[Writin_Reg]

Hi -
I was setting up a neighborhood in the Sims 2 and my graphics suddenly got strange, so I quit the game thinking my memory might be low and restarted the computer. I went back to the same neighborhood and everything looked fine. I worked in there setting community lots and neighborhood decorations for perhaps 10 or 15 minutes and all of a sudden my computer froze and I got the blue screen error.

I wrote down the following info:

Tech info*Stop: 0 x 0000008e (0xC0000005, 0xbfaf3975, 0xf385e62c, 0x00000000)

nv4_disp.dll

address BFAF3975 base at BF9D4000 datestamp 00000000



About three weeks ago I had a problem with my graphics after installing Family Fun and Glamour Life Sims stuff packs with the water in the swimming pools all turning red. I was told by EA techs that I needed to update my driver, but when I checked at nvidia it said I had the latest driver. I have a Nvidia Geforce 4 ti 4600 card. So I asked around and some people suggested that maybe my driver had gotten corrupted and try to reinstall it. I did and the game ran fine with no more red water.
Just last week I got the new Sims 2: Pets expansion, and all the graphics have been looking fine, until tonight. I had been in the build area of a new neighborhood for about an hour when half the buildings I had put in began to lose the coloring on just their lawns. It turned all white but the rest of the lot - like the buildings were fine and the neighborhood lawn itself was fine. As this was a vampire, werewolf neighborhood there were extensive size buildings, lots of castles and stone work, with a more or less heavy custom autumn type terrains - which made me think of low memory right off the bat. I only have a gig ( 2 - 512 matched sticks of ram), which is why I quit. I shut all the way down, waited a minuted then restarted up the computer. And like I said I was barely back to the neighborhood 10 or 15 minutes when I got the blue screen.

Another simmer suggested it might have been a microsoft problem, but I went to microsoft and they said they addressed that problem and fixed it with sp2. I'm running sp2 and have all the latest updates except for the new explorer.

Any suggestions as to what my problem is?
Thanks in advance - Writin_Reg

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Re-install the video drivers if you haven't already

Have you got anything which cleans the registry

[Retired Tech]

Re-install the video drivers if you haven't already

Have you got anything which cleans the registry

[Writin_Reg]

nope I haven't a registry cleaner. I reinstalled the drivers after the last incident three weeks ago, but I haven't since then.

[Retired Tech]

Worth doing again, just wondered why they keep disappearing on you

[Writin_Reg]

Yeah, me too. I keep thinking something has to be corrupting them. I keep everything updated, keep my temps cleaned daily, and run spy doctor, adaware, and a virus scan weekly. The sims games are highly aggressive as far as graphics go and a memory hog, but I've never heard of a game corrupting drivers. Other than use my computer for my writing, I hardly do more than the Sims2.

[Kurenai]

There are three main causes for the nv_disp.dll error.

1. Drivers. Download Driver Cleaner PE from www.drivercleaner.net (free version). Install Driver Cleaner, uninstall the nvidia drivers, and restart. As the computer comes back up, press F8 to boot to Safe Mode. In safe mode, run driver cleaner for nVidia (not nForce), as well as any other graphics cards you may have had installed (such as ATI). Reboot, and let the computer boot normally. Get the latest drivers from www.nvidia.com, (released this past thursday) and install those.

2. Power. You didn't list what type of card you have, but make sure that your power supply is good enough to run the card. If you have a mid to high end card, and your computer came with a power supply, it's likely not good enough. Once you're sure that you have the minimum specs, grab Everest free edition (http://www.majorgeek...wnload4181.html), go to the Sensor area, and check the listings there for 12v, 5v, and 3.3v. If they're off by 5% or more, your power supply is defective.

