ultimate insult. They became possessed.

About the so called electromigration... correct me if I'm wrong but I thinks nowadays, at least with Intel, the thermal protection will cause the CPU to slowdown if it gets dangerously warm. I think that happened with older models.

[kklownboy 43]

and then theres the PSU issue, it just falls down when asked to supply the new vidcard ect when ARMA2 is in full tilt game mode... OC a CPU is easy but getting the RAM right is much harder for 3D apps,especially with a dodgy PSU...

Sarcasm- But then the game is full of bugs and is the worst thang since red ants in your pants!!! - Sarcasm

[jermin 0]

My game has been pretty smooth since I installed it yesterday. But after I upgraded the driver for my GTX 295 from 185.85 to 186.18 + SLI patch today, I 've been constantly annoyed by this random BSOD. Do you guys using GTX 295 have this problem?