Guide: Solving Vista Error 13/14/driver stopped..

Ok so basically I updated to the 180.xx drivers found on Nvidia's site. I was using 178.28 (I think it was .28) so this is the only other thing I can maybe pin point the freezing to. Currently using a 9600GT-Overclock by BFG. Haven't tested the game yet =/

[ QUOTE ]

I dont know whether to laugh at you or cry with you having given a working card to your wife! Uggh! Thats gotta make you want to pull your hair out!!

This is I THINK the first I've heard of this errror on a 7xxx series card, but then again your not getting it until you SLI. I was previously asking folks to break SLI for testing and that may have been part of it.

However, I notice your still on a 178 driver. You've probably figured out that my stock answer at this point for anything the hotfix isnt fixing is "roll em back!" But if your happy with only a few crashes a day, enjoy!

(I still think its sweet you gave your wife your working card!)

[/ QUOTE ]

Haha, yeah, its rough going backward. The only other game I play is CSS - which a 7900GS is easily good for.

I am getting no crashes so far. I played for several more hours (with the wife, no less) and never crashed once. I am calling it fixed for me with the hotfix applied.

Well nope still no luck. Screen goes black and light on the monitor goes orange. The only things I can think of being the culprit is maybe (and it's a big maybe) previous drivers might work. Otherwise there's the powersupply, which may explain the shutting down when playing Fallout 3 extensively, the CPU and/or motherboard (considering the CPU was used on a previous board and wasn't seated properly.)

I also accidentally bent the pins but managed to straiten them out before seating it onto the socket. It could very well be the socket itself is screwed up.

-sighs- I could of bought a brand new gaming machine from Dell with all the money I spent trying to figure out the problem

sound tends to play randomly sometimes continuing despite the black screen. Other times it just abruptly stops. I use a sound card so don't think I have the audiotech drivers, thought I skipped them.

The powersupply is worth a shot. It's relatively inexpensive and easy to replace. I had a slew of problems recently and I jumped through a lot of hoops until I narrowed it down to either the network card or the power supply. It turned out to be the power supply.

Yeah the shutting down of the power supply was what stuck out. It would occur when the turbo button on the back (It's a PSU 650wat by BFG) was pressed. And when playing Fallout 3 the system would shut down, then not turn back on until I'd pull out the cord. Pressing the turbo button would only cause the process to repeat but if not pressed Fallout 3 wouldn't cause a whole system crash like it was. Now I did try to replace the power supply but it had no luck at which point the hard drive seemed to be the culprit in August or quite possibly the Power Supply crapped out and caused the hard drive to die. Who knows. I did take it apart carefully and it does look like some fuses were blown. I guess it's worth a shot. =/

Otherwise I'm just gunna save up another $300 and buy a CPU/Mobo/PSU combo -_-


EDIT: Updated currently running the game windowed. No crash yet but I suspect that it's more of a random issue and thus probably being the power supply as a first choice.

Yup windowing just seems to buy me more time. This time I ended up crashing just as I was leaving the ski resort and got sound stuttering.

And of course a reboot and instant run of the game, upon zoning in I almost crash immediately.

DAMMIT! -_-

---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.1.1.3---

DxDiag gathered at December 30, 2008 16:55 (-08:00)
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.vistasp1_ldr.081020-1655)
System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model: GA-MA770-DS3
BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
Central Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5600+ (2 CPUs), ~2.9GHz
Memory: 3326MB
.Net Memory Report: 2592MB out of 3325MB available
Page File: 5946MB (954MB currently in use)
C Drive: (WDC WD3200AAKS-00B3A0 ATA Device) 165742MB out of 305241MB (54%) free
D Drive: (SAMSUNG CD-ROM SC-148 ATA Device) zero-size drive
E Drive: (DVDRW IDE 16X ATA Device) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\Windows
DirectX: DirectX 10
DirectX Diag version: 6.00.6001.18000 (32-bit version)

Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.

