BSOD: Could my motherboard be to blame?

[Coreone]

I just built a new machine with the following specs:

Intel E8400 @ 3.0ghz
Asus P5N-D nVidia 750i SLi motherboard
Zotac 8800gt 512mb
4gb Patriot Extreme Performance RAM (800ghz)
320gb Hard Drive
Antec 650w PSU
Raidmax Smilodon Case
Windows Vista 64 bit

Everything works except I get a BSOD citing nvlddmkm.sys as the culprit when I play games such as WoW or AoC. I've tried everything to fix this problem. I've run MemTest several times with no error, tried 2gb RAM, replaced my PSU, tried 4 different driver versions, reseated everything, added fans in case of overheating, reinstalled Vista twice, updated my BIOS and chipset drivers, you name it I've probably done it. I used my video card in my old system and it worked flawlessly so I don't think it's the problem.

The only thing I can think of now is a motherboard issue. Could this be the case? If so, is there a way to tell for sure or do I just have to take my chances?

Any help would be amazing.

 

[vmardegan]

I have a system very similar to yours. Same board, same processor, but I have 8gb of RAM, SLI BFG 8800GT, more HDs, an Antec 900 and a BFG 850W PSU.

In the beginning I had A LOT of issues with the system... crashes, some BSODs and stuff, but most of them randomly. After doing a lot of stuff, I'm still not where I want to be... My Reliability index is about 7ish and I've been monitoring that thing for almost two months consecutively (I have reached an amazing 3.2 in the past once). However, I did a few things that helped a lot on stability.

1 - Memory Voltage: When I bumped the voltage to 2.1V (max recommended to my memory) a lot of issues were solved.

2 - NB Fan: Even having an air cooled system and the recommendation in the manual to use the fan only in water cooled systems, I installed the NB Fan anyways and less problems were happening in the system (keep in mind that I have an Antec 900 that has a great air flow). Without the fan, that dissipator was getting to hot in my opinion.

3 - VCard BIOS Update and MB BIOS Update: SLI would only work in my system after I flashed both BIOS in the Vcards and after I updated the MB BIOS to the latest version, less issues were happening over time.

4 - Memory Timings: After I put the memory in Sync with the processor FSB (going from 800 Mhz to 667Mhz), I got more stability improvements.

I'm not there yet on the reliability but I am still working on it. However, I am not really satisfied with this board as I wanted to be. I've been using ASUS boards for a long time and never had much problems with them, but this one is getting on my nerves! Maybe is this cooling system for the NB, maybe is the NVidia chipset, maybe it's something else. Honestly, I don't know but the "performance, stability and reliability" that comes up in the POST screen it's not for sure what I've been having and, after doing some research, many are in the same boat with us.

Good luck with your rig and I hope my findings can be useful for you...

 

[Coreone]

I'm really starting to consider returning my motherboard for a different one, but would my OEM version of Vista work on a different board?