Bsod Caused By Audio Software?

[WytchDokta]

This started some time ago. I don't play many games nowadays and it seems to be limited to only a few of those games. I'll be playing the game when suddenly, at a different interval everytime I play, I'll get a BSOD. This started happening mainly on Windows Live enabled games, and I can't say I ever noticed it before the GFWL (Games For Windows Live) v1.2 update. After dooing some Googling, it turns out alot of people are getting this and putting it down to the GFWL service itself - they found that if they hacked the games' Live file to disable GFWL for that game, the game would not crash. There are a number of other fixes too, not all of them work for everybody.

Now, I'm not entirely convinced that GFWL is causing these BSOD's. I say so because several times when I've loaded my system back to desktop after the BSOD and it gives me the 'This system recovered from a serious error' message, it has several times, upon exiting the message, come up with a Microsoft webpage that said something along the lines of ' while we were unable to determine the source of the error, it appears to be related to your audio software. Sometimes it just says unable to determine the source of the error. To support my theory that the error is not being caused by GFWL, I've also got the BSOD's several times playing Crysis: Warhead. It HAS NOT happened in Dawn of War, yet. The latest update for GFWL (v1.3?) doesn't fix this problem either - again, further supporting my theory. I will try other games like CoD4 and Bioshock to see if it occurs then as I haven't played those games in a long time.

I have Soundblaster X-Fi Fatality with the latest updates (IIRC, the latest [official] drivers was not Windows Certified). I did go back to the original Fatality drivers at one point, but I still got the BSOD's. It did specifically say 'software' rather than 'hardware' though. And the term 'audio' could mean anything really. Because I write music I have various 'audio softwares' on here for example.

I've tried various nVidia video drivers too. I have the latest updates and Dual Core Optimizer for my AMD processor, so I don't think it's a graphics/processor specific error. However, I've yet to install the latest nVidia drivers (v178.24(?)) and give them a try.

So guys, do you know what I'm looking at? Virus/anti-spyware scans didn't pick up anything before (the BSOD's have been happening for some time)

[WytchDokta]

Guys?

Just got another BSOD, while playing Left4Dead (demo). It did say my video drivers were not up to date before I played it, but I played it anyway. I'm going to install the v178.24 drivers and see what gives.

Creative Diagnostics detects no problems with any part of audio hardware/software.

The BSOD's only occur during gaming - I've never got a BSOD during video playback for example. And, I've alot never got the BSOD's at the game menus, it's only when I'm actually playing the respective game(s)

I get no graphical distortion whatsoever during gameplay, also, no problem with in-game sounds.

[WytchDokta]

Got a BSOD again during gaming, noticed this time that the BSOD is calling out a file named 'nv4_dis.dll'

I've googled this, these are legit files and can get corrupted by installing a newer or older update without properly unistalling all or your old drivers.

I'm going to use Driver Cleaner Pro to clean out all my grahpics cards drivers/files and re-install the drivers.

[Dannik]

I've had BSODs from audio driver revisions, so it's certainly entirely possible.

[Cpl Ledanek]

i checked the L4D thread here and no answer also

[WytchDokta]

Okay, just uninstalled latests nVidia drivers, restarted, ran Driver Cleaner Pro, installed new drivers, restarted. Played L4D. It went for a long time before giving me a BSOD, longer than all the times before. So much longer it was in fact that I thought I'd cured it.

Then BSOD again. This time NOT calling out 'nv4_disp.dll'. It wasn't calling out any file. I didn't start my rig in safe or remove the nVidia stuff from the recycle bin before re-installing the new drivers, but I did disable my anti-virus.

Maybe I should uninstall them again, restart in safe mode, run Driver Cleaner, delete stuff from recycle bin, re-install new drivers and try that. I'm not seeing any signs that the video card is on the way out - no random loss of display whether I'm gaming or not, etc.

Could it be my hardware acceleration is too high? (control panel --> display --> advanced --> troubleshoot --> [hardware acceleration section])

Just ran DXDiag, sound hardcware acceleration is set to the highest. Bells are ringing. I remember having a problem like this when I first got Splinter Cell. At the time I knocked the sound hardware accleration down one notch and had no more BSOD's. I'll try that in the morning. Need sleep right now.

