28 Mar
Posted by i.nconspicuo.us as Random Stuff, Tech/Web
So 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. My computer has been running perfectly, and not crashing, freezing or erroring out as it had previously with the nvlddmkm driver.
Here is a link to the most recent and up-to-date version of the nVidia driver set: Windows Vista 32-bit nVidia driver
ForceWare Release 100
Version: 100.65
Release Date: February 20, 2007
WHQL Driver
Apparently this driver has been out since late February, but I noticed that I’m still getting a large amount of traffic due to this problem, so I hope this updated driver works for all of you as it has for me – but don’t stop reading my blog just because I solved your problem! Add me to your RSS reader and come back soon!
If you’re still having problems after installing this version, check out the nvlddmkm resource site at All of Your Questions Answered.
239 Responses
Nvidia nvlddmkm Display Driver Problem Resurfaces After Installing Windows Updates | i.nconspicuo.us
April 10th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
1[...] – ever since I installed the most recent Nvidia display driver set as posted in this article: nVidia nvlddmkm Vista Driver Fix – Here is the Solution I thought I was in the clear, but after installing the Windows Updates detailed below, my system [...]
Frank
April 15th, 2007 at 2:42 am
2These drivers don’t solve the problem.
Bart
April 20th, 2007 at 5:34 am
3I’ve installed the 97RTM driver until the latest beta from 17th of april
“All” versions have the same problem
I get it when I switch to dual view
15 seconds black screen back again black again couple of times
then the driver recovered succesfully message
Worse during boot I get blue screen
Only possible to repair using the Vista install DVD
I have Nvidia 6700XL (Medion tweaked but I see people have the issue with many of the Nvidia cards raning from 6xxx till 8xxx versions…
NB: The Vista own version of the driver does not have the TV-out option, but works ok
Andy
May 22nd, 2007 at 7:13 am
4I have the same problem. After few hours, the nvidia driver crash and recover more or less frequently. Even with the lastest Nvidia’s WHQL 158.18 driver. (8800GTS)
Joost
May 28th, 2007 at 9:43 am
5I also have this problem. I have send an e-mail to EA because I have this problem in Battlefield 2.
They didn’t came up with some possible solutions:
1. Run in windowed mode
2. remove the BF2 map from your documents folder
3. Set the Hardware Sound Acceleration Slider to “none”
4. Make sure that you have closed any programs or tasks running in the background
These things didn’t work at all. I think I’m going to send an e-mail to Nvidia.
Oh I’m running a geforce 7800GTX TOP
Joost
June 12th, 2007 at 9:55 am
6The solution is buying a proper powersupply. I needed a 650Watt power supply in stead of a 430 watt.
Display Driver nvlddmkm Stopped Responding and Has Successfully Recovered. | i.nconspicuo.us
June 13th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
7[...] 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 [...]
Warden
June 15th, 2007 at 3:46 am
8I’m having pretty much the same problem, I was running my 7900 gs on a 250w power supply and was getting the Display Driver Stopped Responding and Has Recovered problem I already knew I needed to upgrade my power supply to at least a 400w one so I did a 430w thinking that would fix the problem but NO it didn’t, so whenever I try to load bf2 I get to the login screen he video usually freezes and goes somewhat garbled sort of little horizontal lines throughout the display and crashes the computer, I’ve looked everywere for a solution.
Warden
June 15th, 2007 at 3:47 am
9???
Chris
June 16th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
10This is a driver issue that is effecting tens of thousands of machines right now. If you want to waste your money on upgrading your parts, go ahead, but don’t recommend your stupid solutions to other people.
Aragorn
June 17th, 2007 at 10:39 am
11Yeah I am having the same problem. “display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered”.
My system in new, just under 2 weeks old now, and it was fine until about 3 or 4 days ago. Then I started getting this error. I have a Quad Core 6800 2.93 with Artic cooling for overclocking up to 3.52 (I have it at 3.37), NVidia 8800GTX 768, a SATA WD Raptor 150g hard drive, Asus Striker Extreme motherboard, SB X-Fi Gamer Extreme sound card, and a 750watt power supply. The OS is Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit.
What’s bugging me the most is I didn’t have this problem originally. So I’m curious if it was from software I’ve loaded or from the constant updates from Windows.
WolvineDragon
July 1st, 2007 at 6:23 am
12Power supply not the matter in my example… using 1000 watt coolmax supply on 680i SLI mainboard by nvidia, and two 7950 GT pci-e cards on SLI config. Get the error right after trying to load C&C 3, after the EA logo clip. Am using the latest nvidia drivers as of this date (Forceware 158.24 32 bit). Game worked fine on previous installations. Possible changes are different microsoft updates and newer vista driver by nvidia.
ELGWretched
July 6th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
13I am having this problem while trying to play bf2142.
System Specs:
core 2 duo 6420
700W OCZ Extreme Gamer PSU
AN32-E SLI mobo
EVGA 8800 GTS ACS3
4GB of Patriot Extreme Performance DDR2 6400
Audigy 2 ZS Gamer
Running Vista 64bit. I reinstalled after I noticed most of the issues had been corrected with drivers. Problem is, I see no drop in performance in any of the games, and I love most of the features with Vista Ultimate….but this nvlddmkm issue is driving me crazy. Noone seems to know how to ACTUALLY fix it. Lot of arm chair speculations going on and NONE of them work. If anyone actually has a sollution, PLEASE POST IT. If not….don’t tell us about your duct tape fixes.
i.nconspicuo.us
July 6th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
14Sorry bro… only elmers glue and duct tape so far… though my system hasn’t had any problems over the past month…
Just keep installing the new nvidia drivers as they are released – that seems to have fixed my problem.
ELGWretched
July 7th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
15I appreciate the response. The wierd thing is….I reinstalled the 158.24 drivers and all seems fine. I can play both BF2 and BF2142 in singleplayer with no problem. As soon as I fire up multiplayer…I get kicked with that error. It has to be a PB issue. I am still working on it.
By the way, I mis-typed my mobo. I have a P5N32-E SLI. I think I had my son’s rebuild in my mind when i typed this. His mobo is an A8N-SLI Deluxe.
I am also getting that memory error when I shut down either bf2 or 2142. I know it is because of my 4GB. Does anyone have the fix for that?
Slasher
July 18th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
16Is everyone using an Asus mobo here?
ELGWretched
July 18th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
17Yes I am running Asus AN32-E SLI. I am beginning to think that it is somehow related to punkbuster. I am able to play BF2 and BF2142 fine in singleplayer mode for hours on end. As soon as I go online in multiplayer, I begin having the nvlddmkm issue. Other than packet loss, that is the only thing that would be different in multiplayer OTHER than the punkbuster. I know it is NOT a connection problem, so it has to be an incompatibility issue with PUNKBUSTER. I have manually updated punkbuster, and I am trying the 163.11 Beta drivers. Every game (ie- Steam and all the HL2 mods, Tigerwoods 07 golf, Stalker, FEAR, and full spectrum warrior all work great. The combination of Nvidia not getting the crap together with the drivers and EA always having half assed game releases seems to be a contributing factor with this damn error. IT IS DRIVING ME NUTS.
On a positive note, I love Vista 64. It isn’t necessarily Microsoft’s fault that outside vendors haven’t gotten their crap together and gotten the drivers right. Creative still hasn’t released a full version with all the control apps for my Audigy 2 ZS Gamer soundcard. Hell, I can’t even get a full driver version for my HP 6210 all-in-one printer.
Shadowsil
July 20th, 2007 at 3:07 am
18Yeah I have:
*Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit
*Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad-Core Processor QX6800 (4x 2.93GHz/8MB L2 Cache/1066FSB) (OC to 3.22 right now)
*Asus Striker Extreme nForce® 680i SLI Chipset
*750 Watt — Thermaltake Toughpower W0117RU Power Supply Quad SLI Ready
*Thermaltake V1 CPU Cooling Fan System Kit Silent & Overclocking Proof
*2.5g DDR2-800 PC6400 Ram
*NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX 768MB w/DVI + TV Out Video
*WD Raptor 150g 10,000 RPM Hard Drive
*[Lightscribe Technology] 18X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive
*Creative Lab Sound Blaster X-Fi ExtremeGamer
*Killer M1- Online Gaming Accelerator – w/ 400Mhz Network Processing Unit + Lag & Latency Reduction Technology
More info then needed but gives the grand picture since sometimes another component can be the stupid problem.
***I’d like to say though for at least a month now I have not seen the error or any off its effects.***
I think it first started for me when I downloaded the update “DreamScenes” from Microsoft which allows you to have videos or motion backgrounds for your desktop wallpaper.
I think at that time I may have had an auto update that did an update to my graphics cards driver as well which if I did (can’t remember now but think so) that could have been the problem.
During that time I was also doing a lot of playing with different settings to tweak my new system as well though.
However after a few uninstalls and reinstalls of the drivers both from disc and then second from NVidia online as well as discontinuing the use of DreamScenes I have not seen the error once.
I have used DreamScenes a few times to show friends coming over and had no problems, but I didn’t not leave it running longer then a few hours at most.
ELGWretched
July 20th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
19hmmmm.. at the time of my errors, I wasn’t using dreamscenes. Its funny that you brought that up cause yesterday, I just downloaded some new “scenes” from wincustomize.com and started using it. My friend just upgraded to vista 32 bit and isn’t having any problems…yet! I thought it was just a 64 bit issue. With this many people still having this problem, I am surprised someone in the community hasn’t come out with a fix.
I was dual booting right after I bought Vista, but reinstalled it as my only OS about a month ago.
By the way, I forgot to mention in my system specs that my system is liquid cooled.
CPU running @ 3100 mhz
and GPU running at 650/1000 stable
Oakville
July 24th, 2007 at 9:02 am
20Hey Guys,
I was getting this message over and over after couple weeks of use. The only setup I made was… changing the POWER OPTION (Control Panel) from Balanced to Power sever and the system started to give me this message. I obviously changed it back (When I finally remember the change) and everything is working great…
So I believe the problem sits between the driver and the power handling from vista…
Anyway hope this helps
LHN
July 26th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
21I agree with the last post by “Oakville” Windows Vista tries to manage the power setting on the PCI Express bus automatically, whenever i have this turned off under my p ower options scheme i do not witness the said error. When it’s on, i see it frequently.
Not completely certain yet, just my two cents, hope it helps.
