G965 X3000 problem under Vista Ultimate 64-bit

[Anonymous59]

The hardware described below was running under Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista RC2 32-bit without any problem for about three months.

- Intel Desktop Board DG965WH,

- Intel CPU E6600,

- 4GB Corsair RAM (5-5-5-13),

- Hard disk drive 400GB Samsung HD401LJ,

- Dell LCD monitor 2405FP (resolution 1920 x 1200)

- ADD2 DVI card and alternatively onboard VGA

The onboard graphics of the G965 worked well under both systems and I could use Vista's 'Aero' mode.

Recently I installed Vista Ultimate 64-bit. From the beginning the graphics support doesn't work in combination with the Aero mode. The system crashes very often and immediately afterstarting certain applications, e.g. Outlook. Starting 3DMark2006 produces the same result. A blue screen of death (BSOD) is displayed after some seconds. Then, after the system comes up, Microsoft's error diagnostic always indicates that the graphic driver caused the crash.

In addition to the crashes, most time and immediately after the system start, black and colored thin pixel lines and black and colored squares are displayed across the monitor.

In the meantime I tried all of the graphics driver versions, destined for Windows Vista 64Bit, which are downloadable from Intel's homepage 'Support and Downloads' / 'Download-Center', but unfortunately without success. '15.1' (15.1.0.1187) is the latest version I have tested.

I can reduce the number of system crashes and I can increase the time between them, if I switch off Vista's 'Aero' mode. In this case BSODs dont occur and driver or system restarts are rarely. Sometimes Vista notifies that the graphics driver doesnt react and that it is repaired.

Due to the fact that neither Windows XP SP nor Windows Vista 32Bit RC2 caused a problem in combination with the G965 X3000 onboard graphics of the DG965WH motherboard, I assume that the problem is caused by the G965 64-bit graphics driver destined for Windows Vista.

Up to now I want to avoid installing an external graphics card. I intend to keep on the onboard graphics. But if there is no way the get running 3D support under Vist a Ultimate 64-bit in combination with the G965 X3000, I will reconsider my decision.

Any idea whats going wrong? Is there somebody who has the same or a similar problem?

[bikerfoo]

Well said.

[satoshieguchi]

I have same problem.
My machine has :
4GB ram,
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600.

In my case, when I install the newest vista 64 bit driver, many black holizontal lines appear on the screen, and soon goes into blue screen.

I told this situation to the Intel Technical Support Team, but they said that they could not duplicate it.
So I sent the screen shots and the core dump created during the blue screen to them.
In this connection, the blue screen tells me the "PFN_LIST_CORRUPT".

I think the problem appears when we installed 4 GB or larger memory, because intel cannot duplicate it and we cannot find the same problem with google.
There might be some bugs concerning the pointer treatments of WDDM in the Vista 64 bit driver.

I'm using the driver for 64 bit XP now.
Though I cannot use Aero, but my system works very stably and my system doesn't crash.

[Anonymous59]

Thank you for your information. It is helpfully for me, to know that I'm not the only one who has that problem with Intel's G965 X3000 onboard graphics.

I sent screen shots, photos of the blue screens of death and a memory dump to Intel's graphics support team as well. With the same result. I got the message that they couldn't reproduce the problem in their lab and that they never heard before from such a system behaviour.
My BSODs notify 'SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION' and 'PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA'. Your opinion ragarding the installed memory amount larger than 4GB sounds realistic.

I agree with you that Intel's 64-bit Windows Vista graphics driver propably causes our crashes. For test purpose I will install the XP 64-bit driver like you.

I hope that Intel's technical support team around Long H Nguyen, Carlos B. and Allan J. perceive our information and at least that we get a reply in this regard with perspective for a future improvement.

[Intel_C_Intel]

I have the exact same problem on a Dell OptiPlex 745. Core2Duo, Intel Q965/963 GMA 3000 chipset. Vista Ultimate 64 bit. 4GB RAM (DDR2-667). Running Aero at 1900x1200 resolution.

With any amount of memory less than 3 GB, it works fine. Put in 4GB and I get video corruption followed shortly by BSOD either with SYSTEM SERVICE EXCEPTION, MEMORY MANAGEMENT or PAGE FAULT IN NON PAGED AREA.

I contacted Dell and they were able to reproduce the problem across their entire OptiPlex 745 series of computers!!! The Dell tech said they would open a case with Intel as it seems to be a widespread issue with the Intel Vista graphics drivers for the GMA 3000 and Intel chipsets (Q965/963). I expect there will be a resolution soon with a large customer like Dell forcing Intel to fix their buggy video driver and chipset problems.

[Anonymous59]

Thank you for your post. Im impressed about your effort, especially regarding your information sharing with Dell. It sounds good that Dells technicians confirm what you found out. I hope you will be right, that such a company can cause more than a private person. Probably the graphics development team wakes up now.

