Potential problem with /3Gb for Nvidia users?

[brian747 5]

I have no idea whether this problem will affect anyone but me, but, just in case it does, I will describe it here.I have just attempted to install the latest Nvidia drivers for my 8800 GTS: until today I have tried to keep reasonably up to date. Part-way through the installation I received a message from Windows XP: "Windows - Low on Registry Space" and "The system has reached the maximum size allowed for the system part of the registry. Additional storage requests will be ignored".Ouch!An Internet search revealed that (a) users of Nvidia drivers are especially apt to experience this error, and (:( that "When using /3GB the system hive is limited to 12MB, otherwise it is limited to 25% of installed RAM or 200MB, whichever is less."Ouch again!Rather than face the severe pain of a Windows repair reinstall, and on the basis that the problem did not exist prior to my attempted installation of the latest Nvidia drivers, I used the following workaround (which worked for me, but no guarantees, obviously...)Uninstall Nvidia drivers from Control Panel - rebootDefrag registry - rebootRemove /3Gb switch from boot.ini - rebootInstall Nvidia latest drivers - rebootDegrag registry again - rebootAdd /3Gb switch - reboot(To defrag the registry I used NTREGOPT, downloaded from http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/)After the sixth and final reboot, the system came up successfully, and all seems well: I am flying my MD-11 again. However, I may wait for a very long while before attempting another update of my Nvidia drivers.....Best wishes to everyone,Brian

[tcas_climb 45]

BrianSo the problem occurs with the MOST recent Nvidia drivers?thx for the tip, ill have an nvidia in my new pc so ill watch out for that

[eeyore 1]

I think that there is a "driver cleaner" exercise suggested whenever one set of drivers are uninstalled and before a new set of drivers are installed.It involves a process of booting back into "safe" mode and running "driver cleaner pro" application (available from here http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=745 I think) before rebooting back into the system normally for a re-installation of the drivers.RegardsStuart

[Tabs 2,790]

I recommend Driver Sweeper for cleaning before installing a new set - Driver Cleaner is really old now.http://phyxion.net

[jordanal 70]

FWIW, I have the payware version of Driver Cleaner .NET and it's updated almost weekly, especially after new driver versions are released. It was the original diver-cleaner and still works like a champ although I don't know if I would have paid for it if a freeware version like driver sweeper was around at the time.Regards,

[brian747 5]

Hi Bryan!My apologies, I failed to make myself clear (brevity was ever the enemy of clarity).What my researches seem to indicate is:-1. There is a potential problem with repeated reinstallations of the latest Nvidia drivers (not limited to any particular version) since doing this uses up the Registry System hive. That problem can be eased by defragmenting the registry.2. (Why the above suddenly matters much more than it used to) - although the System hive has 200 Mb if you have 800 Mb of RAM or more (hopefully, we all come into that category), when you use the /3Gb switch it only has 12 Mb! All of a sudden, therefore, diminishing amounts of free System hive are liable to become a problem when the /3Gb switch is used, since if degragging the registry doesn't work and you still get the error message I described, then the fix seems to be a repair installation of Windows. Definitely non-trivial, not to mention potentially time consuming and extremely irritating.I'm no Windows expert (as a long-term Unix man I regard any Operating System with a registry in it as being fundamentally brain damaged, to be honest), so I am only passing on what I read, and would welcome more authoritative comments on this issue. With any luck, maybe I've got it wrong. But next time I change my Nvidia drivers I'm going to take a full system backup first so I can back the change out if necessary!I was rather more worried by the /3Gb switch causing a drop in System hive space from 200 Mb to 12 Mb than by the need to defrag after Nvidia reinstallations.....I hope that's a little clearer,Cheers,Brian