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Hmm... I think I found something for you to check out. Now I'm not positive, but I think this is what you want.

Solution to the Loop!

Quote:

Staying out of the Loop

First published 21 December 2001. Updated 11 March 2002.

If you believe your system is experiencing the loop error, to understand this issue properly, it is recommended that you read this entire article before making any changes to your system.

Introduction

There has been a technical issue which has been discussed at length in the VIA Arena forums and in many other forums for a few months now, often known as the Infinite Loop or NV Loop/BSOD error.

What is the loop error?

The loop error is how Windows XP describs a critical error related to the graphics card. The loop error can and has been been reproduced with any video card and any chipset. It is by no means a new problem. Windows XP has just given it a name. If you were to plug in a faulty video card and plugged it in to any motherboard using WinXP, it will reproduce the loop error. That doesn't mean that the loop error is always caused by a faulty video card though.

What causes the loop error?

There is not one single factor or issue which causes the loop error. As mentioned, this issue has been discussed at length in the VIA Arena forums and the biggest problem has been that almost everyone, myself included have been desperatly looking for one single cause and fix. The loop error is a critical halt error that prevents you from using your mouse, keyboard or anything else on your PC apart from the reset button - just like a typical blue screen of death or hard lock up in Win98/ME. When your system locks up, it cannot process information from either the CPU or video card or both. If the CPU is locked up, the video card will continue to send information across the bus. The information is then bounced back to the video card because the processor has stopped responding. OR, if the video card has locked up, the processor will try to return the video information and it will bounce back. The information gets stuck in a loop bouncing back and forth between the CPU and video card. This can be caused by either the video card or CPU locking up, when either one cannot process the display data. And presto - we have the infinite loop. The lock up may be shown on a system in a variety of ways such as:

WinXP: 3D or 2D applications - system will lock and and then automatically restart. This is a feature of XP and not part of the issue. The automatic restart simply saves you from having to press the restart button.

Win2K: 3D or 2D applications - system will lock up and then present a blue screen error reporting an infinite loop

WinME/98: 3D or 2D applications - system will lock up, requiring you to reset the system with either the reset button or power button. Ctrl-Alt-Del will not work.

The "loop error" is in essence just a name that Microsoft has given to this type of error which can not be recovered from by using Ctrl-Alt-Del. Windows cannot give more detail in the error message because of course, when this type of error occurs and the PC is locked, there is no way for the OS to receive and process more information from the system on what may be going wrong. There is not one single cause and the issue must be looked at on a system by system basis.

How can you identify if you are getting the loop error?

If you have WinXP, the system should automatically restart when ever you experience a critical stop caused by the video card. When your computer reboots, if you have a default installation of WinXP (with no settings modified) you will be asked to send an error report to Microsoft. Click send or cancel. To view a copy of the report that was generated, open it from the following directory - c:/windows/logfiles/watchdog/ The file will be a .wdl file. This can be opened in notepad. The file will contain a report which would look like this:

//

// Watchdog Event Log File

//

LogType: Watchdog

Created: 2001-01-01 12:25:17

TimeZone: 480 - Pacific Standard Time

WindowsVersion: XP

EventType: 0xEA - Thread Stuck in Device Driver

//

// The driver for the display device got stuck in an infinite loop. This

// usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device

// driver programming the hardware incorrectly. Please check with your

// display device vendor for any driver updates.

//

ShutdownCount: 16

Shutdown: 0

EventCount: 2

BreakCount: 2

BugcheckTriggered: 1

DebuggerNotPresent: 1

DriverName: nv4_disp

EventFlag: 1

DeviceClass: Display

DeviceDescription: NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500

HardwareID: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0202&SUBSYS_2863107D&REV_A3

Manufacturer: NVIDIA

DriverFixedFileInfo: FEEF04BD 00010000 0006000D 000A0907 0006000D 000A0907 0000003F 00000008 00040004 00000003 00000004 00000000 00000000

DriverCompanyName: NVIDIA Corporation

DriverFileDescription: NVIDIA Compatible Windows 2000 Display driver, Version 23.11

DriverFileVersion: 6.13.10.2311

DriverInternalName: nv_disp.dll

DriverLegalCopyright: Copyright © NVIDIA Corp. 1996-2001

DriverOriginalFilename: nv_disp.dll

DriverProductName: NVIDIA Compatible Windows 2000 Display driver, Version 23.11

DriverProductVersion: 6.13.10.2311

The only difference will be the video card and driver information as per your setup. This can be reproduced with any video card and is not Nvidia GeForce 3 specific.

Under Win2K, a similar message to the one above will be reported in a blue screen message, not in a text file.

This is but the first page of four. So make sure to go and check it all out! Hope this help, Phaenx