01 Jan
Posted by i.nconspicuo.us as Tech/Web
So after installing Windows Vista, I’ve been getting the following error occassionally: Display Driver Stopped Responding and Has Recovered. Sometimes my system will freeze for a little while then the screen will go black and reappear, sometimes the screen will just go black and come then come back up. Either way, when the screen comes back up, the Windows Vista Aero theme is no longer enabled – all window transparency is gone. I’m starting to wonder if my video card just doesn’t have enough juice to hack the Windows Vista Aero theme – 256MB PCIE card should be able handle it though, right?
Has anyone else encountered problems with the nvlddmkm nVidia driver?
Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.
I thought this problem had left me after I installed this new nVidia driver, but the problem came back… randomly. I can’t figure out for the life of me what is causing this problem. My computer will go a couple days to a couple weeks with no problems, then out of nowhere, I get little grainy dots all over my screen and I get the driver failure message. It’s so random that it makes it nearly impossible to diagnose. Some common causes of the nvlddmkm display driver error can be found here.
204 Responses
Same Problem
February 16th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
1I’v had the same problem since I’v started using Vista, and I have a GeForce Go 7300 (128 MB). That should be good enough to handle the graphics, and yet whenever I try to watch video’s or do something remotely challenging for the graphics (like try to download high quality/3D wallpaper) the screen goes black and I get the same error message.
Anyone found a solution to this yet?
i.nconspicuo.us
March 26th, 2007 at 12:30 am
2This article will solve your problems:
http://i.nconspicuo.us/2007/03/21/nvidia-windows-vista-driver-update-will-it-solve-nvlddmkm-driver-issue/
nVidia nvlddmkm Vista Driver Fix - Here is the Solution | i.nconspicuo.us
March 28th, 2007 at 10:47 am
3[...] ever since I installed Windows Vista on my computer I had been having this apparently common nVidia driver problem. Recently, I installed the most recent nVidia graphics drivers and have not had the problem since. [...]
Dave
May 21st, 2007 at 11:33 am
4I just bought the NVidia geforce 8600 bfg version 256 ddr3 surprise surprise, while playing world of warcraft i got the same issue, screen goes black and flickers and windows declares that the nvlddmkm driver has failed and has been succesfully recovered, after searching around i did find the latest updates for the NVLddmkm driver for vista, and so far no problems. here is the link:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_100.65.html
Joost
May 29th, 2007 at 4:01 am
5I GOT THE SOLUTION!!!!
Just open the Nvidia control pannel
select advanced 3d settings and push
search for the game you have
select (where possible) application controled
and it works!!!!
Joost
May 31st, 2007 at 10:13 am
6I found out sometimes this isn’t enough. If you still got problems.
set expentionlimit ON. some programs can’t handle an unlimited expention.
Joost
June 2nd, 2007 at 9:12 am
7The most common problem is simply the powersupply. I got 430watt witch is not enough. I’ll advice 650watt
Bob
June 4th, 2007 at 2:55 am
8Mine is a dual boot system (Home XP SP2 , vista Home Premium 32-bit). I originally had FX 5500 card which had no problms (vista installed its own graphics drivers for it).
Then I decided to go for GF 7600GT 256 MB DDR3 card to boost the performance in vista. The card had a problem in XP as it would freeze and would not play video files. After search, I upgraded my nForce chipset drivers and the problem was fixed for XP.
Vista however is and remains challenging. I get, probably 4 out of 5 times and only during booting: “the display driver stopped and has recovered” with nvlddmkm into the error message. I don’t have games and I tried the newest nvidia drivers (158.18 then yesterday 158.24) from nvidia website: no luck. It does not seem to affect the system i.e. it happens, recovers and that’s it. The card manufacturer suggested to increase the AGP aperture in system BIOS to 128 and PCI latency timer to 128, but neither did work for me. The video seems to be working fine even when the error message occurs. My RAM is 2 GB PC3200 and my system is not overclocked.
drumthrasher109
June 5th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
9This has just recently started happening to me, only when I play NASCAR SimRacing.
AMD Athlon 64 3700+
1GB DDR400 PC3200 RAM
Vista Ultimate 32-bit
GeForce 7300GS PCI-E 512MB
JP
June 7th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
10I have been trying for months to get rid of this issue on my system. The only thing I have found that works so far is slowing down the GPU from 350Mhz to 320 Mhz. The system would freeze when ever I launched Google Earth (my test app to see if the a fix worked) when ever the GPU was set from 321-350 Mhz. I know that this should not be required, but I would rather have slightly slower GPU and a stable system than a system that freezes when ever I open any basic app like Google Earth or even the built in chess game. Come on Nvidia, get this problem resolved. Is it a bad batch of GPUs that did not show its flaw until Vista, or is it just bad drivers?
P4 2.8 w/1MB Cahce
1.5GB RAM
V32U
GeForce 6200 PCI 256MB
Scott
June 9th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
11Im having the same problem!
I had a…
Intel Pentium D 2.86 GHz
1.5 GB RAM
GeForce 7600 GT
Vista Ultimate 32-Bit
This was fine everything played great and i had no problems, as soon as it took out a 512 MB RAM and replaced with a GB so that i had 2GB RAM, this is when the problems occured. i think it might be to do with how much memory the computer has.
Any Help? as i do want to keep 2GB RAM.
drumthrasher109
June 11th, 2007 at 4:49 am
12@Scott: I heard this may be a powersupply issue, if you don’t have enough power, or very little, then that could be the problem. But it could be something else…
Scott
June 12th, 2007 at 2:20 am
13Ok thanks, you think maybe a 500W will be enough or shall i go larger to make sure?
drumthrasher109
June 12th, 2007 at 8:24 am
14Probably, it depends on your hardware.
What does your computer have?
Joost
June 12th, 2007 at 9:58 am
15It depents on your power supply a more powerfull powersupply will solf it. Some video cards require a lot of power wich is sometimes more than your current powersupply can handle.
I you take more power then possible you will get the nvlddmkm error message.
Scott
June 12th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
16My Comp Spec is…
Mobo – ECS P4M89OT-M but just purchased a Foxconn 945G7MD-8EKRS
CPU – Intel Pentium D 820 at 2.80 GHz
RAM – 1.5 GB (do have another 1GB stick but cant put it as i get the error when i do)
Graphics – Inno 3D Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT 256MB
Got a 450W power supply at the moment but just purchased at 600W you think maybe should work? plus with the new motherboard?
Joost
June 13th, 2007 at 12:48 am
17I think it will work, it solved the problem at a friend of me.
A new motherboard only wont fix the problem.
The problem occurs when you need a bit more of power when it get’s busy in a game. When it gets busy you need more then 450W but less then 600W so it will solve the problem.
Only if you are planning to run your system in SLI you will need 850W.
Scott
June 13th, 2007 at 12:56 am
18Ok thanks, going to purchase another motherboard anyway as the one i have was a just a budget one to get me going, seen a few and the Abit IL9 Pro caught my attention, any suggestions?
cheers.
Joost
June 13th, 2007 at 1:19 am
19The most stable motherboards are from Nforce.
the 180 chipset asus build is crap, Nforce rebuilded it and it’s the most stable motherboard there is.
http://www.nvidia.com/page/nforce_600i.html
And it aign’t that expensive either.
Scott
June 13th, 2007 at 4:39 am
20The new power supply hasn’t solved my problems but i have killed 2 birds with one stone as my old comp’s power supply broke anyway so ive out my 450w in that and that works and i guess ive got a newer 600w one in mine so its all good!
not sure about mother boards now though, need a vista enabled one and for around £60 maybe, any ideas?
and just anoter quiery…would going back to xp maybe solce the problem? if so ow would i do it?
Thanks in advance
i.nconspicuo.us
June 13th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
21I think XP would definitely solve the problem. I think this only a Vista issue.
drumthrasher109
June 13th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
22No I had the same problems in XP a few times.
i.nconspicuo.us
June 13th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
23Really? Guess I was wrong about that. This is really starting to irk me… I can’t find a solution anywhere, though my computer has been running stable for the past 3 days… no problems whatsoever, but it’s usually only a matter of time before i get the nvlddmkm driver message.
Could it be bad memory? Or could it simply be an nvidia driver conflict?