Macross
August 12th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
22no i dont think updates from vista are the problem cause i havent update it since i installed it on my computer 3days ago i have Asus M2n32 sli deluxe wifi edition//AMD am2 64 6000+//4gb ddr2 ram pc6400/Nvidia GTS8600 XXX/500gb HD/ and i will check with the drivers posted here. i am very upset about this problem because i was able to play BF2 very well on my last PC though its all about VISTA or someone else is having the same error on XP?
other issue is that when i run ghost recon warfighter the menu and the game get freezed each 15-30 secs >.
ELGWretched
August 13th, 2007 at 12:24 am
23Thanks guys. I will try that. I had adjusted my power settings almost immediately after installing this OS.
Macross
August 13th, 2007 at 11:30 am
24I still have the same problem even that i havent update the windows, i dont use dreamscenes,i already set high performance in the energy settings and i installed the latest drivers from nvidia. This problem only appears on ghost recon warfighter, i will try with other games like BF2,Rainbow six vegas,advent rising and Lineage II.
Btw: already tried with Hertz,Vertical sync config and XFX original drivers but problem persists. =(
ELGWretched
August 13th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
25yep, i turned the settings back to balanced and I am still having the same problem ONLY in BF2 and BF2142. Otherwise, all the other games run fine.
I will be soooooo pissed if Biohazard doesn’t play. I have been waiting for that game to come out for a long time now.
Vincent
August 21st, 2007 at 6:24 pm
26Yeah, Windows did a massive update the other day and I pick up Bioshock, installed the latest Nvidia drivers and reloaded dirext x.
Bioshock runs beautifully and I am very happy about that but, none of the media devices that ship with windows including the screensaver when set to photos show anything but black. So it’s come to do I want to play bioshock and forget about any pictures or video in media player and the other media things that ship with Vista or not play Bioshock and switch back to an older driver. I run a core two duo processor with 4 gigs of ram and two SLI Nvidia 8600′s on a MSI P6 motherboard. The operating system is Vista 32 bit. And I have to believe that is where the problem lies, because when I run XP, everything runs fine and I never get that annoying message, Display driver has stopped responding but now as started again or whatever. But I think Microsoft is dragging their heels with this OS and at this point except for Bioshock, it was not a real good investment. However, I was told by the makers of the game Dirt, that I needed to disable the sound card on my mainboard if I wanted to patch their program to the latest because I was unable to get pass their security even though I own the game. I don’t know what this has to do with that, but with so many different motherboards out there, Maybe it does. Oh well, if anyone else is having this problem let me know, if you find a fix. VVV
Dimitry
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:47 am
27http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938194/en-us
This update worked for me after trying:
*Voltage memory not auto in Bios but fixed on 2.1v
*Latest Nvidia Drivers
*Turn Off Aero (delayed the crash)
*Turn Off Sidebar
*Reinstalling and removing nvlddmkm
*Try to uninstall DreamScene (don’t have it)
*Checking my power consumption (always around 120 watt)
*Checking heat of GPU (always around 40c-50c)
*No overclocking
*Changing poweroptions
The only thing that made the crash was when my memory load exceded 60%. But the microsoft update fixed it all
*CPU Type: DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2800 MHz (14 x 200) 5600+
*Motherboard: Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe
*Motherboard Chipset: nVIDIA nForce 590 SLI, AMD Hammer
*System Memory: 3584 MB (DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM)
*BIOS Type: Award (05/08/07)
*Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT/GTO (256 MB)
*Soundcard: Analog Devices AD1988B
*Harddisk 1: SAMSUNG HD321KJ SCSI Disk Device (320 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA-II)
*Harddisk 2: SAMSUNG HD321KJ SCSI Disk Device
*Windows Vista Ultimate NL
*450 watt power supply
Llorenç
August 28th, 2007 at 11:35 am
28I had the same problem.
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate x64
AMD Athlon 64, 2200 MHz (11 x 200) 3700+
MSI RS480M2/RS482M2/RX480M2/RX482M2 (MS-7093) / MS-7184
ATI Radeon Xpress 200/1600, AMD Hammer
1020 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
NVIDIA GeForce 6600
I think crashes are due to high temperatures, so I’ve tried Speedfan. Now I can be playing for hours without crashes.
ajat
September 6th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
29Hey Guys,
I too had the same problem, I figured out the problem it is with the RAM, If the motherboard has 4 slots for RAM classified into Bank 0(2 slots) and Bank 1(2 slots)
u have to make sure that on any bank either all the slots are occupied or none is occupied, ex if u have 3x1gb ram pluck out 1 gb so tat bank0 has 2*1 gb and bank 1 is left empty. In this case ur graphics card will work fine no error. Nvidia has to come up with some fix for this
fs2
September 9th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
30No it’s got nothing to do with having an uneven amount of RAM in your system. That might do the trick for you, but it’s not a real solution.
I’m experiencing the same problems with Windows Vista on my notebook ( C2D t7300 / 2 GB DDRII / Nvidia 8600m GT ), with any game, but most frequently with games that use the Unreal 3 engine ( Rainbow Six Vegas / GRAW 2 / Bioshock ).
But I’m not experiencing these problems using my desktop, which runs Windows XP. Hardware is a tad older ( C2D E4400 / 2 GB DDRII / Nvidia 7600 GTS ). Obviously this system doesn’t run Bioshock :’(
I’m getting really tired of this all, nothing helps or it’ll help for a few hours and then the display driver keeps on crashing, totally destroys my gaming-mood
We should all urge Nvidia to step up their game and come up with a REAL fix to this problem (as in we should e-mail them by the thousands)…
John
September 11th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
31Hey guys, I figured out a way to fix it and it worked for me and my three other friends.
E-mail me at riceyasian86@gmail.com and I’ll try to help you out.
Make sure you have an extra harddrive to back up your files otherwise don’t bother.
Jeff
September 11th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
32All this speculation is REDICULOUS!!!!!!!!! I’m sick of this endess wading through a sea of head-scratching crap — Not one guess here is founded in any fact or scientific method. I built a new PC myself and have had this NVLDDMKM error rear it ugly head so randomly its like a bad case of computer herpes! — All I hear is juvenile guesses of how to solve this… You need more ram, or less ram, or a different video card with more power..or less power, or that you need a bigger power supply and more cooling, or if you stand on your head and point your PC to the west…..LOOK FOLKS THIS IS NOT A HARDWARE ISSUE..GET THAT THROUGH YOUR SKULLS AND STOP WASTING MONEY SWITCHING OUT YOUR PARTS OR WASTING YOUR BREATH TAKING UP FORUM SPACE. THIS IS ONLY A SOFTWARE-DRIVER COMPATABILITY ISSUE…..P-E-R-I-O-D with blame due soley to Microsuck and video card driver programmers who are obviously too preoccupied with what to order for lunch. — Vista has been out for what 9 months now? You would think they would have solved this already but now look at the exclusivity deal MS has been making with ATI and then ask if they really care about solving issues like this with any other vendors….NOT.
I have updated my NVIDIA drivers each time they have come out over the last nine months (Now 162.22) and this error STILL randomly appears or sometimes never shows at all, and then magically reappears again and locks up my system after the blackout flashes..its just bizzare…and NO..I don’t have to be running any program either…it happens just sitting at the desktop and sometimes after my PC has only been on for a few minutes so it’s NOT some heat factor either! This is obviously a problem between Micro-suck and all the video card makers as this error has NOT been specific to just Nvidia GeForce card users. In fact I have tried each driver set for my 7800gtx 512 card since 92. whatever and STILL randomly get the error. What gives!!— MICROSOFT….NO…. — MICROSUCK !!!!
BFG 1,000 Watt Power Supply — yes thats 3 zeros.
BFG 7800 GTX 512 (x4 cards…non SLI)
Coolance EXOS water cooler (for video cards only)
Pentium D 3.4 945 with HUGE Zalman fan and copper heat pipe
2 Gigs DDR-II 667 – OCZ Gold
Gigabyte Quad MOBO
5.5 capability rating
Must I sell a kidney now too to solve this?
Darren
September 26th, 2007 at 5:49 am
33I’ve now got a massive problem with my Nvidia 8800GTS – at least I think it is. I run Vista + XP on my system (XP for the games, since Vista is so shite). I updated the drivers on both OS and now all hell has broke loose. In Vista the screen blacks out every other minute and I get the “Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has recovered” text come up. I chuckle to my self and think ‘oh well, at least I’ve got XP’.
Now, XP will work – for a time. Then the whole system just freezes and I cannot do anything. It won’t run any games, and struggles if I have more than 2 windows open.
Connected? I think maybe…
I have removed the drivers, installed the original drivers on both XP + Vista and still the same fault comes up. Two operating systems and neither work! Any ideas what I can do? Or is it a possibility that the actual graphics card is broken….
Help, I’m not that great with PCs and this is really doing my head in….
Silver
September 26th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
34I completely agree with you Jeff .. i have been scouring through treads all over the nett .. up and down –> my head aches and my eyes hurts .. the same shitty solutions that dont help for craps comes up, over and over agin .. SOMEONE FIX THIS DAMIT
VVV
September 26th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
35Found my solution anyways, after pooring money into a new board, replacing my video cards and a fresh install of Vista 32, I still had the same problems. Then I noticed that if I turn off Vista Aero desktop and run Vista basic, the problem went away. In fact all of my games now run at least 25 percent better. Even Oblivion now runs pretty good on my Vista machine. Not to mention Stalker, Dirt, and Bioshock. All the new demos work and I have no problems at all. Also of note would be, I uninstalled all Nvidia drivers and ran Driver Sweep in adminastration mode. after reboot I installed latest drivers from Nvidia. It’s important to uninstall the drivers with the nvidia program and let the computer restart. Then run DS. Let the computer restart. Do fresh install of drivers and make sure that if you enable SLI you turn off Aero and DReamScape desktop enhancements, they will only give you more grief. And the little bit of beauty they give the desktop is not worth it. Hope this helps.
Josh
October 1st, 2007 at 10:33 pm
36Wow, everyone here including myself has a pretty beefed up computer.
The problem lies solely within the drivers, and nothing else.
I have a different problem however.
Whenever I install the new drivers, my primary monitor gets static, while my secondary monitor works fine. So I’m forced to boot in safe mode, uninstall the new drivers, and revert to the old original drivers. But when I do that, I get the stupid nvlddmkm errors randomly.
Keep in mind I had almost no problems on XP 64bit.
I swear I’m so close to buying a mac it’s not even funny.
Darren
October 3rd, 2007 at 2:37 am
37Mine’s fixed now – believe it or not it I left the computer off for a full day (hard, I know) and I ;ve not had a single graphic glitch for a week now. Although mine was showing the same sypmtons, I don’t believe it was the driver, simply the graphics card running too hot.
