NVIDIA Display Driver has stopped responding

[starrune56 1]

This has been put in the Troubleshooting forums as well, but due to the increased volume of traffic I've decided to post this to the general forums.

About one month ago I started getting an error when I played DayZ.

Some System Info- I’m using a Gateway P-7908u laptop which has a Nvidia geforce 260m and is running Windows 7.

When I get on a DayZ server within a minute or less I get the error “Display Driver Nvidia Windows Kernel Mode Driver has stopped responding and has successfully recovered.”

This error does not happen on any other games and doesn’t happen while playing normal ArmA 2.

So far I have tried:

Reinstalling Arma 2 & ArmA 2 CO

Reinstalling Windows 7

Different versions of DirectX

Different Nvidia Drivers

Running the game on the lowest settings.

Changing the power management options.

Setting in-game video memory to default.

Setting Windows theme to basic.

Beating my computer with a lead pipe (just kidding)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[mikhail 65]

sounds like a bad driver install.

[Vexus 25]

Your video chip is overheating, causing the chip to shut down, causing that message to pop up. Your screen goes black for a second, and then comes back as the chip comes back online after it has cooled down a little. Then it keeps happening. Take to a computer shop (in Seattle? I can help!) and have them take a look.

[starrune56 1]

I've rolled back drivers, and installed 4 new drivers (currently on a beta driver). I began experiencing graphics card errors before I updated my drivers, I only updated drivers in an attempt to fix the problem. After checking, the driver is installed correctly.

[starrune56 1]

If this is the problem, why do other games work for me? Such as arma 2. Thanks for the help though, I'll get that checked out. Anything I can do to prevent overheating? Like underclocking or cleaning the dust out of the components?

[intensity (DayZ) 312]

Different games might be pushing your card harder than others. I've had this problem with arma and max payne. I recently hoovered the inside of my pc and cleaned all the dust and no more errors. So I definetly agree it's an overheating problem.

[slyder73 94]

I have been getting this in Arma2 for years off and on. Some nights it happens more than others.

It seems after a long long time noticing the conditions it happens under that when there are multiple actions, explosions, shooting all at once especially if I'm flying a helicopter or jet the crash occurs.

I can't be more specific than that as it is just a vague association.

I've never had that crash in DayZ however.

My drivers are always up to date etc.

It is not a vid card issue, it is something with the game itself that causes the crash. Several friends also get it periodically and consistently the past few years, regardless of updates and drivers.

Have you checked the BI forums...there may be new info on there, but it has been going on so long I doubt it's even being worked on.

Edited August 5, 2012 by Slyder73

[CarlosEspada 19]

that has nothing to do with Arma or any other games, its a nvidia driver issue..just try update or downgrade to previous one!!

[starrune56 1]

Thanks for the help guys, I'm going to clean it and see what happens.

[Vexus 25]

If this is the problem, why do other games work for me? Such as arma 2. Thanks for the help though, I'll get that checked out. Anything I can do to prevent overheating? Like underclocking or cleaning the dust out of the components?

Like someone else here said, some games push your system harder. DayZ is not optimized like an actual released game, that's why even high-end cards get frame drops in DayZ yet are smooth when playing Crysis.

DayZ is not optimized and you generate more heat. Download the program Speedfan and run it. Watch your GPU temperature through a shutdown, and watch it peak somewhere I assume at 70-80C, shut down, cool down to 60C quickly or less, and come back online.

You could just clean the dust, but if that doesn't work, new thermal compound needs to be applied to the chips. Best to let a tech do that work because I've seen plenty of DIY jobs gone wrong.

[slyder73 94]

Like someone else here said, some games push your system harder. DayZ is not optimized like an actual released game, that's why even high-end cards get frame drops in DayZ yet are smooth when playing Crysis.

DayZ is not optimized and you generate more heat. Download the program Speedfan and run it. Watch your GPU temperature through a shutdown, and watch it peak somewhere I assume at 70-80C, shut down, cool down to 60C quickly or less, and come back online.

You could just clean the dust, but if that doesn't work, new thermal compound needs to be applied to the chips. Best to let a tech do that work because I've seen plenty of DIY jobs gone wrong.

