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  #1  
Old 01-20-2006, 03:11
Kerlingen
 
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SoftICE crashes with NVIDIA 81.x/82.x drivers

As some of you know, 3DMark06 was released yesterday. Since I wanted to get the best possible score my PC can get, I downloaded and installed the latest NVIDIA drivers and run the benchmark.

Today I tried to run SoftICE, but as soon as I started it, my computer locked up. I first guessed that some copy protection was using a new trick, but I soon figured out that the new NVIDIA drivers are the problem.

No matter if I selected "manual", "automatic" or "system" for SoftICE startup, my PC always became locked. When I selected "boot" as start method, SoftICE started like normal, but as soon as I tried to open the SoftICE window in Windows, my PC was frozen again.

Then I downloaded all recent drivers I could get from NVIDIA, namely:
71.84 BETA
77.72 WHQL
77.77 WHQL
78.01 WHQL
81.85 WHQL
81.94 BETA
81.95 WHQL
81.98 WHQL
82.12 BETA

I installed each version and found out that with all "ForceWare" drivers (81.x and 82.x) made SoftICE lock the computer as soon as the SoftICE window should show up. The older drivers worked all without problems.

The main difference I noticed between the old and the new drivers is that you don't need to reboot your PC any more in order to enable or disable the "SLI" feature.

I did some tests and it turned out that if you turn "SLI" either on or off before starting SoftICE, SoftICE will load without any problems.

Does anybody have the same problem or even knows how to fix it?

(I guess the problem is SLI specific, so please don't post a "works fine for me" if you don't have a "NVIDIA nForce4 SLI" chipset with two graphic cards running in SLI mode)

Edit:
I'm running Windows XP and I already did a clean installation with nothing else than WinXP, chipset, network and video drivers installed. So the problem is not related to any old registry entries or any copy protection.

Last edited by Kerlingen; 01-20-2006 at 03:14.
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  #2  
Old 01-20-2006, 04:51
Human
 
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well that list isnt correct, depends what card do you have, and what target, for example new drivers crash softice, but also on older cards end in infinite loop and all we can get is BSOD and irq_lower_equal. for example second sight game protected with starforce stoped to end in inf loop in drivers only on 67.02 drivers as newest on my gf4ti4200. softice is buggy like hell yet, i wrote about BSOD for 5x.xx drivers when i was trying it on Brothers in Arms as soon as you try ctrl+D inside game BSOD and irq_lower occurs, when you do alt+enter to switch game into windowed mode it will never happen, but compuware doesnt care. so you have to use older drivers if you wanna use softice or if you are reged consumer you can push them to fix it. also dont look only at aspect of buggy drivers, because softice never crashed on new for me at boot only in fullscreen, so try also mobo drivers, check you psu if it gives stable power, or you memory gives errors, even dust on them can cause trobles. if nothing helps compuware is only way to fix it
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  #3  
Old 01-20-2006, 05:59
Kerlingen
 
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No, the "traget" is no problem for me, since SoftICE freezes as soon as it would normally show its window. This means when I start SoftICE, it normally pops up for something like 0.3 seconds to execute the "INIT" commands and return to Windows. But my computer simply freezes (no BSOD or similar) when I start it.

And if I'm running a SLI configuration than it's unlikely that I have a GeForce4 Ti 4200, right?
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  #4  
Old 01-20-2006, 06:31
Human
 
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well answer is simple you patched kernel and now softice doesnt know where to hook. you need new osinfo files to work with latest patches. use those 2 i downloaded them yesterday, 08/13/05 and 10/20/05 latest fixes, put inside windows dir \system32\drivers. if doesnt help then i dont know, maybe there is some bug in softice or its not yet sli compatible, need to wait till ds 3.3 comes out
Attached Files
File Type: rar OSINFO.rar (27.0 KB, 14 views)

Last edited by Human; 01-20-2006 at 06:34.
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  #5  
Old 01-20-2006, 06:49
Kerlingen
 
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No, I didn't patch my Windows kernel. I have the latest OSINFO.DAT and SoftICE work with SLI with the old drivers without any problem. But with the new drivers it simply freezes my PC if I don't enable or disable SLI just before starting SoftICE.