HERE IS THE FIX
October 3rd, 2007 at 2:49 am
38http://www.nvidia.com/object/windows_vista_hotfixes.html
no need to thank me
Jeff
October 3rd, 2007 at 3:28 pm
39Thanks for everyone’s input. From reading this thread I think we can all again agree this is most certainly a driver / software compatibility issue within Vista and nothing else due to these facts below :
JUST THE FACTS MAM:
A: Everyone here has a relatively high end system.
B: Some systems are brand new thus negating hardware failure.
C: Some people have completely re-formatted their system only to have the same problems re-appear.
C: We are all aware of Vista’s power hungry requirements. I think my 2 gigs of OCZ 667 and 3.4ghz Pentium D are at about 33% use just idle at the desktop (in a word….retarded!) Thus..
D: We have all shut off aero-glass and are using balanced power settings in attempts to minimize Vista’s resource usage.
E: We are all aware of keeping our PC’s cool through heat-pipes, liquid cooling, added external fans, etc…
F: We have all properly installed dual channel ram in the appropriate slots A & C or B & D, etc…
F: The nvlddmkm error has continued to appear, disappear, and reappear in both new PC’s, laptops, or older PC’s. thus these problems are not prejudiced or hardware specific. Some have ATI cards, some have NVIDIA, some have Pentium D, some Conroe.
G: We have all tried each successively released driver sets each month with proper uninstalling and reinstalling of current drivers.
H: Lastly we are all spending way more time battling our high-end PC rather than getting any real use or enjoyment out of it!
CHANGING VIDEO CARDS:
I swicthed cards a few weeks ago from a 7800gtx 256 to a 7800gtx 512. The one thing I did different however was after deleting the old drivers (Like two weeks old mind you) I allowed Vista to search and install the drivers (instead of manually opening the most recent 163.xx drivers myself~ Sept 18th ) Low and behold the nvlddmkm. black outs have COMPLETELTY disappeared! — However I started experiencing “screen freeze / lock ups” within a few short days of this. READ ON:
RE-REGISTERING VISTA :
I got a taskbar pop-up saying the OS was deactivated due to hardware change (video card) and that I must re-activate Vista. SO.. after trying to do this through the internal auto recognize feature I was forced to call Hajji in Bangkok to “re-register”. Mind you this cannot be done over the weekend due to MS support work hours so DON’T do hardware changes Friday-Sunday!!!
ACCOUNT CONTROL :
Once again…low and behold the lock ups had stopped after re-registering Vista! (so I attributed that to a code string that disables various program use unless your O.S. is confirmed and re-confirmed after ANY hardware change (like even a freaking fan mates!) Yes they have us by the throat now folks!
SCREEN FREEZE – LOCK UP :
However, this past week the lock-ups returned while in Flight Sim 2004 (I won’t even start in on the lameness of FS-X). I re-booted about 3 times only to have it keep happening! I can surf net all day with 10 windows open but as soon as I fly for a few minutes….lock-up. I will try other games tonight to see if the same thing happens and if so then this last lock-up issue could be a heat and or memory issue with the GPU. (or maybe because Vista is battling my PC for CPU / memory resources.)
BENEFITS….NOT :
All I can say is that despite some cool features within Vista (such as ease of adding and partitioning hard drives) I can’t say that these amount to a hill of f—king beans compared to the anger and sheer frustration this has caused.
SCRUBBING & CLEANING & SORTING :
Today I took every pic and document on my C: O.S. drive and moved it to another drive as well cleaned out about 10gigs of old files. Tonight I will completely de-frag both hard drives and then play some other games to see what happens. If this same lock up continues then by Friday I will take my map gas torch and melt my Vista disk, mail it Microsoft with a bag of my dog’s shit (he’s 125lbs by the way) and by Saturday will be installing XP-Pro so that by Sunday I might have my life back.
The definition of insanity is to keep repeating the same actions and expect a different result…. We have all tried everything and nothing has changed in 9 months since Vista came out.
At this point I am about to suggest to us all that we collectively enact a complete, total, and utter boycott of this O.S. Hoorah!!!
Or do you think waiting another 9 months for a service pack that “might” help us out is the answer. (I don’t know about you guys but I’d sure as hell be in a straight jacket by then)
Eljay
October 4th, 2007 at 9:23 am
40After long strings of expletives struggling with my Dell Precision 380 and an NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400 and Microsoft Vista (32-bit), I was FINALLY able to eliminate continuous every-two-minutes “Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered” interruptions.
I crushed the computer with a steam roller.
I bought an eight-core Mac Pro. I put Boot Camp on the Mac Pro. I put Vista 32-bit on the Boot Camp. Voila! No more problems!
i.nconspicuo.us
October 11th, 2007 at 10:12 am
41I just installed some updates for Windows Vista yesterday and the problem came back. My computer had been operating perfectly or the past 4 or 5 months… no problems at all. The latest set of windows updates caused absolute chaos. My machine wouldn’t even boot… it’d get to the logon screen with all sorts of rainbow noise on the screen, then it would blue screen and restart.
So once again, I’m at a loss as to what to do… any suggestions? I downloaded the latest NVIDIA graphics drivers, but haven’t yet had a chance to install them.
Jeff
October 11th, 2007 at 11:17 am
42Ok people, I have finally found a solution to all our VISTA issues… Its called GET RID OF IT…PERIOD. I have received several replies to my own posts saying ohhh, try this, try that, make sure you have these updates and hotfixes, etc.. Well I HAVE tried EVERYTHING folks and I already HAD all the damn recommened hotfixes from both Microsuck and Nvidiaper. I’m not one to complain without having gone through the wringer first.
While the much hated phantom NVLDDMKM error has finally dissappeared I have STILL been experiencing random program lock-ups most specifically with my MS Flight Simulator when I am flying on-line now. I never changed anything, nor have updated anything recently to thus think that new updates could be a cause…it just happened one day and I now get a screen freeze / computer lock up after about 15 minutes of on-line flying. It however does NOT happen when flying off line. I reinstalled the sim too with no luck…so once again, this HAS to be some VISTA driver compatability issue. Its not power, its not heat, its not hardware for me. My specs across the board are A+.
So here’s my final solution that I will employ this weekend and my reasoning behind it:
We have a disgustingly power hungry, manipulative, control freak of an O.S. (Vista) that we have all shut off, or have tuned down every possble aspect of its overly fluffy GUI and therefore (for my PC at least) looks just like XP now or perhaps Win 2000. So….why in the hell even have Vista if I have to make it look like an older OS just to get it to perform better? (and it STILL has MANY unexplainable issues once you do shut off the fluff…)
I for one want to USE my computer and MY programs. Instead of using my PC I have been arm-wrestling it each week for over 9 months now and any real “USE” is often spent on forums like this just trying to get it work properly…I think thats insane. WELL NO MORE PAL…I GIVE UP…VISTA..YOU WIN THE AWARD FOR WORST PRODUCT OF THE YEAR!.. TODAY I AM THROWING IN THE TOWEL….. ASTA LA VISTA BABY !!!!! I’M OVER IT….PERIOD.
RESOLUTION : I bought Windows XP-64 this past weekend and two identical Maxtor 320GB hard discs. (Yes I have an EMT 64 chip, and MoBo drivers so don’t ask…) After MUCH research I feel it is now quite safe to use XP-64 and it will severely put Vista to shame..AND I am going to RAID STRIPE the two drives for even more increased speed and performance. I also have an external HDD for personal docs, music, etc.. The striped drives will only have my flight sim programs, a few other games, and will be software than I can easily re-install if ever I have a drive failure.
In a nutshell, the baby is going out with the bathwater to make room for a RELIABLE, high end 64 bit gaming server that I am totally confident will beat the living piss out of both Vista 32 or 64…and do I really care that I wil be using DX-9 again…. HELL NO. Why…because I will have a machine that I can use…finally.
I have to tell you that once I truly made this choice I was quite overcome with sheer joy, felt whole again, and almost cried. In no way whatsoever will I suffer through this for another 9-12 months until SP-1 comes out (which only “might” fix things)….I will stick with this new set-up untill they pry it from my cold dead fingers… I seriously doubt I will ever use Vista again….EVER!!!
If anyone want’s a copy of Vista Home Premium 32 mine will be on ebay this weekend as I am calling MS on Friday to deactive my registration. Im hoping to sell it to some Al Queda member.
THAT IS THE BEST SOLUTION FOLKS..
Oh, and if you like the media center stuff..you can buy it for XP!!!!
So long folks, and happy suffering!
David
October 17th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
43Possible Resolution to the Nvlddmkm.sys Error in Vista
This potential fix pertains to machines that have Nvidia video cards and any version of the Vista operating system.
(Obligatory disclaimer: If you choose to attempt the manual fix, you do so at your own risk.)
I know that the nvlddmkm.sys error has been extremely troublesome for a lot of our customers–for some, it resets the display, while for others, it can cause blue screens. There is no “official” fix for the problem from either Microsoft or Nvidia, but we may have a solution that will work for the 8 Series video cards (8600, 8800, etc).
Be advised, though, that we can’t guarantee that it will work for you, and it is not the permanent resolution to the problem–merely a workaround to preserve your sanity until the official fix comes out.
Instructions (Series 8 cards only):
Go to Windows\System32\Drivers and rename nvlddmkm.sys to nvlddmkm.sys.old
Go to the nVidia directory and find the nvlddmkm.sy_ and copy it to Windows\System32\Drivers
Using the CMD window, change the directory to C:\windows\system32\drivers
Type: expand.exe nvlddmkm.sy_ nvlddmkm.sys (There is a space between exe. And the n and the underscore and the n.)
Hit enter. The new expanded file will now be in the Drivers folder and the system can be rebooted.
For series 7 cards, it has been proposed that using driver version 97.37 might resolve the issue, but we have not tested that in-house.
Beau
October 19th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
44I swapped out the video card with the exact model and the problem went away!
Noirriver
October 21st, 2007 at 12:33 pm
45Hi guys,
Basically after not being able to run Planet Extreme for more than a few minutes or World in conflict…Now I’ve been playing so far for 3 days with no issues (fingers cross)
I read everything from driver, DX10, temperature and voltage related, etc…and for me nothing was working
But after tinkering with this for a few days …(I think) the issue appears to be related (at least for me) with the Nvidia driver setting for “Textures” and “Adjust image setting with preview”.
Running with 163.69, without even reinstalling drivers etc…
so I haven’t gone for the ‘fine tuning’ yet …
I have:
“Adjust image setting with preview” : Let 3D application decide (yes, for me some times even just asking the driver to show the preview would make it crash!!!)