No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT
Manufacturer / Chip: NVIDIA / GeForce 9600 GT
Video Memory: 1907 MB
Driver Version: 7.15.0011.8048
Driver Date: 11/12/2008 2:54:00 PM
Driver Language: English

Sound Device Description: Digital Audio Interface (SB Live! 24-bit)
Driver File: P17.sys
Driver Version: 5.12.0001.2001
Driver Date: 2/5/2007 8:10:34 AM

Sound Device Description: Speakers (SB Live! 24-bit)
Driver File: P17.sys
Driver Version: 5.12.0001.2001
Driver Date: 2/5/2007 8:10:34 AM


WMI Information
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Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: GA-MA770-DS3
Motherboard Version: x.x
BIOS Manufacturer: Award Software International, Inc.
BIOS Name: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
BIOS Version: GBT - 42302e31
BIOS Release: 20080624000000.000000+000

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3D Resolution: 1024x718 (Not using renderscale)
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Refresh Rate: 60Hz
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Max Particle Fill? 10.000
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Anti-aliasing: 2x
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World Texture Level: Very High
Character Texture Level: Very High
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Entity Detail Level: 2.000
Shadows Enabled: Yes
Gamma Correction: 0.797
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Audio Mode: Performance
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Music Sound Volume: 0.600

Show Advanced Graphics Options: Yes
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Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 1137218 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 18.20081105.12T5
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files\City of Heroes

Mod files in the Data directory
No modifications found


Starting to think it has to be a drivers issue. I was able to hang around the supergroup base for two hours. Yet passing into the D is almost inevitable crash. And every time I crashed outside of Pocket D could of been the result that which the hotfix was entitled to fix.

Is there something in Pocket D maybe that utilizes an engine that could be causing the crash or something?

[ QUOTE ]
Starting to think it has to be a drivers issue.

[/ QUOTE ]

Theres a reason I have so many driver options posted for the 9x cards. Roll yours back to the 174.74s. However listening to the rest of your posts, I'm convinced you have hardware issues as well, and we may never get this one fully stable. Many of your issues do NOT line up with this bug.

-sighs- this is so frustrating. Alright well thanks for baring with me. Could you post a link maybe to your 9x card's list of driver recommendations incase 174.74s don't work?

They're already posted with links... think the updated driver list made it to page 2 or three however. I posted drivers for the 9x and the 2x cards.

Those 174.74s are the ones that tech support is rolling 9x cards to, and where I've had the most luck. If that driver doesnt get you stable, I'm going to hazard a guess you have something different either hardware or software going on.

However theres a good chance if you dont have a hardware issue, they will get you stable, because as I've said repeatedly the 9x cards are still requiring a rollback in most cases.

yeah I've been able to sit here in Grandville for an hour and still going, alt tabbing, dunno if that's any help but it's going just fine. Otherwise guess I'm searching for a AMD CPU/Mobo-nvidia or none vid drivers as a back up in case if by purchasing a powersupply; doesn't solve it.

-sighs- my computer loves disappointing me. It just crashed after about two hours. So yeah going to try the 174.xx drivers listed on the first page.

How do I go about physx drivers? Should I uninstall and driver sweet those as well? If so how do I go about getting them or just leave it off my comp for right now?

Leave them off unless you have an actual stand-alone ageix physx card.

-sighs- well rolling back to 174.xx didn't solve anything, gave me more time that's about it. I might run by Best Buy tomorrow and pick up a PSU if they have any to test. Otherwise saving up for yet another new motherboard and CPU.

I dont know if its worth mentioning, and it may have been me utilizing the program wrong.. But I use drivercleaner when I swap out drivers.

Even after cleaning the drivers, I found that windows had all of the old drivers stored in a folder under Nvidia. Even though they werent listed under the devices tab and the Programs and Features list (where I originally uninstalled them).

I had to go in and delete those files as well. Not sure if that would be of help or not.

I was in the same boat Stryph, so I know you are frustrated and thought it might be worth a shot.

[ QUOTE ]
I promised a reply and now several days later my Vista 64 machine with 8800GT is stable on the latest WHQL drivers using sp2 beta.

This is starting to look consistent for MOST of the 8x cards and 2x cards... still not looking so good for many of the 9x cards though. Like Ex noted from tech support in a previous thread, most 9x's are still requiring a driver rollback. Wish we could puzzle out why, but at least we know.

[/ QUOTE ]

So I'm using a 9600 GS that blacks out once a day, and doesn't recover until I quit the game through task manager (I play about 3-4 hours daily). Not terrible, but definitely annoying. I haven't installed any of the updates for fear of releasing newer and nastier bugs.

So according to Ex-Libris, you say, there's nothing I can do at this time.

Does anyone else out there with a 9xxx series have a successful resolution to this problem?

Maybe it's your monitor?

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Maybe it's your monitor?

[/ QUOTE ]

It may be, the error states that the "Display driver has stopped working and has fully recovered." I figured since the symptoms found in this thread very closely resemble the problems I've been having it might be the graphics card interfering.

