NVIDIA Anti-aliasing causes 'driver stopped responding' crashes only in GTR2?

[Shovas]

Update 2019-11-28: Discovered Shader Level (GTR2Config.exe) is affecting stability. DirectX 8 appears stable where as Auto and 9 as unstable. 7 is unknown, will only test that if I need to.

I've long experienced instability in GTR2 where my graphics driver would freeze, the screen goes black, and then it recovers and the game continues as usual but unfortunately usually I've crashed in the few seconds it went black.

This only happens with GTR2.

I think I've narrowed it down to my use of Anti-aliasing parameters in NVIDIA Inspector.

The result is I'm stuck with basic "Level 4" anti-aliasing in the GTR2 Video Options app and the aliasing and texture shimmering does suffer.

Any ideas or tip and tricks that work for you?

Updates:

- Update 2019-11-28: Discovered Shader Level (GTR2Config.exe) is affecting stability. DirectX 8 appears stable where as Auto and 9 as unstable. 7 is unknown, will only test that if I need to.

 

[Bjarne Hansen]

This is my settings when not using DgVoodoo.
Rename to .nip
RD didn't allow upload with that extension.

Only real thing there is Anti aliasing Compatibility = 0x004412C1 (Diablo III)

Use to have that issue. for me is was GPU OC!
I could run OC test software and any dx11 game with the OC but with GTR2 I got those 1-3 sec freezes.
You can still get stuttering / lower fps sometimes. Believe it is due to the old linker and shader compiler used by gtr2 under W10.
Just stop gtr2.exe and start again.
Steam version of Gtr2 does a better but also got issues with shadows and headlights popping in and out.
But use deVodoo dx9-dx11 and you will never see that again and you can OC the GPU again.

 

[Shovas]

This is my settings when not using DgVoodoo.
Rename to .nip
RD didn't allow upload with that extension.

Only real thing there is Anti aliasing Compatibility = 0x004412C1 (Diablo III)

Use to have that issue. for me is was GPU OC!
I could run OC test software and any dx11 game with the OC but with GTR2 I got those 1-3 sec freezes.
You can still get stuttering / lower fps sometimes. Believe it is due to the old linker and shader compiler used by gtr2 under W10.
Just stop gtr2.exe and start again.
Steam version of Gtr2 does a better but also got issues with shadows and headlights popping in and out.
But use deVodoo dx9-dx11 and you will never see that again and you can OC the GPU again.

Thank you for this! I tried this just now and it definitely looks better than no profile at all and just in-game Level 4 AA.

Is there any particular reason for the AA Compatibility = Diablo III?

Still need to put in more time to see if it's stable but it looks a whole lot better!

 

[Shovas]

Grr I tweaked your settings with my extra settings (more AA, texture filtering, etc.) and got another freeze-crash.

I test with a Official FIA GT 2003 Chrysler Viper GTS-R at VLM Mid-Ohio with 24 AI as that I seem to get more reliable crashes there.

I will try your profile without any changes and see if it crashes.

 

[GTR233]

you should not use AA setting from gtr2config.exe (do not set level4 but let it off here) because it was designed for 2006 cards which were not as sophisticated as your gtx980 : in nvidia profile inspector set your AA/AF as you like with override option to force gtr2 to use npi settings instead of gtr2config

 

[Bjarne Hansen]

Also some of the AA settings from the config settings are not working under Win 10!
I know it is really annoying with those crashes as they do not make any sense.
As I wrote mine was related to overclocking the GPU regardless no other game or even Furmark had issues with the OC.
But the NoCd gtr2.exe had.
Try the deVoodoo dll's with same settings that crashes Gtr2 and see if they go away? They did for me!
But now I stopped OC and just allow max power and max temperature in the GPU settings.

 

[Shovas]

you should not use AA setting from gtr2config.exe (do not set level4 but let it off here) because it was designed for 2006 cards which were not as sophisticated as your gtx980 : in nvidia profile inspector set your AA/AF as you like with override option to force gtr2 to use npi settings instead of gtr2config

Thanks will test this case, too.

 

[Shovas]

For the record no OC on the GPU although I do have OC on the CPU. But I have tested and I know at least I'm stable if I don't modify the NVIDIA gtr2.exe profile at all.

 

[Shovas]

Seems I can't do anything else in the profile other than your AI settings otherwise it gets unstable *knocksonwood*. I can't even put on Anisotropic Filtering or Texture Filtering. Frustrating because those really help the texture sharpness.