“Manage 3D settings” (Global settings): main thing here is around “Texture” management.
- Texture filtering (TxF) – Anisotropic: Off
- TxF – Negative LOD Bias: Clamp
- TxF – Quality: Performance
- TxF – Trilinear optimization : Off
-
You could play with these setting more… I was just happy that I was able to play without crashing
But (at least for me) it appears to be “Texture” management related…
Bets of luck!
E6850, 4GB ram, Vista Ultimate, 8800 GTX XFX
Blackdaze
October 21st, 2007 at 3:07 pm
46No they do not, and we are well past this driver version now. I’m using 163.75 beta (tried the latest WHQL drivers as well, same behavior). Still get the same nvlddmkm stopped working errors after the machine has been up for more then a few hours. I’ve read others say that lowering the clock speed of the RAM helps this, but I bought a C2D with a 1333MHz FSB, on a mobo with a 1066MHz bus, and using memory that is certified (and running very stable) at 1066MHz. Why should I have to underclock all my hardware to make it work properly? That is obsured.
Nvidia needs to get on the ball and have a sit down with the windows dev group that handles the display functionality in Vista and come up with a working solution. It has been MONTHS now, and not a peep from either Nvidia or MS on this issue, yet there are forum posts on nvidia’s forums with 25,000+ replies on this very issue. Now, It’s bad enough I can’t play any current gen games on my $2000+ “gaming rig” (2142 crashes every map change, BF2 is very unstable, etc), but to not even be able to idle on a blank desktop for more then a day (when all my parts are “vista certified”) is unexcusable, and potentially grounds for some sort of legal action. It’s called “truth in advertising”…
Jeff
October 21st, 2007 at 11:58 pm
47Well Folks…I did it. I switched everything back this weekend. Goodbye Vista 32…Hello Windows XP Pro X64 with 2 320gb SATA II drives in a RAID 0 stripe with 2 partitions C: 505gb for O.S. and programs /apps and E: 105gb for shits and grins.
The install of the OEM Win XP-P x64 SP2 disc went flawlessly. I had enough smarts to pre-burn all x64 drivers for my RAID, and Mobo chipset, LAN, etc before shelving the 80gb Vista drive.
I must say that the install went sooo smooth..just flawless. A BIG change from what it took to get Vista running. Also the Nvidia display interface once the x64 drivers were installed was much, much, much easier to use and configure. In fact all the general simplicity without the rediculous redundancy and endless rabbit holes of Vista is a WELCOME change!!!!!!!!
This will be my FIRST experience with XP as I had jumped from 2000 pro straight to Vista HP-32. While I do notice that everything isn’t quite as crisp or as sharp looking as the Vista GUI — even after video drivers and IE7-x64 were installed — I can only say that there is certainly something to be said for simplicity and fonts that are softer on the eyes…I can already see I’ll get twice as much in productivity with half the effort as my system seems brutally faster that Vista was. I will assume that some is due to my empty PC for now but Im hoping the retrograde combined with x64 and RAID 0 is my final solution.
Im also looking forward to re-growing the hair I’ve pulled out over the last 9 months.
Those of you who still come here for answers will be bald by Vista SP-1… ( if you’re not already ! )
Asta…. you know the rest. : ) P.S. DX-9.0 … I gotta love it !
Ahhhhhhh, ……….tomorrow is a new day indeed!!
Blackdaze
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:07 am
48An interesting note…
I have 2 machines:
(1) – Vista Ultimate x64 (64bit)
Core2Duo E6700 (1066FSB)
ASUS P5B Deluxe MoBo (This is an Intel P965 chipset)
2x1GB Corsair XMS memory @800MHz
EVGA Nvidia Geforce 8800GTX (Running at stock speed)
(2) – Vista Home Premium x86 (32bit)
Core2Duo E6750 (1333FSB)
MSI P6N SLI Platinum moBo (nForce 650i chipset)
2x1GB OCZ (1066MHz)
MSI Geforce 8600GT (running at stock speed)
Now, machine 1 has no problems whatsoever… it is on 24/7 and is used as my primary gaming rig. Never once in 6 months have I seen the message “Display driver has stopped working” on this machine. I started with forceware 100.xx and have updated it regularly (currently using 163.65).
Now, the second rig (#2) I leave powered off most of the time because if I leave it idle, it will either lock up by the time I get back to it, or when I go to use it, I will have the display error about every 5-10 minutes.
By the way, System #2 is running memory at 1066MHz. The board is rated at 1066, the FSB on the proc is 1333 and the memory is rated at 1066 (and quite stable, ran memtest for 17+ hours without a single error).
So, I believe this means the problem is due to the pairing of Vista with one (or more) of the following:
Ram over 800MHz, Nvidia’s 8600xx chipset, nForce 650i chipset. It could be a case of bad (or poorly written) nForce drivers, or just a problem with Vista in general (8600 chipset was released well after vista hit the shelves). I’m firm in my belief that a forceware driver update of any kind won’t solve this problem. It’s deeper then that.
Blackdaze
October 24th, 2007 at 12:48 am
49Hold up…
I think I may know what the problem is here…
I’m going to test my theory tomorrow, but here it is…
My Video card is an MSI Geforce 8600GT OC. The ‘OC’ symbolizing ‘overclocked’. Now, stock speed for the 8600GT chip should be right around 540MHz. The RAMDAC should be at 400MHz and the Memory clock should be right around 700MHz (1400MHz effective). This card is at 580/400/800, so it is at least moderately overclocked. Instead of attempting to underclock this card, which may have mixed results, I’ve elected to purchase an EVGA branded 8600GT that is not factory overclocked and test that. I’ll post my results…
Darcy
October 29th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
50Turn off the Vista Aero effect. As soon as I did this all my crashes ceased.
ron klem
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:02 pm
51I didn’t see anything that said “turn off Aero” but in the control panel it said something about 3-d effects or something.
Turned that off .
I still get nvlddmkm error when encoding video.
Vista is worthless to me.
Darcy
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:26 pm
52Sorry I meant turning off the transparency effect on the windows. Besides it only worked for a few hours.
I downloaded the latest beta driver from nVidia and it seems to be working.
ron klem
November 3rd, 2007 at 6:45 am
53Do I have to uninstall the old drivers first?
I think I just want to get XP installed; that sounds like it would fix it.
Noirriver
November 3rd, 2007 at 4:29 pm
54Hi, today I decided to play with RAM Mhz.. by lowering it from 800 (memory default) to 667 seems to at least so far have allowed me to play ~6hrs contionous without crashing!
I’ve been reading that it might be a combination of factors: 800Mhz RAM + high end graphics card + Vista…and that the core of tehissue might by on the MB chipset (not temperature, drivers, etc..)
So I unlinked the freq between CPU and RAM and lowered the RAM freq to prevent teh mobo trying to access GPU & RAM at teh same tiem and causign a “driver display reset”/black screen error….
Anyway, is somthing simple to try and so far (fingers crossed) has been working for me
E6850
Asus P5N32 -SLI
XFX 88000 GTX
4GB RAM
Vista Ultimate 32bit
jono
November 11th, 2007 at 10:31 am
55hey man u sound like a smart guy who knows what your talking about but ive been having this problem(nvlddmkm) to, the trouble is everytime i go to install a driver it says its not the right one well i dunno how many drivers are out there for a gefore 8600M gt 256mb but its nuts. if you know anyway to set me on the right track itd greatly help
Alex
November 13th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
56Hi all, just to make things really annoying for you all (I don’t mean to blow smoke on any of you, just want to share on details, perhaps it will help some of you..), I’m running nVidia 160.03 drivers on an EVGA 680i with a XFX 8800GTX under Vista Ultimate x64. Memory sepcs are Corsair XMS2 Dominator PC8500 (2 x 1GB). I DO NOT have any nvlddmkm issues whatsoever, videos, games (Stranglehold), no problems.. Don’t know if this will help any of you out. I’m never ever touching my card settings in anyway until I see light at the end of this nvlddmkm tunnel..
ron klem
November 13th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
57Thank GOD I stopped having this stupid
problem about a month ago when I downloaded all the available Vista updates.
(About 90 megs worth)
Since I’m on dial up this took all night and actually some of the NIVIDA updates failed.
I must have by luck hit apon some combination of updates that fixed it.
GOOD LUCK
Noirriver
November 14th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
58Interesting reading that you not having the issue with your 680i & 8800GTX…
I see you have high spec RAM (Speed) , can you let me knwo for how long have you had teh rig going?
I still suspect it has to do with processor, RAM &GPU (and all through Mobo) freq. management.
ron klem
November 14th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
59It’s ok, just ignore my input
Malk
November 16th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
60Rubbish!
Im using a 1000 Watt PSU and has the problem too.
Only solution is to spam Nvidia and microsoft with mails / Problem reports about the problem!
When you get the error press submit error report, and in vista provide feedback to the solution it comes up with after reporting the problem.
Malk
November 16th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
61Ok i wont!!
I had all these hotfixes installed, and has had them installed for several months.
Didnt fix jackshi*
Blackdaze
November 17th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
62@ ron klem:
Okay we will… I can’t speak for everyone, but I’ve had all available updates, including the Nvidia specific updates and nothing has changed. I’m sure most of us look for updates before posting on boards. Also, there is a 300+ page thread on nvidia forums for this issue. I have gone through 3 video cards, 2 motherboards, 2 2GB RAM pairs, 2 processors and 2 power supplies trying to knock this thing out, reloaded Vista twice and tryed updating to ultimate and the problem still remains. I’ve tried clocking my memory at 667, 800, and 1066 and it doesn’t fix the problem. My processor(s) have been tested at the native 1300MHZ and 1066MHZ, problem still there. I think it’s safe to say it’s not hardware specific and none of my hardware is defective. I still think this is a problem with nforce chipset + nvidia graphics and vista.
Craig
November 19th, 2007 at 6:49 am
63I have many SLI high end systems that have all been experiencing the nvlddmkm error.
I have found a real fix that works for all my SLI systems. Unfortunately I have to reset it every time I reboot. The fix is to set the SLI performance mode from “Single-GPU” to “Force split-frame rendering.” I don’t know why this works but it works on all five computers with 8800 in SLI mode on Vista x64.
HELLBOY587
November 21st, 2007 at 9:03 pm
64ME2, SAME SPECS AND PROBLEMS BUT WITH UNREAL TOURNAMENT 3. ANY SOLUTIONS??? THANKS
DSDGLK22@YAHOO.COM
HELLBOY587
Blackdaze
November 23rd, 2007 at 10:40 pm
65What speed is your memory running at?