Scott
June 13th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
24Well mine is absolutly fine when i have 1.5 GB of RAM in, but soon as i put 2 GB in thats when i get the errors so it must be a memory problem, i did hear that the Nvidia graphics cards cannot handle 2GB or more memory but that just seems stupid…Cant wait to find a solution lol.
Scott
June 14th, 2007 at 12:29 am
25Also….Going to purchase a Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650 any good?
drumthrasher109
June 14th, 2007 at 5:27 am
26If you have questions about getting new hardware I would post it on computerforums.org (say drumthrasher sent you).
I’m starting to think this has to do with how much video memory you got. I think 256MB for video cards isn’t enough now…
Joost
June 14th, 2007 at 6:53 am
27265MB Videocards will do the most cards got 256MB also the new ones….
drumthrasher109
June 14th, 2007 at 7:58 am
28I got 256MB in mine, but most newer ones are 384+.
PC
June 15th, 2007 at 10:21 am
29I get the same message except I get it when I start my AoE 3, and then the AoE 3 main screen comes out distorted, and the program would soon crash and that balloon would pop up. Isn’t AoE 3 supposed to be compatible with Vista?
ck
June 15th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
30I’ve had this problem for awhile now on my laptop, and its getting abit fustrating. Total system formatting temporarily fixes the problem until I run my laptop with dual screen or even just multiple simple applications.. such as msn together with macromedia dreamweaver etc.. The problem is more of a trigger one for me, in the sense that the problem will not occur at all after a format, or retning to factory settings, until it has occured once, and once that happens, the error will keep repeating itself at random moments.
My error occurs with about 3 seconds of a black screen, followed by this error:
Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered
Went to acer support centre trice now, twice they tried to diagnose but are unable to. So after upgrading all my graphics drivers (and having the problem reoccuring) and testing my
hardware, they finally give up and replace my whole mainboard.
Came home yesterday with it, and within 1 hour of use, error occurs.
Im running:
Windows Vista
Intel Core Duo Processor T7200 with 2.0ghz
2GB of RAM
Nvidia GeForce Go 7300 (128MB) with up to 384MB
Scott
June 18th, 2007 at 4:39 am
31Gone back to XP Pro, stayed with 1.5GB RAM and no problems at all now!
When the problems get sorted ill go back to Vista Ultimate and uprgade back to 2GB RAM….for now ill play games with a smile lol!
Cliff344
July 4th, 2007 at 8:54 am
32I have same problem as well. Running Asus 590 Sli intel, with dual 7950GT cards. Have had this problem since the day I built the system (at the release of Vista). I will never buy another Nvidia based product ever again. I have always used ATI without any issues. I cant understand how Nvidia can claim these cards are “Vista Ready” when there obviously not! I spent over $500 on graphics cards that essentially are useless! There has to be 10’s of thousands of people with same issue yet Nvidia has done nothing to solve the problem. Didn’t Microsoft release vista to all of the harware makers so that they could make their products vista compatible prior to it’s release? Are you going to tell me that Nvidia did not experience this problem with it’s first driver sets for Vista? I think there should be some kind of legal class action against Nvidia for selling products that don’t stand up to thier claim of being “Vista Ready”! You don’t here of any problems with the ATI cards do you?
drumthrasher109
July 5th, 2007 at 7:45 am
33Yeah nVidia is still pissing me off, even newer beta drivers still fuck up, I still can’t play NASCAR Sim Racing!! (lol)
I was thinking about switching back to XP MCE05 because it was flawless with its drivers, but since Vista is faster i’ll stick with it because of that.
Cliff344
July 5th, 2007 at 11:33 am
34Yep none of the beta drivers have done a bit of good for me. I sit back each day waiting for new drivers to be released in hopes that they may have a fix but it never happens. I have tried every driver issued since mid 06 and still not soved the problem. I read about all these different things people have done to fix this and none worked for me. I tried them all. Still same crap. My only suggestion now is what many are doing. Add a second drive and make a dual boot system. Use XP on one to do your everyday stuff (things you need a reliable system for), and Vista on the other. I don’t see Vista being my answer for at leat another year. Too many issues and driver problems still. And I want to thank Visioneer and Logitech for standing behind their products and creating Vista drivers for their hardware. Same crap they pulled when we upgraded from ME to XP. NO SUPPORT! If visioneer thinks I am going to buy a third scanner now because they don’t have driver support they better think again. I will buy from another who stands behind their products. I have 2 perfectly good scanners that won’t work because of lack of support! BUllsh*t!!!! Same goes for Logitech. I spent lots of $ on an MX700 mouse that defaults to a simple 2 button mouse on Vista. I could go buy a $5 and achieve the same functionality! No more Logitech form me. I will stick with microsoft keyboards and mice. Heck I have a keyboard on my kids system thats 6 years old and microsoft fully suports it for Vista. Cant say that about the others now can you!!!
Scott
July 6th, 2007 at 10:37 am
35Wonderd if anyone could help me?
Purchased the Asus P5N-E SLI NForce 680i mobo today, installed everything and when booting the pc it comes up with error loading operating system, put my old ECS mobo in and works fine, any help?
Scott
Reinaldo Pimentel
August 16th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
36i agree with you! i have 2 gts 8800 320mb in sli mode and with 2gb it works flawless, but with 4 gb of ram (on a 32bit vista windows equals 2.3gb) this problem comes out! taking out 2gb everything is great!
David
September 3rd, 2007 at 12:36 pm
37Just discovered this page, and I too have been having the same issue. A few months ago, running pre-16x.xx drivers, the flickering seemed better–it only happened after I played a game. Now it happens during. Half Life II is almost unplayable at 1600×1200. I’m running dual 20″ LCDs at 1600×1200 each. 650W power supply with a dual 12V rail. Dual 7950GT’s w/512MB ea. on an Abit KN8-SLI nforce4 board with an AMD X2 4400 CPU. 2GB RAM.
My issue ONLY happens on whichever screen I have designated as the primary. I’ve tried running both screens off one card, both off the other, one on each in the primary plug, one on each in the secondary, same results every time. Desktop wallpaper seems to make it worse. Sometimes my screen itself will flash a message saying it’s not set at the optimum setting–ie, the display driver is very unstable and is trying to change the res on it’s own to something the LCD doesn’t support, then it flicks back to the proper res. Computer never actually freezes, it’s only a display issue. I’ve gone through Nvidia tech support for a month and a half with no resolution (LOL…no pun intended). They do have a vista problems reporting page now, but no idea yet if that’ll lead to any solutions. I’ve tried every driver they offer, with the same results.
Ironically, I dual boot XP Media Center, and as soon as I installed the newest Nvidia 16x driver…guess what…the flickering started in that OS too!
Seems to happen whenever I have any kind of windows open, sometimes there’s graininess or “sparkling” white dots all over the primary screen, sometimes they’re just to the left of an open window and follow the window around if I move it. REbooting will temporarily fix it, but not for long. The graininess occurs almost right away in half life II, although not immediately.
Finally, I’ve found that this issue ONLY happens when both screens are set to 1600×1200. If I bump the primary down to 1280×1024 (but leave the secondary at 1600×1200) it’s fine.
After months of this problem I am almost 100% convinced it’s a driver issue. Before upgrading my motherboard, video card and power supply and when I was still using XP Pro, I used to get the actual error message saying the driver had stopped responding and had recovered. I used to have a 6800 Ultra with 256MB Ram. Given similar problems in different OS, different motherboards, different video cards, different power supplys…it ain’t the hardware folks. And I don’t believe it’s windows, at least not entirely. Nvidia needs to get their act together and fix this. Incidentally I use an ATI X600 card at work, driving two 20″ 1600×1200 Dell LCD’s under XP Pro..and guess what? Nary an issue. Now I won’t be playing any games on it as it’s a low-end card and at work…but pretty sad when a low-end ATI in this respect outperforms TWO high-end NVidias.
I plan on trying a few of the things suggested here. I’ve been trying to roll the driver back to older versions with no luck so far…
mike
October 25th, 2007 at 2:22 am
38i got this with my old pc and now my laptop:
T7250
2GB RAM
8600M GT
billee
October 26th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
39NEW BETA DRIVER RELEASED TODAY – OCTOBER 26, 2007 – file name 158.18_forceware_winvista_32bit_english_whql.exe can be downloaded NOW!
I have installed the Beta drivers just moments ago and as of this writing, absolutely no “display driver nvlddmkm blah blah blah”!!
