Memory question – nVidia drivers

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Since I keep getting the infamous NVidia “Display driver not responding” but Windows fixing it (sometimes) message when I use Photoshop, I made a second user for just running Photoshop.

I am running Windows 7/64, 12 GB RAM, NVidia GeForce GTX 275 1792 MB GDDR3, Photoshop 64 bit, Photoshop 32 bit. The problem occurs with either Photoshop. I disabled Aero, and that helped a lot. Then I disabled Advanced Drawing in the OpenGL Drawing dialog and that also helped, 70% RAM to Photoshop. But problem still occurs working with large files.

This is a brand new computer which had (apparently) bad memory from day 1. Different amounts of enabled memory would show on each reboot. The company replaced all the RAM and now enabled RAM stays consistent at 12 GB. I updated to the latest NVidia drivers, but that didn’t solve the problem. The second user solution does seem to work pretty well, though.

So what I’d like to know is do I need to reboot to release all the memory from the first user, or can I just Switch users and have that memory released?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Sheila

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Hi Sheila and welcome

Switching users will not release the memory. If you were to log out of the first user it would. With the amount of ram you have should not make any difference. Could we get your system specs? Might be able to be of more use if we knew. Re your video driver. Keep an e3ye on the gpu temps. You can downlaod both Cpu-z and gpu-z (both free.) often video problems are the result of heat.

Should you have DMP files i would be more than happy to analyze them.,

Ken

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Hi Ken and thanks for the welcome!

System specs:
System Manufacturer: Xi computers
OS Windows7/64
CPU Intel Core i7 960 3.20 /ghz /turbo Boost Quad-Core
Motherboard Asus P6T Intel
Memory 12 Gigs Patriot Viper 9-9-9-24 DDR3 @1333 MHz
Graphics Card NVidia GeForce GTX 275
Sound Card on board
Monitor(s) Displays NEC MultiSync LCD 2690
Case NetRAIDer
Cooling lots – includes fans directly over the memory
Hard Drives 2-300 Gigs 10000RPM SATAII 1-2 T WD RE4-SATAII 1-1 T 7200 RPM SATAII

In XP I knew where the DMP files were, but I can’t find them in Win7 – I did get a few BSODs, and I assumed a DMP file was being written, but maybe there’s a setting to enable that and it wasn’t?

I’ll look for Cpu-z and gpu-z. But I doubt that heat is a problem with all the fans in there.

Could you please tell me what the gpu temps are? I don’t know that much about video drivers.

Thanks,
Sheila

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Could you please tell me what the gpu temps are? I don’t know that much about video drivers.

GPU = graphics processing unit

Have you checked the Nvidia support site?

By latest drivers, do you mean from the Windows update site or from Nvidia?

Was the problem the same before you updated the drivers?

Joe

--Joe

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I downloaded the latest drivers from Nvidia, and after that went back and let their site automatically check my computer to see if the drivers were up-to-date, and they were. The problem was there before I updated the drivers. That’s why I went looking for updated drivers.

I haven’t checked the Nvidia support site, but that is a very good idea and I will. I have read on other forums about people having similar problems with Nvidia, particularly on the Adobe Photoshop forum, and the NAPP forum (National Association of Photoshop Professionals). People felt there that there might be a problem with Nvidia cards and Photoshop on Windows 7/64. Suggestions were to turn off the things I did turn off.

Also, turning off Aero made a very big difference. But didn’t stop the problem completely.

Solving the problem is sort of important since I am a fine-art photographer and need to use Photoshop with large files.

Sheila

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I downloaded the latest drivers from Nvidia, and after that went back and let their site automatically check my computer to see if the drivers were up-to-date, and they were. The problem was there before I updated the drivers. That’s why I went looking for updated drivers.