Still, these AA settings are MUCH better than no AA.

 

[Bjarne Hansen]

Strange you can't use AF it hardly tax the GPU in Gtr2.
Are you running some program that uses overlay even if you do not see it it can course issues.
I can run MSI afterburner but some people got issues with it!

 

[Shovas]

Yes, I run fraps and the NVIDIA overlay, SimCommander, etc., but I've tested without anything runing, no apps and no traybar stuff, as much as possible, and I still get the crashes, it just happens more rarely but still too frequent to enjoy the game.

With GTR2 I tend to run A LOT of apps at the same time because I'm usually tweaking and modding and stuff and having a lot open does aggravate the issue but so far with minimal AA even having all that open is stable so I'm happy about that.

 

[Bjarne Hansen]

Do you also get crashes in GTL and Race 07?
Also while having other issues I find the gtr2.exe from steam the 3.4Mb exe to be more stable in win 10 than the nocd gtr2.exe. (5.9 Mb)
On another note I find the AA in gtr2 and GTL has improved lately not sure if it is Win 10 or Nvidia drivers?

 

[Shovas]

I am so frustrated. I found a new combination of car/track that causes the issue even resetting everything to defaults, no OC anywhere, no AA, DDU uninstall NVIDIA drivers, clean install NVIDIA drivers.

I'm not sure if GTL or Race 07 crashes as I don't spend a lot of time in them. Finding the crashes involved multiple sessions of 10 laps each, some sessions might crash, others might not. Some car/track combos crash more than others.

That original EXE might be an issue. I have had other crashes due to it. I'll have to try reverting and testing again.

 

[Jempy]

Always the same way of crash ? ... screen turning black while sound is still working ... sometimes recovering the image or mostly crash ?
If so ... it reminds me a problem I encountered many years ago ... was it on Win7 or even XP ..I don't remember. That happened mostly with many AI on a heavy track.
Strange but in fact ... I found at the time that the problem might be relative to ..... a sound setting in Windows Registry ( I cannot perfectly tell you what or how I did but the problem disappeared .... I think I remember it was something with an acceleration process in the sounds to turn off ).

 

[Bjarne Hansen]

One other reason is if you use the 4gb patch it will course back screen with you run out of ram.
Been converting a real large track and use a very light mod to test with and all was good.
But as soon I used even the base cars it would crash to black screen after a short time.
That was excessive use of dynamic shadows combined with a a large track with large textures!
You could/ might reach that point earlier with all the apps and services you are running?

 

[Shovas]

So, interestingly, after going through a TONNE of different combinations of options and a TONNE of laps (I now know Mid-Ohio, Sebring, and Mosport from heart), I have found that the DirectX level is affecting my stability.

DirectX 8 appears to be stable for me. Auto and 9 are not stable. 7 might be stable but I'll only test that more if 8 crashes again.

My theory is that some DX9 shaders have small bugs that are hanging in their code on some weird situations and that causes the whole graphics driver to crash.

The good news is the game looks nearly as good on DX7 and 8 as it does on 9 and Auto.

This is how many cases I've gone through and this is not all of them as I wasn't recording fastidiously for quite a while. It's been months, maybe a year or two of these crashes, so it's crazy to finally find something that should be stable *fingerscrossed*:

