I'm running Vista 64 as well, but I have yet to actually hit a BSOD. I freeze like crazy though and have had maybe 5 or 6 crash dumps. I'm counting myself lucky that I have not seen that dreaded blue screen yet in Vista.

I seem to get the BSOD running full tilt, max resolution and settings and if I try to mess around with it too much once it is frozen. I'm on Medium with no effects checked off now on the lowest resolution (1024), and it seems to recover a bit easier, no BSOD. Looks like you've got a much better rig, so according to that Microsoft article, maybe the O/S hasn't given up on your GPU as quickly as it does for mine. I haven't done enough testing between SLI and non-SLI to see if that makes a difference, but sticking with SLI for now. I'm also only in single player mode, too. I'm not going to play multi-player until this is fixed. Nothing like being that teammate that always freezes, lags and ends up getting dropped...

I have vista 32-bit. Geforce 6800. At first, I wasn't having any trouble with the game. Lately though, it has been BSOD constantly. It seems to happen mostly when I zoom out. Even if I don't BOSD I get stuttering and freezing problems. I have played several games like this, and it gets worse and worse the longer the game goes on.

Do you have a reason to believe that it's a collective failure? Considering that it happens only to NVidia cards and not ATI, I really doubt this is Microsoft's fault (or StarDock/Ironwhatever's). There's a greater difference between XP and Vista than just the DirectX version.

A couple of those regkeys might make the pause a bit less unbearable if you just shorten the timeout, at the risk of other stability things. None will fix the problem.

Myself, I've noticed that after the hanging starts, I can alt tab out and back into the game and it usually is fine for another little while (maybe it forces some graphics context change?). Half an hour later, though, it'll completely crash when I try that one.

I'm actually having this problem also, and I have an ATI 2870.

I'm having similar lockups to what people are describing in this thread. But I'm on XP with a geforce 6600GT. I have another thread posted in this forum too.

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?

StitchedChin: Yep. When I upgraded to the latest nvidia drivers (169.25), I did get this 'graphics driver has stopped responding' message. The older drivers don't have this message, but the game still acts in the same way. That is you can alt-tab in and out of the game, although it is slow to respond, and the music and sound keeps playing. This seems to be a common theme for people with this problem!

BTW: my cpu is a p4 2800, Asus P4P800 motherboard and 1 gig of ram. The setup is vanilla, and the XP install is quite fresh, maybe two months old. I purposely keep the settings as default as possible to eliminate variables

StitchedChin: What is the actual fix that you found? I didn't quite get it from your post?

Another thing I noticed (which I saw someone in another thread also mention) is that zooming in very quickly to ship level, seems to facilitate a crash. Anyone else get this?

I'm almost certain this problem is a driver issue, because after trying a few different drivers, I've noticed very different performance. The latest drivers are the worst, resulting in periodic hitching. THe older drivers are much better, but still hang after about an hour of playing at best.

I believe the Nvidia driver crashing issue has been resolved internally and will be included in a future driver update.

Good to hear Yarlen, thanks! Mine is definitely an interum tweak.

Yeah, I'm definitely a rambler, but I was basically underclocking my PC, if you know how to mess around with your bus/clock speeds? You can do it in the BIOS or use nTune if you have it installed. Underclocking has been the most stable for me, not just matching up the memory speeds on the GPU and RAM. I have OCZ Special Ops RAM, DDR2 667 MHZ, I'm getting the best results keeping my RAM clocked at 533 MHZ and bringing the GPU down some as well. My GPU is DDR3 at 750 MHZ, I bring it down to high 600s, nothing specific, I may even be able to keep it at 750, just haven't found the perfect mix yet. I'm pretty sure I haven't crashed with my RAM at 533, I've been trying to go up from there, overclock it to find a happy medium between 667 and 533. I'll keep it at 533 for a while to make sure. nTune, an add on for the Nvidia Control you can download from their website, has the ability to do the graphics on the fly, but I don't think you can do the RAM without affecting the CPU in nTune, so you have to adjust it in the BIOS. Keeping my RAM at 667 and bringing the GPU down to 667 helped it the most noticeably at first for me, but I still got the error and BSOD a couple hours later.

Though hopefully Nvidia is going to fix it on their side, it still feels it is multiple things. A lot of components have to work together, easier said than done. I have a feeling I didn't make the greatest build, mixing components that weren't certified to work together like my RAM with my MB. Its a sadistic hobby.

Maybe they screwed something up in the 169.25 update. That update seems to be a common trait, along with Nvidia and even maybe Asus amongst others. You type nvlddmkm.sys into Google search and Nvidia has really had trouble with this thing for 2 years, like they get it to work and then break it again. I could have sworn ATI guys were having the same problem, though the nvl driver is specific to Nvidia, I figured they were still getting a graphics driver has stopped responding error. Course, it all blurs into one after spending a week in troubleshooting forums.

