Nvlddmkm stopped responding: successful fixes?

[sclaws]

Not to state the obvious, but this bug/error appears to be a Vista driver issue, and for me its driving me nuts trying to fix. I'm hoping this thread can be a place where tried hardware/software etc fixes can be posted for all to share--I've had little success with this and am curious what others have tried and their results.

For me, I had no problems until updating from 100.65 to 101.70. Since then -the bug inevitably recurrs under any conditions, at any time (sometimes just after first boot, other times won't be until after hrs of gameplay).

FIX ATTEMPTS
- Tried uninstalling/reinstalling 100.65--error continues.
- Set all BIOS voltages from AUTO to their hard spec--error continues.
- Disabled SLI--error continues.
- Reinstall 158.18 clean--error continues.
- Reinstall 158.18 over itself--error continues.
- Tried registry hack:
*HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contr ol\GraphicsDrivers
*ADDED TdrDdiDelay (REG_DWORD) 20
*ADDED TdrDelay (REG_DWORD) 20 --error continues.
- Swapped SLI bridge; switched SLI connector ports--error continues.

FIXES TO ATTEMPT:
- Run one card at a time for awhile to determine if this is indeed a hardware issue.
- Install a driver previous to 100.65
- Underclock video cards (Not an option IMO..should run stable as-is)
- Underclock RAM (Again not an option IMO)
- Start RMA'ing hardware (I don't think this will help as I'm pretty sure its a software issue)

Please consider adding to this post your successes or failures troubleshooting this error.

[Shocky]

Reisntall XP, fixes it everytime. ;)

[Elevon]

Reisntall XP, fixes it everytime. ;)


As some of you know I had this problem in both XP and Vista x64 with my factory overclocked 7800GT,the fix in my case was to underclock my 7800GT by 10mhz(so still factory overclocked).
I had no more lockups or driver stop responding messages when I did this.


So Shocky reinstalling XP does not fix the problem for me,unless I underclock my card ;).

[chiklit]

I've only ever gotten that error with 101.45 and 100.95. So downgrading to 100.65 or upgrading to 101.70 or 158.18 fixed it for me.

Other things I've seen/heard about fixing it: Faulty memory, underpowered power supply (don't think would be an issue with 1kW), faulty graphics card, graphics card overheating, graphics card overclocked, under/over powered memory. Too bad the error message isn't more specific.

Pretty much, if anything that has anything to do with the graphics card and how it works, breaks, then it could be causing the crash.

[Shocky]

As some of you know I had this problem in both XP and Vista x64 with my factory overclocked 7800GT,the fix in my case was to underclock my 7800GT by 10mhz(so still factory overclocked).
I had no more lockups or driver stop responding messages when I did this.


So Shocky reinstalling XP does not fix the problem for me,unless I underclock my card ;).

It does as long as you rule out people with unstable/overheating issues which have nothing to do with the driver or software. :captnkill:

[xgman]

158.xx is not 100% without the error, but it cuts down on the majority of the warnings.

[sclaws]

A reply to my own thread...I have not had this error since installing 158.18 twice, letting the driver uninstall program run on its own. Before I used Driver Cleaner in safe mode...hoping for this to continue!

[lduguay]

Had the same problem until i jacked up my P180 case fans from min to max.
My cards temp were over 85c idle, now 81c/79c. I guess this summer (higher room temp), i'll be back to square one.

[MowTin]

158.18 is the worst for me.

100.65 -- stable but TDU stuttering is bad with these. No DVD playback stuttering.

101.41 -- less stuttering than 100.65 but periodic driver crash and reset and DVD playback stuttering.

101.70 -- less stuttering that 100.65 but more frequent crashes than 101.41. No DVD playback stuttering.

158.18 -- less stuttering than 100.65 but awful forzen screen need to reboot crashes. No DVD playback stuttering.

I don't know how many times I've installed and uninstalled drivers.

We're just going in circles! I'm so tired of this.

I was just trying to play BF2142 the other day.

Start game...find server...wait as map loads...crash.

Repeat previous step 3 times.

Game is working...I'm enjoying myself for 30 minutes....game freezes...reboot!

WTF?! This is beyond awful.

After Crysis is released. I'll try the latest ATI card. If it's not as f'd up as this and it plays Crysis well then this Nvidia crap is going on ebay.

[alkolkin]

Believe it or not, I have fixed it on my Vista 32 bit. Just turn of UAC and everything works perfectly (at least it has for the last half hour.) NO more interruptions to the DirectX 10 demos, or to DreamScene content, or to videos.

My setup is as follows:
Asus Striker Extreme
PNY 8800 GTX
2 GB Corsair Dominator memory
OC the CPU to 3.00 MHz
RAID 0
Creative X-Fi gamer

:captnkill:

[RickTheUncivil]

Same problem was my inspiration to reinstall XP. worked a treat. Dont know how it started though. I hadnt done any updates for over a week, it just suddenly started. My first reaction was hardware overheat or some such. tried allsorts, but nothing seemed to work. so i sacked off vista and went back to xp. bit of a pain but have no problems now.

[sclaws]

Bumping in hopes this thread may be useful to some.

I have not had the issue return for some time, but I don't know that its fixed. I use an auto-shutdown program to nightly powerdown the system, then set BIOS to restart at 4am. This hints at a *possible* hardware issue somewhere, but my testing has not found anything faulty as of yet.

[henrybravo]

*deleted*

[GT-Force]

Considering the fact that this error has A LOT to do with nVidia driver version (I have the same experience), I'm leaning towards thinking that it mostly is an nVidia bug, more than anything else.

Of course, it's possible that some driver versions may push some system components to their limits more than some other versions, but then again, nVidia should be able to pinpoint the cause of this error, and provide some suggestions/solutions.

