[SOLVED] [Driver restart] Graphic's driver stops working and restarts

Streidominating

My system was overheating while playing NS2
Work around: Open Computer Case
Permanent Fix: Improved airflow or cooling
Details on fix: Try to clean the computer of dust and if the graphics card is on the lower PCI slot, if You have one slot which is higher from the ground, use that one for better cooling. I moved with 40% fan speed ~95-98°C to max 73°C on FurMark
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Dear NS2 Tech support, Community

I'm not sure if this is a known issue or not, I couldn't really find anything through google and here, maybe I searched wrong... whatever.

The issue is that, sometimes while playing NS2, my Graphics Driver stops working and restarts. The result is, I'm idle for 10-20 seconds which is a free death most of the time. I don't have this issue with any other demanding game, it's only NS2. I suspected maybe a heat problem, but pushing up the Graphic's Card fanspeed to maximum doesn't really help, it is still happening some times. Since the new big update it occurs more often somehow

I already have latest drivers, I already reinstalled them with a cleaning tool. Find my DxDiag attached to the post.

Thanks for any answer & best Regards
Max

Quick PC Spec:

Windows 7 x64
ASUS P5E3 Premium
ATI HD6870@2GB
Intel Q9550@3.2GHz OC'd
Kingston DDR3-1600@8GB
SSD

DC_Darkling

Does the windows event viewer create a error with more info?
Does it somewhere generate .dmp / dump files with more info?

Did you reduce graphic settings to see if it does less crashes?

You can also do a r_stats 1 to see if you get any wierd results.
profiler is a very powerful command but 'lends' your spacebar, see the stickies for more info.

This info will help a bit more.

Streidominating

Hey Darkling

Thanks for Your reply.

I checked the event viewer, app log doesn't show anything.

System log gives me the following two exceptions during the freeze time:

Protokollname: System
Quelle: yukonw7
Datum: 10/03/2013 11:45:05
Ereignis-ID: 101
Aufgabenkategorie:Keine
Ebene: Fehler
Schlüsselwörter:Klassisch
Benutzer: Nicht zutreffend
Computer: pc_mdengler
Beschreibung:
Driver status 1
Ereignis-XML:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event"&gt;
<System>
<Provider Name="yukonw7" />
<EventID Qualifiers="57351">101</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-03-10T10:45:05.278433800Z" />
<EventRecordID>144280</EventRecordID>
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>pc_mdengler</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>\Device\NDMP5</Data>
<Data>Marvell Yukon 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller</Data>
<Binary>000018000200480000000000650007E0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000080F8FFFF00104F06001FC6769D960000</Binary>
</EventData>
</Event>

and

Protokollname: System
Quelle: Display
Datum: 10/03/2013 11:45:12
Ereignis-ID: 4101
Aufgabenkategorie:Keine
Ebene: Warnung
Schlüsselwörter:Klassisch
Benutzer: Nicht zutreffend
Computer: pc_mdengler
Beschreibung:
Der Anzeigetreiber "amdkmdap" reagiert nicht mehr und wurde wiederhergestellt.
Ereignis-XML:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event"&gt;
<System>
<Provider Name="Display" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">4101</EventID>
<Level>3</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-03-10T10:45:12.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>144282</EventRecordID>
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>pc_mdengler</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>amdkmdap</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

The first is not always coming with the second exception, second is just the event where my display drivers stop. First one is regarding my network adapter... I will make further tests with the following:

Using my second network adapter with high settings and then if I still experience freezes I will try lower settings. Don't know how my network adapter could make my display drivers stop though.

Sorry for german exceptions by the way.

Edit:

Hmmm... found this one: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/349774-15-radeon-6870-display-driver-amdkmdap-stopped-responding

I will try windows update... lets see if that works somehow.

DC_Darkling

I would start by updating windows & downloading the latest video driver. If you can also install your monitor instead of plug & play, may help.

You netwerk card driver also goes into a crash i think, the error is more severe on that one.
Definately find a update for it aswell.

Your driver enviroment seems unhealthy so definately gain to be had there.

Streidominating

Updating Windows didn't really help.

Also, my graphics drivers were already up2date - I also made a fresh install of the drivers with cleaning software, requiring booting in safe mode etc.

I had this problem with my old monitor too, so the monitor is not an issue.

Somehow I think, maybe its overheating? The thing is, when putting my fan speed to 70% I get less freezes and by turning down the graphics of NS2, I also got almost no freezes, still occur though.

If it comes to worse, and I can't wait till my next hardware upgrade, I'll try a fresh window install

Edit:

I could run furmark for 10 minutes without issues at around 94°C - when I play NS2 it is around 80°C
But today, I even had one driver freeze when playing StarCraft II for the first time, but it was during a rendered cutscene.

DC_Darkling

Be sure to keep checking the event viewer.
Start thinking more globally.

Update all drivers you can. Im unsure if you updated it network driver, but it behaved odd.. so just go update. Computers can be weird.. I had USB mouses destroy the ability to play sound for example.. (yes, I couldn't figure that one out either)
It can all relate to one other.

