Memory Parity Errors, BSOD, Crashing. Help!

[Guest B2TheEYo]

Hi Guys,

Okay, so I decided last year to retire computer gaming, stick to consoles. I found it would be cheaper (hate buying a new PC/gfx card every 6 months to be honest) and a lot less hassle to get the games going and keep them and the system at it's best and get it to it's best, etc... I'm sure you understand where I was coming from. But with that said, I got bit with the bug recently, and started installing all my old and relatively new PC titles and started playing them through. :)

Everything has worked exceptionally well, just like when I got the games, titles such as Unreal Tournament 3, Call of Duty 1, Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Counter Strike: Source, Half Life 2 Series etc. They've all worked flawless on my system as I said just like the day I got them, on this same system.

Unfortunately, one title has been a pain! It's has to be my FAVORITE title I have ever played, I use to play this game religiously on the MSN gaming zone around the clock. It's an RTS game that goes by the name of Starwars Galactic Battle grounds. Think Roller Coaster Tycoon graphics, nothing intense, just 2D stuff. Though it's an addictive and great game IMO.

Here is the issue:

First time, right off the bat I got a BSOD, Memory Parity error. Within 5-10 minutes of playing. Googled the issue, found lots of information, ultimately, nothing that was a concrete "this is the fix" more or less just people stabbing in the dark.

In short here is what I've done based on what I've dug up:

- Reseated my memory and video card, cleaned all the cooling solutions and parts in the process to when stripping my laptop entirely down - no problems.

- Monitored temperatures through-out many stages - no problems.

- Did Memory tests etc, all the Dell provided tools etc. Nothing turned up, nor did I expect those tools too do much anyways.

- Updated my drivers, everything that needed updated got updated. Read the wireless driver helped some, not me.

- Got fed up, did the final thing, reformatted.

Here is where I landed on some progress and isolated the issue.

Fresh install of Vista 32Bit, no Nvidia drivers installed, the game runs flawless. If I install the original Dell-Nvidia drivers, the system locks up, if I install a newer version of the Dell-Nvidia drivers, the system crashes to the desktop. If I install a offical Nvidia driver, say 17x.xx, 19x.xx (to name a few versions) the system crashes to a BSOD. All issues occure 5-15 minutes into the gameplay.

So now that we've isolated it to the driver, what are you suggestions? I remember this title working great on my Vista install couple years ago when I played around with it. The funny part is, I have the same results in Vista as I do in XP (dual boot) running the same driver versions.

Thoughts, suggestions? My hopes is it's a setting I'm overlooking, perhaps I just need to get the right driver version. But as it stands, having no video drivers to play a game sucks, as I can't play other titles.

So please toss me a bone here!

[Guest Helpful try]

I would first start off with a full memory test and then hard drive surface test.

http://www.memtest.org/

http://www.hdtune.com/

We have to rule out physical issues first

Then check your video card and see if the heatsink is adequate and/or blow compressed air if it's dirty.

Then if everything is ok, install directx runtime support for vista, which provides backwards directx support:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2DA43D38-DB71-4C1B-BC6A-9B6652CD92A3&displaylang=en

Now if u still have issues, try and swap it out for another video card, or use your motherboard built-in video card.

It may be possible the video card itself is defective. I remember having a 6600gt which only bsod whenever 3d gaming was used.

After I returned it and got a replacement, all was well. They indicated one of the memory banks on the video card was bad.

good luck!

[Guest B2TheEYo]

Thanks for the help!

Did the check for all those things, twice. No bad results or errors were found. Everything was tip-top and I chose the extended or most thorough options to be performed.

Unfortunately, I'm dealing with a laptop (Inspiron 1520, loaded) so video card swaps are expensive and perhaps could be difficult to find on eBay (buying from Dell directly would be financial suicide as they'll charge me an arm and leg :)). I've ripped the machine apart and cleaned and reinstalled it all, monitored the temperatures etc. Nothing is off or problematic besides this one game title, on both OS's.

Just installed the DirectX Runtime - will report back with the results!

Hopefully I didn't get one of those flakey Nvidia cards that were reported back few months ago. :S