No, this is not correct at all.

DayZ is not a game, it is a mod for a game that has been running for years and whose engine HAS been optimized many times over the years. DayZ runs on the same engine.

This freezing crash issue with nVidia has been happening for as many years with Arma2. Nobody has pinned down the cuase or fixed it yet but it has nothing to do with optimization or heat.

My regular playing group get the crash at all temperatures, on many different mission maps and game modes. I'm sure I will get it in DayZ as well, just have not had it happen yet.

[griffinz 2816]

moved

[JarethJams 87]

same issue tried 4 different drivers

[Grazhny Bratchny 0]

Same issue using nVidia card, it's getting out of hand with the constant crashing of the game.

Sometimes I can resume the graphics in arma2 by doing the graphics memory flush but that of course doesn't prevent it from happening again a few minutes later.

Sometimes I can play for hours without it happening and sometimes it freezes/crashes within minutes of starting to play.

[BlazeN'Chronic 51]

First off i know this is NVIDIA, but i have a ATI Radeaon and i get the same issue... but only when i try to run Arma 2, skype, xsplit and dxtory do i get this sudden screen freeze and driver error prompt... my GPU runs at 42 celcius MAX on load... so i doubt its a heat issue... mabye something to do with windows power management?

[HackerSlasher (DayZ) 8]

Ok, this is somewhat of a technical solution for Gigabyte Motherboard users, but should work for other motherboards too.

I came across it on a Microsoft development forum when I too was searching for a cure to this problem. From the replies I noted in that forum it had a 100% success rate (for those who know how to get in their BIOS and understood the potential implications of being in there and changing some of those settings).

Just so some people better understand this : Randomly changing your system's BIOS settings may cause halitosis, warts and/or more system instability and data loss.

Ok, most modern Gigabyte motherboards have a group of features called CPU enhanced Halt, C3/C6 State Support & CPU EIST Function which depending on the CPU loading, will lower the CPU Voltage and CORE frequency to decrease average power consumption and heat production. These features are set to AUTO by default. Amongst other things these can effect the power regulation to the graphics card.

These settings should be in the BIOS under : MB intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T) - > Advanced Frequency Settings - > Advanced CPU CORE features.

Disable all these three features, save the BIOS settings and reboot. Job done (fingers crossed).

Note 1 : This will not circumvent any badly installed or corrupted Graphics driver installs. For this you should get a copy of DriverSweeper (it's free) to fully clean out any residual graphics settings in between de-installing your graphics drivers and installing any new ones.

Note 2 : Having personally had this error many times on my Nvidia GTX 560ti on an Asus P8Z68-V motherboard I simply updated my BIOS to the latest version from my motherboard's support site, when it finally came along and this fixed the issue for me. I have not therefore personally tested this procedure.

Note 3 : As a pointer, on my motherboard these settings are partially covered by "Enhanced Intel Speedstep", so setting this to off may also resolve this problem.

Note 4 : Remember to put back the settings you changed in your BIOS to their original values if this doesn't work!

Good luck.

[TomahawkTrix 2]

Thanks for posting this HackerSlasher

I will look into doing this: would be very good to hear if anybody has some success with the above solve.

[TomahawkTrix 2]

Thanks for posting this HackerSlasher

I will look into doing this: would be very good to hear if anybody has some success with the above solve.

[snakeboy 0]

I just wanted to mention that I've been getting the black screen "video driver stopped responding" since updating to 1.7.3. (I am running 2 GTX460's in SLI and this problem was ONLY occuring with SLI enabled, but the games frame rate was unacceptably slow with SLI disabled, so I needed to resolve this issue. For the record I've been running the same setup all along and never had a single gfx related issue till the update to 1.7.3)

The fix above by HackerSlasher solved it. (The BIOS settings change). I set those three options in the BIOS to DISABLED and the problem is gone!

Thank you!

[Nightrain (DayZ) 0]

Everyone always jumps on the hardest problem to fix -- overheating card...

Try this, should fix it.

Right click on your desktop

Select Nvidia control panel

Power managment mode - switch to prefer maximum performance

Go kill zombies