Spoiler: Test Cases

2019-11-20

- Crash (Driver Stopped Responding): MRW Porsche 911 GT3 Cup @ VLM Mid-Ohio 24 AI Lap 6
^ Reset BIOS - Load Optimized Defaults (no cpu overclock)
^ Test 1: Crash on lap 8, time accel 10min
^ Reset NVIDIA GTR2 Profile to defaults (no aa)
^ Test 1: Crash on lap 10; time accel 15min
^ Stop all possible apps
^ Test 1: Crash on lap 1 right out of the pits, time accel 5min
^ DDU Uninstall NVIDIA Driver + Official Clean NVIDIA Driver Install + Stop all possible apps
^ Test 1: No crash after 10 laps, time accel 5min
^ Test 2: Crash on lap 1 back straight, time accel 12min
^ Disable Triples
^ Test 1: No crash after 10 laps, time accel 12min
^ Test 2: No crash after 10 laps, time accel 7min
^ Test 3: No crash after 20 laps, time accel 20min
^ Stable I guess
^ New HDMI 2.1 cable (iCAN Premium from Canada Computers), reenable triples, run all possible apps again, run all possible AA (missed Transp MS) + Ani Filt + Tex Filt
^ New Test: MRW Porsche 911 GT3 Cup @ VLM Mid-Ohio 35 AI
^ Test 1: No crash after 10 laps, no time accel
^ Test 2: Crash on lap 8, time accel 15min
^ New DisplayPort-to-DVI Cable
^ Test 1: No crash after 10 laps, time accel 20min
^ Test 2: Crash on outlap from pause menu, no time accel
^ New 3x DisplayPort-to-DVI Cable setup (no mixing cable types), CPU 4.2Ghz OC, RAM XMP 1600Mhz OC
^ Test 1: No crash after 10 laps, time accel 15min
^ Test 2: No crash after 10 laps, time accel 20min
^ Test 3: No crash after 20 lap, time accel 20min before, time accel 20min after
^ Stable, I guess
^ Re-enabled AA Transp MS w/8x Sparse Grid SS
^ New Test: Official GT 2003 @ VLM Mid-Ohio w/24 AI
^ Test 1: No crash after 10 laps, then time accel 20min
^ Test 2: Crash on outlap in race session, testing Changing Weather Patch
^ Disable AA Transp MS w/8x Sparse Grid SS again, testing Changing Weather Patch
^ Test 1: Crash on lap 3 in race session
^ Re-enable AA Transp MS w/8x Sparse Grid SS, Disable all Windows Visual/Compositing Effects, testing Changing Weather Patch
^ Note: SimCommander can't do overlay when Compositing is disable BUT I have already tested without SimCommander and it still crashed so it's not that.
^ Note: Disabling all that Windows Visual/Compositive stuff seems to have hit FPS in-game. Not sure exactly what option would do that, though
^ Future Test: Might be able to enable windows visual effect but disable Desktop Composition only for the EXE
^ Test 1: No crash after 5 laps
^ Test 2: No crash after 10 laps, 10min pre time accel
^ Test 3: No crash after 15 laps, 30min pre time accel
^ New Test: MRW Porsche 911 GT3 Cup @ VLM Mid-Ohio 35 AI
^ Test 1: No crash after 5 laps, 2min pre time accel
^ Re-enabled all Windows Visual/Desktop Composition Effects, Changed GTR2.exe to Disable Desktop Composition
^ Test 1: No crash after 5 laps, 23min pre time accel
^ Confirmed: Desktop Composition disabled causes 30-50fps DROP unfortunately
^ Disabled all Windows Visual Effects EXCEPT Desktop Composition
^ Note: Desktop Composition becomes disabled if something else isn't enabled with it so I chose "Use visual styles on windows and buttons"
^ My hunch is Aero Peek or some advanced rendering technique like that is delaying the driver at times so I tried to avoid enabling that
^ Note: Double or more FPS gain with Desktop Composition enabled
^ The FPS drop from disabling Desktop Composition is just too much so got to try something else
^ Test 1: No crash after 5 laps
^ Enable "Smooth edges of screen fonts" because that's nice to have
^ Test 1: No crash after 5 laps, 5min pre time accel
^ New Test: MRW Ginetta G55 GT4 @ VLM Sebring 12h 24 AI
^ Test 1: No crash after 5 laps, no time accel, in very heavy rain
^ Test 2: Crash on lap 5, 25min time accel
^ Disable "Smooth edges of screen fonts"
^ Test 1: No crash after 5 laps
^ Test 2: No crash after 10 laps, 5min pre time accel
^ Test 3: Crash on lap 7, 10min pre time accel