Does your vid card produce a crash log? If it does it may be benefitial to either let us see it, or if it is definately the vid card.. send it to AMD/Nvidia, depending whos card it is.

IronHorse

Dc is right.
Check everything.

therealDrNick

I'm having the same problem as OP pretty much exactly as described. It makes the game almost unplayable at times.

IronHorse

There is many reports of this issue in that provided Tom's hardware link above.. I don't think this has to do with ns2. I've asked max previously and he said there's no way for them to tell how or why you're display driver stopped, so it's something outside of their control.
There seems to be a multitude of suggestions on that forum too.. should try them all out, from clocks to driver changes, to Windows security essentials to even reinstalling your os.
Good luck!

IronHorse

Digging through Windows websites I've found that this is a huge, well reported issue.
technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/b00646c8-457f-4363-a6f4-f5c2782edc16.aspx

Documentation:
msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg487368.aspx

therealDrNick

Except for the fact that it only happens with NS2 no matter what settings I change Definitely a problem related to the game.

IronHorse

Should never draw a conclusion from a correlated study, else you will find many false positives.

Ns2 could simply be highlighting the issue, not necessarily causing it.

therealDrNick

Well when you're trying to play off the problem as anything in the universe could be causing it it sounds just as silly...I've played hundreds of other games on this PC and never had and issue like this. I have the same card as the OP so I'm guessing it could be something related to that and NS2.

IronHorse

Check out those links I posted.. the symptom is definitely not isolated to ns2.

That being said, of course this instance of it still can be due to ns2. But no one here can confirm that.. for all we know, your card + that exact driver version + the exact directx dll ns2 uses could be causing it.

That's why we're here diagnosing: to isolate it.
Leaving it at "its the game" doesn't help the devs or consumers.
So if you could help contribute to the diagnosing as well considering you can reproduce it, it would be very helpful, thanks!

Have you guys tried rolling back your display drivers to an earlier version?
Have you tried playing in windowed full screen?

DC_Darkling

As the site states:

Ensure that the DirectX graphics application does not run at a low frames per second (FPS) rate. As the FPS decreases, the likelihood of the GPU getting reset increases. If the application is running at 10 FPS or lower and a complex graphics operation is about to start, then a flush can be inserted.

So.. how is the fps when this happens folk?

Now can we get more info for uwe? Potentially yes.
Use the following at your own risk!
Backup any changed made to the registry!

* you need admin access on the computer.
* Open regedit
* browse to "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers"
* add or edit reg_dword: "TdrDebugMode" to the value of 0.

Now if I read the documentation correct this WILL bluescreen your computer. (actually, it will call upon the debugger, but the standard debugger is the bluescreen crash dump and thus should be a bluescreen)

Now why is this good? Upon a bluescreen a dump file is written in c:\windows OR c:\windows\minidump.
its called memory.dmp or <date_here>.dmp
Upload this file to something like dropbox, weshare, skydrive or whereever you can shove it.
Spam poor Ironhorse with the link to the dmp file so he can share it with the devs.

It is a driver error 100%.. but perhaps ns does something to make it crash. (although in reality the driver should say 'no way')

IronHorse

Nice find DC!
That file will more than likely be huge.. so definitely drop box it or something as a link.
Happy hunting!

Streidominating

Okay, I will try the above.

For now, I'm not sure, but maybe for me its a overheating issues. Maybe the issue is just random too and I'm just lucky, but I got almost no freezes since I run my GPU fan speed at 80%, I even played ~45 minutes at 40% fan speed but with open computer case.

I need to free my PC of the dust that as accumulated - I will do the thing with the registry and if I should get a bluescreen then, I will post the minidump.

ScardyBob

therealDrNick wrote: »

Well when you're trying to play off the problem as anything in the universe could be causing it it sounds just as silly...I've played hundreds of other games on this PC and never had and issue like this. I have the same card as the OP so I'm guessing it could be something related to that and NS2.

When I first OCd my current computer, I got it to the point where it passed a double prime95 24-hour stress test and ran every other game or program I could throw at it flawlessly. However, it would on occasion BSOD when playing NS2. Did that mean NS2 was causing my BSODs? No. I had an unstable OC and it just so happened that NS2 was the only program that was able to stress test it enough to identify that instability. I upped my vcore a little more and no more BSOD's occurred.

Moral of the story is that just because your issue only occurs when playing NS2 doesn't mean NS2 is the problem. Its best to exhaust all other possibilities (google is your friend) before concluding the issue is on UWE's side.

Streidominating

Yep, I'm pretty sure I got a problem with heat.

I played with 40% fan speed & open computer case for hours without freezes, as soon as I closed my computer case I got a freeze in 10 minutes. With the registry entry it didn't bluescreen me so I don't have a minidump.

Well, I guess I wont be needing it anyways, because for my case its overheating issues. Funny thing though, my GPU went up to 96°C at Furmark and it didn't freeze... well, I got an air duster now so I can tidy up my computer to see if that helps.

IronHorse

good to know and thanks for posting your solution