DiRT 2 executable has stopped responding (NVIDIA GPU NOT ATI)

[Dark Zero]

Okay, I was considering getting DiRT 2, and I downloaded the full game off torrents to see how it runs before I buy it because games are ridiculously expensive in my currency. It gave me that error whenever I try to start it up. Never hits the AMD logo.

So then I figure I'll check it on steam, and voila, there's the demo! So I download it. Same problem. I was looking through at another thread about this, and I started it up, switched to Task Manager, set core affinity to 1 core, then loaded back up the game. It went to AMD, then Intel, then codemasters, then etc etc all the advertising and logos possible. When I got to the screen before I assume a "press enter" or something would pop up, it crashes and gives me the same error. I repeated the process and sure enough it does the same thing, whereas if I don't fiddle with core affinity it crashes before the AMD logo shows up. After seeing AMD logo I changed to core affinity all cores once more, and it still loaded all the logos etc but crashes in the same spot as before.

I have no idea what could be causing this. Due to nVidia GPUs, I obviously cannot use higher than DX10. My drivers are beyond the latest, updating them is not a possibility. My laptop's specifications are as follows:

Intel Core i7-950 @ 3.07GHz (not the mobility ones)
6GB DDR3 triple channel memory 1066MHz
nVidia GeForce GTX 280m
realtek integrated sound card
Windows Vista Ultimate SP1

Any help or ideas on rectifying the problem would be greatly appreciated.

[sarcacid]

Can you post what it says in the "View problem details" of the crash dialog? That might be helpful to diagnose the problem.

[Dark Zero]

Can you post what it says in the "View problem details" of the crash dialog? That might be helpful to diagnose the problem.

Here you go. Copied and pasted as-is:

Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: dirt2.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 4b0e8623
Fault Module Name: nvd3dum.dll
Fault Module Version: 8.17.11.9555
Fault Module Timestamp: 4afe4f15
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0041bed1
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: fd00
Additional Information 2: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160
Additional Information 3: fd00
Additional Information 4: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160

[sarcacid]

Your video card drivers are out of date - you have 195.55, the latest version is 195.62. Try updating them and see if that helps.

[Dark Zero]

Your video card drivers are out of date - you have 195.55, the latest version is 195.62. Try updating them and see if that helps.

*sigh* not AGAIN! I was there last week and they only showed me 186.81. I'll tell you in a while how it works, will take a few minutes to download and install

[Dark Zero]

Alright it works now, thanks. Now hopefully batman works better...

[sarcacid]

Cool... hope you like the demo.

[Dark Zero]

It's very fun, I won the first race by like a tiny TINY margin (literally a photo finish). I did a lil dance, closed it down, reported here then slept XD

[eduardo_ni]

DiRT 2 executable -problem - i have ati 5850 what should i do????

[sss8888]

DiRT 2 executable problem,im using the XPS Notebook

Intel Core 2 Dua Processor T8100
3GB Ram
NVIDIA GeFORCE 8600M GT

[sss8888]

Here is the problem details,please someone can help me.

Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: dirt2_game.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 4b042091
Fault Module Name: dirt2_game.exe
Fault Module Version: 1.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 4b042091
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00aae252
OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: fd00
Additional Information 2: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160
Additional Information 3: fd00
Additional Information 4: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160

[Pooh]

Yeah, since I bought it one entry into the game out of 20ish... The rest are spam with c000005 in different dlls or game exe after the movies and black screen with legal mumbo-jumbo.
Starting to be worst than my GTA 4 experience and nobody in staff gives a damn.

L.E. Hey to all of you with the crashes and went through all of the "fixes" go into "Documents\My Games\DiRT2\hardwaresettings\hardware_settings_con fig.xml and change the audio mixing from "rapture3d" to "software" and vice-versa if any of them get you errors on startup. Try this everytime you get a crash.
Would love the feedback also.