Infinite Looping Issue
There is some talk going around regarding the notorious "Infinite Loop" or NV Loop/BSOD error that have been plaguing many people using later versions of the Detonator XP drivers. Apparently, the problem can occur with different results when running games or applications that utilize the OpenGL or Direct3D API's.

Common error symptoms that have become evident in OpenGL or Direct3D include spontaneous reboots, hardware lockups, insufficient virtual memory error (Windows XP) or Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) describing an "infinite loop" error with an NVIDIA driver, more notably with the nv4_disp.dll file. A sample error message reads as follows:

"Stop 0x000000EA or THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER -
A device driver problem is causing the system to pause indefinitely. Typically, this problem is caused by a display driver waiting for the video hardware to enter an idle state. This might indicate a hardware problem with the video adapter or a faulty video driver."

This problem has been reported to occur when using the Detonator XP drivers version 23.11 in Windows XP and in some cases, Windows 2000. Therefore, revert to using an earlier version of the driver, anywhere from 12.41 and above with the 21.83 driver version being preferred. There is no definite answer as to whether or not this issue is more of a hardware vendor or software related issue, but a safe bet to say that it is a combination of both. It turns out that the video drivers were allocating too many system resources, more notably RAM to the video card, putting too much load on the memory timing procedure. This problem seems to occur more frequently with a certain driver set, version 23.11, more so in a few motherboard chipsets ranging anywhere from Intel to VIA.

Both motherboard chipset manufactures, Microsoft and NVIDIA are currently working together to alleviate the problem. Please check with chipset manufactures regarding any new patches or updates made for your particular motherboard model. One of these chipset manufactures, VIA, has come out with a BETA version of the patch that has reportedly corrected the issue for some and is available here. VIA's latest revision of their "4in1" chipset driver suite, version 4.37, includes the new patch and is readily available on their driver download page.

If the problem persists, the problem may lie with lower quality motherboard memory or aggressive memory settings found in the motherboard BIOS that must be set to factory defaults or lower. Please check with your motherboard manufacture for preferred BIOS settings.The following are BIOS memory settings for the VIA chipset:

DDR266 motherboards (Recommended settings):

PC133 motherboards (Recommended settings):

Motherboard settings information comes courtesy of www.VIAarena.com