Damn nv4_disp.dll Error
Posted: 2005-09-15 11:28pm
I have a Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop that came with an NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go graphics card. I haven't been screwing around with the computer, so all the original parts are still in there.
About a year and a half ago, my computer started fucking up after working perfectly for about two years. The screen would scramble up and I would get the BSOD with an nv4_disp.dll error blaming the video display driver. This usually happened during games (in fact, games were a sure way to trigger it), but it also happened occassionally when I was using Internet Explorer, MS Word, or other programs. I asked some people on a forum about this, and they told me to update the NVIDIA drivers. I did that, but it didn't work. I decided to let some "professionals" handle this, so I sent my laptop in to the Dell depot with a letter explaining the problem. They sent it back telling me that the computer was perfectly normal, and that there were no hardware problems. Of course, the problem was still there, and I doubt they even turned on my computer to check it out.
I sent it in 3 or 4 more times with the same results.
About 6 months ago, the screen scrambled and the computer froze up (it always either did that, or crash into the BSOD) as the computer was turning on. When I turned off the computer and turned it back on again, I got nothing but a black screen with one line of text that said something like "disk read error." I called Dell technical support again. They told me that everything was lost, and that I would need to get a new hard drive replacement. Naturally, I was fucking pissed. I sent it in to the Dell depot again so they would replace the hard drive for me. The technical support guy told me that he thought all this crashing was all the result of a software problem, and that I wouldn't see it again since I was starting from scratch with a brand new hard drive.
After the computer was returned to me, I had Dell technical support walk me through the installation of Windows and all the drivers, just to make sure everything was done correctly. I successfully installed everything, and the computer worked fine, for all of 3 hours. With a fucking brand new hard drive, I was still getting the same problems. I called Dell again, and after hours of explaing the problem, followed by the complete reinstallation of Windows and all the drivers, as well as an hours long diagnostic scan of the computer, we found that there were no software problems or hardware problems. Which fucking explained why the computer still crashed all the time. After going through all that, all that Dell technical support could suggest was that it was possible that my computer was infected with a virus. That was absurd, since these problems were still around even with a completely new hard drive. I scanned for viruses anyway, and found none.
Finally coming to the conclusion that Dell technical support was useless, I started doing some in depth research of the problem on the Internet. I read through over a dozen websites and computer forums, and even searched for "nv4_disp.dll" on Wikipedia (surprisingly it did have an article). Apparently, this is a relatively common problem. None of the websites had a sure answer, but they all seemed to agree that the best course of action was to the install the updated drivers under safe mode. I had updated the drivers before, but not under safe mode. However, that still didn't work.
Some other forums claimed that NVIDIA drivers didn't uninstall neatly, so you had to download and use some "Driver Cleaner" program to clean it out before installing the updated version. That still didn't work. Another forum suggested that instead of using the official NVIDIA drivers, I should try a free, supposedly hotshit independently made driver from some guy's website. That still didn't work. I'm completely out of ideas about how to fix my computer, which supposedly has no hardware or software problems, no viruses, and the latest official and unofficial drivers installed in a variety of ways.
Can any computer experts here explain to me WTF is going on? Have any of you ever had this problem? If so, what did you do about it?
About a year and a half ago, my computer started fucking up after working perfectly for about two years. The screen would scramble up and I would get the BSOD with an nv4_disp.dll error blaming the video display driver. This usually happened during games (in fact, games were a sure way to trigger it), but it also happened occassionally when I was using Internet Explorer, MS Word, or other programs. I asked some people on a forum about this, and they told me to update the NVIDIA drivers. I did that, but it didn't work. I decided to let some "professionals" handle this, so I sent my laptop in to the Dell depot with a letter explaining the problem. They sent it back telling me that the computer was perfectly normal, and that there were no hardware problems. Of course, the problem was still there, and I doubt they even turned on my computer to check it out.
I sent it in 3 or 4 more times with the same results.About 6 months ago, the screen scrambled and the computer froze up (it always either did that, or crash into the BSOD) as the computer was turning on. When I turned off the computer and turned it back on again, I got nothing but a black screen with one line of text that said something like "disk read error." I called Dell technical support again. They told me that everything was lost, and that I would need to get a new hard drive replacement. Naturally, I was fucking pissed. I sent it in to the Dell depot again so they would replace the hard drive for me. The technical support guy told me that he thought all this crashing was all the result of a software problem, and that I wouldn't see it again since I was starting from scratch with a brand new hard drive.
After the computer was returned to me, I had Dell technical support walk me through the installation of Windows and all the drivers, just to make sure everything was done correctly. I successfully installed everything, and the computer worked fine, for all of 3 hours. With a fucking brand new hard drive, I was still getting the same problems. I called Dell again, and after hours of explaing the problem, followed by the complete reinstallation of Windows and all the drivers, as well as an hours long diagnostic scan of the computer, we found that there were no software problems or hardware problems. Which fucking explained why the computer still crashed all the time. After going through all that, all that Dell technical support could suggest was that it was possible that my computer was infected with a virus. That was absurd, since these problems were still around even with a completely new hard drive. I scanned for viruses anyway, and found none.
Finally coming to the conclusion that Dell technical support was useless, I started doing some in depth research of the problem on the Internet. I read through over a dozen websites and computer forums, and even searched for "nv4_disp.dll" on Wikipedia (surprisingly it did have an article). Apparently, this is a relatively common problem. None of the websites had a sure answer, but they all seemed to agree that the best course of action was to the install the updated drivers under safe mode. I had updated the drivers before, but not under safe mode. However, that still didn't work.
Some other forums claimed that NVIDIA drivers didn't uninstall neatly, so you had to download and use some "Driver Cleaner" program to clean it out before installing the updated version. That still didn't work. Another forum suggested that instead of using the official NVIDIA drivers, I should try a free, supposedly hotshit independently made driver from some guy's website. That still didn't work. I'm completely out of ideas about how to fix my computer, which supposedly has no hardware or software problems, no viruses, and the latest official and unofficial drivers installed in a variety of ways.
Can any computer experts here explain to me WTF is going on? Have any of you ever had this problem? If so, what did you do about it?