nv_4disp error!

Ive been getting BSODs and artifacts on various games including WiC (artifacts) and NWN2(BSODs), as well as one in Dark Messiah OMAM, which up until this morning ran fine. The BSODs report that the "problem appears to be with the file nv_4disp"...Ive reinstalled my nvidia drivers previously already, but to no avail. The only consistent problem is with NWN2, which filckers on the white Atari screen, locks up on the menu and then throws a BSOD at me. This only happened with patch 1.05 and above though, and was fine when I tried 1.00.

Any solutions?/Suggestions?

First off, what videocard do you have? Try and post all of your computerspecs.

!st try out some different drivers, older ones if your running the newest. If that doesn't help then
look at the fan and heatsink on the card. If it's dirty you need to clean it with compressed air.
Look at the fan for signs of damage. Broken fan blades, etc... Power it up and check to make
sure the fan is spinning. If it's wobbly or not spinning then you need to RMA the card if it's still
under WARRANTY. If the warranty is no longer good and everything seems to be working properly
then you need to remove the card from the PC (disconnect the power cord 1st). Then remove the
fan and heatsink from the card. Then clean the gpu with alcohol or acetone (Fingernail Polish Remover).
Alcohol and Acetone evaporate pretty fast, wait a few minutes and it will be more than dry. Now you'll
need to reapply some Thermal Paste to the gpu and reinstall the heatsink and fan. Put the card back
into the PC and reattach any wires you previously disconnected. Plug the Power Cord back in and try
it out. If it's still crapping out then the Heat has already killed it.
If the card is no longer under warranty and the fan has died then we'll need to know the Make and
Model number of the card in order to show you what to buy :-)

Originally posted by Gazz@Oct 14 2007, 05:33 PM
First off, what videocard do you have? Try and post all of your computerspecs.

Specs;
2GB OCZ RAM
7900GTX graphics card
A zillion fans (and im pretty sure its not overheating)
19" LG monitor (forgot the exact model)
version 163.xx of the nvidia drivers.

Ive just downloaded the 162.xx drivers and the 94.xx drivers (because after browsing the NWN2 forums, which is the game with a consistent problems, im told they run the best).

Originally posted by Slaymate@Oct 14 2007, 10:15 PM
!st try out some different drivers, older ones if your running the newest. If that doesn't help then
look at the fan and heatsink on the card. If it's dirty you need to clean it with compressed air.
Look at the fan for signs of damage. Broken fan blades, etc... Power it up and check to make
sure the fan is spinning. If it's wobbly or not spinning then you need to RMA the card if it's still
under WARRANTY. If the warranty is no longer good and everything seems to be working properly
then you need to remove the card from the PC (disconnect the power cord 1st). Then remove the
fan and heatsink from the card. Then clean the gpu with alcohol or acetone (Fingernail Polish Remover).
Alcohol and Acetone evaporate pretty fast, wait a few minutes and it will be more than dry. Now you'll
need to reapply some Thermal Paste to the gpu and reinstall the heatsink and fan. Put the card back
into the PC and reattach any wires you previously disconnected. Plug the Power Cord back in and try
it out. If it's still crapping out then the Heat has already killed it.
If the card is no longer under warranty and the fan has died then we'll need to know the Make and
Model number of the card in order to show you what to buy :-)

Well, our old friend Slay here has already explained what to do if your videocard is overheating. Now lets see if it really does so. Right click your desktop and select properties, then settings, advanced, 7900GTX and then temperature settings. Just post those here. However, if your fan is broken you would have noticed it by now.

I'll make some basic diagnostic and clean up software topic sometime, should save us a lot of time in making a better estimation of any hard or software related issues.

You can be pretty sure that it is a driver issue. Un-install the current drivers, download and run a driver cleaning tool and reboot. Then download and install the latest chipset drivers for your motherboard and reboot. Lastly download and install a driver you are comfortable with and install.

If you are still experiencing problems I would recommend you run a few tests on your memory modules with something like memtestx86 bootable ISO.

I have seen some drivers incorrectly identify a cards core and memory speeds
and overclock the settings. That will cause your issues. But if it's been running
like that for awhile it may have already damaged your card. Memtest won't
help you if your card is artifacting in games. I hate to say I'm right, but I am.
If the drivers don't help you need to follow the steps I previously posted.

Edit:
And those steps may or may not help. The gpu can usually withstand the
extra heat from overclocking or a faultly fan. It's usually the memory chips
on the card that will crap out 1st. But if your lucky :-)

Originally posted by Slaymate@Oct 16 2007, 09:57 PM
I have seen some drivers incorrectly identify a cards core and memory speeds
and overclock the settings. That will cause your issues. But if it's been running
like that for awhile it may have already damaged your card. Memtest won't
help you if your card is artifacting in games. I hate to say I'm right, but I am.
If the drivers don't help you need to follow the steps I previously posted.

Edit:
And those steps may or may not help. The gpu can usually withstand the
extra heat from overclocking or a faultly fan. It's usually the memory chips
on the card that will crap out 1st. But if your lucky :-)

But I wasn't suggesting he test his video memory, just his main system RAM. Overclocked RAM will cause artifacting, BSOD, Reboots and obviously data corruption. In the years gone by I experienced artifacting on loads of VIA chipset motherboards, the ones with the 4in1 driver. It was an issue related to sideband addressing and fast write caching through the AGPgart component. It wasn't resolved until my last AMD chipset the VIA KT400.

Usually GPU overclocking artifacts are short and sweet and the driver will bomb out and depending on your OS and driver version, you will either get a reboot, BOSD or CTD. Consistant artificating without crashing would suggest that it is a software issue. Faulty GFX memory would be noticable in the OS, before any games are launched, because the display buffer splits the screen drawing in such way that you would have one correct portion and the other corrupt, dependant on the amount of memory that is FUBAR.

If I had such a problem, I would immediately reset the BIOS and rebuild the OS from scratch. Once Windows has installed, just install the motherboard chipset drivers and GFX driver, DX9.0c and test it out in 3DMark or a Tech Demo. This really would tell you if its something wrong at a hardware level.