Now keep in mind that I haven’t tried to do anything extensive to stress out my GeFORCE 8800 GTX card, but I was so excited to NOT get that dang error message that I had to tell someone! hehe
If things go well – God help us ALL! – I will describe in further detail as to how I went about doing everything I did PRIOR (i.e. formatting, re-installing Vista, which Vista Updates I did NOT install, etc.) to the installation of the Beta driver, but for now, let’s ALL keep our fingers crossed and hope NVIDIA has FINALLY come through for us …
Again, I am leery, yet cautiously optomistic, because I have been scouring these forums for such a long time I almost gave up and now I have at least a glimmer of hope.
Stay tuned my fellow sufferers, and I hope to be back in a day or 2 to give you all an update!
Cooper
November 9th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
40Has anyone tried the Nvidia hotfixes? I had this same problem but after installing the hotfixes and restarting it fixed it.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/windows_vista_hotfixes.html
Install as many of these as you can. I think it was the one that prevented crashes during memory leaks that fixed the problem for me. Hope this helps.
Knus Ethus
November 11th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
41I had the same error with my new XPS 720h2c, turned out 1 of my 8800GTX cards was defect and when i took it out of the rig everything ran perfectly.
I spent a total of over 30 hours this weekend trying to get it fixed and i tried countless different things who seemed to work for others.
Im now thinking that since there is a ton of people with the same problem but very few with the same sollution, that this error msg comes whenever your pc should have frozen completely from some random error resulting in a hard-reboot.
I read a statement from Nvidia that said Vista has a recovery program that restores the system without the need for restarting the computer and that this was causing all the problems. In my eyes this is clearly not the case, if this error msg said annything about the spesific problem then would not be so manny different sollutions.
Since almost everyone with this issue has nvidia cards and/or nvidia MBs im assuming that nvidia did a realy poor job adapting drivers and everything else to Vista and there is a 1000 glitches and buggs that will make your computer crash. And whenever it crashes Vista will black out your screen, restore the system and show this msg.
john smith
November 15th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
42I have the same problem too, with an 8600 GTS, 480W Dual Fan ATx Power Supply, k8v-vm motherboard, with only 1GB of RAM. Now is nvidia drivers causing the problem or is it that i only need more GB of RAM.(bout to by another 1GB of RAM)
drumthrasher109
November 16th, 2007 at 7:41 am
43Guys it IS the drivers in Vista.
I’m dual-booting Vista Ultimate 32-bit (169.04 ForceWare I think…) and XP Pro SP2 (latest BETA for XP I think…), and I don’t get these problems AT ALL in XP, so i’m pretty damn sure its the drivers for Vista, or just Vista itself.
cliff344
November 17th, 2007 at 12:42 am
44Well I have some sucess by adjusting my memory speed. I am running ddr2 that’s supposed to run @ 800mhz. I bumped it down to 700 and used auto (optimal) on my memory timings and this problem has 95% dissappeared. Before I could not run 3dmark at all. Now not only can I run it, but can also run Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas without a problem. I do maybee see this error still a couple times a week, but not every 5 min like i had before I made this change. I didn’t really see much change in performance by slowing down the memory. A small price to pay for now being able to run my Vista.
Phillip
November 18th, 2007 at 6:42 am
45I also had a problem like anyone else.
However I found a solution!!!
You have to change your colour settings to 16-bit(medium)
Afterwards i had no problems anymore.
daniel
November 26th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
46Hello,
I have found a fix that I would like to share. Go here:
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com
These people create drivers that seem to work far better than then ones I was trying to use from Microsoft, NVidia or Dell (and I have probably tried all the different ones that you have). Even if you have a different version of video card, OS or manufacturer than I do, there is still an answer at this site for you. It might be best to start by reading the Quick Start Guide in the FAQ here:
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9243
You will see below that I typed up a little more information. It is just to be clear about my experience in hopes that it is helpful. You might just skip all this and go right to the link above. It really is very easy. The guys at this site have not only done a great job with the drivers, but they also have documentation that is easy to follow and understand. Even then, the steps involved to get it working are minimal. If you are already aware of this site, or if they are mentioned just a few days ago on this same forum, then please forgive the verbosity. I was unaware of it until this evening and I have not seen mention of these guys on this or other forums.
To begin, I, like many of you, have hunted around these message boards for days searching in vain for a fix to the disruptive error:
“display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered”
Most of my experience with this error comes from playing Call of Duty 4. Before finding this fix, the best situation I could find was to install driver version 7.15.11.5669 from Microsoft Update. That would allow me to play for 20 ~ 30 before the error would occur. Fortunately, I just had to pause the game and wait for it to recover, but that was still unacceptable.
I have a Dell Inspiron 1720 with the following (pertinent) configuration:
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
3GB RAM
Windows Vista Ultimate
I read on the Quick Start Guide that their “160 series” drivers are the ones I need (you might use the same series or a different one). I went to the forum for those particular drivers here:
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showforum=72
I read around for a little bit to find the one that was the newest yet most stable (I chose 169.09), downloaded it and the INI file, followed the directions from the Quick Start Guide and the Vista “Have-Disk” steps here:
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11997
… gave it a reboot just to be sure, and it works absolutely beautifully. This evening I have played for 3 or 4 (don’t remember because I was having too much fun) flawless hours without a single error.
If you try these steps and have a similarly victorious experience, then please respond to this forum and/or spread the word. If you are happy with the results, you could even make a small contribution here:
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/donate
… instead of letting these guys get burned like the following person did for giving (most admirably) to the open source community:
http://codebetter.com/blogs/eric.wise/archive/2006/08/02/147915.aspx
drumthrasher109
November 27th, 2007 at 7:40 am
47I have an ATI card now, screw nVidia.
cliff344
November 27th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
48Good luck with your ATI card, as you will find you will have the same types of problems. I too pulled my Nvidia’s in hopes of an ATI HD2600 solving my problems. NOT! Same crap different brand. This problem is not just with Nvidia!
drumthrasher109
November 27th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
49Yeah its an HD 2600PRO (the 512MB one) and so far i’ve had ZERO problems running the same games i’ve had problems with with my nVidia ccrd.
Deepan
December 10th, 2007 at 3:29 am
50i am having the same problem with my BIG 8600 GTS….
But flickering squares and dots are continuously coming in 3D image setting preview..
All others (except games), are working fine..
NOt able to get in to any games. I’ve added the animated GIF url. Please check this out
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21678952@N02/2100705924/
Deepan
December 10th, 2007 at 3:33 am
51i am having the same problem with my BIG 8600 GTS….
But flickering squares and dots are continuously coming in 3D image setting preview..
All others (except games), are working fine..
NOt able to get in to any games.
anyone has the solution???? Plsssss..
Rob
December 11th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
52I was getting the same message and the problem occured when I was playing World of Warcraft. After looking closer at the graphics card requirements, I did not have adequate power. I have a 300W power supply and was using the NVIDIA 8600GT which requires minimum 325W. I changed the power supply to 600W and the problem is gone.
I don’t know that this will solve anyone else’s issues, but I thought I would share because it solved mine.
sadsad
December 27th, 2007 at 9:29 am
53Same problem
8800 Ultra with Vista.
Luckily it only does it with SOME games… mostly Crysis.
caduris
January 2nd, 2008 at 1:10 pm
54Hey
i’ve got Windows Vista Home Premium
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+
2.0GB RAM
NVidia GeForce FX 5500
My computer will not stop freezing and most of the time it is accompanied by a black screen and the nvlddmk message, god dammit, it just happened (that sounded phony but it ain’t) it usually happens when i’m on the internet, just happened again this time it just froze,
What’s the GOD D*** PROBLEM
I’m thinking about buying a new video card – whatcha recommend
Caduris
Paul Compton
January 3rd, 2008 at 9:53 am
55I temporarily sorted the problem by going into Nvidia control panel and lowering the clock speed of the GPU, this helped alot.
Give it a go or investigate further, but for me the slower you run either your GPU or RAM the more stable the system becomes.
MisUsedMadness
January 15th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
56Can I ask something do you know how to get the Nvidia GeForce Go 7300 to go from 128 to 384 i’v been trying to find out how for mare then a year can you please help
Reply to misusedmadness@gmail.com PLEASE
John
January 18th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
572×8800gtx sli, asus striker extreme mb, quadcore, vista ultimate, 2gram.
