City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Vista SP2 + Nvidia 195 = black screen hard lock

Flameshot

By Flameshot,
Posted on: 2010-01-17 15:24 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs

 

Posted

Well, here we are after crashing repeatedly with the old black screen video issue again....last time this happened upgrading the Nvidia drivers did the trick, not so much this time.....

Updated to 195 package from 180something - still crashing
Updated Vista to SP2 and pulled any outstanding patches/hotfixes - still crashing, lost audio
Updated Realtek drivers - Got sound back, still crashing

So, here's CoH Helper output, any suggestions would be appreciated, didn't want to go messing with the registry when the driver set referenced in the stick was 190 in case something changed.

---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.1.1.8---

DxDiag gathered at January 17, 2010 17:16 (-05:00)
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.vistasp2_gdr.090803-2339)
System Manufacturer: HP-Pavilion
System Model: GN705AA-ABA a6238x
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Central Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E4500 @ 2.20GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.2GHz
Memory: 3582MB
.Net Memory Report: 2320MB out of 3581MB available
Page File: 6002MB (1389MB currently in use)
C Drive: (WDC WD4000AAJS-65TKA0) 155484MB out of 372405MB (41%) free
D Drive: (WDC WD4000AAJS-65TKA0) 1243MB out of 9146MB (13%) free
Z Drive: (Iomega eGo USB/FW400 Portable HDD IEEE 1394 SBP2 Device) 204202MB out of 238472MB (85%) free
E Drive: (HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GSA-H60L) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\Windows
DirectX: DirectX 10
DirectX Diag version: 6.00.6001.18000 (32-bit version)

Display Notes: No problems found.

No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.

No problems found.

No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT
Manufacturer / Chip: NVIDIA / GeForce 9600 GT
Video Memory: 2031 MB
Driver Version: 8.17.0011.9562
Driver Date: 11/20/2009 9:34:54 PM
Driver Language: English

Monitor: HP w1907 Wide LCD Monitor
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT
Manufacturer / Chip: NVIDIA / GeForce 9600 GT
Video Memory: 2031 MB
Driver Version: 8.17.0011.9562
Driver Date: 11/20/2009 9:34:54 PM
Driver Language: English

Sound Device Description: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Driver File: RTKVHDA.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5789
Driver Date: 2/11/2009 12:38:14 PM

Sound Device Description: Speakers (2- USB Audio CODEC )
Driver File: USBAUDIO.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.6002.18005
Driver Date: 4/10/2009 11:42:54 PM

Sound Device Description: Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Driver File: RTKVHDA.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5789
Driver Date: 2/11/2009 12:38:14 PM


WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: ASUSTek Computer INC.
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: Leonite2
Motherboard Version: 6.00
BIOS Manufacturer: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
BIOS Name: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
BIOS Version: HPQOEM - 42302e31
BIOS Release: 20070727000000.000000+000

Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1440x880
3D Resolution: 1440x880 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: No
Maximized: Yes
Screen Position: 921, 76
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: Yes

Physics Quality: Medium
Maximum Particles: 50000
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No

Anti-aliasing: 4x
Anisotropic Filtering: 4x
Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
Water Effects: High Quality
Bloom: 1.000 (turned on)
Depth of Field Enabled: Yes
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: Yes
Shader Detail: High

World Texture Level: Very High
Character Texture Level: Very High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 1.000
Entity Detail Level: 1.000
Shadows Enabled: Yes
Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of Extra Player FX Enabled: No
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: No
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes

Audio Mode: Compatiblity
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 0.000
Music Sound Volume: 0.000

Show Advanced Graphics Options: No
Overall Graphics Quality: 0.600
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 245002 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 1600.20091102.9T4
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files\City of Heroes

Mod files in the Data directory
. has 1 file
.\texture_library\MAPS\city has 1 file
.\texture_library\MAPS\Safeguard has 9 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\sewers has 44 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\static has 33 files
.\texture_library\V_MAPS\Outdoor_Missions has 9 files
.\texture_library\V_MAPS\Static has 16 files

 

Posted

Do you have all of the available updates for Windows? There were some hotfixes as well that came down the pipe a long time ago. If that doesn't solve it, you can try this thread.

Personally, I would recommend uninstalling the nVidia drivers after you've run Windows Update and clean out any nVidia files with something like DriverCleaner and then reinstall the video drivers from scratch. This issue was fixed a long time ago. It generally only happens with out of date drivers/updates now (Not always the case, but nearly.).



We'll see....

 

Posted

I was running into this same issue with my nVidia card, so I replaced it with an ATI card. The crashing has completely stopped, but CoH is unplayable with the new card. All my other games work great, but CoH strobes and then pixelates.

I never could find a solution to the random crashing with my nVidia card. I did read if you do a reinstall of Vista and never do any updates the problem will go away. I just wasn't willing to go that route myself.