Windows 7: BSOD while playing certain Steam games, appears video driver related.

System Specs

Samsung Series 3 Laptop Model NP350V5C.
Age: About 4 months.
CPU: Intel Core i5 3210M @ 2.50 GHz
RAM: 8 gigs
GPU: AMD Radeon. HD 7670M

BSOD Description

I was playing Portal 2 tonight for roughly 90 minutes, when on a loading screen, the game froze. Next there was some short, vertical, multicoloured lines that were overlaid on the loading screen, that kinda looked like a small barcode repeated over and over in a line. The system then crashed to the BSOD.

The BSOD itself said that "attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed". I did take a picture of it, if anyone wants me to upload that.



The game is a fresh install done just last night. I have had this problem before with Portal 2 (hence the reinstall), and I also have had it with Dear Esther and Fallout: New Vegas. At first I thought that my computer was trying to run the games on the integrated HD 4000 on the CPU, so I set my laptop to high performance and plugged it into the wall so it would (hopefully) only run on the AMD GPU. Dear Esther and Fallout both appear to be fine (previously they crashed on start up but I was able to play about 30 minutes of each last night), but Portal 2 crashed again tonight.

To my knowledge, my graphics card drivers are up to date, as the version number on my computer matches that on the Samsung website.

I am relatively certain it has not overheated, as I always run Core Temp in the background, keep the vents clear, and it never gets about 60 C according to Core Temp, and I've had it run there for hours while playing other games and there was no issue.

Thank you for your time and any help you might throw my way. If you need any more information just let me know, please.

Welcome aboard.

It is a stop 0x116.
In this situation you need to follow the guide : STOP 0x116: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR troubleshooting

But, as I am seeing, the display driver is kinda old.
Update it. Latest AMD Catalyst Video Driver for Windows 7

If it is still crashing, follow the guide entirely.

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll tackle the driver issue and retest before I dive into the 0x116 guide, I think.

Two questions before I proceed: This laptop has the Catalyst Control Center and can switch between the AMD GPU and the integrated Intel one. I saw on the AMD site that you had to get the drivers from the laptop manufacturer (in my case Samsung) if you had switchable graphics, which I do. So basically, is it okay to grab the new driver even though I have switchable graphics? And if so, would I want 12.10 or the beta 12.11?

Thanks again.

PS: Love the avatar, one of my favourite movies of all time right there.

Search for some updates in the manufacturer's website then, but it is to update the driver.

About the avatar, the feeling is the same here

Okay, so far I've done the following:

Made sure I had all my Windows 7 updates.
Double checked that I had the latest driver from Samsung.
Ran System File Checker and it came back clean.
Stressed the GPU via the FurMark program. After about 4 minutes the temperature peaked at 69 degrees Celsius with no errors that I saw. I let it run another two minutes, the temperature remained stable at 69C without even flinching, so I stopped it then.

What I'll try and do after my homework is done is get MemTest up and running that let that stew for a couple passes. I couldn't get the linked video RAM test program in the STOP0x116 guide topic to test the Radeon's RAM as the program thought that the intel HD 4000 was my only display device. If anyone know of a way to fix this, I'm all ears.

After the MemTest is done I'll reinstall DirectX, and then give Portal 2 another try and see what happens. I'll report back once I'm done all this. If there's anything I'm missing (I'm trying to follow the guide as close as feasibly possible for myself at this time), just let me know, please.

When using memtest86, let the program run for a minimum of 7-8 passes (usually overnight) to get an accurate reading ....

Well I ran MemTest last night and it came back clean as a whistle. Tonight I decided to just try Portal 2 for the heck of it and well, it worked just fine. I cranked down the graphics some and made double sure that the vent was unblocked to keep the PC cool and it ran really well. No BSOD or even slowdown.

So uh, I confess that I have no idea where to go from here. I'm hesitant to call it solved as I didn't really do anything but run a couple tests and update Windows 7.

You are right. It is difficult to call it solved right now. Wait and see how it runs over a reasonably long time say at least a couple of weeks. If it crashes again in this time, let us know.

Gotcha, will do. Thanks again for all the help.

Just had another BSOD, looks like it was a STOP 0x116 error again.

This time I was just loading up Left 4 Dead 2, having just downloaded and installed it tonight. Windows also popped up a notice saying that it might not have installed correctly and gave me the option of reinstalling and it crashed right after that after I said the program had installed correctly.

I haven't had any trouble with any other games since it just stopped acting up last week. No problems with Portal 2 or New Vegas or anything.