Latest 2 nVidia driver updates

[Gman]

Anyone having problems with Aces High and these?

Since the last 2 updates, I've had at least 20 crashes in game.  Always happens while airborne in a fight, the game slows rapidly in about 2 seconds, the locks on the scene for about 2 seconds, goes black but I can still here in game sounds happening, the crashes, and I'm in the tower.  A few seconds after that, I'm in Windows, with a square error message saying nVidia drivers have failed, and an "ok" button in that.

I've tried messing with all my settings, turning stuff on and off, I have a Gsync capable monitor, turned that off as well and tried various other Vsync options - no effect, it still happens unpredictably.  I've also tried uninstalling and reinstalling the video drivers twice, no effect so far.  At least 2/3s of my deaths and all the perk I've lost while in 262 are because of this.

I won't bother posting Directx stuff, I can always email that in, but I just wanted to see if others have had this problem, or seen it in the past as described, and see if I'm missing something obvious.  eVGA 980 w/ROG Swift lcd.

Should I try some much older drivers, say from a couple months ago and see if that works?  I just don't want to lose my 144hz capability, and many of the older drivers capped it at 100hz, making the monitor sort of pointless.

[Gman]

Just did the same thing again, same exact sort of lock up to black screen but with audio still on, but crashed me to tower for about 3 seconds saying UDP lost, then boom, desktop again.

[Skuzzy]

Did you install the NVidia sound drivers?  They can cause stability issues. 

Odd thing about what you describe is it is reminiscent of the video card not getting enough power.  Overheating also manifests in that manner too.  I only mention them from a historical perspective.

[Gman]

Ok, thanks for those tips Skuzzy, never knew about any of those.  I backed off to the last drivers I recall not having any trouble, and I'll see if that fixes it.  Regarding heat, I have both the CPU and GPU very, very mildly overclocked, the 980 is at 1440, quite low compared to most, and the CPU likewise is under a pretty mild o/c considering the cooling that's on it, and based on what others do and have done with the same chip.  I've had that o/c running stable for over a year on the CPU, while the 980s are new, but aren't exhibiting problems doing a shutdown due to heat in other games (yet, knock on wood).  I'm not running SLI, and pulled one 980 and put it in another system, just a single now.  Regarding power, 850 PSU/Corsair is what is in the system, 2 hard drives, not much else.  I think it's working ok based on monitoring programs I've tried, but if not, I have no idea how to run that problem down if it's indeed the cause.

I'll try the old drivers for a bit first, if that doesn't work, I'll kill the overclocks and see if that does it.

I did install the sound drivers, I'll reinstall the drivers again minus those, I just let nVidia do an express instal, so I'll get rid of those as well.

First time in 15 years I've had any issues with crashes/locks in AH, I guess I was due, as I'd replaced a lot of hardware and moved stuff about recently.  I did driver sweep the system before moving back to the older drivers.  I suspect it's a new driver issue, but if it is heat, I'm not sure how I can run that down.

[Bizman]

I did install the sound drivers, I'll reinstall the drivers again minus those, I just let nVidia do an express install, so I'll get rid of those as well.

If I'm correct here, don't do express installs anywhere. That usually means "Full Install" with every bell and whistle. The "express" only means "one click" or "no brains". There might be an exception of that rule I'm not aware of, but I doubt. Always do a "custom" install to see what gets installed. Sometimes you may find that the default is just fine, most often you'd like to cut something off.

[Ack-Ack]

Ok, thanks for those tips Skuzzy, never knew about any of those.  I backed off to the last drivers I recall not having any trouble, and I'll see if that fixes it.  Regarding heat, I have both the CPU and GPU very, very mildly overclocked, the 980 is at 1440, quite low compared to most, and the CPU likewise is under a pretty mild o/c considering the cooling that's on it, and based on what others do and have done with the same chip.  I've had that o/c running stable for over a year on the CPU, while the 980s are new, but aren't exhibiting problems doing a shutdown due to heat in other games (yet, knock on wood).  I'm not running SLI, and pulled one 980 and put it in another system, just a single now.  Regarding power, 850 PSU/Corsair is what is in the system, 2 hard drives, not much else.  I think it's working ok based on monitoring programs I've tried, but if not, I have no idea how to run that problem down if it's indeed the cause.