Malk
November 24th, 2007 at 2:00 am
66Does not work, i tried this many drivers ago, and it didnt make any difference at all.
I would like to recommend that whenever you get that “problem and solution” window in vista that tells you how to fix the problem (it tells you to install newest driver and update vista), to press the “provide feedback” button and write that the solution they propose is useless.
The more people that does this the more inclined they will be to fix this.
Wretched
November 24th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
67Ok I am not sure what solved the problem (ie new drivers, or fixing my FSB/core speed ratio but BF2 now works with no problems.
I am running 800 mhz ram so I set my FSB to 1600 (exactly 2x what my RAM is rated at) and no more problems.
I am running my E6420 at 3200 mhz. multiplier at 8, bus speed 400 and rated bus speed 1600. works fine now.
Blackdaze
November 24th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
68I hate you Micro$oft… you have now cost me hundreds of dollars because of this crap…
So, I was getting the nvlddmkm error that all the rest of you are getting and thought it may be due to memory speed. So I contacted OCZ and asked them if they had any suggestions. Of course they said I should first update my motherboard firmware to the latest version before troubleshooting. I had FW 1.4, and I noticed that 1.5 came out last week, so I went to update it. In the middle of the FW flashing process in windows nvlddmkm stopped responding and the machine BSOD’d. Now my motherboard is now completely worthless. There goes $200 for a new motherboard, not to mention that I’ve already replaced the video card twice, and memory once… This has cost me over $600… So, I decided to go for the new intel G35 chipset in hopes that this nvlddmkm error will cease if I leave the nforce chipset behind… I’m not optimistic, however…
One word of advice… don’t flash your firmware in windows if you are getting the nvlddmkm errors… I hate you Microsoft…
Blackdaze
November 24th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
69If this is the case that’s great that you got it working, but for those of us whose motherboards won’t handle 1600 FSB (mine was 1333) it’s not an acceptable solution to underclock our components… if that is the “fix” then something is wrong here… I had (I say had because my board is now dead… thanks to this problem – see post below) a 1333FSB, I bought a motherboard that supports 1066 memory, and I bought memory rated at 1066… am I to understand that I would need to underclock my memory to 667MHz just to use my ‘gaming rig’? There will definately be a performance hit there and that isn’t what I signed up for when I bought all these expensive, high speed parts (that are all listed as ‘vista ready’). We need a propef FIX, and not a band-aid… I’m really glad this solved your problem and you’re satisfied running your memory at a slower speed (at least you can get 800MHz out of them), but I tried clocking my memory at various speeds, including 667MHz while my FSB was steady at 1333, and, although the error seemed to happen less often at the slower mem speeds, it never ‘went away’ for me, and I could still not enjoy a game to save my life.
bob schlong
November 24th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
70why would you flash your MB firmware through windows? They tell you that is not the recommended method anyway……..I am having the same problem though, i am running the Intel Duo quad core 6600, 2.87 gb of ram on Windows XP. When running in XP i do not get the error message however in Vista 32bit, i do get the error in UT3 and Steam games tend to be buggy.
Wretched
November 25th, 2007 at 3:46 am
71BLACKDAZE:
If you are running 1066 then you would need to have your fsb at 2132. Or….you can run it at 800 and your fsb at 1600 like mine. Again, this is what possibly fixed my problem, but I was only seeing it come up in bf2 and bf2142. It sounds to me like something else is going on with yours. Never Never flash in windows. Always use EZ-FLASH if your mobo supports it. Asus does! Also, i have been running every updated driver, firmware, and bios available…always have. The guy that told you to that DOESN’T know the sollution. None of them do! Thats why this forum is still in existence. THEY DON’T KNOW. All I can suggest is make sure you get clean installs on the new system, pay attention to what program produces the DREADED error, and try to run the RAM speed/fsb ratio above. It did work for me.
Blackdaze
November 25th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
72MSI requires that you have a floppy drive to flash in dos. I do not have a floppy drive.
Blackdaze
November 26th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
73I’m not overclocking my FSB to 1600 (which could be dangerous) just to run my memory below the rated stable frequency… I shouldn’t have to. I’m supposed to overclock my proc and underclock my memory, does that sound crazy to anyone else? I’m sure if you say it worked for you, that it did, but that isn’t an acceptable solution in my eyes. If I can’t run the cpu at the stock freq (or even close to stock freq) and I have to underclock my 1066MHz memory to 800MHz, something is really wrong. I’ve decided to replace the nforce 650i with the Intel G35 in hopes of simply avoiding the problem. I’m still not sure weather we should blame nvidia or M$, but I guess I will find out once I swap this motherboard. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Wretched
November 26th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
74Blackdaze- I am only trying to help you. Go and download either crystal cpu or cpu-z. Once you install this and run it, look in the bottom left. It will show you your core speed, multiplier, bus speed, and rated FSB. The new core duo chips OC differently than the old pentium’s or AMD chips. A little but not much. Here is a good article to get you started:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/12/11/overclocking-guide-part-1/
My memory is Pc6400 or 800 mhz RAM. To solve my nvlddmkm problem, simple take the number 800 and multiply by 2 to get a rated FSB of 1600. Granted, you will need good cooling to do this AND I have water cooling on my system. For some reason, whether it be nvidia’s fault, microsoft, or Asus….my system would get errors when I had my memory set at 800 and my rated FSB was at 1500. I don’t know why but it did.
keep in mind that when you start tweaking in the bios, you might need to adjust your voltages accordingly. Also, watch your temps. If you need to drop you mem speeds a little to get it to work, do it. Just make sure that your rated FSB is half of your bus speed.
Wretched
November 26th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
75“Just make sure that your rated FSB is half of your bus speed.” Whoops, I meant the other way around. Make sure you bus speed is half of what your rated FSB is.
Wretched
November 26th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
76I have a P5N32-E sli mobo with nforce680i chipset.
Malk
November 26th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
77I dont have a Nforce chipset and i also have the problem.
And im running 1600 FSB and 800 Mhz RAM 1:1 with a Q6600 and PC6400 cellshock memory 24/7, it doesnt make any difference whatsoever what clock speed im running at, i still get the errors.
Malk
November 26th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
78im also running my Q6600 at 400 FSB (1600 quadpumped) and my RAM at 800 MHz DDR 1:1, and i still get the problem, so thats a no go for that “magic” fix.
Wretched
November 27th, 2007 at 3:46 am
79Well I never said that this was a magic fix for everybody, but it did finally solve the issue of me getting the error in bf2 and bf2142. No problems since.
Blackdaze
November 27th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
80I appreciate your attempt at help man. I do. I just don’t think telling everyone to overclock their processor is wise. If your processor/mobo is not rated at 1600MHz FSB, I would not attempt to run it at those speeds. You will likel;y fry something and be in a much worse situation. My mobo had a 1066FSB and my Proc (E6750) had a 1333FSB… overclocking that to 1600 is not the solution, it will only introduce more problems down the road, and shorten the life of your processor/motherboard. What we need here is a FIX, not a work-around.
The Master
November 29th, 2007 at 6:51 am
81“vista certified”) is unexcusable, and potentially grounds for some sort of legal action. It’s called “truth in advertising”…
You know that is very true. but you almost had it. more like this….”flase advertising” with vista certified just to make extra bucks from a small saying from M$ window logo to a advertisement to make people buy . no wonder someone broke the law. even though advertisement wasn’t true. M$ was into hardware back in 2000NT and XP pro.now the haven’t looked back of what they all been into from old OS. no wonder all the hardware drivers doesn’t work.they made it even harder for Co to render new drivers. and not even work with thes people from hardware thes days.. GET TO WORK PEOPLE X-mas is allmost here what are you waiting on more bi&ching on forums gota make people happy or your get more sells ever thought of that.
Wardy
November 29th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
82overclocking does not solve problems …
one exception to that,
if your computer is slow overclocking will solve a little bottleneck or 2.
I was clever when i bought my bits i bought the top end 1066 fsb chip knowing full well that the technology used is identical in all chips and that limitation is imposed by configuration for the slower chips based on testing performed when the chip is manufactured.
My chip is now running perfectly fine with over a 1 ghz overclock (per core) and on air cooling, who needs water cooling when the facts show that the estimated performance difference is at max around 5%.
When your talking some 6 billion cycles per second (total across all cores on a 3ghz dual core chip) what diference is a few hundred thousand instructions per second since virtually no apps out there can fully take advantage of that.
flashing msi boards :
you can use a usb stick to do it, anything the board can boot from can be used to flash the bios
About the problem this blog has raised :
the issue is memory addressing, somewhere between ms and nVidia a vital message saying something like “have some resources but be aware i don’t know what exists above this address bla bla bla” is getting lost.
my theory is that this is an old api call from the guts of windows passing the driver not entirely accurate information that of course causes it to crash.
the fact that nVidia is then able to handle that and recover is amazing but that don’t always help.
Whilst playing Cysis maxxed out i get some seriously annoying instances of this and the final boss really loves meeting me now since everytime i go to take a poke i take one look in its direction and the polygon count goes nuts causing this to occur.
most awsome looking crash i ever saw though
Jackass
November 30th, 2007 at 4:21 am
83Dudes…just go ATI. HAHA. Been having this prob for the longest time w/ the more recent nvidia cards…switched to ATI x1650 and VOILA! problem fixed. Nvidia’s screwed the pooch on this one. I see more details now on Bioshock, Tiberium Wars and BF2142. What a difference! Believe me when I say I’m a die-hard Nvidia guy. Used their Quadro FX 3000 AGP when it was on the hill…times changed and need to upgrade now and guess what I’m getting. That’s right, boys and girls…ATI – There IS no substitue. For now…XD. Just tired of fiddling w/ Nvidia’s crap for so long. The 7600 GS AGP was crap compared to how the x1650 performed. That was the saddest day since I switched from AMD to Intel. I still run a dual xeon 2.8ghz system w/ 2gb ram and u320 scsi that’ll go toe-to-toe with most c2d systems out there…but I know that i’ll eventually need pci-e to keep up. Do yourselves a favor and switch to ati. you’ll be glad you did.
