The Big RACE Freeze Thread

[Marcel Hulsbergen]

I saw a lot of guys which have big issues with freezing pc's during a race, please let me do some investigation and check this poll.

 

[Attila Domján]

hm, maybe it will not be needed, 3 out of 3 shutdown went normally now. Maybe that BIOS setting, the enabled SLi Broadcast Aperture was the issue. I hope.

 

[Steve Emmons]

These problems can be tough to figure out, but my experience is that the most common reason is drivers. Possibly corrupted or missing. H/W is possible, but seems unlikely since you isolated the initial problem to the video card. Since it started with a graphics card issue it's most likely to be a graphics driver, though not a given. During one of the lockups some other driver could have been corrupted, but I would start with something graphics related.

I would try this as a start:

1. Boot your system in safe mode and then do a shutdown to see if it happens here. Try this several times if it doesn't crash.
2. Hopefully, it doesn't. And if it doesn't then I would try removing your video drivers. You may need to remove one of the video cards.
3. Now, try booting into regular Windows mode with the default Windows drivers and then shutting down. See if it shuts down normally and test several time for stability.
4. If all is well then re-install your video drivers. Possibly in single card mode. Test shutdown, add second card, drivers, etc.

Good luck...

 

[Attila Domján]

Ok, seems i am closer to locate the problem.

I tried to uninstall the video drivers, until the very end of the uninstallation everything went well, just before it asked to restart the pc i got 3 identical windows failure messages at the same time with the following text:

Failure in the following file: NVCPL.DLL
Missing registry: NvCplRestorePresistence

I clicked them ok, restarted the PC, right at the start up Windows asked that finishing of the Video card driver installation is needed, i clicked ignore, i thought it just wants to install the video card, but when i checked the the Nvidia drivers were still present.

I started to install again without removal, during installation the PC freezed.

I restarted again, Windows start up it again asked to finish the installation of the video card driver, i clicked ok, then it started a background installation stg, few sec later it sayed driver is installed succesfully.

I can just hope it is ok now... ideas?

 

[Oliver Amos]

That dll file is to do with the nvidia drivers so I presume they have gone bad.


If the problems persist:

1)Download driver cleaner pro and install it.
2)Uninstall the nvidia display drivers in add/remove programs
3)Restart and press the 'F8' key during boot.
4)A menu should come up. Select "Safe Mode"
5)Once in safe mode run driver cleaner pro and select the "Nvidia" filter.
6)Normally it will not fully delete everything in Vista but it should delete some files (you may have to close the program during the cleaning process).
7)Then restart back into normal windows and install the nvidia drivers.

 

[Marcel Hulsbergen]

Atti, you can try to download the newest driver sweeper, just came out this week and follow the instructions on the guru3d site.
Guru3D - Driver Sweeper

After that, download the latest Videodriver, today this official version came out, here is the link:
GeForce Release 177

After download the newest NFoce drivers, i think you own a 680i, here is the link, these came also out this week
nForce Driver

Be aware that the links i posted are 64bit drivers only, if you use 32bit search for the 32 bit versions on the Nvidia site.

I hope this will solve all.

 

[Karl Westman]

After that, download the latest Videodriver, today this official version came out, here is the link:
GeForce Release 177

I wouldn't install that driver as it only supports the new 200-series nVidia cards...
:thumb:
Kind regards,
Karl

 

[Marcel Hulsbergen]

Use this modded inf file and it works for all cards, it's a very very good driver for my 8800.

MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

 

[Attila Domján]

ola, thanks for all the links.

First i think i will try to uninstall again the video driver to see if i can do it, since at the first trial it was impossible.

btu maybe i can do it only next week, tomorrow i go home, and today i need to start to pack my stuff as a preparation to leave finally soon...

Thanks again buddies, really appreciated!

 

[Attila Domján]

Ok, definetely i will need to go deeper into this vidcard question, problem is not fixed, yesterday night last switch off was again with the same error message, so i will do those reg cleaner thingies to get rid of the driver, and try to install again, maybe the new one.

btw, anybody knows that those missing reg entries which i recieved when trying to uninstall the video driver:
Failure in the following file: NVCPL.DLL
Missing registry: NvCplRestorePresistence

what they are for, in other words is this error message what i am getting is a dangerous one, or stg i can live together with (however annoying) for years without any issue and performance problem to my PC?

 

[Steve Emmons]

It sounds like it might have something to do with the nvidia control panel. If that's the case it's probably not "real serious", though I always like to clean things up.

The reg cleaner and driver unininstall sound like good next steps to me. You may also want to run the reg cleaner after you uninstall the video drivers.

I've seen situations in Windows where it gets out of sync with what the bios is seeing, e.g. add-in cards. It can create subtle anomolies in memory mappings, irq addresses, etc. This shouldn't happen, but I've seen it occur where Windows is shutdown with one h/w configuration and restarted with another. For instance, Windows is shutdown without uninstalling a video card, the video card is replaced in the same slot, Windows is then restarted and can't quite get it sorted out. Seen this for mobo swaps as well, etc. It's possible that your situation may qualify because the pc crashed after the card failed...

