display driver stopped responding and has recovered.

Windows 7 Ultimate x64
AMD PHENOMII 955 (4x3.2GHZ)
GEFORCE GTX470
1000GB SATAII WD 7200RPM

I am writing this from "safe mode" since my system is not stable enough to run and write this at the same time.

My problem started when playing League of Legends (Dominion) Normally i would not have a problem, but once in a while the screen would freeze, occasional artifacts would show on screen. Screen would go black for a second or two, and a pop-up lower right corner would show, saying: "Display driver Nvidia version xxx whatever stopped responding and has recovered" This was not so much of a problem really, since it only happened in the beginning of the game, i searched the forums (league of legends) and noticed other people complaining about this as well, so i figured it would be dealt with at some point by someone else.

The problem is this started happening more and more often. So i decided to update my nvidia drivers to the newest version. Changed nothing, it actually made it worse from what i could tell.. So i downgraded to some older drivers.. didn't change a thing. And yes i did everything by the book, deleting all folders, safe mode driver sweeper etc. I also updated windows 7 completely, since i had the bug where a certain update would "jam" the windows updater, i updated it manually.

I then tested different stuff. If i opened Nvidia control panel, and marked the section where you see a slowly spinning logo, after 20-40 seconds my screen would flash black a couple of times, and the message "display driver stopped etc" would pop up.

I tried running furmark stability test, i could hardly see the first "image" when running the test, it would shut down instantly.

When running minecraft, just running the exe and logging in to the menu, would cause strange artifacts after 10-40 secs and also jamming the system, flashing black and responding with: "display driver stopped etc" (in this case i downloaded Ntune, to monitor the graphic card temperature, it climbed from around 40C to 70C)

Currently i'm at a point where i boot my system, and when i hit(as in arrive at) desktop, my screen starts flashing b"l"ack and forth. As in showing the desktop and showing a black screen, flickering.. and then rebooting automatically.

I can not provide you with a Perfmon /report atm since i am running in fail safe mode.. But i will attempt to see if system will let me.

I attached a zip.

Thanks for responding.

I will look into this tomorrow, since it's getting late here.

Jj1nN said:

Thanks for responding.

I will look into this tomorrow, since it's getting late here.

Good luck

Currently writing from my gf's labtop.

I uninstalled Ntune (this was the program i used to monitor temperature, = NVidia System Utility Driver you mentioned)

Ok i had to remove my nvidia drivers and use some basic vga drivers to be able to run in normal mode, since i had the issue with screen flashing 4-6 times when arriving at desktop resulting in the "116" BSOD. From the basic vga mode i tested if a certain old nvidia driver could make the system somewhat stable. So i installed 275.33 and rebooted. It acted a bit strange to begin with, giving me pink-ish borders around every window, while installing GPU-Z. But it seems to run somewhat stable, when doing nothing right now.



I tried running League of Legends, worked fine.. Tried running some other games..

It seems that when GPU reaches around 80C+ things begin to fail fast. Artifacts showing on screen, and the "stopped responding" message shows.

MAX values showing:

Jj1nN said:

I tried removing the old Nvidia drivers, and installing the latest beta drivers.

290.36-desktop-win7-winvista-64bit-international-beta

So far everything is running without crashes... Will report back later. (cause as we all know, people always think it works, but then.. :) )

EDIT: Actually things were running fine even at high temperatures 80-90, but then i rebooted and tried running the same programs again. This time they almost failed instantly O_o Now im stuck at initial problem, where when you arrive at desktop from boot, screen flashes 4-8 times then BSOD/reboot.

From this link ( AMD Game Forums - ATIKMDAG.sys problems and TDR FAQ ):

The following hardware issues are examples that can cause a TDR event:
- Failing overclock on CPU or GPU (stop overclocking)
- Bad sector in memory resulting in corrupt data being communicated between GPU and the system (either video or system memory) ( MemTest and a video memory stress test: |MG| Video Memory Stress Test 1.7.116 Download )
- Corrupt hard drive/windows install resulting in corruption to the system registry or the page file (Hard drive diagnostics ( HD Diagnostic ), reset your pagefile and run the System File Checker )
- Over heating of GPU or CPU again resulting in corrupt data being communicated. (Point a house fan at the video card, take temperature readings from the card with an IR detector (or your finger - but be very, very careful!!!)
- GPU failure due to any sort of issue from insufficient power(VERY common) to heat. (check the power leads, use a multimeter to check the power output, try another, more powerful PSU)

The following software issues are examples that can cause a TDR event:
-Incompatible drivers of any sort (either GPU, sound, etc) ( Windows 7 Compatibility: Software Programs & Hardware Devices: Find Updates, Drivers, & Downloads )
-Messy registry (I doubt this and don't approve of registry cleaners)
-Known vista issues resounding around multiple displays, aero, dreamscape, and various display drivers. (none known for this OS)
-Known vista issues that sometimes cause corrupt information to be sent to the video card from system memory (will be addressed completely in SP2, has had various fixes applied since vista's release) (none known for this OS)
-Bad direct x files (uninstall, then reinstall DirectX)
-bad system files (System File Checker - was run above)
-Bad driver (some drivers will cause an event due to internal bugs, however these are not nearly as common as many think due to all of the previous things causing the same symptom) - (remove all 3rd party programs and check to be sure drivers aren't loading. Then install only the necessary 3rd party stuff, and ensure it's the latest version and that it's compatible with Win7)

Thanks again, i will try it out tomorrow.

Jj1nN said:

Thanks again, i will try it out tomorrow.

Good luck