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Level 1

9 points

New topic on old problem - MacBook Pro Late'08 + Vista x64 Freeze

Hi All,

I read many topics on freezes and have not found the solution. People are re-installing WiFi drivers and are solving problem with lags for audio.
I've Vista x64 SP1 installed + Bootcamp + multitouch drivers from Apple.

When I use Standard VGA drivers - system works well (not 1-2 hours, but as much as I need - up to 2 days uptime). But when I use ANY nVidia driver (modded or no) I could get freeze after 30 minutes or after 3 hours.
But I'm missing Aero + stand-by features.

So - had anybody found nVidia driver that is not crashing system?

As I understand WiFi driver is working well, because with standard video driver there are no crashes/freezes at all.

MacBook Pro Late'08/2.8Ghz, Mac OS X (10.5.6), Dual Boot Vista x64

Posted on Feb 3, 2009 4:51 AM

Best reply

T1mur

Level 1

55 points

Posted on Feb 3, 2009 5:47 AM

Download the latest official driver from NVidia and use an application called RIVATUNER to force a fixed performance level of "low-power 3D".

That keeps the NVidia driver from switching clock-rates and voltages dynamically and thus prevents three problems:

1. Constantly changing voltages and thus power-draw from the battery/PSU and mainboard components. This should help stability.

2. Audio dropouts (and likely other drivers and processes dropouts as well) due to extreme DPC spikes whenever clock-rates are switched.

3. Possible audio dropouts (and likely other drivers and processes dropouts as well) due to too low GPU memory clock-rates in 2D mode.

Just to clarify that, even when you are only working in 2D the NVidia drivers keeps switching performance-levels/clock-rates up and down according to what it thinks is necessary. Sometimes just opening a web-page with video content can lead to the GPU switching to performance-3D (maximum voltage and heat) just to have it clock down over several steps again (each time producing a huge DPC Latency spike).

The Microsoft Standard VGA Driver runs at constant clock-rates, thus it's less susceptible to stability and performance problems.

I am using a Latebook 2.8 Ghz with Vista 64 myself here. Can you give any hints on how to reproduce a freeze (like any specific load/software)?

Message was edited by: T1mur

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16 replies

Xlom3000

Level 1

0 points

Jul 27, 2009 5:48 PM in response to dorkster007

I did the option to lock it into high performance 3d mode and have been crash free for about two month.

To get rivatuner to recognize your firmware, you need to go to power user, then Rivatuner / System and scroll to where it says ForceDriverVersion. Make sure the hex button is unchecked and type in your driver version without the period. I use 185.85 so I typed in 18585. Then go into Rivatuner / Nvidia / Overclocking and find EnablePerfLevelForcing and type in 1. There you go, it should recognize your driver and allow you to lock it into a performance mode.

This still doesn't fix the issue that there's some faulty voltage changes going on when the card switches performance modes, but at least this fix prevents it from changing said modes.

New topic on old problem - MacBook Pro Late'08 + Vista x64 Freeze