The zooming in thing probably has more to do with the stress that occurs having to fill things in, change ships from colored icons to detailed ships, show debris, lasers, etc. A lot more calculations going on between all the components. I notice I could get it to freeze pretty regularily on a game where I wanted to zoom in on a fight of about 15-20 ships. Froze 3 times back to back. Sheesh I ramble... let me know if you figure out how to test this or need some help.

Here's your manual for your MB, Asus's site is pretty slow sometimes, page 4-16 may be where you need to adjust your RAM speed. No worries if you don't feel comfortable messing with these settings though.
http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/sock478/p4p800/e1324_p4p800.pdf

I will be stoked if the next nvidia drivers fix the problem!

*crosses fingers*

To be honest, I have quit playing until this is fixed... it's ridiculous to play this way. Back to playing 2142 and Counter-Strike.

I skimmed through some of this so forgive me if this was posted already.

Best laptop driver center

If you have a laptop and issues with drivers or the game this is a great site for updates.

it is not just vista 64 bit, i have 32 bit and have the same problems with sins, i am using the 97.xx drivers and the game runs fine, howeveer i have to reinstall my 169,25 drivers to play anything because they perfrom far better in every other game i run, and yes this really should be stickied, because this is a really annoying and big problem

Same Problem..sound continues..screen flickers back and forth...game frizen.then crashes to desktop..sometimes goes back to sins..or sometimes gives me BSOD

Vista Home Premium 32b

GF 8800gtx

Forceware 169.25

Running 1920x1280 with everything maxed..now turned off antialiasing..will try to turn down other stuff..

even tried 1280x1024 to see if different resolution helped..nope.


Initially seemed ok...got addicted to game..not sure why now running into problems...installed the patch day it was released...

Now i can barely load Sins...try to get to options and try changing stuff but no luck...

GPU temp around 59c, cpu 23c per nvidia monitor thingy

i instlalled that little patch..but said it didnt apply to my system...


HELP FEED MY SINS ADDICTION STARDOCK/ICE!

For curiosity sake, everyone pipe in about your motherboard too as Vista is definitely a major similarity as well as Nvidia's latest driver and the nvlddmkm.sys error. But, I'm wondering if the newer boards, 700s for nForce, are doing okay, just the older ones having the issues. I'm checking Nvidia each day waiting for their latest driver, nothing on there yet.

Asus M2N32-SLI 590 AMD AM2

OK...for me found solution...

I tried the windows hotfix..already in place when this started so no joy....

I had the setting dialed back already from HIGHEST to HIGH..thats no help

So then i used NTUNE and dialed back my 8800gtx memory speed from stock 900mhz to about 800mhz.

WORKED!

Able to play without any problem..and no stuttering video..ie still enuff power to more than run the game at 1920x1280 ...atlhtough anitaliasing is still off now that i think about it...

sad...but maybe ill rattle Mr Dell while box is still under warranty and see if i can luck out and get a card thats a netter one....

This worked like a charm for me, as well. I was using the 169.25 drivers on a GeForce 7800GT and Vista 32-bit.

noticed that the new patch didnt say that it would fix this, does that mean only nvidia can fix the problem?

Correct.

Nvidia tells us that they hope to have a new driver with fixes out later this month. 

This is off topic but I wanted to warn some ATI users.

Myself and a few others at Stardock downloaded the latest ATI drivers for the X1300 (this applies to more that just this card of course) on our 64 Vista machines. Once you do this you cannot see the login screen. ATI knows of this issue and is working to correct it. Since many people are updating drivers for this very pretty game I hope I caught a few of you before you step in the same hole I did.

Just an FYI

The 97.64 driver only supports gfx cards up through the 7xxx series. That leaves all of us with the 8xxx series out in the cold. I've got two 8800GTXs in sli that work fine in XP32 with the 169.21 driver but on the same exact hardware on Vista64 I randomly hang hard in under an hour. This obviously is not acceptable. I'm sure it is a DX10/video driver issue but either Stardock or Nvidia needs to step up and fix this ASAP. They can't expect people to dual boot to XP every time they want to play this one game! Don't get me wrong, I think this game rocks but support on this issue is pretty lacking at this point.

I'm a bit worried that the latest nvidia driver update isn't going to fix the problem that those of us on XP are experiencing... Is anyone from Stardock able to elaborate on what nvidia has actually fixed?

For Vista: Nvidia has fixed that problem many times and its always come back.