3. A bad card. It happens, on occasion. No way to determine this for sure besides process of elimination.

[Writin_Reg]

I have a 400 watt power supply, and my card is a Nvidia Geforce 4ti 4600 with 128 ram. I had this card when I had my other machine for about 8 months, and when I got this one it had a card in it that was incapatiable with the Sims at the time, so my husband put that card in his computer and put this one in mine. I've been running this one without so much as a hiccup for two years now, but as each Sims 2 ep comes out it get more memory and graphic intensive. The thing is it does seem to work great with the Sims, but the blue screen worries me a bit.

I could probably stand an entirely new system, but with a new house and only my hubby working regularly, it's totally out of the question; as my system is an AMD Athlon xp 2500+ VIA Technologies model kt333cf-8235 and my motherboard is a K7vta3. I have a midtower clear case and run 4 cooling devices with one on the video card and one on the processor. My power supply was the top of the line in the 400 watt group.

[Kurenai]

You might try also grabbing the 4-in-1 drivers listed here:
http://www.viaarena....I...&CatID=1070
Assuming Windows XP. Certainly run through the other steps listed above as well.

[Fenor]

If everything looks fine for 10-15 minutes I would have to disagree that it is a driver issue and more likely a heat issue. I would bet that your video card is overheating. Please do the following immediately AFTER you exit the game because of screwy graphical glitches:

Download Speedfan, using the link in my signature (The download link is in the first line of the second paragraph), and install it. Once it's installed, run the program and post here the temperatures it shows. An attached screenshot would be the best.

Fenor

[Kurenai]

I'm not even sure that the 4600 had an onboard temp sensor. If they do, then the nvidia driver will report it. I guess it could be heat, but overheating generally causes artifacts and hard locks, not restarting or Windows blue screens.

[Writin_Reg]

Hi again -

Well I updated the Nvidia cards with the update that just came out a couple of days ago. I did not get the 4 in 1 drivers or the fan testing thing on my machine although I downloaded both, but my husband said I was better off with the actual new update for the card and the fan testing thing wouldn't do me any good because of a lack of sensors on this particular set up.

But what he did was use a can of air and cleaned any accumalated dust out of the fans, etc. There wasn't much though as I have cats so I keep my system cover on properly all the time.There was a little accumalation on two of the fans though, so he cleaned them out well.

Finally I went into the game around 8 tonight, and went back to the neighborhood I was building. I hardly put in the third castle and the game froze briefly, went to a blue screen but without any words for a few seconds, then blinked and went back in the neighborhood. I quit the game correctly anyway. Rebooted, and shut off all the back ground tasks and went back into the game. Instead of going to that neighborhood I thought I'd experiment with a different one, which had just ordinary houses and regular people like sims.
If you don't know sims, the best I can explain to you is a family of Vampires in castles like I have the file size for each one can run as high as 750mb each, while a family of ordinary human sims in a normal house even if there are twice the number of sims in the family rarely runs over 123 mb.

That said, I just shut down the game at 4am playing the human neighborhood, and not once did the computer even blink, although it did briefly get a bit laggy when I sent my sims downtown for the fifth time to a sims nightclub, but once I was there everything was fine, and continued to be fine back in the neighborhood. So my deduction suggests to me it's neither heat or or the graphic card itself, but a memory problem. I'm running 1 gig. In order to upgrade I'd have to put in 2 - 1 gig sticks as I only have 2 slots. My husband thinks if I upgrade my video card instead I won't need more memory until he can upgrade my motherboard.

What do you all think?

[Retired Tech]

Is virtual memory set to system managed

Click start, right click my computer, click properties, advanced, settings for performance, advanced, change for virtual memory?

[Writin_Reg]

Yes

[Retired Tech]

Then it's a decision between the cost of 2 1GB sticks plus the cost of throwing 2 512MB sticks away, and replacing the motherboard, against upgrading the video card

You may want to post in the games forum to ask which set up would be best for the games you play now and are likely to play in the future

http://www.geekstogo.../Games-f19.html

[Writin_Reg]

Ok I will do that. Thank you very much.