"Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered." error since patch

[TBLancer]

<p>I've been getting black screens and pc lockups in EQ2, could be anywhere from a few seconds after loading game to a couple minutes. If i can manage to minmise the game screen i see this popup error: "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered."</p><p> It's been happening since one of the recent game patches, I've tried updating my forceware drivers to the latest 175 version but still having the same problem. I've noticed it is only happening when i run the game in windowed mode, if i run it full screen i dont get the error, but i need to run windowed to get access to other windows while i play.</p><p>I've noticed there's been a few reports of this happening recently from other eq2 players.</p><p>I'm running Vista x64 with a 8800 Ultra</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p>Greetings,</p><p>I think I had this same problem a while ago when I had my 6800ultra.  If I recall correctly, I resolved it by turning off Automatic VPU recovery or one of the AI overclocking features.  I'll look through the nvidia control panel when I get a chance and see if I can track down the option.</p>

[TSR-TrevorG]

Have you tried an older driver when in windowed/full screen mode?(Looks like I need to work on what tickets Dan and I are working on) <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[TheDragon]

<p>I've been having similar issues somtime after the patch where they changed the executable header to allow >2gb memory and the patch where the memory usage was tinkered with.</p><p>Tried numerous things to stop the crash/lockups and have only found one thing that makes it go away.</p><p>/force_low_mem_mode true</p><p>After trying this (its in my eq2.ini file now), the game was back to rock solid stable again.  Haven't had a crash since turning this mode on.  </p>

[TBLancer]

<p>Ok here's what i've found, nvidia drivers 175.16 perform better with eq2 than the 169.xx but are not fully stable with the game and the 8000 series graphics adaptors eg. 8800ultra.</p><p>The game was crashing in fullscreen and windowed for me running the 175 drivers, just not crashing as much in fullscreen as windowed was. As soon as i rolled back to a 169.44 beta driver the game is running stable again but there's about 5 fps drop in performance over the 175 drivers.</p><p>Another interesting thing is the game ran fine on another pc with the same OS and 175.16 drivers in windowed mode, only difference was the graphics card was a 9600GT.  So it seems there's a problem with EQ2 and the  8800(maybe all 8000 series) cards with 175.16 drivers.</p><p>SOE should look into this and liase with NVIDIA about it.</p><p>As i'm using vista 64 the game process frequently goes over 2gb so I need that header change, although i dont think its related to this problem.</p>

[TheDragon]

<p>The game now has a header for >2gb ram now period, which is good.  I mentioned it before since our symptoms were occuring before this change unless the header was modified.</p><p>As I understand it the low memory mode was put in place for another issue people were having with running out of memory and wasn't meant to be used after the update that both changed the header and tweeked memory useage.</p><p>I find it interesting that turning that low memory mode option on now will stop the crashes.  I can only assume that something done in the "tweek" doesn't play nice with our computers.</p><p>I'm actually still using the 169.25 drivers.. and 7950gt cards.  How long have you tested playing with the 169.44 drivers without  a crash?</p><p>Interesting in trying the drivers if it will allow me to turn off low mem mode again without crashes.</p>

[TheDragon]

<p>Actually.. after thinking about this more our issues might not be the same.</p><p>Even though I've gotten the same error as you, its not always that error.  Its more of a memory related cause for my crashes.</p><p>My bad... was confused and posted in wrong thread originally (eyes get crossed after searching and reading through hundreds of threads..).</p>