I have tried many things. Windows classic mode, XP compat mode, and now I am trying to undo the global overrides in Nvidia Control Panel. I read somewhere that they tend to be set on Multiple Displays as default w/ certain games (in my case Call of Duty 4)
I never had this problem with Vista 32, it didn’t start appearing until I clean-installed a new HD and upgraded to Vista Ultimate.
I will let you know if I have any luck.
robh
January 19th, 2008 at 9:40 am
58For what its worth… I had the same problem. After several troubleshooting hours, it turns out there wasn’t enough power supply for the card. I would suggest double checking the power requirements for the card you are using and be sure you have the adequate power supply for your PC.
Again, this is from the “for what it’s worth” category, dont know if it is the end all solution for everyone.
Skipper
February 1st, 2008 at 8:48 am
59I had the same problem. Tried out a variety of things suggested here. Am just waiting to see if it crashes again… Urgh, i hate vista…
Reinaldo Pimentel
February 1st, 2008 at 2:02 pm
60Hi, i must say that actually removing 2Gb of RAM resolved my problems for almost 1 month, but they came back… When i really tried to run a real heavy game (Call of duty 4) last week, i found another problem that i never had before. I lost VGA signal on XP! I found out that my PSU was not providing enough juice for the graphic cards. Since i have 2 PSU, 1 just for 2 graphic cards in SLI (wich it says SLI prepared) and 1 for the rest of the system, i decided divide the power needs amoung the 2 PSU’s.
without problems
In Xp the game is now working very very but very good, and for my surprise on vista everything is working good! Back again with the 4gb of ram and everything is working very nice no problems. Afterall the problem was the PSU but i can only confirm this if it pass more than 1 month
cheers!
Stuart
February 5th, 2008 at 4:36 am
61I have just built a complete new system and get this error.
I don’t have any games installed – but I can cause the error to occur simply by opening the “NVidia Control Panel” and the first thing it does is show the NVidea ‘eye’ rotating (I assum eusing Direct3D) and it comes up with the nvlddmkm error er=very two seconds or so – if I leave it doing this after about 5 or 6 errors I get the BSOD.
The try and diagnose the issue I have complete wiped the OS (Vista Business) and so the only software on the PC is inial install of Vista, the drivers for the motherboard (Asus P5K-E/Wifi) and NVidia Drivers (I have tried several, but currently trying 169.25). To be sure it isn’t older drivers I wiped the system to guarantee that only one set of driver were ever introduced.
Spec is:
ASUS P5K-E/Wifi
Crucial Ballistix 8500 (1066) 2GB (2×1)
Core 2 Duo E8400 (new wolfdale 3GHz 6MB L2)
Zotac 8800 GTS 512 (new G92 GPU)
Samsung SATA (x2) Spinpoint T166 500GB set up as siungle volume Striped (onbaord JMicro SATA)
NEC Optiarc DVD SATA
Brand new ANTEC TRUE POWER TRIO Power Supply 550W, specifically bought as I thought this would be a quality and quiet supply good enough for a single 8800GTS.
I have seen reference on my travels through the forums regarding bad hardware, insufficient power, dodgy installation of drivers – but no one has a definitive fix.
I have been running MemTest for the last 12 hours with no faults so far.
I feel helpless and very miffed…how can I tell if it is the card and how can I test if the power is delivering sufficient power? The PSU has two PCI-E power cables on it and I have tried both and tried using normal connectors in the card supplied connector.
Someone – anyone ?!?
Reinaldo Pimentel
February 6th, 2008 at 4:48 am
62I dont know if you have installed the HOTFIXES from microsoft regarding this issue if you did try to use a second PSU.
What i know in first hand experience is that 18A per rail in 12v line is not enougth even though if the total output is more than 56A.
See what you have in to 12v line. If you have more than 18A per rail, great and use the 1 that you have now just for the GTS. Use the second PSU just for the rest of the system. Turn ON your PSU using a paper clip by connecting the green pin to the black pin in the ATX connector like in this picture:
(http://www.dansdata.com/images/digidoc/runatx360.jpg)
Afterwards turn your system ON normally and see what happens.
hope this helps you!
PS – It doesn’t matter what watts your PSU have, if the 12v line rails dont have enougth juice (A) the system simply wont work nice.
Stuart
February 6th, 2008 at 4:59 am
63Ooo – thanks a lot Reinaldo … I shall try this – although first I need to find another PSU. I think I have an older Enermax 300W PSU in the loft…maybe this has a higher A rating.
The TRUEPOWER TRIO is a triple rail PSU with 18A per 12v – so it is probably just not up to the job…which is where my conclusions are currently heading.
I feel rather concerned about sticking a paperclip in the power connector!! me an electricity have an arms length relationship…I don’t want to damage anything or myself!
If it does turn out to be the PSU I shall be mightly miffed at Antec as this PSU is advertised as being NVidia SLI ready – so I figured as I was only running one card it would more than handle the load…
I shall investigate furtherand let you know.
Reinaldo Pimentel
February 6th, 2008 at 5:05 am
64Dont worry you will not hurt your self by doing that and you can believe me that it will not damage the PSU. If you do a google search on how to turn on an ATX PSU with a paper clip you will find enougth articles saying how to do it
. It is safe!
About the juice in the PSU, yah my second PSU says SLI ready, but the truth with JUST 2 GTS pluged i had that PROBLEM and some few others… Its bad advertising for then but what can i say?
be good and please let me post it ok?
Stuart
February 13th, 2008 at 7:51 am
65Reinaldo – I sent my PSU back (Amazon) and ordered a new one (Corsair TX 750W single rail from eBuyer).
This has arrived today, so I am anxious for the working day to end so I can get home and see if all my woes are solved or whether I am still in Vista hell…if this doesn’t fix it, then surely it has to be the graphcis card itself!
I’ll let you know my findings
Stuart
February 17th, 2008 at 5:26 am
66The Corsair TX750 was supposed to be a quiet (near silent even) PSU – but either I got a faulty PSU (perhaps the thermostatically controlled fan was broken) or their idea of quiet is nowhere near my idea of quiet!
It was the noisiest thing in the room – and even more disappointing, it didn’t address my driver issue
I am return the PSU as it is simply too noisy – so I still need to get a new PSU – I am now considering PC Power & Cooling 610W – as this is a rock solid PSU with excellent stable 12V supply on a single rail, although am a little concerned abou tits potential noise. The PSU is rated 28dBa minimum…which I think is quite noisy, yet all reviews keep commenting on how quiet it is.
Does anyone have any additional comments on my driver issue – and as a follow on question as good quality single rail PSU that is quiet? I was very happy with the noise level of the original Antec Truepower TRIO so I am aiming to get a single rail at that noise level.
Waqas
February 25th, 2008 at 11:21 am
67hi
My hard disk crashed so i had to change ma hard drive and install a new hard drive..and then windows vista…since then im gettin dis problem of “display driver blahblah had stopped responding and recovered”. wheneva i get dis problem ma screen goes black and den cm back many tymes..and at dis tyme im not able to do nethin not even move ma mouse…and after few blacking out and cmin back of screen ma jus shut down…
i need help
went to future shop n best buy many tymes de r ripping me off everytyme but da same prob keeps on occurin…
ne idea y??
Leb
February 27th, 2008 at 2:28 am
68please please please dont all go rushing out buying new hardware thinking this will rectify your problems. As a number of posts already state this error COULD be your psu.
I’m also getting these display errors when running world of warcraft after around 2 hours, the system is stable up to that point, then I get around 10 second halts to the display and occasionally the black screen for a second as the driver recovers.
My system spec is:
psu 1200w SLI comp(yes, so dont think it’s always psu related – and yes I have plenty of amps too)
vista 64 home premium
4gb ddr2 ram
directx10
EVRA nvidia 8800GTS – superclocked 640MB
Dual Core AMD64 X2 6000+ (3016MHz)
Sound Blaster X-Fi pro
ASUS M2N4 SLI mobo (not the best but no probs so far)
This is a good specc’d gaming machine, and after testing hardware have not found any further issues (not saying you dont have hardware issues, you’ll need to determine that yourself), but I have recently downloaded the latest nvid driver set 169.25 which claims to fix these issues. Not fully tested this as yet, but may also require the microsoft patch already mentioned in posts.