^ Note: Up to this point in testing, the only stable thing was possible disabling triples. Not a great solution. Grr.
^ Try last available drivers from Gigabyte website, still triples, still 8xS AA, all desirable options enabled, etc.
^ Test 1 - MRW Ginetta G55 GT4 @ VLM Sebring 12h (24 AI): No crash after 5 laps, no time accel
^ Test 2 - MRW Porsche 911 GT3 Cup @ VLM Mid-Ohio (35 AI): Crash on lap 5, no time accel
^ Try Single Screen Again, everything else still enabled though
^ Test 1 - MRW Porsche 911 GT3 Cup @ VLM Mid-Ohio (35 AI): No crash after 5 laps, no time accel
^ Test 2 - MRW Ginetta G55 GT4 @ VLM Sebring 12h (24 AI): No crash after 5 laps, no time accel
^ Test 3 - FIA GT 2003 Chrysler Viper GTS @ 2012 Mosport (24 AI): No crash after 5 laps, 10min time accel
^ Test 4 - FIA GT 2003 Chrysler Viper GTS @ 2012 Mosport (24 AI): No crash after 10 laps, 20min time accel
^ Test 5 - MRW Ginetta G55 GT4 @ VLM Sebring 12h (24 AI): No crash after 10 laps, 20min time accel
^ Test 6 - MRW Porsche 911 GT3 Cup @ VLM Mid-Ohio (35 AI): Crash lap 1, 20min time accel
^ Reenable Triple screen, upgrade to latest nvidia drivers, try Assetto Corsa see if it ever crashes like GTR2
^ Test 1 - [Assetto Corsa] Ferrari 458 GT2 @ Mosport 2019 (24 AI): No crash after 3 laps
^ Test 2 - [Assetto Corsa] Ferrari 458 GT2 @ Mosport 2019 (24 AI): No crash after 10 laps
^ Test 3 - [Assetto Corsa] Ferrari 458 GT2 @ Mosport 2019 (24 AI): No crash after 15 laps
^ Stable, I think, based on this and past experience
^ Back to GTR2, Set all Compatbility WinXP and Run As Admin for GTR2.exe, GTR2Config.exe.EXE, GTR2_Reporter.exe, GTR2TimeTrialInstaller.exe, gtr2wx.exe
^ Test 1 - MRW Porsche 911 GT3 Cup @ VLM Mid-Ohio (35 AI): Crash on outlap, no time accel
^ Try GTR2Config.exe Shader Levels
^ Auto: I know it crashes on auto since that's what it was until now.
^ Test 1 - [DirectX 7] MRW Porsche 911 GT3 Cup @ VLM Mid-Ohio (35 AI): No crash after 5 laps, no time accel
^ Test 2 - [DirectX 8] MRW Porsche 911 GT3 Cup @ VLM Mid-Ohio (35 AI): No crash after 5 laps, no time accel
^ Test 3 - [DirectX 9] MRW Porsche 911 GT3 Cup @ VLM Mid-Ohio (35 AI): No crash after 5 laps, no time accel
^ Test 4 - [DirectX 9] MRW Ginetta G55 GT4 @ VLM Sebring 12h (24 AI): No crash after 5 laps, no time accel
^ Test 5 - [DirectX 9] FIA GT 2003 Chrysler Viper GTS @ 2012 Mosport (24 AI): No crash after 5 laps, no time accel
^ Test 6 - [DirectX 9] MRW Porsche 911 GT3 Cup @ VLM Mid-Ohio (35 AI): Crash on lap 2, no time accel
^ Test 7 - [DirectX 8] MRW Porsche 911 GT3 Cup @ VLM Mid-Ohio (35 AI): No crash after 10 laps, no time accel
^ Test 8 - [DirectX 8] FIA GT 2003 Chrysler Viper GTS @ 2012 Mosport (24 AI): No crash after 10 laps, no time accel
^ Test 9 - [DirectX 8] MRW Ginetta G55 GT4 @ VLM Sebring 12h (24 AI): No crash after 10 laps, no time accel
^ Test 10 - [DirectX 8] MRW Porsche 911 GT3 Cup @ VLM Mid-Ohio (35 AI): No crash after 15 laps
^ Test 11 - [DirectX 8] MRW Ginetta G55 GT4 @ VLM Sebring 12h (24 AI): No crash after 15 laps
^ Test 12 - [DirectX 8] FIA GT 2003 Chrysler Viper GTS @ 2012 Mosport (24 AI): No crash after 15 laps
^ Test 12.1 [DirectX 8] FIA GT 2003 Chrysler Viper GTS @ 2012 Mosport (24 AI) - Qualifying: No crash after 3 laps
^ Test 12.2 [DirectX 8] FIA GT 2003 Chrysler Viper GTS @ 2012 Mosport (24 AI) - Race: No crash after 5 laps (quite a few restarts, too, to get weather right)
^ Test 13 - [DirectX 8] MRW Porsche 911 GT3 Cup @ VLM Mid-Ohio (35 AI) - Qualifying: No crash after 4 laps, time accel to end
^ Test 14 - [DirectX 8] MRW Porsche 911 GT3 Cup @ VLM Mid-Ohio (35 AI) - Race: No crash after 5 laps
^ Test 15 - [DirectX 8] MRW Ginetta G55 GT4 @ VLM Sebring 12h (24 AI) - Qualifying: no crash after 3 laps, 10min pre time accel, time accel to end
^ Test 16 - [DirectX 8] MRW Ginetta G55 GT4 @ VLM Sebring 12h (24 AI) - Race: No crash after 5 laps
^ COME ON THAT'S GOT TO BE STABLE...