I'll try the old drivers for a bit first, if that doesn't work, I'll kill the overclocks and see if that does it.

I did install the sound drivers, I'll reinstall the drivers again minus those, I just let nVidia do an express instal, so I'll get rid of those as well.

First time in 15 years I've had any issues with crashes/locks in AH, I guess I was due, as I'd replaced a lot of hardware and moved stuff about recently.  I did driver sweep the system before moving back to the older drivers.  I suspect it's a new driver issue, but if it is heat, I'm not sure how I can run that down.

As Bizman mentioned, don't to the Express Install, always do the Custom Install for Nvidia drivers.  This way you can uncheck the installation of the Nvidia HD sound drivers as well as the Nvidia 3D drivers (if you don't have 3D or plan on not using 3D). 

[Gman]

I usually don't, I just had misclicked the install on the latest drivers, I usually have never installed the 3d stuff, but I had installed the audio before, having often plugged the cards into my home theater or other TV's, I understood that they were required for sound through the HDMI cable to the TV.  Like I said I had just let nvidia do an express install on the last update. 

I did everything above I said I would try, reinstalled vid drivers, didn't install sound this time (or 3d as usual), cancelled my overclocks on both CPU and GPU, removed the eVGA precision vid card tweak program.  I even moved AH back to my spinner drive, as I had recently put it back on an SSD just to see how it worked.

Now in AH I'm getting these flashes of other programs or perhaps the desktop, it's almost impossible to perceive, but it's happening, in like less than a eyeblink, stuff pops into the terrain/screen being drawn by AH in game.  Again, I have various monitoring programs running, CPU and GPU temps are way, way below normal, as I have umpteen fans and closed liquid on the CPU, I'm certain it isn't a heat issue, I played for an hour, and checked the logs for hardware resource monitor, and nothing is at all hot, just the reverse.  I'm getting 143 fps pegged almost the entire time, no performance drops at all, and I haven't had the original blackout/crash problem happen again yet, but now I'm having that flashing of odd stuff happening.  It's doing this despite many changes I've tried in nVidia settings, Gsync on and off, Vsync on and off - it does it regardless of what I've tried fiddling with.

Maybe I got a bad card.  The missus is going to yelling later today when she gets a surprise when I steal hers and swap mine into her system - haha.  AH is far up the totem poll from stupid WoW and whatever she's playing right now.


Anyone think this could be TrackIR related?  Nothing has changed, at all, on that end for me, I've not changed or touched that program or settings in months, so I doubt it, but just trying to rule everything out before I start getting drastic.

[Traveler]

Anyone having problems with Aces High and these?

Since the last 2 updates, I've had at least 20 crashes in game.  Always happens while airborne in a fight, the game slows rapidly in about 2 seconds, the locks on the scene for about 2 seconds, goes black but I can still here in game sounds happening, the crashes, and I'm in the tower.  A few seconds after that, I'm in Windows, with a square error message saying nVidia drivers have failed, and an "ok" button in that.

I've tried messing with all my settings, turning stuff on and off, I have a Gsync capable monitor, turned that off as well and tried various other Vsync options - no effect, it still happens unpredictably.  I've also tried uninstalling and reinstalling the video drivers twice, no effect so far.  At least 2/3s of my deaths and all the perk I've lost while in 262 are because of this.

I won't bother posting Directx stuff, I can always email that in, but I just wanted to see if others have had this problem, or seen it in the past as described, and see if I'm missing something obvious.  eVGA 980 w/ROG Swift lcd.

Should I try some much older drivers, say from a couple months ago and see if that works?  I just don't want to lose my 144hz capability, and many of the older drivers capped it at 100hz, making the monitor sort of pointless.

I have all the latest video drivers and use the nVidia Experience to keep the drivers up to date with no issues, run like a charm.