"Display driver stopped responding and recovered" error

Hi there,

I am new here and I am not computer guru. So I ran the test earlier today , and everything was fine. Max temperature after 11 minutes running the test was as far as I can remember not more than 85 it stayed stable with only 1 degree difference from time to time till I stopped the test. I am with Palit Gtx570 Sonic Platinium video card. So I didn't take a screen because I thought everything was fine. Seven hours later I ran the test again and then suddenly here is what happened :




Actually I bought my computer recently. I am using Win7 64bit. I had that problem and here is what I have done:

1.Reinstalling drivers from different sources - Palit, Nvidia and disc drivers. Tried older versions.
2. Reinstalling Windows - putting first the drivers of the video and then the drivers of other devices with the purpose to try to detect if there is a driver conflict.
3. Talked with the distributor which sold me that video card and they changed it with a brand new one. The same model.
The first video card had that TDR problem quite often. This one not that often. The first one was able to force the TDR crash in two ways -no need of those test. I installed a game called - World of Warcraft and I tested it there was where i experienced TDRs for first time. After that I found out that I can force them to happen also when I am testing the " Windows experience index" - usually happens on the 3D Geometry and some other 3D tests.
Somewhere in the internet I read that it was due to a low core voltage so here comes the :
4. I increased the core voltage a little bit to 1038 with afterburner program. But this didn't help at all. - this is considered for the first video card.
Now I am kinda desperate. It cannot be from the vide card to be malfunctioning because it was changed with new one. It is not the driver too...
As you can see the first time it passed the test of the FurMark with no reclamations second time it failed. Sometimes it passed windows experience index without a problem , other times it is experiencing TDRs.
P.S. Here are the parts I am using - everything is brand new recently bought: i7-2600 3.4 Ghz ; Asrock extreme4 gen3; Palit GTX570 Sonic Platinium; Corsair Vengeance 2x4gb dual channeled 1600 ( CL:9); Seasonic 850W Bronze; Box - Thermaltake RX-I
May be this is not the place to talk about that problem. So I apologize in advance but try to put yourselves in my socks - I am desperate.

Thank you in advance

Best regards

Welcome to Seven Forums.

Try the steps in this post.
STOP 0x116: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR troubleshooting

I'll ask this post to be moved to it's own thread where it will get more attention.

Your card at 86 deg c is to hot.

This crash is usually from the graphics card but can be caused by CPU, HDD, RAM or PSU.
Which graphics driver are you using now?


Run Prime95 torture test.
CPU - Stress Test with Prime95

First open Real Temp to monitor CPU temperatures, don't go over 77.6°C.
Open Prime95 and stop the test if it is running, in Advanced tab select 'Round off checking', in the Options tab select 'Torture Test...', in the window that opens select 'Blend', after 'Number of torture test threads to run' enter 8, then click OK to start the test.
Run the test for 2-4 hours, watch the CPU core temps.
If you get a error you can stop the test.

Intel® Core™ i7-2600 Processor

If everything is ok, then D/L and run Western Digital Lifeguard – Quick Test and Extended Test

If no issues from the hard drive, then run memtest86+.
RAM - Test with Memtest86+
First run it with both RAM cards installed, for a full 7 passes, best to run overnight.
If you get any errors you can stop the test and let us know.

I would use CP / Programs and Features and unistall the drivers (only) then useing the latest drivers 285.62 from NVidia, do custom install and check the box to remove all and reinstall the latest drivers for your card. 86 C is to hot and that's why your getting the error.

Hi Bow,

Actually with the previous video card I did all that. Uninstalled the drivers for quite many times and installed them clearly. I even used driver sweeper. I think the drivers' way ain't working. I am using this driver version - 8.17.12.8562 downloaded from nvidia site - 285.62-desktop-win7-winvista-64bit-english-whql.
I've changed this video card once. Could it be only a bad luck so two new video cards to be bugged?
EDIT: I saw that there are new drivers - 295.73-desktop-win7-winvista-64bit-english-whql . As soon as i finish testing I'll uninstall the older drivers and I will install the new ones. Still I don't think this will change something.
Testing progress: I am testing the CPU now with Prime95. It's on for 3 hours already, so I think I will stop it soon. No errors given as far as I can understand the program. I'll give you a screen of the program before I close it. I am keeping an eye on the temps with the Real temp 3.7 program. I wasn't always in front of the computer but lets say that the longest duration it was left without a watch was 20 minutes.
If it is of any importance Worker 3,5 and 8 are moving faster than the other. They are moving with 2 test ahead. Worker 1,2 and 6 are the slowest ones. You will see on the screen. And Worker 4 and 6 are in the middle.(these are the threads)
Here is a screen of Prime95 before I stop it with the RealTemp. Notice that the test started around 18:55 local time and finished around 22:10.




What I noticed also is that the temperatures in the beginning of the test were higher that at the end. At the end they lower and close to each other as values( for the 4 cores I speak ).
Please post your analysis for the screens so I can know if everything is O.K.

HDD tests -


I don't have an empty disc or a USB device to test the RAM. I'll do it tomorrow. I am still getting the drivers not responding when doing the Windows Experience Index Test, which automatically means I will get the error in WoW Game for sure.
Tomorrow I will put the new drivers which were released yesterday.

Thanks in advance.

Best regards
Rado