2019-11-11

- Tweaking NVIDIA Profiles again:
- Testing Super GT GT500 @ Imola GP
- Good: This guy's profile: https://www.racedepartment.com/thre...ing-crashes-only-in-gtr2.175060/#post-3066778
- Tweaks:
- GTR2 NVIDIA Profile - Custom 1 4x AA 2x Sparse SS.nip (original): Significant improvement over in-game Level 4 AA; Still clear aliasing on white lines up close
- GTR2 NVIDIA Profile - Custom 2 +16x Ani +Clamp Tex Fil +Tex Fil HQ.nip: Good improvement to texture filtering; A little improved white line aliasing
- GTR2 NVIDIA Profile - Custom 3 +8x Sparse SS.nip: Good improvement to white line aliasing
- GTR2 NVIDIA Profile - Custom 4 +8x AA.nip: Little or no improvement
- GTR2 NVIDIA Profile - Custom 5 +8xQ AA.nip: Little or no improvement
- GTR2 NVIDIA Profile - Custom 6 +FXAA.nip: Small to Medium Improvement
- GTR2 NVIDIA Profile - Custom 7 -FXAA +16xQ AA.nip: Little bit worse AA on white lines
- GTR2 NVIDIA Profile - Custom 8 +32x AA.nip: Little to no improvement
- GTR2 NVIDIA Profile - Custom 9 +FXAA.nip: Small to Medium Improvement again; Definitely hurting FPS - probably don't need 32x AA; FXAA also helps AA in the mirrors
- GTR2 NVIDIA Profile - Custom 10 +8x AA.nip: Small degradation to AA but almost okay; Little bit better FPS but not much (maybe +10fps)
- GTR2 NVIDIA Profile - Custom 11 +8xQ AA.nip: Small improvement to AA; FPS seemed okay
- GTR2 NVIDIA Profile - Custom 12 +16xQ AA.nip: Small-ish improvement to AA; FPS okay
- GTR2 NVIDIA Profile - Custom 13 +32x AA.nip: Small-ist improvement to AA; FPS okay
- GTR2 NVIDIA Profile - Custom 14 +32xS AA.nip: Small degradation to AA; FPS same-ish
- GTR2 NVIDIA Profile - Custom 15 +Enhance AA Mode.nip: Crash on startup
- GTR2 NVIDIA Profile - Custom 16 +Override AA Mode.nip: Crash on startup
- GTR2 NVIDIA Profile - Custom 17 -Override AA Mode +8x SS AA Trans SS.nip: Much worse and unstable AA on white lines
- Settled on GTR2 NVIDIA Profile - Custom 13 +32x AA.nip
- Crashed (graphics driver stopped responding) Official FIA GT 2003 Chrysler Viper GTS-R @ VLM Mid-Ohio with 24 AI after a few laps
- Test "GTR2 NVIDIA Profile - Custom 1 4x AA 2x Sparse SS.nip (original)" Official FIA GT 2003 Chrysler Viper GTS-R @ VLM Mid-Ohio with 24 AI:
- Test 1: No crash after 12 laps, time accel 20min, +8 laps more
- Test 2: No crash after 6 laps, time accel 20 min
- Test 3: No crash after 10 laps, time accel 10min
- +16x Ani +Clamp Tex Fil +Tex Fil HQ
- Test 1: Crash on lap 5
- -Clamp Tex Fil -Tex Fil HQ
- Test 1: No crash after 10 laps, time accel 5min
- Test 2: Crash on lap 6, time accel 32min
- Disable Fullscreen Anti-Aliasing in GTR2 Video Options (GTR2Config.exe)
- Test 1: No crash after 10 laps, 10min time accel
- Test 2: Crash after 1 lap
- -16x Ani
- Test 1: No crash after 11 laps, 10min time accel
- Test 2: No crash after 11 laps, 20min time accel
- Test 3: No crash after 20 laps, 15min time accel
^ Stable, I guess...
- Test 4: No crash after 11 laps, 10min time accel
- TODO: Reset NVIDIA GTR2 Profile to defaults
- Test 1: ...