Summary: Download latest drivers and patches 1st before buying anything else, many forums report this to be display driver problems
Couple of useful links, some reported already.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938194
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/winvista_x64_169.25_whql_uk.html
(nvidia link is for vista64 drivers, check GU support first)
HTH
Reinaldo Pimentel
February 27th, 2008 at 11:10 am
69Leb, i agree with you about buying new hardware… For the PSU was the problem and now its fixed! About your problem im curious, after 2 hours playing you have problems rigth? How would you describe the PSU temperature? Too high or normal as usual like when your doing other things then playing? Im asking this because i fixed another computer other day and the PSU was getting too HOT, and after that the system behaved like the problem its discribed around here… I assumed it would be the PSU and recommend to be swapped and until now i didnt hear from that person about any problems…
Stuart
February 28th, 2008 at 6:50 am
70A further update – my (3rd) new PSU arrived (SeaSonic 550 Energy Plus) so a plugged it ll in – and it is lovely and quiet.
The NVidia driver problem still occurs – so I have returned the Graphics Card now – I am nervous about ordering another 8800GTS 512 in case it is a general incompatability with the card – maybe it wasn’t the card but some other combination!?
Anyway – I borrowed a PCIe 8600GT 256 from a friend while I am awaiting refund on the returned 8800 GTS 512 – and this card does NOT generate the driver problem. With a bit of luck, this indicates that it was indeed the Grapics card that was the issue – although the power draw on the 8600 isn’t the same as the 8800 – but how much power could it possibly have been drawing anyway just displaying the NVidia control panel!
Anyway – so far so good – I shall update once I have got a new Grpahics card – just need to decide whether to get another 8800 GTS, maybe just a 8800 GT OC (BFG?) or a “make do” 9600 GT card whilst I wait for the 9800 series to come out later this year…
Elliot
March 1st, 2008 at 9:35 am
71I just started having this error when I started World in Conflict. I had played World in Conflict before with no issues but that was a few months ago. My friend had the same error but when he downclocked his cpu it went away. Though at around the same time I think he got a new motherboard and ram. I was o/ced for my cpu but I have it at stock settings now. I am still getting the error. I’m hoping its not my cpu or motherboard. Only happens with World in Conflict. I can play Crysis at almost all Max settings. My computer still freezes from time to time in Vista. Don’t think I had that issue with XP though. Whatever can be causing my freeze ups maybe be causing the error though. I just have got the latest NVIDIA drivers but i doubt that will fix it.
My specs:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
4GB RAM
NVIDIA 8800GTX
650W Power Supply
James
March 4th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
72Geez, i was running my 8800 GTS 640MB card with no probs at all on 2 gig of ram. upgraded ram to 8gb and this started happening. first there was bluesccreen an boot b4 desktop loaded. so i messed around with settings and things but was getting no monitor signal from time to time and COD4 made this happen almost instantly. upgraded PSU to 750W from 450. still i get a loss of monitor signal shortly after playing COD4.tweaked settings and things and now there appear small lines or squares randomly on desktop. tried downclocking ram and the application controlled setting solution.
Downgraded to the 2GB ram i was using
Now it works fine again.
But i want to use the 8GB to be a beefy gamer
Lifes a bitch…
bill
March 5th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
73I had EXACTLY the same problem … just about drove me NUTS!
Bottom line: one of my memory stix was defective!
Tech support – or NONE of these forums – was able to help me until the memory stick failed COMPLETELY!
I changed the defctive memory stick, and I have NEVER EVER seen that God forsaken “DRIVER” message again!… it’s been 3 months …
Don’t be stubborn like me … try to change your memory sticks with known good ones … that is why a LOT of us have fixed the problem by “down grading” to lesser memory – the downgrade didn’t fix the issue, but the replacement of the bad memory stick was the REAL reason for the solution.
Believe me, I spent countless hours messing with the DRIVERS – after all, the error message DOES “say” it’s a DRIVER FAILURE”!
I replaced my GFORCE GTX8800 … I messed with the BIOS, I messed with the voltages, I messed with deleting, re-deleting, undeleting and re-installing EVERY DRIVER imaginable – BETA or otherwise – and NOTHING worked.
Someone ought to be SHOT and FEATHERED for allowing that “DRIVER FAILURE” message to appear when the DRIVERS had NOTHING to do with the issue.
I’m sure that many of the other “fixes” might be valid solutions, but, at least in MY case, I wasted countless hours and was COMPLETELY DISGUSTED and frustrated trying them ALL.
Good luck all – I FEEEEEEL your PAIN!
Melody
March 11th, 2008 at 10:43 am
74Same problem, March 11 2008. Brand new XPS Dell. If anyone has a fix please share. My dual monitors turn off then back on and that “Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.” error is logged in Event Viewer. Really annoying!!!
bill
March 11th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
75Melody …
I have a new Dell XPS 720 … read my comment above … Again, My Dell was new (at the time) as well and the LAST thing I expected was to have a defective Memory stick, but after a few long frustrating months, sure enough, one of my 1 Gig Corsair Dominator memory sticks was defective
Melody
March 12th, 2008 at 1:41 am
76Maybe that is it. I’m guessing Dell won’t replace the memory card for me? I don’t even know how to open the case but thats the least of my problems. Tech support was awful, after downloading some drivers they said it SHOULD work and we hung up.
How will I know when/if the memory card goes completely dead? An error message I’m assuming. Is there a way to take it out and test it first?
Reinaldo Pimentel
March 12th, 2008 at 2:30 am
77Hi Melody.
Yes there is. I need to open your computer case, take the memory modules out and plug in another computer. Thats the only way you will be able to test them. The thing is, i dont know if your case have a seal. If it does and you open your computer case, afterwards you will have problems reclaiming the waranty.
Melody
March 12th, 2008 at 3:05 am
78Thanks, I will check it out later. Not sure about the seal, it’s a Dell XPS 720.
bill
March 12th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
79Melody …
There is no seal … forget about that nonsense! hehe sheesh!
Anyway, once you open your xps 720 – its simple really, the side just slides off after pulling the release in the back, but see your owners manual for that information if you can’t get it off.
Also see your owners manual for removing and placing memory.
In a nutshell, here’s what you’ll find:
There will probably be 4 memory slots – 2 of them are black, the other 2 are white – you will find they alternate black/white/black/white. If you have 2 Gig memory, you’ll find the 2 memory sticks in the white slots.
The bottom white slot is slot #1. The black one above it is slot #3. The white slot above that is slot #2. The top black slot above that is slot #4
Your memory is in the white slots – slots 1 and 2 as I just described.
Now, your PC can run with just 1 memory stick (1 Gig).
To determine if you 1 of your sticks is bad, simply remove the stick from slot #2. Restart your PC and see if you still have the problem. Note: When you reboot, you may get a message that basically tells you that the memory size has changed… click ok and let it reboot.
If the “DRIVER FAILURE” message does not appear, then you know that the 1 you removed is defective.
If you get the “DRIVER FAILURE” message again, turn off your PC, replace the memory stick in slot 1 (the bottom white slot as described above) with the one you removed from slot #2, reboot and see if the “DRIVER FAILURE” message appears. If not, you know that that one is good and the other is bad.
PLEASE read your owners manual and follow the procedure exactly as outlined, taking care to follow ALL the procedures involving removing the power, etc. since you are dealing with electrically sensitive componants – it’s all rather self explanatory.
To answer your other question(s):
1) yes, Dell will replace any / all defective componants if its still under warranty – usually a year minimum is standard .. They did replace mine.
2) You will know if your memory stick is “completely dead” – fails completely – if you can not reboot and hear a steady beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep tone … It’s very obvious … That’s what it took for Dell to figure out that it was a memory failure because that sound or a pattern of beeps is actually a beep code that Dell was able use determine my memory failure.
For what it’s worth, after I removed that bad memory stick, I have never EVER seen that “DRIVER FAILURE” again! What a joy that was and has been for me – that was about 4 months ago.
Good luck – The feeling of NOT seeing that error message was one of the BEST feelings I’ve had in quite a while … what a pain! hehe
Final note: Its important to follow your owners manual, and 1 word to the wise is to look at the memory stick when you are removing it so that you know which part of the stick faces up! Let me know how things work out, ok?
Later Melody
Stuart
March 14th, 2008 at 3:03 am
80Oh man o man – this driver problem is driving me nuts.
See a few messages above for start of my posts, but here is a summary of where I am at:
MEMTest works fine, Prime95 (again E8400) works fine.