The 'this system recovered from a serious error' box also lists the problematic hardware/software as '768_1' - I have a Gefore 8800 GTX 768MB. Could it be referring to this?

Dannik, how did you cure you audio driver BSOD's? Surely I'd notice audio playing up when I play mp3's or when I game if it was the audio drivers.

Edited November 15, 2008 by WytchDokta

[Dannik]

Dannik, how did you cure you audio driver BSOD's? Surely I'd notice audio playing up when I play mp3's or when I game if it was the audio drivers.

The problem I had was with a mix of official/beta Creative drivers, OpenAL, and some puzzle game demo. If I used the most current Creative drivers, OpenAL installed properly, and the demo worked, but all of my sound across the system had a nasty low level digital distortion, clearly unacceptable. So, I rolled back to the install CD's Creatives, and it worked, but I lost a lot of functionality with regards to the Creative tools. Also unacceptable.

So, I searched and found some no longer Creative hosted interim driver version, installed OpenAL again, and the demo would immediately BSOD on launch. Every time.

So after several of these reboots, I listened to some music, played a bit of AudioSurf, and wiped the puzzle game demo off my drive. Haven't had an issue since.

[WytchDokta]

So this could a be conflict of several drivers? I'm pretty sure those official Creative Drivers were not Windows certified (official download), so I wonder if that is the problem. Although, I seem to remember the BSOD's occuring before I updated sound drivers. One thing is though, Creative Media Player says some tracks are longer than they actually are ever since the update. On average tracks are apparently 2 minutes longer than they were before the update. When played through Windows Media Player, the length of the tracks is correct.

[WhiteKnight77]

Are you using Vista?

[WytchDokta]

No. I'm still using XP.

[Dannik]

For me, I rolled back the latest Creatives because they were both betas, and produced the weird digital fuzz. I had a heck of a time finding drivers between release and current, but I did, and it fixed my problem, though not with that one game.

[WytchDokta]

This is not limited to one game. This is happening on all of my games except (for some reason) Dawn of War.

Just got another BSOD. It said about nv4_disp.dll again. Sound hardward accleration was down one notch. Looks like I'll have to re-install the video drivers again. the nv4_disp.dll matches the version number of the drivers, so I don't see why it's a problem.

Edited November 15, 2008 by WytchDokta

[Dannik]

When I've been in that situation, I have found it's typically one of four things:

1. DirectX needs to be installed over itself

2. Buggy driver, some form of beta coming soon

3. Case either too dusty inside, or just in a poorly ventilated place, or the card is starting to fail

4. Underpants gnomes

It's usually 1 or 2, though checking for dust on 3 is a good idea too.

[WytchDokta]

Surely if it was the vid card on the way out, it would happen during applications and on the desktop/during video playback at random times too - but it doesn't.

The v178.24 nVidia drivers definitely NOT betas. I got them from the nVidia site. The BSOD's happened with the previous driver version, and the version before that, perhaps even the version before that too.

I think I may not have removed nv_disp.dll fully before, all file were moved to recycle bin by Driver Cleaner, they weren't fully deleted until I emptied the recycle bin - which was after installing the new drivers.

[Papa6]

[Dannik]

I'm not trying to worry you, but the reason I say that the card may be going out is because video and browsing barely warm most cards up. A very current game is going to leave blisters, though. I don't think it's a failing card, but it's just one of the possible suspects.

[Papa6]

But really I'd say it's an issue with drivers. I've read in many articles that 9/10 times it's a faulty driver. if it were his card over heating, I think his PC would reboot.

added due to my mental faculties worsening: perhaps rolling back to an older driver could help. just to test?

[NoQuarter]

More than likely totally unrelated but...

I had a hell of a time tracking down the source of a recurring problem anytime I loaded SketchUp 6P (not too taxing), the cursor/crosshair would immediately become erratic and within seconds the computer would BSOD; or ArmA (pretty taxing), where it went south 5 min or 45 min into a mission...no rhyme or reason.