I haven’t checked the Nvidia support site, but that is a very good idea and I will. I have read on other forums about people having similar problems with Nvidia, particularly on the Adobe Photoshop forum, and the NAPP forum (National Association of Photoshop Professionals). People felt there that there might be a problem with Nvidia cards and Photoshop on Windows 7/64. Suggestions were to turn off the things I did turn off.

Unfortunately, Nvidia seems to be lacking recrntly in the quality of their drivers. I’ve read quite a few complaints about Nividia driver problems with Windows 7. I wish I could be more help but the systems I run all have ATI cards or onboard Intel graphics so my Nivida knowledge is very limited right now.

Note: also make sure the Photoshop is up-to-date.

Here’s a thread from the Nivdia forums that has some info – Display Driver Has Stopped Working? – NVIDIA Forums

Joe

--Joe

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Joe – Thanks for the thread – seems like the problem has been happening for a looong time. And yes, Photoshop is very up-to-date.

Ken – I just got a BSOD – not in Photoshop – just reading the Nvidia forum thread Joe posted. There is a dmp file, but how do I open it to post it? I tried WordPad, but got a bunch of garbage.

Sheila

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Hi shellacalm,

I have an Nvidia card on my Windows 7 desktop, and the driver Microsoft installed was a mess. Even when I downloaded and tried to install the latest two Nvidia drivers the following day, neither would install, with error messages stating I did not have a 64 bit OS….I was running Win7 Pro x64 edition.

To make a short story even longer, I waited for eight weeks before finally obtaining the latest Nvidia driver that worked without problems.

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Hi Gerald,

I’m glad your problem was solved with the nVidia driver. I have downloaded and installed the latest nVidia driver (no installation problems), but still have the problem.

I have just contacted Xi (the computer company) and they are sending me the runtime DX9 link (currently have DX11) because they have seen problems with nVidia and the DX11. So I’ll see if this helps. I’ll post back with the results.

Sheila

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I’m glad your problem was solved with the nVidia driver. I have downloaded and installed the latest nVidia driver (no installation problems), but still have the problem.

I have just contacted Xi (the computer company) and they are sending me the runtime DX9 link (currently have DX11) because they have seen problems with nVidia and the DX11. So I’ll see if this helps. I’ll post back with the results.

AFAIK, Nvidia does not support DX11 yet.

Joe

--Joe

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You are obviously right-after installing DX9, I have had only one problem. In Photoshop CS4 I tried enabling an advanced option in openGL Drawing, the one that uses the graphics card for color matching, compositing and tone mapping. That resulted in a black screen with only some edge objects visible. I disabled it again, and have not had another problem. (With DX11, and that option enabled, I still had all the problems).

I hope this is a final solution and if it helps anyone else with the same problem, I hope they try the same things.

Thanks to everyone for the helpful suggestions.

Sheila

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Hi Sheila,

I have had a very similar problem with a new machine that I built running Windows 7 32bit.

I ran Memtest86+ and found that a single bit was stuck on.
With the faulty stick of memory removed the machine runs perfectly.

I have just replaced both sticks of memory and after testing with Memtest86+ for several hours I am pretty sure this memory is OK.
So far Windows has been running fine for several hours with no problem.

I know that there are many, many people who have this sort of problem and that for some installing newer or older drivers seems to fix the problem.
However, it is quite likely that a lot of these problems are down to faulty memory.

Nick

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Sheila,
Please look in Event Viewer to see if it is showing a lot of DCOM Event ID 10016 errors. I recently had a draftsman with a new XP Pro 64bit build workstation that would go to sleep while he was at lunch and required a power off to get going again.
It was determined that nVidia has decided in their wisdom to build a Hidden Firewall into their top end video card drivers. He had a nVidia Quadro FX 3500
In our case we were able to go to Add/Remove and uninstall the nVidia Forceware Network Access manager (read- Hidden Firewall).