2019-10-31

- Crash: 2x "Driver stopped responding" error original Chrysler Viper (Official FIA GT 2003 Class) at 24 field VLM Mid-Ohio within 2-3 laps practice
- VLM track related?
- Tried at 2012 CMTP Mosport and no crashes within 6 laps
- VLM Sebring: No crash in 7 laps
- Try VLM Mid-Ohio again: Crash on outlap and lap 3 somewhat same corner
- Try VLM Sebring again: No crashes in 5 laps
- Try HQ Monza 04: No crash within 5 laps
- Try Silverstone GP 05: No crash within 5 laps
- Try VLM Mid-Ohio again: Crash on lap 9
- Try VLM Fuji: No crashes in 10 laps
- Try VLM Mid-Ohio again without Borderless Window Gaming running: Crash on lap 11
- Try VLM Mid-Ohio again without Borderless Window Gaming/TrackIR running: No crash in 12 laps + time accel to the end (120min practice)
- Try again, BWG running but no TrackIR: Crashed pretty quickly
- Try no BWG/no TrackIR again: Crash on lap 5; Time accel'd 20min to start (120min practice)
^ All tests above were still running: Firefox, CAM, Windows Task Manager, 3x Windows Explorer windows, SimCommander
- ~ No BWG/TIR/XLS/FF: Crash on lap 3 after 20min time accel (12min prac)
^ I expect FF or XLS, probably FF since I had that running most often with crashes than XLS
- ~ Only SimCommander: No crash in 6 laps
- ~ and restart GTR2: No crash in 6 laps
- ~ + FF: No crash in 6 laps
- ~ + XLS - FF: No crash in 6 laps
- ~ + FF + XLS: No crash in 14 laps
^ Is the problem too many apps/windows for the graphics driver to handle?
^ Maybe...googled, found registry TdrLevel=0 which disables all timeout detection and recovery so maybe will try that
- All regular apps loaded now + Reg TdrLevel=0: Crash on lap 2 (video froze and windows didn't recover - as expected)
- ~ + Delete Reg TdrLevel + Add TdrLevel=TdrDdiLevel=64: Crash on lap 1 (video froze and windows took a long time 20sec+ to recover)
- ~ + Delete Reg Tdr* + Update NVIDIA Drivers (Clean Install - NVIDIA Profiles Reset): No crash in 6 laps
- ~ + Redo NVIDIA Inspector Anti-Alias Settings (16xS) for GTR2: Crashed in 1-2 laps
^ Aliasing looks no better than anti-aliasing disabled?
- ~ + Undo Anti-Alias Changes above: No crash in 6 laps
- ~ + Set Anti-Aliasing 8xS: No crash in 6 laps
^ Aliasing doesn't look much better, if at all, then disabled...
^ Good / FPS decent: GTR2 Level 4 AA, NVIDIA Enhance, Trans Supersampling AA_MODE_REPLACE_MODE_ALPHA_TEST, FXAA ON, Ani User-defined, 16x, Texture filtering negative lod bias Clamp, Text filtering quality High-Quality, Texture filtering trileaner optimization off
^ Stability unknown
- ~ Test New AA Stability: Crash on lap 9
- ~ + Disable FXAA: Crash on lap 10
- ~ + Disable all AA, keep Texture Filtering: No crashes in 20 laps

 

[Bjarne Hansen]

My theory is that some DX9 shaders have small bugs that are hanging in their code on some weird situations and that causes the whole graphics driver to crash.

I know for a fact that is not the case. As I have api traced all of them also those in my upgraded 1.70 version.

Your problem is for sure a conflict with one or more of the add on programs you are using.
I would start with removing Fraps as that is made for Win XP and even in it's heydays was a problematic program.

 

[Shovas]

I would start with removing Fraps as that is made for Win XP and even in it's heydays was a problematic program.

Yep, did that At one point I absolutely reset everything, undid overclocks, stopped all possible extra apps and traybar icons, everything I could think of to default, and I still got crashes.

After choosing DirectX 8 I'm still going strong, no 'driver has stopped responding' errors since and I've put in way, *way* more laps and combinations of cars/tracks then it usually takes to get a crash

*fingerscrossed*