Ask the Doctor: 0x00000 OMG

Posted 03/27/2009 at 9:20am | by The Maximum PC Staff

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I am becoming increasingly frustrated trying to fix a problem I’m having with a videocard driver (I think). My computer is crashing in the middle of games. The error message I get when I reboot is: STOP 0x000000EA THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER. I have searched forums and tried different things, but nothing seems to work except when I install an old videocard (Nvidia 6800 GS).

I’m running an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor, Asus P5K motherboard, EVGA 8800 GT GPU, and 4GB of RAM. I also have an Nvidia 9800 GTX+, and when I installed it, the problem became worse.

If it were just one videocard that was causing the problem, the Doctor would suspect something was wrong with the card itself. But since you’ve tried three cards and the problem affects only the newer two, the Doctor believes you’re suffering from either old drivers or a faulty power supply. We can’t tell from your email whether you’ve already tried updating to the latest Nvidia drivers, but you should reinstall the latest drivers whenever you change cards. You can find Nvidia drivers at (surprise!) www.nvidia.com.

If that doesn’t help, the problem could be your power supply—either it’s failing or it doesn’t have the juice to run high-powered videocards like the 8800 GT and 9800 GTX. 700W should be enough. Just make sure to buy a name-brand PSU; we recommend PC Power & Cooling.

SUBMIT YOUR QUESTION Are flames shooting out of the back of your rig? First, grab a fire extinguisher and douse the flames. Once the pyrotechnic display has fizzled, email the doctor at doctor@maximumpc.com for advice on how to solve your technological woes.