BSOD Error: Faulty driver on the kernal stack

Jmainsley · 20 May 2013

I've followed these steps, I'll just sit on my PC, play some games and stress test it to see if it works. I'll report back on any further developments.

Jmainsley · 21 May 2013

Ok, so I've followed these steps and the BSODs have stopped, however a new error has occurred. I checked my event viewer, and this was the error.
"The description for Event ID 14 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises the event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer."

This occurs when I am playing games or browsing the internet. The game will blackscreen, close down and a balloon will pop up on the bottom left corner of my desktop stating that "Nvidia Driver has crashed and restarted" or something along those lines. After a couple of these, my computer usually crashes but the blue screen error I had before does not occur. Does this need to be issued to another thread now that there is no blue screen or can this be answered here?

Arc · 21 May 2013

Bad to know. Damn the display drivers. A few other users and other debuggers also faced the same thing with it (though for me the version is still running good, may be I am a lucky one).

Uninstall the driver in the same way as described earlier, and apply 306.23 WHQL Driver, dated 13.9.2012. This one is the most stable one released lately by nvidia; the only thing goes against this driver is that it is also somehow old already.

Still I wish it will work good for you.

Best of luck.

Jmainsley · 21 May 2013

Did this and my computer seems to be working fine. Played a few League of Legends matches (one of the games that usually causes crashes after 10 mins) and I've had no problems. Thanks for the help, and I'm marking this as solved.

Arc · 22 May 2013

Good news :)
Even good that the old version that I believe to be stable worked good again.

If there is any further issue, let us know :)

Jmainsley · 23 May 2013

Sorry to say this, but I'm having to mark this thread as unsolved once again. The original BSOD problem has returned once again. It is the exact same error, involving the nvlddmkm.sys file that was acting up before. I have tried using a microsoft fixit tool to fix any TDR errors, and have uninstalled (and used driver sweeper) and installed many different compatible versions of my nvidia drivers to see if the error persists. I'm out of options at this point. I severely hope that this is not a hardware error :/

Arc · 23 May 2013

I think this time you should pay attention to the GPU. As the first step, use the onboard graphics and see if it is crashing with it or not.

Jmainsley · 23 May 2013

I can and have used the onboard graphics when running the computer in safe mode to try and determine the issue before. Does this suggest an issue with the GPU?

Arc · 23 May 2013

Is it the situation?

If it takes place with more than one display driver versions, it is definitely a GPU issue. There is a fixit to tweak the registries, but I doubt that that works. It did not work for myself; and for many other persons I know. Still, let us try to narrow it down.

Stress test the Graphics Card using Furmark.
Video Card - Stress Test with Furmark
But that issue as per the picture is too random to be caught by furmark.

Check if the Power Supply Unit (PSU) supplying adequate power to the computer or not.
eXtreme Power Supply Calculator
At least 30% extra is safe.

Is the computer hot? Report us the heat of the computer after a couple of hours of your normal usage. Upload a screenshot of the summery tab of Speccy.

Are you overclocking? As you are getting BSODs, you should stop overclocking and run all the hardware components like CPU, GPU and RAM to their default settings. Also set the BIOS to default, too.
How To Clear CMOS (Reset BIOS)

And, how old the computer is? Have you cleaned the inside recently?

Jmainsley · 23 May 2013

Yes, this is the exact issue I got with the newest drivers. Using older versions caused me to get BSODs.

I cleaned the computer recently, about a week ago. The computer is roughly 2 1/2 years old.

I'll install 'Speccy' and report back later on details of the temperature

As for the PSU calculator, i've not got a clue in hell how to use it :P I filled in what I could and found:
Minimum PSU Wattage: 305 W
Recommended
PSU Wattage: 355W
This is only filling in what I know e.g. Graphics card, CPU, RAM and Motherboard

Edit: Ran the Speccy program, found that my CPU, Motherboard and Graphics Card appear to be overheating. Not sure if this is still because of excess dust that I haven't cleaned out well or a problem with the fan (?)