A bitter taste remains. I cannot understand why Intels support team reports to their customers that the problem is not reproducible, despite the circumstance that some people told them their findings independent from each other. Up to now I didnt get further information after I was asked from Intel for additional tests and I sent them the results.
It seems something goes wrong with Intel's interpretation of their "voice of the customer" process.

Thanks all for the feedback!

[bikerfoo]

Hey , I found this thread that has a Vista 64 patch referenced. I will give it a try when I get a chance.

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=27993

[Anonymous59]

Following the link I downloaded the 64-bit version. Unfortunately the installation failed with the notification "not valid for your system".

Let's see whether Intel comes out with information regarding our problem soon. From my today's point of view I assume the problem is caused by the BIOS, the chipset driver or the graphics driver.

[Anonymous59]

Good news! It seems that Intel could fix the bug(s), at least in combination with the motherboard DG965WH.

Today I installed the actual BIOS upgrade and the new graphics driver. I checked some graphic functions and some graphic demanding applications. I couldn't see any problem up to now. No driver restarts, no system reboots and no BSODs. Everything about which I complained works well.

I would like to thank all of Intel's team who were involved in fixing the bug(s).

Hopefully the full hardware support of the chipset's graphic capability can now be realized soon.

Good luck for that job!

I would like to thankall, who reported their realizations and opinions andwho participated in the discussion.

[priustoric]

Saxonyfrank-

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction - I have struggled with this problem for a week. I have two near-identical rigs, both Dell XPS 210s, one with 2Gb and one with 4Gb RAM. The 2Gb machine ran Aero just fine. The 4Gb rig rapidly generated video glitches and bluescreens. Dell threw up their hands and sent a technician to replace the motherboard under warranty. No help.

I can confirm that the brand new and hard-to-find 15.2 video driver fixes the problem:

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=N&ProductID=2375&DwnldID=12092&strOSs=150&OSFullName=Windows%20Vista*%2064〈=eng

I had no need to update the BIOS.

Thanks again for running this to ground.

-priustoric

[mcaren]

Please pardon my joining in this discussion -- I am not running Windows Vista -- but I am desperately trying to figure out what's causing my BSOD's (all Windows XP Stop Errors), and wondered if in fact you all were able to fix your crashes with a driver update or if you are still having problems. The stop errors I receive are so frequent and so varied that I can't begin to guess the source. I've contacted Intel, Microsoft, and browsed almost every forum I can find for clues. I've tried 5 bios versions, reformats, reinstallations of OS, disabling features of BIOS, tweaking graphics settings in XP -- all with no improvement. The only common thread I can find is that I have been crashing while surfing or installing (which in my case has been mostly a combination of the two, as I've had a numerous XP updates to run after each reinstall or have been installing driver updates). I do notice that people with this particular board are experiencing crashes no matter with several Microsoft operating systems... (I have just had another stop error while trying to type this posting [MEMORY_MANAGEMENT]).

My system info is:

Intel DG965WH board
Intel Pentium D 820 Smithfield 2.8GHz LGA 775 Processor
Western Digital Caviar WD800BB 80GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive
Patriot 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Memory
FSP AX400-PN 400W PSU
SONY Floppy Drive
Windows XP Home (all updates)
currently running 9/6/2006 BIOS -- have run several -- am going to return to latest and try that again...

Anyway, I was just curious to find out if perhaps these problems were not OS-specific... Are you all convinced that your crashes are in fact specifically video driver-related? Have any of you experienced the same stop errors listed below? Thanks very much. mcaren

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER
MBR_CHECKSUM_MISMATCH
UNABLE_TO_LOCATE_DLL
BUGCODE_USB_DRIVER

[Aaron_B_Intel]

Could be any number of things, given your symptoms. Typically a BSOD is accompanied by the name of the driver which caused the problem... xxxx.sys. If all of these are related to that one module, or to several modules which are used by one part of your system, you've found the problem.

If all the .sys files seem unrelated to one another, it's probably either bad memory or a power supply inadequacy. It's possible you got a bum motherboard, but the others should be checked first.

[bill_tepper]

I'm having exactly the same problem on a DQ965GFE board. When I put 4 GB of RAM in it, it will run, but it is like I'm running at 1/20th the speed. The newest graphics driver solves the apparent graphics memory
corruption issue (i.e., black lines through the screen and blue screens) but it still runs excruciatingly slow. When I take out one of the DIMMs, it runs fine. But this is not an acceptable long term solution. In fact, I would like
to get a Core 2 Quad processor to put on this board and bump it to 8 GB of RAM if I can get everything else running OK.

By the way, I have the latest of all of the Intel drivers on this board, including the BIOS.

I'm sure that Intel engineers are aware that this is still an issue. Can we expect a fix soon?