I have now tried 3 separate power supplies and the problem did not go away.
The I returned by new Zotac 8800 GTS 512 and borrowed a friends MSI 6800 GT (yes 6800) while I waited for a refund. This card worked fine with no problems so I am starting to believe it was the card all along. New card (Palet 8800 GT 512) arrived yesterday so installed that and it gives the same error – so now I do not believe it was the graphics card.
Everything in the entire PC is brand new so it could be anything – but given the 6800 worked fine but neither of the 8800s work (and they are PCI-e 2 cards whereas 6800 is not) what the heck is the problem.
I tried removing one memory stick at a time and the rpoblem persisted under original 8800 GTS 512.
Could the motherboard be at fault? (ASUS P5K-E Wifi AP)
The system has minimal software to ensure nothing else gets into the mix – i.e. Vista x64 fully updated with motherboard drivers only and the latest NVidia drivers.
Originally the 8800 GTS 512 croaked just by opening the NVidia control panel and rotating the “NVIdia eye”…at the the 8800 GT can do that, but installing a trial 3DMark06 black screens and croaks at the first test.
At the moment I have an expensive pile of metal and plastic….
Stuart
March 17th, 2008 at 5:00 am
81OMG – I think I just fixed my driver problem?!
To cut a long story short, I increased the voltage to my DRAM in the BIOS and the problem has completely gone away – although it has only been a day.
The long version…
Completely new system, based on an ASUS P5K-E WfFi/AP with E8400, 2GB Crucial Ballistix 8500, and Palet 8800GT 512, with Vista x64 Business Edition.
Apart from turning off the features on the motherboard I didn’t need (like firewire, floppy etc) I left everything at Auto, except the DRAM frequency I set to 1066 and DRAM Voltage to 2.2 (because without doing so it tried to run at 800).
Originally I had a Zotac 8800GTS 512, but I got the NVidia driver issue just opening the NVidea Control Panel! let alone being able to start a game. My original PSU (Antec) seemed to have a very low voltage so I swapped that for a Corsair 750 to make sure the power wasn’t an issue – but the problem persisted, however the PSU was noiser than expected so I swapped that again for a Seasonic 550, which I am very happy with and its voltage is almost smack on 12V (previously the BIOS claimed 12.6V and 12.9V but Seasonic claims 12.06V.
Next I returned the 8800GTS 512, and while I was waiting for a new card popped in an older 6800GT and with this card I had no problems – although 3DMark06 was low of course.
New card arrived (8800GT) and popped that in and tried NVidia control panel – and no problems – so I ran 3DMark and it errored with a black screen and the driver issue every time. Grrrrr.
Inbetween all the above changes I had also tried running the DRAM at Auto, 800 and lower – but no change.
So – I started messing around with various BIOS options relating to the DRAM – which at best allowed 3DMark06 to get about 1 second! into testing…then I decided to increase the DRAM voltage from the supported 2.2V to 2.3V and another setting called NB frequency (Northbridge) to 1.4V (which I had read was recommended if you had 4 DIMMS – I only had 2, but I figured it might help). Bingo – 3DMark06 ran through with no errors at all, giving me a splendid 11333 at stock speeds.
I wonder how many other people out there are using Crucial Ballistix DRAM and have been plagued by this NVidia driver issue? All I can say is this fixed it for me – there was probably nothing wrong with the PSU or the original GPU…but I now appear to have a working system.
For Ballistix users my changes were to ensure 1066 frequency was selected and DRAM voltage set to at least 2.2V, but in my case 2.3V and I also chose to set NB to 1.4V.
Stuart
March 17th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
82Solution to nvLddmkm driver
I thought I’d add a little clarification to my earlier post – as it was buggin me that I didn’t test increased DRAM V and increased MB V separately…
I have just tested my rig without the DRAM V but with NB V and it was fine but the other way around still displays the same symptoms.
So – the issue is not DRAM related (directly) – but insufficuent voltage to the NorthBridge.
I am now running all my BIOS settings a default, but turning off all the components I am not using, such as Floppy, Firewire, JMicron, Wireless etc, but I have set DRAM frequency to 1066, (although leaving DRAM V on Auto) and I have set NB to 1.4V (I am assuming Auto has been using 1.25V as that is the only value available to select that is less than 1.4).
So – if your BIOSes allow – why don’t you try increasing the voltage to the NorthBridge?
I am presuming that the PCI-E must get its power via the NorthBridge and that perhaps the demands of the 8800 series on power is so aggresive that the voltage may not be sufficient in all cases.
I hope this is my final posting (in the nicest possible way)
Doom Knight
March 21st, 2008 at 3:53 pm
83FYI, I am almost certain that the Power Setting in Vista influences how voltage is distributed through your system… not sure if that feature is only on notebooks or not, though…
I get the error when using Performance or Balanced mode while loading games or when trying to join multiplayer servers.
In Power Saving mode, I stopped getting the error completely (at the cost of having my entire computer run like a last-generation computer, yay).
I’ve had one other person confirm that changing power settings fixed the problem, but his worked on Balanced mode.
This might explain why having a certain number of Ram cards, changing the power supply, and tweaking ram speeds keep coming up as solutions. Also, I fear the problem might also be that some OS components that were “improved” by Vista like the new Virtual Memory system and Flash memory may not handle changes in Voltage.
Basically, my theory is that the video cards and Vista memory components don’t work with Vista itself. The irony is staggering.
Can you confirm/deny any of that? Some of it is speculation, so I don’t want to contribute to the overall confusion surrounding this problem.
Farmer Fran
April 16th, 2008 at 10:51 am
84I have a XPS 720 from Dell
It has Duo 6750 with 2gig (2- 1gig) Dominator 800 OC’d by Dell to 1066, GeForce 8800GT.
I got the PC in December. Started having the problem in Feb. Dell sent me a new video card. Still have problem. Bought BFG 8800GT from Best Buy and it worked fine. Called Dell. THey sent me another new Video card. Left the Dell card in the box for a bit and the BFG card started acting up. Put the Dell card in and it is worse. The Dell card it almost to hot to touch. Called Dell they are replacing the Video card (x3), mother board, all fans and heatsinks.
I will not see these new parts until “at best” April 25th because something is on back order. But I have little faith in this working. But I am extrememly mad that my expensive Gaming PC does not work.
Of the 6 people (me bing one of them) the other 5 custom built theirs and they are having no problems and my “Display Driver nvlddmkm Stopped Responding and Has Successfully Recovered.” is so bad now I cann keep my PC running.
bill
April 16th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
85Fran …
See my previous posts (Post #74 & 79 above) … I have virtually the EXACT machine that you have …
They replaced my video card as well – to no avail.
Again, it wasn’t until my memory stick COMPLETELY failed before they figured out the problem … save yourself some time. Based on your symptoms and your machine being almost identical to mine, it almost has to be the same solution as mine, don’t you think? Don’t let that misnomer of an error message about the video driver mislead you. Have them replace the memory – it’s all under warranty.
Let me know what you find out, but I’m confident that this can’t be a coincidence.
Good luck, Fran, and agian, let me know please … thanks
Panther
April 20th, 2008 at 4:33 am
86Hi,
Pleeeeease help me! I am distraught at this Display driver problem.
I have bought a Dell with windows vista. I dont play games on it, I havent used DVD’s on it, and not even even used it for Powerpoint/Graphics programs yet. I dont use the laptop for anything other than MS Word & the internet. But this problem continues to re-occur.
I live in Dubai and “customer service” does not exist out here. I have put the dam*ned thing in for repair so many times its ridiculous.
I am not techny, just want to use my laptop for basic stuff & things…please tell me wot to do, where to go, or for my own peace of mind which is the tallest building to throw the whole thing off !??!?!
Farmer Fran
April 24th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
87IT WAS THE RAM!!!!!!!
Dell sent out a technician. He repleaced the MotherBoard, HeatSinks, Fans and Video Card. Put it all back together and tried to POST and NOTHING!
He pulled 1 stick of ram and nothing. Put the other one in and BAM! BOOT! He switched the RAM in all possibel situations and I have 1 bad stick of RAM!
Bill — You the MAN!
But to make this even Better. I showed the Tech this email topic BEFORE he replaced the components. Then when the RAM was the problem even he was like NICE!
