BSOD related to Oblivion
 

Just as the title says, I'm getting a BSOD in Oblivion. It takes anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or two, but it happens. It's always a DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL 0x000000D1 error involving videoprt.sys.

My CPU (4400+ X2) is overclocked currently to 225FSB with VCore at 1.375V. I had no problems with the FSB at 223. My PCIE clock is still at 100, so I don't think that's the problem. I haven't stressed the CPU at 225 yet, but I've gone above that before with this CPU (trying to do it with lower voltages), but I was able to run Aquamark and 3DMark06 with no problem.

My video card is an Nvidia 7800GTX with the 84.21 (latest) drivers. I have the 64kb memory dumps if they're needed, although I can't really figure out how to read them.

I'm headed to bed now (it's 3AM), but I'll be checking this thread tomorrow morning, so don't hesistate to ask questions or try to help out. Thanks.

Silly question, but same problem at normal clock rates?

Videoprt is where video hardware discovery and management occurs. If it's throwing 0xD1s then the drawing portion of the driver and the pass off to the hardware is breaking down. Either:

The code is buggy
Update driver. Uninstall old drivers first, clearing all settings, try again.

The hardware isn't responding as expected
Race conditions, failed hardware, pushed too hard, fan failing, etc.

You can see where this is going.

Video systems are complex animals. Different features tax different areas of the system. You might draw triangles all day without problem then see a failure with heavy texture processing because some part of the GPU or memory interface couldn't handle the load. This is where one application can show a problem that doesn't appear elsewhere, simply due to its sequence of operations and how hard it pushes a feature.

Selectively reduce or disable advanced features. AA, etc. Monitor temperatures, improve cooling and watch for effects. Disable BIOS video "features". (shadowing, etc.) Any difference? YOu know the drill. Good luck.

Nope, definitely not the same problem at stock stuff. Even at 223FSB with stock voltage, I had no problem. It shouldn't be the hardware (temperature-wise) because I have a fan from an AMD stock heatsink blowing on it keeping the temperatures low, and I'm able to run 3DMark06 with no artifacting or anything. Also, the video card is not overclocked at all. I'm thinking it's not the drivers because, as I've mentioned, I don't always see the problem (at stock or even at 223FSB), so I'll see what happens when I lower the graphic settings in Oblivion.

Where would the BIOS video features ("shadowing", etc) be in the BIOS? I looked around and couldn't find anything along those lines.

What PSU? This could also happen if your video card undervolts and the OS loses it for even a millisecond..

Thermaltake 430W, I think? The $39.99 one at newegg

Um, did you stop to think that maybe your CPU is unstable at 225? This does not mean that it is unstable past 225, but 225 is unstable. My CPU (3500+ Winchester) can't handle 225 either, but it can do 230, 233, 240, and 250 at stock voltages.

Interesting. I'm trying it at 224FSB, but I had actually not considered that it might be unstable at a single FSB. Can you give any insight as to why this might happen (other than hardware being generally obstinate and finicky)?

Well, just tried playing Oblivion (after seeing that the Prime95 stressing wasn't causing CPU errors) and I was able to play it fine for about 20 minutes or so. I know this wasn't a long time, but it was much longer than I had been playing before the errors last night. I'll be trying 226FSB at some point tonight (paper needs to be written first).

The playing/stress testing was with the FSB at 224.

I hate to be harsh, but this thread is sorta pointless. OC'ing any component of your system is gonna cause instability, even with correct cooling. Games like Battlefield 2 and Oblivion are EXTREMELY system intensive and will cause BSODs and freezes left and right. There are very, very few systems that run fine overclocked with games like these, and they're running fine based on raw luck. That's the number 1 reason why I hate OC'ing...it's not worth the instability. Even if you ramp up the voltage and get even better cooling, etc., chances are you'll still get BSODs because your components are being pushed harder than they're designed for.

I'd ramp it down to the first stable OC and keep it like that. 225 is pretty damn far already! :thumbsup:

I fully agree, over clocking has little purpose these days; the few extra cycles don’t matter. It’s only really noticeable when you are rendering, or encoding large files and it only saves like 5% to 15% of the render/encode time, so only if you do a ton of it does it actually start to add up. I used to over clock, when I had my old P4 but now I try to keep the cpu nice and cool and lower the voltage, further reducing the temp, my 3500+ Winchester is stock at 1.4 volts, but mine runs stable at 1.15v

You may want to look into an over clocking web forum, they know more then I do, I just know that some frequencies interfere with others.

Believe it or not, I understand exactly what you two are saying. I don't overclock to be cool or try and achieve some uber computer goal. I do it more for fun than anything else. If I could assemble a computer piece-by-piece (not parts, actually construct the parts) and had enough time and money to do so, I probably would, just to learn more about this stuff. I guess I should have made it a little more clear in the original post that I was trying to learn what the error I was getting meant.

I figured the file videoprt.sys was related to my video card, but I had no idea (even after looking up the error and doing my own research) what it actually did on my computer. Now I do.

Also, Dilbert, I've actually done the undervolting as well (at stock). Really interesting to see how little voltage is actually needed to run at stock.

It's gotta be their coding - I have an Xbox 360 and that game crashes often and repeatedly. It is usually on DVD access. It will either give me a dirty disc error ala Morrowind on Xbox, or just stop altogether. I certainly haven't overclocked my 360, and that game is the only one I've played on it so far that crashes (I have about 8 games now).

I bought this game expecting crashes; while Zenimax makes some great games, their QA department is one guy sitting on a couch (This is true - it's on the making of DVD that comes with the SE version of the game.).

Well, it doesn't seem to be Oblivion itself crashing. These errors are always BSODs. That's not to say Oblivion hasn't crashed once or twice, but it's definitely not been a major problem for me. Definitely seems to be heat-related since I just moved home from my college dorm into a room that's about 6C hotter, and the crash occurs much faster than before.