If the reg cleanup and driver uninstall/reinstall don't take care of it there are a couple more things we can try....

 

[Attila Domján]

Okido, over the weekend i decided to get rid of the remaining one 8800 Ultra, so i am going to pick up a 9800 GX2 on Monday.

I will need to run the driver cleaner before install for sure, since with normal uninstall it did not work to remove the current corrupted driver.

Any other recommendation for installing the new vid card?

 

[Jacco Cornelissen]

Wait,Wait what about the GTX 280 the new high end card from Nvidia.
That card is really astonishing

 

[Attila Domján]

too late, i already have it... but i have a huge issue it seems.

So, uninstalled drivers, with driver sweeper also, after succesfully installed back the again with the old 8800 card, everything is working it seems.

Then uninstalled driver, put in the new card, and no any picture... tried also with installed Nvidia driver, but also no picture... nothing...

Power cable connected correctly (1*4 pin new type, never saw before, had to use the given adapter to connect 2*3 pin to it, plus additional 1*3 pin, all as instructed), also card is lighting ok at PC start up, but no signal to the monitor from none of the 2 DVI connector from the card....

There is also 1 additional small cable to it, like if it would be a fan power cable or so, but different one, has only 2 cables, this i could not figure out where to plug into the motherboard, can it be the issue...?

I have no clue how to progress, other then tomorrow gonna call the shop....

 

[Jacco Cornelissen]

That's really strange .
Once i had a card problem i had weird lines on my screen but never the problem that i shaw nothing.
I think it's a cable problem.
Call the shop tomorrow ! sorry i can't help you

 

[Marcel Hulsbergen]

Atti here you have some extra useful info.

There has been a problem lately with the 9800-GX2's required 8-pin power connector. Nvidia has a compatability list at:

www.nvidia.com/object/ge..._pwr_supply.html

The GeForce 9800 GX2 does require an 8-pin and 6-pin power connector to operate. If you do not have an 8-pin connector from your power supply you will need to use a 6-pin to 8-pin conversion cable.

Nvidia claims the problem is that some PSUs don't comply with the PCIe spec.

The 2 pin port you mean on the left of the six-pin power plug is an audio S/PDIF input, needed to feed audio to the GX2's HDMI output port.

The GX2 uses Idle arround 185 Watt and loaded arround 350 Watt, the Geforce 8800 Ultra SLI more then 500 Watt loaded and 300 Watt idle.

Keep the GPU arround 85 degrees loaded.

Use this new driver, it came out today and it's official.
http://forum.racedepartment.com/videocards/4857-new-nvidia-official-forceware-175-19-a.html

 

[Attila Domján]

I used the convertor from 2*6 pin to 8 pin as u said, it was given with the card, and i have a 1100 W PSU....

The driver i still can not remove normally, just in safe mode with the driver sweeper you linked, still i have the same NVCPL.DLL error message at the end of normal uninstall.

Also after i removed the driver with the sweeper, at PC start up i recieve 2 error messages, this NVCPL.DLL and another NVCMTray.DLL (or stg very similar, starts with N and Tray.DLL the end for sure, vcm i am just 80% sure), system says this 2 files could not be located and could not be loaded.

 

[Jim Hawley]

Ive had freezing issues, but only at Magny Cours into last chicaine and over start line, I have an ATI card, HD 2600 XT, not nearly fast enough for this game but it works fine everywhere else(tho with somewhat reduced res, but it works!)

Mr B


Presto GP F3000 "Doing Ok"

 

[Marcel Hulsbergen]

Aaah the first ATI freeze, maybe you can do a small test for me, set all graphics on low and try to freeze, after that settings on as high as possible to drive and do the same test.

Thanks!!

 

[Gary Lennon]

I am like Simon on this one,i enjoy more or less problem free running of Race07,and really always have,right through all that fuss with patch issues etc. a few months back,im not saying i have never had any crashes at all,but the ones ive had have been few and very far bewtween,something i have ended with since a few weeks back is every time i exit Race07,i have a "minidump" message waiting at desktop for me,still no problems in game,just an error every single time i quit,ive always suspected something with the RD league pack,it was around the time i added that it began,but ive heard of no other reports of it.

Win XP-SP3
Asus P5N32 SLi
Gforce 8800GTX
E6600 conroe
2Gb OCZ PC28500

 

[Michael Herrmann]

in the beginning i got a lot of problems with race07 but since the last patch chrashes
seems to be fixed for me
ok now and then i have a crash with bluescreen and auto pc reboot
but this error comes from my soundcard and i cant do much on it since SB
dont support my old SB Live! 5.1 platinum anylonger
gtr2 runs fine too only game i have realy big big trubble with is rfactor it keeps crashing over and over ofc only if i be in car if i idle at the menue it can run the whole day with out any problems

specs:
-Win XP-SP3
-Motherboard Name MSI K7N2 Delta2 (MS-6570E)
-Ram 2x 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM
-CPU Typ AMD Athlon XP, 1900 MHz (11.5 x 165) 2500+ (temp 56°)
-GFX Board NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS (256 mb)
-Sound Board Creative SB Live! 5.1 Sound Card PCI