All is good. Dell is sending out 2 new pieces of RAM. Hopefully all is cool.
bill
April 24th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
88Fran …
THANKS for the feedback! Makes me EXTREMELY happy to know that I was able to help at least ONE person with this HORRIBLE issue
NOT getting the “Display Driver…” message is one GREAT feeling isn’t it? I know I was completely JAZZED!
Thanks again for the feedback … I was starting to think my solution was isolated! hehe
To ALL others with a DELL with this “Disply Driver …” issue, please read my previous posts!
Bye Fran, and NOW you can start enjoying your new PC again! Take care
Farmer Fran
May 1st, 2008 at 5:07 pm
89Well after all the exclamation… I still have the ERROR. Dell is being un-helpful as usual. I have trid all avenues (this being the best so far) but still my PC is not usable!
Melody
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:06 am
90I am back. Dell came out (after hours on the phone and yelling, very difficult and irritating) and replaced my video card. Same error.
I’m getting ready to re-format back to Windows XP (rather than Vista, what a disaster). So I will let you all know how it goes. If that doesn’t work I will be calling Dell again and haivng them replace the RAM and/or buying an ATI card rather than a Nvidia. Even though I have seen ATI has their own version of the error that pops up. Ugh.
bill
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:31 am
91Fran / Melody …
Sorry to hear that Fran
for what its worth, after I got my new ram, I restored my PC to it’s manufactured condition using the mirror method … I then applied all the Windows updates and went from there without a hitch … I didn’t download ANY “special” drivers … I just installed the ones that automatically updated … I don’t know what else to say except I’m sorry … I feel horrible for you’s
Later
Bill
Farmer Fran
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:57 pm
92This is exactly what I did. The Tech installed all the components and did the system restore. And BAM 2 days later nvlddmkm!
bill
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:41 pm
93FF … I guess I just got lucky … well, it looks like the RAM was at least part of the problem .. again, sorry
athlon
May 6th, 2008 at 12:06 am
94Go with ATI guys!!! I had Gigabyte 8800 gt…worked fine for 1 month and then the disaster…”dispaly driver stopped responding bla bla”,i’ve had ocz ram memory,patriot etc…the same problem my psu is 660 W more than enough:)37xx series from ati are slower by 10-15% than 8800 series from nvidia but youl have no problem
ATI FOR LIFE
Jornt
May 14th, 2008 at 10:53 am
95Hello Everybody,
I’ve got a Dell Latitude D620 laptop with the NVIDIA NVM 110M mobile graphics card. Since I installed Vista I have got issues with the display driver and get the infamous ‘Display Driver Stopped Responding and Has Recovered’ -error.
Finally (today) I figured out a solution that works for my laptop. What triggered me was the post by Stuart. I started looking into the power options of Vista. Look under the mobile pc | power options menu in the configuration panel. From there under the change plan settings choose the ‘change advanced power settings’ feature. This allowed me to change the power settings for the NVIDIA gpu.
Hope this post will help you out!
Good luck!
Melody
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:13 am
96Ok, I lied. I was so excited for a few weeks… BUT The effing error is back as of today. So I don’t really know what to do next. Call Dell and keep complaining, and get my motherboard (?) replaced… buy an ATI card… ? UGH.
bill
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:09 pm
97Sorry Melody … Like I said, in my case replacing the defective RAM fixed the problem … No error message at all since the replacement … 3 months and counting … If you replaced everything except the motherboard, then I guess that’s your last resort … But if you haven’t replaced the RAM, do so
Melody
June 5th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
98They replaced the RAM and everything was fine for about 3 weeks but it started happening again just recently.
Raven
June 8th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
99I am having the same error, mostly while playing games, and its come to the point that I can’t do anything except browse the internet.
Is it the video card, drivers, fans, memory, motherboard, what? Its driving me crazy, and nothing I have found will give me an answer to how to fix it. Nvidea needs to fix this BS fast.
Melody
June 9th, 2008 at 7:51 am
100Raven – Bill above replaced his RAM and it’s been working fine.
I also had my RAM replaced and it was fine for a few weeks but the error is back now.
I also had the video card replaced (with the same one..)
I might just go out and get an ATI card. If that doesn’t work I’ll return it and get Dell to replace the motherboard.
Raven
June 9th, 2008 at 9:50 am
101I’ve been thinking of going and getting an ATI card myself, I’ve seen far too many web pages with people having this problem, maybe ATI won’t have it.
cliff344
June 9th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
102Don’t waste time and money on a ATI card as I did. Still same problem just a diffferent driver error. Exact same problems! Check some of the ATI forums and you will see for yourself. I had this problem for almost a year since Vista came out. Running twin Nvidia 7950 GT’s Sli mode. The problem is not the drivers or the operating system, but it’s the RAM/RAM timings. I first was running 4 gigs of 800mhz ram at its factory bios settings. I couldn’t run the machine more than 5 minutes without this error. After playing around with some of the settings in the Bios, I found slowing (forceing) the 800mhz down to 667mhz solved the problem. I never had another error after that change. I since replaced the memory with Standard 667mhz Kingston ValueRam. Although my original 800mhz ram (Corsair) tested good, the Kingston seemed to run much more stable with my ASUS P5N32 SLI motherboard. At 667mhz the system runs like a dream. When I run 3Dmark test I see very little difference in my benchmark score going from 800 to 667. Only now the computer is usable and running great! I had the same results with the ATI card I so desperatly purchased! Now I’m back to my SLI setup with a happy system. Look at all the other posts on this forum, you will see it’s all about the RAM and Ram timings. Although my original 800mhz ram (Corsair) tested good, the Kingston seemed to run much more stable with my ASUS P5N32 SLI motherboard.
Raven
June 10th, 2008 at 9:50 am
103Well, yesterday it got to the point where I couldn’t even let the computer idle on the desktop without the error happening, so I got fed up and bout a new ATI Radeon HD 3870 card… so far, no problems.
Melody
June 10th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
104Cliff – “I found slowing (forceing) the 800mhz down to 667mhz solved the problem…”
How exactly does one do that? In the BIOS I didn’t see any options that allow you to change the memory settings. It said mine are 1066mhz… Thanks.
GamerTony
June 26th, 2008 at 5:53 am
105This message is for “JOOST”, and whoever else would like to reply.
JOOST, i have been reading your solutions and theory’s. It simply can’t be the power supply because i have the same problem with that nvl.. error.
here’s my comp stats.
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage Formula
CPU: Intel Quad Core2 9450 2.66 Ghz
CPU Cooler: Zalman 9700
Power Supply: CoolerMaster 1000w
Ram: 4gig DDR2
Hard Drive: WD 640gig
Graphics Card: GeForce GX2 1gig
Sound Card: Creative Audigy 2
Case: Cooler Master RC-1000
DVD Burner: Lite-on
DVD Burner: Samsung
Monitor: Princeton 21 inch LCD
Keyboard: MERK Gaming Keyboard
Headset and Mic: Plantronics GameCom Pro1 USB
Operating System: Vista Ultimate (64bit)
I did what you said in the original post:
“Just open the Nvidia control panel
select advanced 3d settings and push
search for the game you have
select (where possible) application controlled
and it works!!!!”
I have done this at the moment, i haven’t played much after the change was made, i haven’t seen the error message yet. I’ve only played once since…
I’ve also noticed when i reboot or hibernate the computer, it resets my control panel changes back to default or something. I’m always going in there and changing it back it seems.
Anyhow , i’ll let you know further is the problem still persists.
thanks for your advise
GamerTony
andy
July 10th, 2008 at 10:27 am
106hey guys i just discovered a way to make this work on my IBM lenovo N200 with a Geforce GO 7300
i installed riva tuner, i messed with the frequencies of the core and memmory and stayed below my default ones, after that rive tuner showed me an option – RESET SETTINGS TO DEFAULT FOR THIS DRIVER !!! i hti that and i no longer the this fffin error! hope this works for you good luck
bill
July 10th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
107I still follow this thread even tho I’ve had NO PROBLEM since my March 5th post …
Now that my problem has been fixed, this thread has become more intrigueing rather then disgust in frustration …
The point being, I think it’s an ABSOLUTE TRAVESTY that so many of us have had to – and in many cases, continue to – endure this frustrating and rampant problem that plagues so many people with such a diverse mix of PC’s and Video cards.
Even more interesting is how many different solutions there have been – some simple (like mine) and some rather complex …
Whoever / whatever the source of this problem is should be shot and feathered!