"Display driver has stopped working and has fully recovered" Is just another way of saying the same thing.

the first versions of the driver Nvidia released had this error message. then with the latest update you should receive both "Display driver has stopped working and has fully recovered" and " Nvidia error 14 ( or 13). So in a way your right, the symptoms ressemble.. because it's the same bug

[ QUOTE ]
"Display driver has stopped working and has fully recovered" Is just another way of saying the same thing.

the first versions of the driver Nvidia released had this error message. then with the latest update you should receive both "Display driver has stopped working and has fully recovered" and " Nvidia error 14 ( or 13). So in a way your right, the symptoms ressemble.. because it's the same bug

[/ QUOTE ]

So there currently exists no updates that really fix the 9x issues (I'm using 9600 GS)? Windows claims all of my drivers are fully up to date, and I don't really want to risk downloading beta updates unless it's been confirmed they actually work, without introducing new bugs into my system.

.... read the first post or Tease post, you'll find the answer in detail...

In short: rollback to older drivers. Apply the Hotfix from Zolth and see if that works.

Master, your issue is the same as this thread. You do however have a 9xxx card making it more prone to these issues not getting fully resolved. Your first step is working through the guide, completely, and getting back onto the 174 drivers. Going onto newer, beta drivers, wont help your issue. If you have however worked through the guide, your welcome to start another thread (not a reply) with your coh helper and hijack this logs and we can look and see if theres anything else that looks odd. That said, some 9xxx cards we arent getting full fix on, and your crash rate isnt particularly high currently.

I'm having the same issue. Game will run fine for a while -- can be anywhere from 10 minutes to 3+ hours -- and out of the blue the game will freeze/white screen and I'll get the "display driver has stopped responding and has recovered" message.

I'm currently running Windows vista 64 bit with 2x 8800 GTS's in SLI configuration. I've tried multitudes of fixes; including the ones listed in this thread:
Applied proper hotfix from Microsoft
Rolled back to older drivers linked here, always using Driver Sweeper in safe mode when uninstalling (noticed a sizable FPS drop with these, about 15-20 FPS)

I've also tried disabling SLI entirely, and beta Nvidia drivers... NOTHING has fixed the problem. The game will still randomly give me the aforementioned error.

It's REALLY getting frustrating now. I appreciate all the community support here, but if anyone has any other suggestions or potential fixes, I'm all ears. I'll give anything a shot.

CoH Helper Data Follows:

---System information gathered by [url=http://home.roadrunner.com/~dasloth/CoH/CoHHelper.html[/url] version 0.1.1.6---

DxDiag gathered at January 9, 2009 01:34 (-07:00)
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Basic (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.vistasp1_ldr.081020-1655)
System Manufacturer: NVIDIA
System Model: 132-CK-NF78
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Central Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Memory: 4094MB
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Page File: 6759MB (1627MB currently in use)
C Drive: (ST350032 0AS SCSI Disk Device) 285674MB out of 476929MB (59%) free
D Drive: (HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH20NS10 SCSI CdRom Device) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\Windows
DirectX: DirectX 10
DirectX Diag version: 6.00.6001.18000 (64-bit version)

Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.

No problems found.

No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS
Manufacturer / Chip: NVIDIA / GeForce 8800 GTS
Video Memory: 2395 MB
Driver Version: 7.15.0011.6925
Driver Date: 12/11/2007 5:06:00 PM
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Motherboard Product: 132-CK-NF78
Motherboard Version: 2
BIOS Manufacturer: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
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Registry Information for Current User
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Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 135407 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 18.20081105.12T5
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\City of Heroes

Mod files in the Data directory
No modifications found

Yes, the FPS difference between the 169s and 180s is (sadly) sizeable.

Some things to try, in no particular order. No promises if any of this will work, much less the logic of why it might work.

1)Physically break SLI. Remove card or bridge.
2)Move up to sp2 beta.
3)Disable Aero
4)Try windowed mode.

PS: Be sure you got the October version of the hot fix, not the June one.

Thanks for the reply, Tease. Your efforts here are not going unnoticed!

I have actually tried something new here...
Nvidia, no more than a few hours ago, finally released their 181.20 (WHQL) drivers. And I noticed that now they allow dual monitor configurations (which I have) to run WITH SLI! You're probably aware, but before, users were unable to have a 2nd monitor running with SLI. You had to have a 3rd video card if you wanted to make use of a 2nd monitor with SLI on.

Long story short:
Have been using newest Nvidia drivers (01/08/2009)
Both monitors connected to same GPU as directed with SLI on
No crashes so far!

Gonna have to test it out tomorrow though, as I need to get some much needed sleep now.

Also: I've got Aero disabled and have tried windowed mode. I'll try removing the SLI bridge and will give sp2 beta a shot should my problems (god I hope they are fixed now) persist.

Fingers crossed...
And thanks again!