After some very long system dumps NV_4 Disp.dll was always called out as the root of the problem. Uninstall/reinstall/roll backs/reg sweeps, etc., = no joy...the same old BSOD with these 2 apps- with a lean and mean XP Pro and the GPU well, well below the temp threshold.

As I was scratching my head and looking at the NVIDIA Control Panel in vane after the last BSOD I noticed that I had forgotten to switch back to Single display from Dualview after I had hooked up an additional monitor for testing. The 2nd monitor remained connected but powered off and un-noticed by me, but not these 2 programs -which took issue. Once the Display Settings were switched back- and that alone, Eureka! Clear sailing.

Long story short...Check any and all of your system settings for any recent changes, no matter how trivial, and hopefully yours will be as easy (and embarrassing ) as mine was to resolve.

Good luck!

[WytchDokta]

My plan is, uninstall v178.24 nVidia drivers. Run Driver Cleaner to get the remnants. Empty recycle bin. Re-install v178.24 drivers. If it still gives me BSOD's thereafter I'll do the same for the sound drivers, but I'll reinstall the original sound drivers that came with the card. If that fails, then I dunno.

Should I delete the nVidia Phys-X drivers too? I did not delete them last time and I still get BSOD's.

[WytchDokta]

Okay, I've completely wiped audio drivers and re-installed them. I've not tried any games yet but I have noticed that Creative MediaSource has returned my music track lengths to normal (when I upgraded to newer drivers before, it was saying that my tracks were on average 2 minutes longer than they were before the update )

And if I remember correctly, I updgraded sound drivers to the newer version on the same day I installed GFWL (Games For Windows Live) update v1.2 and a new GFWL enabled game. Other people at the time were getting GFWL related BSOD's so I assumed it to be that.... Until I started getting BSOD's in other games.

So, moment of truth now....

[WytchDokta]

No luck. First time round L4D didn't BSOD, instead it gave me a CTD claiming it had encountered a serious error. I loaded up the game again, and no sooner than I heard the helicopter coming (within a few seconds in-game) I get a BSOD. Again, the BSOD was not a nv4_disp.dll BSOD.

So I tried cleaning out all nVidia related graphics files - I delete nv4_disp.dll from sytem32 and as soon as I click out of the folder and go back into it, the file has magically re-appeared. Deleted it again, click out of the folder, click back to check if it's gone - still there. This was after uninstalling the v178.24 drivers, the driver number on nv4_disp.dll after the removal of those drivers was a completely different driver number, v105 something.

Somebody posted on a forum that cured their nv4_disp.dll infinite loop by changing 'fast writes' according to nVidia quality settings - he said with 'high quality' you need to force on fast writes; for 'quality' settings, force off fast writes. Haven't had chance to see if the fast writes thing will fix my BSOD's yet.

I changed my fast writes from auto to force off through RivaTuner (couldn't find it in the BIOS). Then, after I shutdown a restart, my display was stcuk on 640x480 and it said that no drivers were installed for my 8800 GTX. Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.... Another shutdown and restart later and my display comes up as normal, 1680x1050 - and my 8800 does have drivers according to RivaTuner. What the?

Edited November 16, 2008 by WytchDokta

[WytchDokta]

Okay, just cleaned out all nVidia files. Re-installed an older driver, v175.19. Tested it out again on L4D. It played through really juddery, alot of lag. Yet when using the v178.24 drivers, it plays smooth and there is no lag. This time I get a CTD. So I load it up agin to see what gives, played for a few minutes and BSOD again, calling out nv4_disp.dll once again.

Upon restart, I get the serious error message. I submit error report and get the following back: "This problem was caused by NVIDIA Graphics Driver, which was created by NVIDIA Corporation. There is no solution for this problem at this time."

Reformat time? GFX card on the way out? (bear in mind this ONLY happens when I'm gaming, I get no BSOD's or CTD's during video playback etc)

Edited November 16, 2008 by WytchDokta