Sorry for wasting your time with this post, but it truley is sad.
Good luck all, and btw, I’m still rolling without even a hint of that error returning since my March 5th post.
Later
Le Canh Son
August 3rd, 2008 at 2:14 am
108My problem started since I updated my Bios to 1.15. A week ago, I reduce my Bios from 1.15 to 1.11
Now, I can play any games anytime I like. However, If I use some normal software such as word, YM or firefox etc. I will have this problem.
Who can explain for me ? ><
Fujitsu Siemens Celsius H250
Intel Core 2 Duo T7500
Quadro Fx570M
4G Ram
john
August 7th, 2008 at 12:21 am
109Got a PX9600GT and got this “nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered error ” error and got some artifacts on the screen whenever I paly videos or play games… games even crashes
I tried eveything and even tried the graphic card on to my friends PC (whose using 9600GT as well) and had the same problem..
So after 3 days on wandering around looking for solutions.. I had it replaced by the vendor… and problem FIXED!!!
It won’t hurt if you try you graphics card to another PC and verify if it will have the same problem.. it could be your rig or just a faulty graphic card taken off the shelves.
Alchemist
August 14th, 2008 at 4:34 am
110I face this problem recently. I didn’t know why
over 48 hours attempt to solve by restoring and finally reinstalling vista 32bit. finally I found following issue from Microsoft:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=938194
I downloaded and install this update. problem resolved.
I don’t install vista sp1 and my GPU driver is old one when I bought my note book.
Alchemist
August 20th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
111I faced with this problem last week, I test many ways to resolve it.
my notebook is DELL XPS M1330.
All things started when I update vista-32-bit home premium and bios upgrade to A12. First, I think It’s due to bios and downgrade it, but it make every things worse. finally I installed a fresh vista on my notebook. After Inst. also Inst. SP1 and problem came again… that shit black screen.
I try another fresh installation of vista without SP1 and installation of driver and utility step by step to find what’s going on.
I turned off Windows update, Windows Aero and UAC ( user account control )
before installing display driver ( Geforce 8400M GS) I found following two updates which pointed to this issue:
KB938194 & KB938979
I install them and then try to install latest display driver(177.89). (also bios upgrade A12)
I just check the stability with Windows Experience Index. It was OK.
and also run a simple 3d game ( Chess Titan which stop responding before resolving problem ) It was OK too.
Made a restore point.
After this I download manually two following update from Microsoft related to vista performance,
KB938194 & KB938979
I check the system using Windows Experience Index and chess titan and also Warcraft Frozen Trone.
It’s about 48 that I didn’t realized any error like before yet.
I hope the problem gone now and I think it would be useful for anyone who face this problem.
Today I played COD4 without any problem.
cheers
Now I’m confident that the problem has resolved.
sorry for poor english.
anyway I hate vista now and if face another error, I will go to XP difinitly.
don’t try Vista SP1 … It has problem. believe me.
Chan
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:26 am
112a week ago….
i had problems with some pinkish and greenish colour on my display most of the time and it went black screen and then after many times of restarting my laptop, it just wouldn’t go to the dell logo anymore and got stucked… it’s more like a useless laptop…i called dell for trouble shooting…it was the graphics and motherboard problem…if you can see screen in any monitor… then ur graphics should be fine… otherwise… it’s broken
dell came over and changed my motherboard and graphics. the green and pink and black screen problem were solved. but when i tried to play dota… the game froze… lags… hangs… whatever u name it…and i got the error message display nvlddmkm…any game just hangs
i called dell and then they changed the RAM… no effect…and then they changed the mobo again for the second time… and also… in the frozen throne icon… set the icon compatibility to run with windows xp… it works fine now. i have already played hours of dota with AI and my friends… just now… everything is fine.
so… i thought… did dell change my mobo at its first service… i dont; really know… cos the second service.. i saw the technician did changed the mobo.. maybe the first service just did some cleaning? i dont know… but i guess by changing the mobo.. everything should be fine.
hope this helps
Alchemist
September 4th, 2008 at 12:36 am
113Yes, That’s right. my problem also come again as you mentioned. supporters said it’s due to GPU problem, they fix it, I don’t know how but now the problem gone, I use XP and play Dota AI with no problem. I think vista push GPU and this problem cause by damn vista.
It’s about one week with no problem.
Miles
September 15th, 2008 at 10:21 am
114i had this problem, that error appeared when running secondlife and MSN at the same time!
some of You will probably have less issues if you take MSN out of the startup programs as it seems to upset this driver when in the task tray?
Dont know if it really stays stable long term, but with me, so far so good!
would love to know if this is sucessfull?
Alchemist
September 15th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
115Hi everyone
my XPS1330 is dead now and I send it to service, It seems GPU absolutely dead … after some search I found some news about using low grade materials in making GPU chipset by NVIDIA co. (They also accept this and I see that on their website).
I’m afraid ….
Yes! It’s me again with bad news
My notebook now is in service and I don’t know it really gonna be ok after changing mother board ….
damn Geforce … If I try a new notebook I will use one with ATI GPU definitely…
chan
September 15th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
116hey alchemist, did u play a lot of high resolution games? for example crysis, bioshock and other games? i am quite afraid now, since i am doing fine now after changing the mobo… but the only game i am playing is the DOTA, but who knows right…sh*t happens…
Alchemist
September 15th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
117Don’t play any game with this stylish notebook … I played C&C3 and Dota…. and this is the result…
…. stop playing and use your desktop for game. It’s my idea
Mike
October 19th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
118I have the same problem and I have now replaced every part in my computer including my copy of windows vista and I still have the problem! It has to be a windows problem I just don’t see how it could be anything else… Im done with PC I just can’t take the stress anymore. If anyone really finds a fix please email me but im guessing since this thread started back in feb of 2007 that we are just S@#t out of luck
Cliff
October 20th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
119Slow down you memory timing a bit. I have an Asus motherboard that is supposed to run FSB @ 800mhz. I went and bought memory to run at that speed and had all the problems described in this post. After trying different things for almost a year and ready to give up, I did this and haven’t had a problem since. I backed down my memory FSB to 667 and not had another issue of this problem. My 3dmark dropped a little but well worth not having this problem. Not another hickup for the last 6 months! I am running 2 Nvidia 7950 GT’s in Sli. I even went as far as pulling the Nvidia’s and buying an ATI 2600 HD. Same problem there just different driver name. So it’s not Nvidia. If you look deep enough on the web you will see that there is just as many unhappy ATI owners with this very same problem.
Lerxst
November 5th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
120I ran fine for several months without seeing this problem since installing Vista (Business). Just had to install a new motherboard and CPU combo and suddenly started seeing this.
Went through every fix in the books trying to get this worked out, slowed RAM, adjusted video card settings, you name it. None of this had any affect and none of it I needed to do before. I was using Assassin’s Creed (DX10 version) as my test, which always crashed with this error within 5 minutes.
It occurred to me since when I was first running Vista I also had several problems with various hardware/software (Age of Conan specifically) I had always been running the Omega Drivers up to installing the new motherboard, then I let Windows update everything after the new installation and started having this problem.
Anyhow, for everyone having this problem, lookup Omega Drivers (Google it) and install the right version for your machine. It may be an earlier date than your current, but it works without the errors!
Jordan
November 11th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
121GUYS I THINK I HAVE SOLVED IT!
Because I had to O.C my Mobo coz of my CPU, I was concious of the temp of my CPU.
Using EasyTune 5, I was looking at the CPU Fan Speed, and noticed it was under 2000RPM. Whenever it was below this, I got the error.
However, doing a few tweaks in the BIOS got my CPU fan to go at 2500RPM, and I have just played CSS for an hour straight and no probs
May work for you, may not.
Rigmarole
November 27th, 2008 at 1:24 am
122Lerxst’s thing worked for me! I went through the omega thing, and (after testing my game) it works wonders! Mind you, my computer crashed the first time I tried to install it, but the second time it was fine. Anyways, no more “display driver” pop ups, no more grainy diagonal lines in my games…so far. I’ll be sure to comment again if something goes wrong, but as of now, it is miraculous.
Brian
December 1st, 2008 at 4:24 pm
123It may not be a driver error. nvidia admitted that some chip sets are having higher than normal failure rates and some companies are replacing them even if you are out of warranty. So far, all solutions haven’t lasted long.