When multiple parties (ATI, Nvidia, Microsoft, Game Devs) all point fingers at each other and things don't get fixed for over a year (not just a SOASE problem) that seems like a collective failure to me.
But to the good news, I HAVE A FIX!! Not a complete solution, but has worked for me and hopefully this works for others. This is specific to the nvlddmkm.sys, "graphic driver has stopped responding" error, screen freeze, blank screen, music still playing, and either game resuming or getting the BSOD fiasco.
The timing does seem to be the issue, and who doesn't overclock these days or have a GPU that comes factory overclocked. Bus speed adjustment is where to go. My RAM was at 667 MHZ and my GPU was at 750 MHZ, so I set the GPU down to as close to 667 as I could and what a difference! Ran smooth as silk and I actually got to see how bad I am at this game. I'm messing with other clockings, because I'd like to see if I can bring my RAM up to 750 MHZ and be okay as well, but keeping them even and underclocked a bit is probably going to be the most stable. I'm thinking underclocking the RAM and raising the CAS may help too, but not positive on why or how the whole thing breaks down.
Onyx, can you check this out on yours? I used nTune to do it quickly. I'm thinking your bus speeds might already be close, maybe overclocked, but maybe just far enough away to give you the error, but not a BSOD? You also have a bit newer rig with some better hardware, so may help with stability. For those with ATI, not sure where to go for that.
This definitely isn't an end-all fix, but seems to improve stability for this issue. I was getting that error within the first 10-15 mins on a 1v1 game, usually when things start to happen, Pirate raiders, etc, but this was even with all effects off, minimal resolution and settings on medium. Now I have all effects on, settings on Highest, resolution on max and on a 10 player ffa game on max speed and I've been able to get my butt kick without any crashes for around 2 hours. The only problem is tinkering around with trying to find the most stable clocking, which is a pain to keep track for a rookie clocker.
In all the forums I've been looking at the last week, ones going back to '06 into '07, all for Vista, some guys would chime in about lowering the bus speeds of either the RAM or GPU memory, course no one really replied saying that fixed things. This makes sense that it doesn't effect everyone because some guys might have their bus speeds matched up. Vista has been pretty bad in being as stable as XP when people overclock (though a bit better lately), but it is rare that you can overclock the same rig better or the same in Vista as you could in XP. Maybe on the new MBs, but anything a year or two older, must be having issues. So now to see if it helps others. Anyone need help checking the speeds, I can help a bit, but there has to be some guru out there that is an expert on this or maybe can explain why this may or may not help. I understand no one wants to underclock their rig and go below specs. I've also been flipping between using OpenGL and hardware for texture clamp, but I don't think that has much of an effect.
Sebastian, are you getting the exact error, nvlddmkm, graphics driver has stopped responding? What's your CPU, MB and RAM?