Jurek
November 30th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
84True, Jackass…
Radeon 9800, was my first ATI card, I bought it 4 years ago but it has always been stable, no crashes. Even the performance is not bad. Now I have a 8600M GS in my laptop. Last GeForce I had was 2MX400, which did the job in its time. I used R9800 on Vista Beta 2 and it made no problems, later tried it on build 6000 – no crashes at all. Now I have my lap, every half a day the driver crashes in such manner that mi cpu usage is very high, the solution, or rather walkaround is to put it into standby and wakeup. But that’s not what it should be! When I install the most recent drivers (of course some idiot made them available only to manufacturers, so I had to use INF mod) and connect my DVI monitor or HDTV set it almost instantly shows me a BSOD. On older drivers this problem doesn’t exist. If I could change the gfx card in my laptop I would change it to – let’s say HD2600 which is at least stable from what I heard :O
the DX10 compatibility is a joke, maybe some DX10 demos will run, but no DX10 game… well if you like slideshows, give it a try..
thought nvidia was better than ATI, I saw the charts with 8800 performance, I said wow, ATI is worse, as I had no comparison, because as I said last time I had some knowledge about gfx cards was 4 years ago when i bought my r9800 which works perfectly at my home (it used to work 24/7, so the fan had problems spinning, so i bought cheap 8$ but effective and silent cooling system and it works much better then the original one)
I gave a chance to nVidia, they disappointed my and made me angry. For almost 4 years I had maybe 10 system crashes, not more using ATI. For these 4 years my P4, 2×512, R9800 machine did the job just perfectly, games run smooth, application worked fast, what to need more. And now I had left my home to study, so I bought a laptop… with nVidia gfx:/
Maybe I’m repeating myself but I would like to give two more examples why R9800 > 8600GS
Winamp, video playback, R9800 runs smoothly at fullscreen (1680×1050) – about 15-20% of my P4 2.6 on that certain video file,
8600GS, playback like 10fps, 100% cpu usage
If I use WMP it’s ok, but colours are not OK, the black is gray, as if the contrast was lowered in some tool, i can correct it with driver settings, but in default the colours are muted, that’s not OK.
Next example:
when some smoke is on the screen, like in counter strike or dust in rally games it drops the framerate drastically, r9800 had almost no fps drops in such situation, 8600 gives me almost 5-15 fps…
Please nVidia, make something about it!
Sorry for my OT, but I see you people are also dissatisfied.
I’m so angry at nVidia…
Koozwad
December 2nd, 2007 at 12:29 pm
852x SLI GeForce 8600GT
)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+
Asus M2N-E SLI
4GB DDR2800 RAM
80GB 7200RPM HDD (works for me
My “Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.” It all started a few days after i had finished building my new PC. Everying was FINE, until…When i added my second GeForce 8600GT all sorts of problems arose. Yet all the settings seemed to be in order. Most games i played normally before now have very different and strange problems like blue flashes, grainy dots and even sudden shut downs. From all i’ve read in these posts there should be an easy painless way to fix this “Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.” problem. I mean NVIDIA tests their graphics cards before they sell them…And Windows Vista has it’s downsides, but since Microsoft is one hell of a company i’m sure one or two maybe hundreds of people tested it to work with GeForce cards?
Hmph.
Wretched
December 2nd, 2007 at 3:46 pm
86well not to sound repetitive but since OC’ing and setting my bus speed exactly half of my rated FSB, I have had no problems. I have also been overclocking for over ten years and have NEVER had a system quite on me. Again, as long as you run your system cool, there should be no problems.
This applies to my system and I agree will not work with everyones. When I built my latest system, I built it for gaming. I picked parts that could handle overclocking. My mobo, an ASUS P5N32-E SLI is manufactured with OC’ing in mind.
I can’t gurantee this will work with all of your systems, but after trying about EVERY possible “sollution” for the nvlddmkm issue, THIS SOLLUTION WORKED.
Good luck to all of you, my system is working great now.
Wardy
December 3rd, 2007 at 1:24 am
87Ok after some fiddling with a few settings like voltages i did find the system more reliable.
The card appears to want more juice than is available.
The problem does not exist and no crashing at all occurs in XP so i still think this is not just an nVidia problem overall.
As for ATI being better …
Yeh all right boys, whatever, my mate bought a machine from alienware oc’d to the tits and my out of the box custom rig with no overclocking insults that.
The only real difference between our systems are …
1. the alienware chipset on the mobo (underlying technology still basedo n my 680i rig though)
2. gfx card – he got an ATI i got an 8800 gts.
Apart from this (which is rare) i have no problems at all with my nVidia and have had nVidia since the days of the TNT.
Even benchmarks show that nVidia on average are around 5 to 10% faster throughout the whole range, the quality is quite literally at a level that equates to their sales garb “The Way Its Meant To Be Played” !
Blackdaze
December 3rd, 2007 at 8:19 pm
88Okay, so I changed a few things around here.
I’m now running Core2DuoE6750 (FSB is 1333), on Gigabyte Intel P35 motherboard. I got a brand new XFX Geforce 8800GT, OCZ 1066 memory (boards native speed is 1066) and a new Antec Toughpower 750 PUS with 4 +12v rails. I also bought a new copy of Windows Vista Ultimate, my previous install was home premium. So… New motherboard, new chipset, new video card (3rd one I’ve tried, all nvidia), new PSU, brand new copy of vista right out of the box… I loaded Vista x64 up and my card idles at a cool 50C. So I installed Crysis and within 5 minutes got the nvlddmkm error. Now, I have another machine:
Intel core2 E6700 (FSB is 1066), 4gb corsair ram at 800MHz, nice fat PSU, on ASUS P5B (intel P965), with an EVGA Geforce 8800GTX, also with Vista x64 and guess what… in the 9 months I’ve owned this system I’ve never gotten this nvlddmkm error a single time. I don’t think it has anything specifically to do with the nforce chipset though, and aparently only newer chipsets are affected (at least in my case). By the way, memory speed setting doesn’t have any effect on weather I get the error or not, maybe that’s just me…
Taxman
December 22nd, 2007 at 2:18 pm
89It is rediculous that we are still having this problem (now Late December). I have a nForce 680i chipset with a 7900GTX card (not SLI).
Nothing overclocked (never do that anyway), the CORRECT drivers for the chipset (v15.08) and latest Microsoft certified (yea right another JOKE) drivers (169.25). I am STILL having the problem. :-/
Think I am just going to turn it off.. see if that makes things livable.
Hadji
December 23rd, 2007 at 6:49 am
90I also have the same problem: nvlddmkm problem:
what I did is to open the central unit of my home PC
take out all the DDR memory from slots completely
take out the graphique card as well
I made a cleaning from dust and rubbish
return back the graphic card and the memory DDR too and and I verified the connections.
guess what? I can play dream scene which was impossible to play before…
but I still have the nvlddmkm not frequantly as before
one per day only (before it was every 2 or 3 hours)
but microshit should fix the problem
Mad Pete
December 24th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
91Solved it!
1. Make backups of your unrecoverable files (media/image files)
2. Format your primary drive
3. Install XP SP2
4. Install all your software
5. Play for days
6. Take the Vista CD
7. Take a hammer
8. Smash item from step 7 onto item from step 6 repeatedly untill all your frustrations are gone
9. Laugh at people who are still vista fanboys.
Lineous
January 6th, 2008 at 10:01 am
92nForce 680i SLi
2x GeForce 8800 GTS in SLi
169.25 forceware drivers
I get the “Display Driver nvlddmkm Stopped Responding and Has Successfully Recovered” error after loading up Crysis, Bioshock, and TF2 (haven’t tried others)… I get a black screen but music persists in the background.
I can play these games just fine w/o SLi and I have NEVER seen that error message before since I put my box together 3 months ago. The SLi config is new.
I hope people are still looking at this because I need assistance!
NIX6SIX
January 14th, 2008 at 6:22 am
93Hi, not sure if i am having exactly the same prob, as i havent seen that error yet, but i have the latest 169.25 drivers on an ASUS Crosshair motherboard and as soon as my 7950GT trys to go to anything 3D or using any kind of power from the card, it crashes, well .. still going, but the screen scrambles. Cant see a thing but it is still going. Anyone know how to fix this?
BuilderX
January 20th, 2008 at 8:26 am
94There are 2 nvidia distincts problems… (and i had both…)
1-If you play and then you got a Freeze with the last sound heard looping and no controls anymore on your computer, and then you must turn off the alimentation to restart your comp…
That’s a Core Clock Frequency problem… underclock it for 20 Mhz or as much as you won’t get this message anymore.
2-If you play and then you have the famous nvlddmkm.sys error, saying your card recovered of something… and then your frequencies are cut in half and then you have to restart your computer in order to have the full frequencies back…
That’s a Mem Clock Frequency problem… underclock it for 20 Mhz or as much as you won’t get this message anymore.
ShookOnesRR
January 20th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
95ive been battle’n this nvidia driver problem for a while now ive heard alot of diff solutions but none worked for me i Finnaly fixed it, Well for my system it worked anyway. You can give it a try
Format n installed fresh Vista 32
Installed all of the drivers that came with the MB they are proly the older ones.
i got another 2 GIG of ram. from 2GIG to 4GIG
do not installed Nvidia drivers that come on the Disk they are dated drivers and for some reason the new drivers have trouble over writting old ones.
i installed all the windows updates EXCEPT the 1.1 service pack.. now weather that was the problem or not i dont kno but i do know its working perfectly witout it
its been workin flawless ever since… last time i used old nvidia drivers then tried to upgrade n the MKM driver stop responding problem was every 2 seconds. i could not even use my pc But now that i only installed the newest its perfect.
specs
Striker Extreme MB
Nvidia 8800GT xfx
4 GiG ram
intel core 2 duo 4.66
no overclock on anything
Ryan
January 25th, 2008 at 11:36 am
96I might do that
will fix everyones issue 
. i cant take this much more.
Daniel
January 26th, 2008 at 12:17 am
97I suggest we make a petition for nvidia to pay a Windows XP license for the users that can not use this damn card on Vista. I bought GF8600 GTS and I can’t believe that I “corrected” the problem installing the windows standard video card driver. Seriously… what the hell do they think? I’ve already reported the problem (thinking that was only mine) for nvidia about 3 months and got no answer. Now I see that I`m not the only one. And, worst at all, there some people that are expecting a solution for months before I got the error message for the first time.
I won’t spend any money on it again. I’ve already spent buying the fu**ing video card and the f**ing Windows Vista.
Blackdaze
January 27th, 2008 at 3:11 am
98So, I tried replacing the memory… again… no change. Now using Corsair Dominator 2x2gb sticks. No dice. Still get the error. I’ve got my FSB and CPU at a 2:1 ratio as some have suggested (fsb 1600, memory 800) no luck. Underclocking my video card(s) has no effect. Tried 3 G80 video cards now. Same error… I’m wondering… has anyone tried downloading Vista Service Pack 1? MS has made it available for download:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9DE6260E-4275-482D-9524-DE850C4DD91C&displaylang=en
Not sure if it includes a fix for this issue or not…
ELGWretched
January 27th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
99Well I still get updates from this site. Since my last post I have had no more errors. I have come to the realization that this has to be a non specific issue…meaning….several factors might set off the error. For whatever reason, whether it was my FSB ratio tweak or whatever, I don’t have the problem.
