I'm hoping someone may be able to help diagnose a really strange problem I've been getting. My tale is long but please bear with me as I'm at my wits end.
Here's my system as at 3 weeks ago
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
Asus P5B Deluxe (Socket 775)
GeIL 4GB (4x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz (this was 2gb, upgrade to 4 in Sept this year)
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer
Seasonic M12 Modular 700W
Vista Ultimate 64bit
+ a couple of optical drives and 2 250gb Western Digital hdds
The system was quite content playing WoW and L4D with no hitches and had been fine for the 14months or so since I built it (and this is pretty much 14 months of solid uptime as well, I only turn the thing off when I go away for more than a few days which is rarely)
Then about 2 and a half weeks ago I started getting problems with L4D, the game would intermittently crash with the "nvlddmkm stopped responding" error, the first few times this happened I ignored it and went back to playing (it happened once every 4/5 hours max).
Then after a few days it crashed again so I thought stuff it, I'll upgrade the drivers as steam had been moaning they were out of date since I got L4D. As such I upgraded from 175.19 to 180.48.
All appeared well for a few play session, no crashes, no problems.
Then everything started to go wrong, L4D would crash as soon as I tried to play a level with the "nvlddmkm stopped responding" and even started to do it in the menu.
The "nvlddmkm stopped responding" started to turn into BSODs, and it also started effecting normal usuage in vista (browsing, watching stuff with vlc etc) and essentially the computer became unusable so after reading the 100 odd page thread about nvlddmkm on nvidia forums I was a bit perplexed, the main recommendation was to go back to the older drivers, which I did by using vista system restore (not sure this was the best method tbh but bear with me) to return to the old drivers thinking my problems would be gone or at least lessened. No joy indeed the problem was worsening as I was getting major graphical corruption in the BIOS and while loading vista, as such I presumed it must be a hardware fault rather than a driver issue
One of the things other people pointed to there was bad RAM (system RAM rather than gfx RAM), first of all I tried taking out 2 sticks of RAM (which I had added back in September) thinking maybe they were faulty, no joy, so I tried them and removed the older RAM, no joy. Next I tried underclocking the RAM as someone had recommended as a solution to the problem, however I'm no expert on overclocking so I simply reduced the...the word escapes me.. but essentially I told it to behave as 533 RAM. No joy.
The problem was now so bad I couldn't get into windows as I couldn't see anything except streaks of red pixels across a black background (however I could still type my password and go into windows its just I couldnt see anything)
I then thought stuff it and fished out my old Geforce 7900GT, but I /still/ get the problem although its considerably lessened, with only a few pixels corrupted in the BIOS and I'm using my main comp to type this message now and I dont get any crashes, just some lines of courrpted pixels when browsing which disappear when I scroll (presumably as the screen redraws) and vlc doesnt work (although quicktime and WMP do). I haven't bothered to try any games.
I've also tried the 7900 in the slower x4 PCIE slot, thinking maybe the main PCIE slot on the mobo is borked. No change.
This morning I tried putting my 8800 back in and it immediately gets worse, while that was plugged in I also cycled through the different RAM sticks trying just one of them at a time, but no effect so I've stuck the 7900 and all the RAM back in and am typnig this message
I assume I'm right to rule out software as I dont see how that could effect the BIOS, and from my admittedly less than comprehensive RAM tests it would seem reasonable to assume it cant be related to the new RAM I fitted in Sept.
So I presume this has to be mobo related? Or does anyone have any better ideas. I'm quite happy to buy another P5B and just swap all the bits into that as presumably I wouldn't even need to reinstall OS or even drivers as it would be the same board?
I have one request. Help. Before I cry.
I've got a whole new system on the way (i7 here we come) but given that that is not coming until the 23rd I'd really like to get this one sorted to tide me over and then to use as a media center / downloading hub. I'm /really/ reluctant to try anything like reformmatting until I get my new system
Thanks guys. Oh and, hello