Random freeze/black screen

[Johnny_Pfosten 18]

I have a problem when playing Dayz (and it occurs only while playing with this game) and I have searched a lot but only found similar problems and no solutions that worked for me.

*Which version of the game did you purchase? STEAM or RETAIL or MIXED:

• Mixed [Arma 2 Free, OA retail (non-steam)]
  

*Are you running an Arma 2 OA beta patch? If so what version?:

• 96751 (problem happened in previous version too)
  

*Which method are you using to launch the game? I.E Sixupdater/steam/batch file:

• Custom shortcut, ingame server browser
  
• used sixlauncher before but not anymore
  

*What is the Error/Problem you're having? Please provide screenshots if possible:

• At random time game freezes (~5secs), black screen (1-2secs), "receiving screen" with game sounds back, continue playing
  
• Nvidia error: "Display driver 'nvidia windows kernel mode driver, version 304.79 ' stopped responding and has recovered"
  
• Only happening while playing DayZ (at no other game)
  

*Your PC specs:

• P9700/4GB/GTX260M
  

*Your Operating System:

• Win7 64Bit
  

*Have you looked at these threads?:

• Yes
  

Detailed report:

While I'm playing there continuously occurs a problem. The game freezes completely (~5 seconds) then the screen turns black (~1-2 seconds) afterwards I see the "receiving screen" while the game sounds are coming back (~1-2 seconds) and then it's back to normal and I can continue playing.

This happens in random intervals while I'm playing (1-5 times per half an hour).

When I alt-tab the game after this problem I see a error message from my graphic drivers: "Display driver 'nvidia windows kernel mode driver, version 304.79 ' stopped responding and has recovered"

My graphic drivers are always up to date, I even completely uninstalled them installed the latest version again. I also tried different driver versions but it did not help.

While I have this freeze/black screen my notebook and other programs like skype are working fine.

I have to use "-winxp" as a launch parameter otherwise when the problem occurs instead of getting back to normal my screen stays black and I have just ingame sounds. My full parameters are: "-cpuCount=2 -maxMem2047 -world=chernarus -noPause -nosplash -skipIntro -winxp -mod=@DayZ"

I tried all kinds of graphic settings ingame, nvidia control panel settings for OA, reinstall the whole game, playing with launch parameters (like the winxp thing which at least made me play the game)

The more or less funny thing about that is it happens only when I play DayZ. It is the first time I ever experienced that kind of error ever. I play other games like BF3 or SC2 for hours and nothing ever happened.

I tried already a ton of solutions but never found anything that fixed it. I also tried to accept this error and play with it but that didn't work either. So maybe a few people could help me out solving this.

Thanks in advance!

[Johnny_Pfosten 18]

No one can help me out? :(

So, guess my notebook just hates Arma2/OA and I have to accept this error, hope it will get better in the standalone.

[t1337dude 101]

I've had this problem for 2 months. It won't be fixed and nobody cares. I've been playing the game perfectly on my desktop for months, and ever since some patch that came out a couple of months ago, I haven't been able to play since. I keep peering the forums but nobody knows a solution.

[Johnny_Pfosten 18]

I've had this problem for 2 months. It won't be fixed and nobody cares. I've been playing the game perfectly on my desktop for months, and ever since some patch that came out a couple of months ago, I haven't been able to play since. I keep peering the forums but nobody knows a solution.

At least I'm not the only one who is having this issue. I started playing DayZ at v1.7.2.3/95417 and always had this problem since. As I wrote, at least I'm able to play using that "-winxp" parameter but it's still very frustrating to play with this problem. Did you try to use that (or other) launch parameters?

Are you referring to an OA beta patch which caused you that problem?

Edited September 11, 2012 by Johnny_Pfosten

[t1337dude 101]

I've had this problem for so long that I don't remember what the patch was. I haven't tried experimenting with any launch parameters. I will give it a shot and see if I have any better luck. Something tells me though that I won't figure out the solution to this issue.

[Johnny_Pfosten 18]

I've had this problem for so long that I don't remember what the patch was. I haven't tried experimenting with any launch parameters. I will give it a shot and see if I have any better luck. Something tells me though that I won't figure out the solution to this issue.

Okay, give it a try and report back if . Also check the other launch parameters, maybe they could be useful as well ("-cpuCount=2 -maxMem2047 -world=chernarus -noPause -nosplash -skipIntro -winxp -mod=@DayZ") As for the CPU count you have to enter your count of CPU's of course.

[t1337dude 101]

Okay, give it a try and report back if . Also check the other launch parameters, maybe they could be useful as well ("-cpuCount=2 -maxMem2047 -world=chernarus -noPause -nosplash -skipIntro -winxp -mod=@DayZ") As for the CPU count you have to enter your count of CPU's of course.

I can't even boot to the main menu with those launch parameters, everything looks screwed up.

[Johnny_Pfosten 18]

I can't even boot to the main menu with those launch parameters, everything looks screwed up.

That's strange. I used them from http://community.bis...rtup_Parameters if you want to look them up. You also tried only adding to your shortcut "-winxp" and it did not work?

Edited September 11, 2012 by Johnny_Pfosten

[t1337dude 101]

I got it to work using only the -winxp parameter, but I still got the "Receiving" error.

[t1337dude 101]

Well, I managed to almost play a full hour without crashing using "Low" settings for texture memory, as well as the -winxp and -cpuCount=2

[Johnny_Pfosten 18]

K, I finally managed to solve this problem after all these months...

As the "famous" display driver error (display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered) was first happening to me while playing Dayz, it occurred after some time in other games too till every game was more or less unplayable. First I thought it would only concern Dayz so I tried a lot of experimenting with the Nvidia 3D-settings (Nvidia driver control panel) and the start-parameters for Dayz but it never solved the problem. The most benefit I received as you from the "-winxp" parameter so the game continues most times the error occurred.

After getting the knowledge that this error is not caused by any game (like DayZ) but by a problem between Windows and the Nvidia display drivers (Radeon cards can be also affected as far as I know) I started to look out for a solution for this problem. After some research I saw that thousands of people are affected by this error no matter what graphic card/OS they were using and this problem can be caused by a variety of reasons. So there is no solution that works for everybody and I started to use whatever solution I could find i.e. changing the driver to older/newer versions (using guides to completely deinstall an reinstall drivers with drivers sweeper), trying TDR values in the registery, new installation of Windows 7, tested my RAM with MemTest, monitored my CPU with CoreTemp and my GPU with MSI-Afterburner. Nothing helped me and my components were looking ok, as well as their temperatur, so no overheating etc.

Finally I read about overclocking the graphics, so I thought I give it a try and guess what - the error was gone :D

So I used MSI-Afterburner to set new clocks for my GTX 260M, increasing them from 550/1350/800 (Core/Shader/Memory) to 600/1600/1000 and it runs stable. Played a few hours in the last 2 days and the temperature stays under 60°C while the GPU is working to capacity and there where no more display drivers errors occurring.

I will have to test a little more I think but it seems that the display driver error is finally gone.

Maybe this could help a you or a few others but I don't know and if you try it then of course on your own risk.

Edited March 4, 2013 by Johnny_Pfosten