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Hi Peter and Nick,

I ran MemTest86+ overnight and there were no errors, but then Xi sent me a CPU test (prime95.exe) and it failed at the first attempt. I tried again and it failed again. So Xi had me send the computer back to them. They said the problem was either a bad CPU or Motherboard. They will replace whichever (or both) it is and test it thoroughly before sending it back. Before sending it back though, they sent me a Quadro FX 1800 card to replace the GeForce card, That pretty much stopped the “Device driver not responding” error messages, but the BSOD continued and were getting worse.

I did check Event Viewer and though there were lots of errors, DCOM didn’t seem to be one of the. Mostly they said “The computer shut down unexpectedly”. The blue screen error numbers were all over the place – different ones each time. It was really weird. Hopefully they will get it fixed.

Sheila

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The only nVidia driver that works for me is an old one from Feb 2009. All the rest blue screen or hang with minutes. nVidia releases new drivers to speed things up so that the performance-driven customers will be more satisfied, but I have tried every one and they all blue screen or hang.

I’ve got a 9600M GT in an HP HDX 18t running Windows 7 64-bit.

There’s a lot more info about these problems on the nVidia forums as well.

I don’t know if ATI is any better but if I can get my next computer with a Radeon etc. I would.

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To reply to my own post: Running with the new memory the system was rock solid and ran every day for a week without a problem.

It doesn’t surprise me that different drivers behave differently.
The exact binary pattern will change for many words within the drivers mapped memory between driver versions.
If some patches of memory are faulty the change in layout can make the difference between the faulty words being used and not being used.

Nick

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Nick-It’s great that you solved your problem with the new memory. Xi has replaced just about everything on my computer, and tested it continually for almost a week with no problems. Today they were going to ship it back to me. When they shut it down to prepare it for shipping, it crashed. They rebooted and made sure nothing was running and shut it down again, and again it crashed. They suspect it has something to do with something running in the background and are looking for what is causing the crash. I am sooo glad it happened before they sent it back to me.

Sheila

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Nick-It’s great that you solved your problem with the new memory.

Well, it didn’t quite go according to plan.
My clients 7 year old can crash it really easily playing ToonTown
I, however, can’t crash it easily playing ToonTown.
I managed it once after several hours.
The graphics driver seems to go to sleep then the whole thing sort of doesn’t work then it has to be forceably shut down.

I think that I may end up installing from scratch but without a reliable way to reproduce the problem it may well be wasted effort.

Not a happy bunny.

Nick

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I’m guessing the motherboard doesn’t want to play nice with the 12GB of Patriot memory you have.

I am presuming that you are using 6 x 2GB modules. This kind of configuration can sometimes push boards to their limit, and can cause various compatibility issues depending on the memory used. According to the ASUS P6T Memory Support List, there is no Patriot memory that is certified for working with all 6 memory sockets filled.

I’d suggest having them try some modules from Corsair or OCZ and see if that improves things (I’m a fan of the Corsair DOMINATOR DDR3-1600 modules myself)). If the BIOS hasn’t been updated in a while, they may want to do that too, as that sometimes helps with memory incompatibility issues.

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Thanks Dennis, I’m forwarding your message to them.

Sheila

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Having read many threads on this problem I stumbled upon this: Timeout Detection and Recovery of GPUs through WDDM.
What is is saying is that in Vista and Windows 7 instead of just locking up the OS attempts to regain control of the graphics hardware.
In 2007 nVidia said this:

We understand that many users have expressed frustration with this issue, and we apologize for the inconvenience. Since the NVIDIA v101.41 beta driver release, NVIDIA has been fixing many TDR issues reported by users. Our software team is currently preparing a new driver which will dramatically reduce the number of TDR errors that users have reported on the forums. Thank you for your patience.

Now it seems to me that what we have here are race conditions and/or deadlocks.
That would explain many of the features and fixes:
Problem goes away when:
Memory reduced to one stick.
Number of cores reduced to one.
Memory timing altered.
Video clocking changed.
Different drivers. Sometimes newer works. Sometimes older works.

Nick

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