Fellow Vista users, the end of annoyance may be here! It turns out that Vista, or at least Sony's VAIO proprietary update software, has been cockblocking me since Day 1. It has never tried to update the video drivers, despite there having been a half dozen updates put out. On top of this, it will refuse to update them short of holding its wang while it pees. For those using an Intel chipset that are having trouble with this:
1. Start / Settings / Control Panel / System / Device Manager / Display adapters / select card / Properties / Driver tab --> Check the version, date, etc.. chances are that Vista has been hanging on to one from 2006.
2. http://downloadcenter.intel.com/default.aspx / Search Downloads --> Just punch in the chipset and Vista 32- or 64-bit
3. Download the .zip version of the driver. Vista pretty much told me to screw running the .exe as Admin.
4. Decompress the file where ever you want.
5. Driver tab of the Display adpater / Properties window (same as above) --> Update Driver / Browse my computer for driver software / Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer / Have disk... / Browse / select the directory you decompressed the files to / select the correct version of the driver ( mine were igdlh.INF for 32-bit, igdlh64.INF for 64-bit )
6. Click OK / Next to install. Click on Finish when done. When prompted, reboot and get back to not hating your computer.
Sorry if I missed any steps or if this is listed in a technologically insulting manner. Not only am I not getting the crashes everytime it tries to load a large number of new objects on the screen, but it is running smooth as glass. Best of luck, give `em hell.
Display Driver igfx has stopped responding...
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Display Driver igfx has stopped responding...
"There's no preparation and no guide, just what you've done before here with your life." -BR
The funny thing is that when this happens, you don't actually crash out completely 99% of the time. What happens is that the screen will black out for anywhere from a second to a minute (or more) depending on the load while the driver resets, reloading everything again before refreshing the display. In and of itself, it's not unbearable. Similar to your run of the mill lag spike.
The real annoyance is that you lose window focus on the game from the little pop-up telling you the driver crashed, which can have hilarious results; like charging into the wall of mobs you were running to split, or spinning in circles while walking around a non-OSHA approved catwalk with a quarter-mile drop below.
Of course, having the entire problem go away is welcome. If I can walk around Abysmal without a hitch, pretty safe to say I've seen the last of it.
The real annoyance is that you lose window focus on the game from the little pop-up telling you the driver crashed, which can have hilarious results; like charging into the wall of mobs you were running to split, or spinning in circles while walking around a non-OSHA approved catwalk with a quarter-mile drop below.
Of course, having the entire problem go away is welcome. If I can walk around Abysmal without a hitch, pretty safe to say I've seen the last of it.
"There's no preparation and no guide, just what you've done before here with your life." -BR
More evidence Vista is crap presently 
Nice on finding that one creac
Nice on finding that one creac
"Looks like Maz was right.. - Thoraf"
"Looks like Maz was right.. There can add me to your sig! - Kofn"
"*sigh* 'the maz is right' strikes again! - Zurt"
"Have you noticed that nobody who thinks 'Maz is right' still plays? - Melo"
"Now Melo doesn't play! Cursed! - Fny"
To Zurt, From WoW boards: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/threa ... ageNo=4#72
I have found a fix , This happens to almost everyone that has Vista . I went to the Nvidia Forums and found that many Wow users have this problem . Its not just Intel drivers. Main problem was that when u install a new driver u have to Right Click and run as Administrator . This is all over the net actually players of all games having problems so its not Wow causing the problem.This thread is generally for the Intel 945/950 as those are the only known troublemakers in this case. Chipset drivers are very important in your scenario as you have something different. I'm assuming you're using the 158.18 or higher NVIDIA drivers. We do know that the 7600GT works fine on a Vista 32 system and a 7800GT works fine on a Vista 64. I'm not sure if we tried a 7600GT on a Vista 64 system as a test. If you have another system or another video card, try swapping them to see if they make a difference.
" I have found and fixed the problem today. This is what appears to happen.
during the installation of the most current drivers , an OLD file
nvlddmkm.sys is copied into windows/system32/drivers and not the current one
in the install. As a result the new drivers are attempting to access a file
dated 11/2006 instead of 2/2007 ver 7.15.11.0065 which is in the newest WHQL
driver ver 100.65 vista 32.
Fix: Go to windows/system32/drivers and rename nvlddmkm.sys to
nvlddmkm.sys.old. Go to the nvidia directory and find the file nvlddmkm.sy_
and copy it to windows/system32. Using the cmd window (DOS box) type
EXPAND.EXE nvlddmkm.sy_ nvlddmkm.sys. When the expansion is complete, copy
the new nvlddmkm.sys to windows/system32/drivers and restart the computer.
Your computer should now work properly.
You will notice that any uninstall and reinstall of nvidia drivers will not
remove the old nvlddmkm.sys file and will not overwrite it with the newer
version. You have to do it manually. I do not know why this happens but who
cares as long it is fixed."
"There's no preparation and no guide, just what you've done before here with your life." -BR
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