Solved Nvidia windows kernel mode driver version 301.42 stopped responding

[Bruntz]

Good evening all. I am hoping to find some help for my question below. I have searched the forums here for similar issues but nothing I have tried thus far has worked.

I get a black screen for about 5 seconds and then the screen recovers. Sometimes it happens 3-4 times a game (League of Legends, Skyrim) and sometimes not at all. During that time, if I alt tab, I can see this message once the screen recovers, "nvidia windows kernel mode driver version 301.42 stopped responding and has recovered."

I have a Geforce GTX 260 with Nvidia 301.42 drivers and Windows 7 64bit (full specs are in my details). My motherboard is running updated drivers. I have tried both the 294 and 285 drivers and still have the issue with both. My GPU temp is 64C which doesn't seem to be too hot (but maybe?)

So far, I've read through a lot of forum posts and tried numerous different things, including; low video settings, disabling all visual upgrades from Windows 7, selecting the video card in 3D settings in Nvidia control panel, and numerous other things.

Please someone help!

 

[solarmystic]

Hello and welcome to the forums Bruntz!

64 C at load is normal for that graphics card.

Is your GTX 260 overclocked? Set it to default clocks and try again.

Try using these latest beta drivers from NVIDIA for your graphics card:-

GeForce 304.79 Beta 64-bit download from Guru3D.com

 

[Bruntz]

No overclocking. I will try the beta drivers tonight when I get home from work. Currently running memtest also. Do I need to only have a single stick of RAM in at a time for memtest?

 

[solarmystic]

No overclocking. I will try the beta drivers tonight when I get home from work. Currently running memtest also. Do I need to only have a single stick of RAM in at a time for memtest?

Yes that is recommended so that you can be sure that the ram stick you're testing is the one that is working/not working.

 

[Bruntz]

I ran memtest - no errors; also installed the beta drivers and restarted but am still getting a black screen for 5 seconds or so during games.

Any other suggestions?

 

[solarmystic]

Have you tried stress testing your card with FurMark?

FurMark: VGA Stress Test, Graphics Card and GPU Stability Test, Burn-in Test, OpenGL Benchmark and GPU Temperature | oZone3D.Net

Try it, and report back if the same black screen issue occurs.

 

[Bruntz]

Burn test complete, I wasn't here for the whole time it was running, do I need to be?

1360 score. 13334 Frames, 14 FPS, 91C.

Gonna boot up a game now and see if any crashes occur.

Any idea if this is a graphics card issue or something more?

 

[Bruntz]

Still happening.

What's next?

 

[solarmystic]

Hmmm... this may be more that a simple graphics card issue.

For the next step, can you perform a Clean Boot by:-

1) Going to the System Configuration Utility (Start|type in msconfig|enter)

2) On the General Tab, click on the Selective startup entry, untick "Load startup items", hit Apply and OK

3) Reboot

Try running your game again. If the problems occur, repeat steps 1 - 2 but before exiting the utility, go to the Services tab, tick "Hide all Microsoft services", click on Disable All, then hit Apply and OK. Reboot.

Try the game(s) again, and report back. Thanks for your patience.

 

[japaneseelf]

I am also facing same issues.

Screen goes blank randomly for few seconds and comes back again. At times it does this multiple times in series and the gets stable for hours.
* Using nVidia 260 GTX with 301.42 drivers.
* Also tried 280.26 drivers but still same issue.
* My card is not at all Overclocked
* Tried system restore also, but no joy.
* checked the cable was properly plugged in at both ends.
* Even switched the DVI port on the graphic card end still no joy.
* Thought i noticed the system is stable when run in safe mode. and screen does not
goes blank at all.

As suggested in previous post i will sure try rebooting it in clean state. once i get home.

Any further help will be appreciated.

 

[Bruntz]

So it's been happening less, but still happening nonetheless. Thanks for all the help so far solarmystic; any other suggestions?

 

[Layback Bear]

I took 301.42 of off two of my computers because it was driving them crazy. I just went back to the previous drivers. Things are okay again on both computers.

 

[japaneseelf]

I took 301.42 of off two of my computers because it was driving them crazy. I just went back to the previous drivers. Things are okay again on both computers.

What is the current driver you fall back to?

 

[Bruntz]

Still happening. It was good for a few games but last game it went black like 3-4 times. So frustrated.

 

[solarmystic]

So it's been happening less, but still happening nonetheless. Thanks for all the help so far solarmystic; any other suggestions?

Here's a very important question I failed to ask you earlier on, one I should ask more often when it comes to problems like these:-

When was the last time you could play games on your GTX 260 without having those issues?
(before the 301 drivers? before some Windows updates? etc.)

(Did you perform the Clean Boot procedure i outlined in my previous post?)

 

[slavko17]

Hello, I have the same issue on my freshly assembled computer (just yesterday). I was playing Team Fortress 2 and it happened a few times already... You can find my system specs in my profile


Regards

 

[Layback Bear]

I use 295.73 on both computers.

 

[Bruntz]

So it's been happening less, but still happening nonetheless. Thanks for all the help so far solarmystic; any other suggestions?

Here's a very important question I failed to ask you earlier on, one I should ask more often when it comes to problems like these:-

When was the last time you could play games on your GTX 260 without having those issues?
(before the 301 drivers? before some Windows updates? etc.)

(Did you perform the Clean Boot procedure i outlined in my previous post?)

This issue has been happening for months, before the 301 drivers and the 295 drivers (possibly before 283, also). I performed the Clean Boot procedure with both methods (disabling startup, then services); disabled startup was still crashing, disabled services I just did last night and no crashes so far in the one game I've played.

 

[issac clarke]

dat does happens with my asus gtx560... but only when i try to re overclock it...(coz its already factory OC'ed to its limit...) driver 301.42........... tri to update bios of ur gpu...

 

[solarmystic]

This issue has been happening for months, before the 301 drivers and the 295 drivers (possibly before 283, also). I performed the Clean Boot procedure with both methods (disabling startup, then services); disabled startup was still crashing, disabled services I just did last night and no crashes so far in the one game I've played.

It's interesting you mentioned this bit. Let's try and narrow down which service it could be...

Go back to the System Configuration tool (msconfig), services tab, and start by ticking your services (after hiding all Microsoft sevices) one at a time, with a reboot each time and playing a game.

Repeat the process until you discover which service is giving you the problem.