The problem even happens, like I already wrote, with a "clean installation with nothing else than WinXP, chipset, network and video drivers installed".

It's quite clear to me that the problem has only to do with the new video drivers. (since it is the only thing which changed since yesterday)

I repartioned one of my HDDs today, created a 20 GB primary partition and did a fresh WinXP install so that I can fully test every possible reason for the problem. And the NVIDIA drivers are the one thing which I need to change to get - depending on the driver version - either a frozen PC or no problems at all.
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  #6  
Old 01-20-2006, 08:05
Human
 
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so use for now old drivers and inform about it nvidia, with old drivers you will just loose support for pixel shader 3.0 if they are too old, and fixes for some games, i use older because they are faster for me and doesnt end in infinite loop like all never with second sight or other games
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  #7  
Old 01-23-2006, 00:16
MarkusO
 
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I have a nForce4 SLI chipset motherboard here, but only one graphic card. (7800GT GPU)

I will try the new nVidia drivers as soon as the download finishes and report the result here. (old drivers 77.72 don't give me any problems)

Edit:
I tried the 81.98 and 82.12 drivers but I don't have any problems with them.

Last edited by MarkusO; 01-23-2006 at 15:17.
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  #8  
Old 01-25-2006, 00:08
randall flagg
 
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Tried on Asus A8N Premium NF4 ultra with sli (2x 66gt) and latest 81.98 drivers, all works like a charm...

Is ur mb a Foxcomm?
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  #9  
Old 01-25-2006, 05:35
Kerlingen
 
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No, it's no "Foxcomm". It is a "Gigabyte" motherboad. (namely the "GA-K8NXP-SLI")

I also reported this problem to NVIDIA and the status of my support ticket is now "under investigation" (after I replied to one automated and one general reply from the support).
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  #10  
Old 02-06-2006, 22:25
Kerlingen
 
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I checked my support ticket again and it's status is "solved" now. However, there are no new retail or beta driver available and nobody wrote me about how or even that it was "solved". I hope the next driver version will include the fix.
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  #11  
Old 02-07-2006, 00:40
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1. Update BIOS of both VGA and Motherboard
2. Download the Tweaked Driver for Nvidia From -> www.ngohq.com

By The BIOS Upgrade it may work!
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  #12  
Old 02-07-2006, 04:30
Kerlingen
 
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Nothing against you, Unforgiv3N, but I don't care about some script kiddies who bundle official NVIDIA drivers with some third party tweaking tools and sell them as "optimized drivers".

I uninstalled my current drivers and installed the NGO ones. Just as I guessed, the NGO "drivers" where just the official NVIDIA drivers. And, of course, same NVIDIA drivers = same problem with SoftICE locking my PC up.

I always try to use WHQL certified drivers, since I don't care to get 0.18 FPS more by installing some beta drivers.

My motherboard and video BIOS is up to date.
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  #13  
Old 02-08-2006, 02:19
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you can also Restore your BIOS to Optimized Default and Check for Disable the System BIOS Cashable. also

anyway you can install Softice on Micro$oft Virtual PC also , it will work. 100%
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  #14  
Old 02-08-2006, 22:12
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You have a good chance man!
New WHQL Driver Released Today!

32Bit
Quote:
http://download.nvidia.com/Windows/81.98/81.98_forceware_winxp2k_english_whql.exe
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  #15  
Old 02-09-2006, 06:58
Kerlingen
 
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The WHQL drivers 81.98 where released on Dec, 22th 2005. I already tested them and they have the same problems as all 81.x and 82.x drivers.

I don't know why the NVIDIA homepage now tells me that 81.98 was released on Feb 7th 2006, but as you can see in my initial post, I already had verified them before posting here.
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