Display Driver has Stopped and Recovered?

[scott]

Its happened a few times in the past, but tonight is particularly bad. I keep getting a "Display Driver nvlddmkm has stopped working and recovered error" on my PC. Is there any way to fix this easily? I can't play any PC games and when I load them up I either get screen flicker, a black screen with a mouse cursor and end up opening up the task manager to force quit any game I was attempting to run.

I'm running a Geforce 8800 GT on Windows Vista 32-bit. I really hope I don't need to buy a new graphics card.

[htimreimer]

more than likely its your graphics card, try these three thing's first

(1) reinstall/update your cards drivers
(2) make sure your graphics card is seated properly
(3) get some compressed air and clean up the dust in your computer especially the fans

if none of these work, your graphics card probably dying also can you take some pics of you problem, it could help narrow it down

[mkarasch]

Those are all good suggestions.

Also, either your built in gfx card utility, or a program like speedfan can give you an idea of what your temp is at on the GFX card.  If it spikes just before the error, you've got your culprit.

[scott]

Cool thanks for the suggestions. I'll stop and get some compressed air tonight and see what happens.

[scott]

Well. I've tried everything. Even reverting to a older driver. But nothing.

Now, I'm starting to get screen flicker even outside of games and I'm starting to believe that my GPU is the culprit this entire time. I do believe my Graphics card is officially dying.

[htimreimer]

Well. I've tried everything. Even reverting to a older driver. But nothing.

Now, I'm starting to get screen flicker even outside of games and I'm starting to believe that my GPU is the culprit this entire time. I do believe my Graphics card is officially dying.

i have to agree with you

[mkarasch]

Likely to be the GPU, but could still be Mobo or PSU issue.  Try a known-good swap if you can.  Do you or anyone you know have a gfx card that you know works to see if that fixes the problem before you drop the dough on a new card?

[scott]

Insektmute mentioned on twitter that he had an old card he could set me up with. But I haven't decided on whether or not to take him up on the offer or not.

Matt is going to swing by here on Saturday or something to check it out.

[insektmute]

Hope it all works out, man. Diagnosing hardware problems can be a huge pain in the ass sometimes :/

[scott]

Alrighty, so I'm currently running my desktop in Safe Mode, transferring all of my important graphics files, songs and other stuff to my portable hard drive. And I'm going to wipe the drive, and re-install Windows. Luckily, since it's a Dell XPS 630 they supplied me with all the discs for every driver on the machine, and a reinstall disc for Vista Ultimate.

If, after all of this, it still doesn't work. Then I know it's the card. And I'll have a squeaky clean HDD to boot! ... heh.

[htimreimer]

Alrighty, so I'm currently running my desktop in Safe Mode, transferring all of my important graphics files, songs and other stuff to my portable hard drive. And I'm going to wipe the drive, and re-install Windows. Luckily, since it's a Dell XPS 630 they supplied me with all the discs for every driver on the machine, and a reinstall disc for Vista Ultimate.

If, after all of this, it still doesn't work. Then I know it's the card. And I'll have a squeaky clean HDD to boot! ... heh.

good luck

[scott]

After a bunch of help from Foxhack. Still I am at the same spot I was before.

I'm going to hold off on nuking my OS and save up for a brand new card. And see what happens then.

[scott]

So I decided to reinstall Windows tonight to see if that fixes anything at all. If, I get a game loaded up and it fails again. Then I'll know it's the card. But so far everything is running smooth as silk.

*fingers crossed while knocking on wood and tossing salt over my shoulder*

[scott]

aaand NOPE.

Just got the same display driver error on a fresh install of windows w/ a fresh driver install.

Looks like I'm saving up some money for an AMD card and going back to Radeon.