As far as the Vista SP1 beta, I have installed it. It does fix a few issues, but haven’t noticed a whole lot. It sure can’t hurt.
Zbrakkovich
January 28th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
100New Member to the Display Driver Problem
I built a Vista Home Premium machine about a month ago and have spent all the time up until now reworking various small issues. The nvlddmkm problem is very annoying, though. In my case, it only comes up when I run my machine under a heavier load and then only after I max out the RAM.
ASUS P5N-E SLi
Intel Core2 4400 @ 2.00GHz bumped to 3.06GHz
3070 MG RAM (DDRII 800 CL5-5-5-15 1.8~2.0V) (2x1G; 2x512MB)
e-GeForce 8800 GTX (768MB DDR3)
I’ll subscribe and hope to find an issue and repost.
memorex85
January 30th, 2008 at 9:30 am
101This problem is simply related to nothing more than system instability. Vista in particular is very sensetive to various issues that arise due to software and/or hardware problems. If for any reason the system has an issue with the video driver, whether it is related to a corrupt file or piece of hardware malfunctioning, then this error can occur.
Anybody who experiences this problem consistently needs to troubleshoot their entire system, one component at a time, until they can hopefully discover the root cause(s). This includes, but is not limited to:
Complete removal and reinstallation of WHQL certified vieo drivers
Complete removal and reinstallation of motherboard chipset drivers
Formatting primary boot drive and reinstalling OS
Set all hardware settings in BIOS to default
Replacing video card with one known to operate properly – test your suspect video card in another system as well
Verify integrity of your RAM – run MEMTEST86 on all sticks invidually. You can also move them between RAM slots to test the slots themselves as they can malfunction.
Use MEMTEST86 with various sticks of RAM to test motherboard’s memory controller – likewise could be integrated memory controller on AMD chips.
Replace power supply with one known to work properly under the loads you are placing on your current model
Pretty much anything that can cause your OS to become unstable can trigger this error in some fashion. Bad memory, bad driver, overheating components, the list goes on.
In my case I have thus far identified a problem with a specific RAM stick and/or slot. I am still running iterations of MEMTEST86 to try and pinpoint the problem.
Matt Gillard
January 30th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
102Hello all. I have been having problems with vista and the nvidia drivers for sometime but gave up and continued with xp on my original hard drive.
The main problem is I get no picture at all in vista. Nothing what so ever. My tv just flashes and I have to restart. I connect through HDMI.
Occasinaly it works and I get the nvlddmkm error. Only recovers about 20% of the time though maybe less. Which makes vista almost completely usless. Getting quite annoying because vista certainly isnt cheap!
Ive found the windows drivers off windows update work better than the nvidia ones. The desktop loads but as soon as I change the res or enter a game it goes.
Thanks Matt
Blackdaze
January 31st, 2008 at 3:34 am
103my system is stable and I have tried multpile configurations to try and get Vista gaming to work. The hardware is rock solid in XP and in case you haven’t followed, so far I’ve gone through 3 motherboards, 3 pairs of ram, 3 video cards, 2 copies of Vista, 2 hard drives, and 2 PSUs on this… I’ve tried clocking my PC8500(1066) memory down to 667MHz while running my E6750 at the rated 1333mhz on a P35 DS4 board. I still get the error. Running 2x2GB chips, so I tried 1 chip, each slot, in all possible combinations with no luck… Also tried the trick outlined here:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=518749
but again it didn’t help in any of my senerios. There are literally (at least) hunderds of thousands of people having this problem, so, although in some cases it may be, for the most part I don’t think it is an overclocking, cooling. stability, or hardware problem. I’ve seen dozens of posts where peoples new dell laptop or desktop is getting this error. I don’t think all these usere are overclocking and, say what you want about dell, their hardware is pretty stable. Dells also don’t list overclocking options like frequency, voltage, or multiplier settings in the bios. Smells like software to me…
kh3m
February 1st, 2008 at 7:17 pm
104mostly hardware related. i increased ram voltage to 2.1v ( cuz i had specefic ram for it and sli-rdy) and seem to work fine for now cuz its was on auto 1.8v i think
Lee
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:14 am
105I made a bug report for this to nvidia today although i think many others must have done it too by now, but the more reports they get about it the more they will look into it i think along with microsoft.
Jim
February 11th, 2008 at 8:42 am
106Hi,
I have a 4600 Core2Duo, and 8600GTS card (2GB of dual channel RAM) at home.
Things were fine for several months, but a week or so ago, when I connected up my lcd by DVI, rather than the VGA input I started getting problems.
In WoW (the only game I play a lot of), the driver would give up and lock up the monitor – a power cycle on the monitor would get me back working again only to have it happen again. I switched back to the VGA input, and now get the infamous “nvlddmkm” display driver stop responding message, accompanied by one second of black screen and then I get put back into the game.
My kids are now playing Viva Pinata, and the problem is less noticable with this game, but there is still the occasional lock up.
I’ve tried many driver versions, the omega drivers, all installed properly, with a full driver and inf clean out in between.
before I stick a 2nd drive in and put on XP Pro, I will try to increase the timeout detection period referenced here
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/display/wddm_timeout.mspx
But TBH I’m not holding out much hope.
I work as an IT Manager in the games industry and we use mostly Nvidia cards as they best support the 3d package we use. However since the 7 series (and now 8 series), we’re seeing lots of failures with the nvidia hardware – I wonder if build quality is the main issue with these cards?
I’ll report back on Wednesday about the timeout changes.
Dominick
February 21st, 2008 at 8:02 pm
107Whats up guys.. I’ve battled with this problem about 2 months back, and i’ve waited b/c i wanted to be sure the problem is gone. The only thing i can say is that on vista 32 bit downloading all the “important” updates is the only thing that got me working correctly.
I formated and intsalled vista 32 ultimate Fresh
used DVD supplied with my mobo installed all drivers
downloaded lasted Nvidia drivers
then did all the windows updates before putting any games ect…
Ive been running solding for a bout 2-3 months now flawless
Ive heard alot of crazy crap about areo theme and drivers not updating none of that is true ive tried it all. Doing things in this order is the only thing that works for me and i hope it works for u guys! i kno how frustrating it is…
only discouraging thing is i have vista 64 also and the problem persist no matter wat i do i cant get more than 2 seconds game play in so im sticking wit vista 32 obviously.
Striker Extreme Mobo
4 GIG buffalo Ram pc-800
Two XFX nvidia 8800GT’s sli’d together (ran solid with one also)
Intel core 2 duo 2.66Ghz E6750 aqua gate water cooling sys
western digital hdd
320 external storage
250 storage
200 storage
150 vista 32 on it
Leigh
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:37 am
108I got this problem since the update and i have tried everything . I am gonna make the company i got my pc from(still under warranty) either get me a new pc or take this one and put XP on it . I had a p4 3.2gig that blew up , so i got an AMD x2 3800+ , The ram is double that of my last PC and everything should generally be better. Instead i am stuck with a dodgy OS , This driver issue i can’t fix and being a gamer i dont care for this fancy shit when it cost’s me what seems like 90% of my PC’s performance.
Vista is the biggest waste of PC resources i have ever seen , someone please invent the gamers OS . A black screen you type c:/Run “mygameyouidiot” . maybe support for .. c:/Copy “thecdinthedrivefool”
I can’t believe this issue is so frequent for people yet there is no solution or confirmed cause .
I HATE reformatting , backing up , re-installing all my appz/games but i think it my only option . Win XP FTW ….. until the gamers OS
Dominick
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:56 pm
109I format so often its disgusting lol.. i have all my progs n things i need in one install folder and just go thru the list it really makes it pretty quick. but yea insane that this problem has been going on for over a year and still nothing i just dont get it. Not only that no1 knows if its Vista or Nvidia thats messing up. i kinda have a feeling its Vista due to the fact i know ATI users have also experienced the problem.
Leigh
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:29 pm
110Yeh i also install progs from one folder Dom. I got my PC as a package and they reckon i didn’t need my vista dvd or drivers on a disk…:|
I will be getting copies of both or they can shove the PC *@(#*%$ .
This was all fine until they enabled the onboard video because my 7500 was playing up. At about the same time i got a new windows update and the new Nvidia drivers so i don’t know what has actually caused it .
I cry myself to sleep now ..lol
yaughn
March 9th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
111I have a cyberpower laptop pc
2.4 core two duo
4 gig ram
160 gig hdd
nvidia 8600M GT 512 meg vid card
Windows vista home premium 64 bit
I get the black screen during games, and they usually recover, but its a pain
I cannot find any driver for my system, any updates I have wont update saying theres no nvidia card to upgrade, or it cannot continue.
Can someone offer just the nvlddmkm.sy_ file for download? Ive got 3 days till I leave for deployment in the navy Id like to get this fixed asap can someone send me the file please?
ydeardorff@hotmail.com or deardorf.yaughn@cvn72.navy.mil
Thanks
Jim
March 17th, 2008 at 2:28 am
112Well, it seems the system had two problems which made the problem very hard to diagnose
The timeout changes didn’t help fix the problem, nor did a fresh XP install on a seperate HDD. That was when I started to suspect the panel.
The problems were…
. A faullty LCD panel which only manifested when running fast 3d at 1920×1200. Got a new panel on Friday – the power switch had failed too so it wasn’t too much hassle to get it accepted back for repair – thankfully it has a 3 year warranty!
. Display driver mismatch.
To sort out this driver problem
. uninstalled the nvidia drivers (and ntune),
. booted into safe mode,
. ran driver cleaner http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=745
. checked /%systemroot%/system32/ for nvidia DLL’s and sure enough there was still a copy of nvlddmkm.sys lurking in there – manually deleted that,
. rebooted
. installed latest drivers (169 I think).
. Turned off Auto Updates for now.
Malk
March 17th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
113You are going to be very disappointed if you think that will fix the problem, many has tried that before you and still has the problem.
Stuart
March 18th, 2008 at 2:48 am
114I have been having this nvlddmkm driver problem for a month or so now with a new build – I am not going to repeat all the details here as I have written about it at length on my blog (linked from my name above).
In short, having swapped my PSU and my Graphics card and not resolved the issue and started messing with various BIOS options – and in the end inceasing the voltage to the NorthBridge fixed the problem for me.
I am using an ASUS P5K-E/Wifi AP and am using defaulkt settings everywhere with the exception of turning off the components I am not using (such as floppy firewire etc), setting the DRAM Frquency to 1066 (because I am using Crucial Ballistix PC8500) and changing the NB voltage from Auto to 1.4V. The only setting below 1.4V is 1.25V – so I can only assume it was running at 1.25V.
Hope this helps some others out there – I’d like to know whether this helps anyone so please post back if it does – on my blog too if you like as I only just started that and have no comments to date
God Luck
Doom Knight
March 21st, 2008 at 2:58 pm
115First, I would like to point out what others here have said: the nvlddmkm error (and the error corresponding to other graphics cards) has multiple causes.
My problem stems from Power Settings, for some unknown reason.
After installing Oblivion I started getting this error when I tried to play the game. The more the error happened, the worse it got. After a few errors I could no longer load Oblivion, because it started crashing in the main menu. I attempted to fix the problem in a myriad of ways, System Restore didn’t work, reinstalling the OS didn’t work. Whatever triggered the problem has done so in a way that it is permanent.
What I did find, though, was that Power Setting (under Control Pannel: Battery Options for notebooks) affected how often the error occurs. I do not get the error when using “Power Saving” mode. A fellow nVidia/Vista user confirmed that he stopped getting the error while using “Balanced Mode” so it is not a clear-cut solution.
I recently discovered the “advanced” settings for the different Power Settings and after fiddling around with all the options, I have discovered that none of the User Controlled settings affect the problem. I can set “Balanced” mode to look exactly like “Power Saving” mode and it will still crash. Whatever is causing my crashes is a hidden Vista feature tied to the Power Setting. That said, it looks like I am stuck using “Power Saving” mode until I get a new computer or Vista magically gets fixed.
Note: If your computer functions normally under one of the power settings, try changing the Advanced options. For instance, even though I am using Power Saving mode, I can turn the Processor setting from 50% to 100% without causing any problems. However, the different Power modes, regardless of what you set them to, will affect your system’s performance. Under “Power Saving” mode, it feels like I’m using a last-generation video card (currently using nVidia 8600M GS, but it doesn’t run like one at all).
I have heard but cannot confirm that the three different Power Settings “secretly” alter how Voltage is distributed through your system. This leads me to believe that video cards and internal Vista components poorly handle changes in Voltage. If you are an advanced user and can manipulate your system’s voltage, I’m interested in seeing how this affects the error, but that’s where my search ends for now.
I use an HP Pavilion cv9500, and because HP is the notebook provider, nVidia is not allowed to provide driver updates without HP’s permission. I also cannot fiddle around with ram, because I don’t want to perform ritual sacrifice by dismantling my laptop.
I’d like to hear if this solution helps anyone else, particularly those who can follow up on the idea that Voltage & Vista can cause the problem.
Nick Lordi
March 22nd, 2008 at 10:02 pm
116Just wanted to say that I was experiencing the “nvlddmkm” driver issue on Vista64 for a long time. I would receive this error about 30-60 minutes into each game I played, it was annoying as hell.
So I found this bulletin through google and read through every single post. A couple comments mentioned rolling back to older drivers. So I uninstalled my nVidia drivers, and used the latest Driver-Cleaner.net software (about 10 bucks online). Then I booted into safemode, and Vista automatically installed the nVidia Forceware version 163.69 a driver that was released way back in September of 2007.
Since then I’ve been playing games for up to 7-8 hours at a time and HAVE NOT seen this issue since.
My only regret is that I’m on an old driver to resolve the issue, which is not exactly my style. However games such as Crysis, Hellgate London, and Unreal Tournament 3 run just fine and are completely stable now, so no major complaints really.
nikko2025
March 26th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
117Has anyone had any luck changing video cards? I just ordered a HIS Hightech H385QX512NP Radeon out of the pure agony of having to reinstall Vista 2 times already. The crash from the nvlddmkm also killed my raid 0 drives and I had to redo everything from scratch. I was using the 8600GTS. BTW..I also tried the safe mode – wipe the drivers – updates set to no rout and I blue screened again last night.
I will update if I see any problems one I change cards. Soooooo very very very frustrating.
RAIDMAX SMILODON 500WCase-
GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3P Modo-
2x Raptor drives for OS in raid 0-
2x Seagate drives in raid 0-
Crucial Ballistix (2 x 1GB) DDR2 1066-
8600GTS-(soon to be gone)
Xer0daze
March 27th, 2008 at 1:59 am
118My letter sent directly to the Windows Vista Global Support Manager, as well as the Microsoft Services Technical Support Manager (I have friends…)
I have removed the email alias and name of the Microsoft Employee in question to protect the idiotic:
To Whom it May Concern
I will recap the issue one more time to provide some additional insight in the event that this issue lands in the lap of someone that cares to help me…
First of all… This is the worst customer service experience of my life. After plunking $225 down for this VISTA ULTIMATE X64, I am left with a $2500 word processor. I can’t play games (DX9 or DX10), which is what this computer was built for, nor can I do any graphically intensive work because “the display driver has stopped responding and recovered” after 3 minutes in. If you google this error you will see literally THOUSANDS of people are experiencing this problem (if not hundreds of thousands). I have tried dozens of WHQL certified drivers ranging from Forceware 71.84 to the current 169.21, all versions experience the same problem (Yes, I have removed the previous driver with drivercleaner after booting to safe mode prior to updating to a newer driver set). Now, one would be quick to point the finger at Nvidia because the event triggered upon the driver resetting is a 4101 event for “nvlddmkm.sys”. However if you read through the forums, you will see many ATI users also experiencing the problem. For them it is atikmdag.sys that fails and is recovered by windows (also consider there are FAR less ATI owners then Nvidia owners). This problem is related to Vista’s TDR “feature” (Timeout Detection and Recovery). It is TDR that detects that my video driver is about to fail and restarts it… When TDR is disabled a hardlock occurs.
My computer specs are attached to this mail. I have replaced:
4 graphics cards (started with an Nvidia 7950, replaced with 8600GT, then with another 8600gt with 512mb, then with my current 8800GT. Every card experienced this problem)
3 motherboards (different chipsets, intel, Via, and Nvidia)
3 pairs of memory
2 Power Supplies (Running a 750watt OCZ now with 4 +12v rails rated at 24 amps)
3 hard drives
2 copies of Vista (when Home Premium started this behavior I went out and purchased Vista Ultimate, it is no better)
I’ve formatted and re-installed a total of 5 times…
I’ve tried “underclocking” all of my hardware down to the point that I was running 1 memory module (rated at 1066MHz) at 667MHZ, underclocking the FSB, and running my 2.66GHz Core2 at 2.0GHz… I still crash. This is not a hardware issue. If I load XP on my rig, everything runs fine. I can play until I pass out without any problems whatsoever. I believe the issue is within the DX10 API. The games I have tried are certified for Windows Vista and have the Games for Windows logo.
After many weeks of exchanging phone calls with your “support” center in India (I assume they are in India based on the thick accents), I wait at home for hours for a schedules call and eventually get a call from a guy (xxxxxxxx) who remotely connects to my computer and literally starts playing solitaire to repro the issue… No, unfortuantely, I am not kidding… Nobody has been able to actually comprehend what my problem is, much less fix it. There is a distinct language barrier that I can not seem to get past when dealing with the support center overseas. I have asked numerous times for this to be escalated to the next tier of support, but have been told a number of times by many people that there is not a “next level of support”. This “support” that is offered is completely worthless to me. I know more about vista and it’s “features” then any of the folks I have spoken with from support so far. At this time, I want this issue ESCALATED to the NEXT LEVEL OF SUPPORT! I’m finished talking to the frontline support people who read their little scripts to me and don’t even attempt to comprehend what my problem is. Microsoft is already fighting a class action lawsuit over issues like this with Vista, and I can see why. You offer the worst support I have encountered in my life, have I mentioned that yet? I am a Network Systems Analyst for one of the highest traffic websites in the world, so you could call me an advanced user, yet your support people talk to me as if I were 4 years old. Your people do not know what TDR is or how it works, or doesn’t work (I’ve had to explain it to every single one of them), they do not even understand what DirectX 9/10 is, and they keep referring me back to hardware manufacturers and software venders.
Yesterday, xxxxxx failed to do his job correctly and did not retrieve the msinfo or system information files from my computer that he said he needed to escalate my issue. He has called me twice asking that I email him these files. Both times the e-mail has bounced back undeliverable. How difficult is it for your support people to open a hotmail account that I can send the files to? Apparently, very difficult, because they won’t do it…. They literally told me to simply e-mail it again… so I did, and it bounced back undeliverable… again… I am at my wits end here. I paid good money for this bloated OS and my new top of the line computer and now I can do nothing with it at all… sure is pretty though. I would like someone to contact me as soon as possible to let me know they are engaged and investigating. My contact information is below and my next step is to see an attorney. Thank you.
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I’ll let everyone know what (if anything) I am able to find out.
Jim
March 27th, 2008 at 4:25 am
119@ Malik
Those steps I posted stopped the “nvlddmkm has stopped responding” problem on my Vista PC. It didn’t stop my screen from blacking out, as that was a faulty LCD.
I now have a working LCD, and no more “nvlddmkm has stopped responding” problems.
The important step in those instructions was to manually check %systemroot%/system32 for nvidia dll’s after running a driver cleaner – do not assume the driver cleaner software will be 100% efficient.
One of the other fixes, GPU memory clock speed reduction, are not possible under Vista due to the strict driver control Vista employs.
You can lower the clock speed by flashing your GPU card, but that introduces lots more risk of a dead GPU card.
G4DJ3T
March 28th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
120http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940105 TO READ
THE SOLUTION :
32-bit(x86):
http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/4/7/247135fa-6c64-4ab4-ad7a-5ff82fb5b277/Windows6.0-KB940105-x86.msu
64-bit (x64):
http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/c/3/3c352775-a914-46b5-95e6-4606b4c92dbd/Windows6.0-KB940105-x64.msu
PROBLEM SOLVED FOR ME
Xer0daze
March 28th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
121@ G4DJ3T:
Those hotfixes do not fix the problem. I have had them installed since December 2007. It fixed nothing.
Nem
March 29th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
122would not even install on mine – said this patch is not for this system
Xer0daze
March 29th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
123@ Nem:
That error generally means you already have it installed. Head over to add/remove programs (“programs and settings” in Vista) and check the box for “show updates” look for 940105.