I have:
eVGA 680i
eVGA 8800 GTX
4x1GB 1066 RAM
Q6600
Vista 32

This error is more than annoying! If I was nVidia, instead of tweaking SLI performance and suchlike, I would prioritize solving this issue before anything else.

Of course, MS may also have a lot to do with this. We'll see...

Edit: I lowered my memory frequency, and so far, so good. Looks like some nVidia drivers are pushing memory to its limits, more than others. See my post in "Nvlddmkm Stopped responding is getting VERY OLD" thread for details.

[bfar]

I had it this week. It was definately something to do with conflicting drivers/files being left behind by old driver revisions. I did a proper driver clean-out and all's good now.

You need to get rid of all old Nvidia files before you install new drivers. Driver cleaner or XDC won't do it alone.

This is what i did to solve the problem (follow at your own risk)

1) Uninstall Nvidia drivers (preferably with the Nvidia uninstaller), reboot in safe mode.
2) Run Driver cleaner and XDC (as Administrator). These are great for deleting registry entries, but still leave a lot of driver files behind.
3) run an advanced search for nv*.* in c:\Windows. Exclude the C:\Windows\System32\Driverstore\FileRepository in your search (you can't delete these, but it doesn't matter). Make sure you've checked the tick box to see hidden files. Sort the results by date decending.
4)You can now see all the files left behind by old nvidia drivers. Generally, files from the same driver set were created on the same date, so they're easy enough to spot. If in doubt, holding the cursor over a file tells you exactly what it is - if it's an Nvidia driver/control panel file, ditch it. The offending Nvlddmkm.sys will likely be one of them. Warning - don't delete nforce chipset drivers or anything that might not be an Nvidia file!
5) Reinstall your nvidia driver, reboot as normal.

Good luck!

[HerrLaufer]

Reisntall XP, fixes it everytime. ;)

Yep I couldnt agree more, I have had a proper copy of vista Ultamate that I went and bought and I had the problem almost in an instant.

I have done that much reading to try and fix this problem I now need glasses.

Earlier someone posted that it was a hardware problem, well your a flip dude, how can it be a hardware problem when it is only the nvlddmkm.sys (graphics file) that is causing the problem, hardware, RAM and all that crap pffffft it is the drivers.

Its back to XP for me never to return to a crap OS like vista (total waste of money). WD Nvidia & MS you both couldnt get a root in a brothel with a fist full of fifties, unless of course you root eachother.

Oh Vista lasted 3 days with me

[Reliquary]

I installed Ultimate as an upgrade a few weeks after it was launched and couldn't get through a single hour without the error, so went back to XP MCE (which came installed on my PC) within days. Then around August I was poking around and found that my 8800GTX was idling at 85 degrees. I'm not very techie to say the least, but even I thought that was too hot, so I put in a blower next to the card and found it now idles at around 60 degrees.

Out of curiosity I reinstalled Ultimate and found it suddenly remarkably stable and a joy to use. I don't know for sure whether the improvement was down to Hotfixes, drivers or the fan but it happened.

[Logical]

Sounds strange but this error actually dissapeared for me after i swapped my dominator 1066mhz ram for xms2 800mhz.

I had the error then a bsod would follow about 60% of the time every 5 mins whilst gaming....like i say, i swapped my ram and now my system runs flawless.

[sloppy]

I recently had this problem for the first time while playing Crysis after updating vista with sp1 and also updating my vid drivers (8800 gtx sli) to 175.16. after searching the net and trying various things i found that it only hapened when sli was enabled. When i disabled sli everything was fine. I then went into the nvidia control panel and forced sli to run in alternate frame rendering 2 and everything worked fine. Hope this helps somebody. Oh, almost forgot. I also replaced the nvlddmkm file in the system32 folder with the one in the "C:/NVIDIA/WinVista/175.16/English" folder after expanding the file with EXPAND.EXE in a cmd window. Not sure which part fixed it as I did them both at the same time and DON'T want to go back any steps as things are working great now. :)

[Shocky]

Reisntall XP, fixes it everytime. ;)

Then the cards defective or your overclocking too far, RMA the card or lower your overclock.

[ragingWS6]

Then the cards defective or your overclocking too far, RMA the card or lower your overclock.
Yup. I will say that I was having these issues ONLY after going to Vista x64 SP1. I reloaded the OS without SP1 and patched everything and I could stay clocked @ 640/1035 on my 8800GTXs and play for hours. As soon as I went back to SP1, had to bring my cards back down to lower than the Superclocked speeds (621/1000) to 575/900. Also, lowered the voltage on the RAM to 1.9 from 2.1 (had Corsair RAM that required 2.1 and went to ADATA that gave a 1.9-2.1 range), and upped the PCI-E clocks to 110. This has me totally stable now but I think the memory voltage was the cause of everything, it just seems like SP1 is a bit more sensitive than pre-SP1 systems..

[grave18]

Hi Everyone, I had this problem before when I upgraded to a galaxy 9800GT Card. I tried every solution that I could find from the web but nothing works.So what I did was do a full format of my HD and reinstalled vista, Updated to the new drivers and installed everything.Everything works!(nana2)I could also overclock my card without any problems.I also created a restore point just to be safe.

Now here's the weird thing.Whenever I try to install a game that updates Directx(Witcher and Devil may Cry 4), the problem immediately returns.Good thing I created a restore point. Hope this helps

[grave18]

'Hi Everyone, I had this problem before when I upgraded to a galaxy 9800GT Card. I tried every solution that I could find from the web but nothing works.So what I did was do a full format of my HD and reinstalled vista, Updated to the new drivers and installed everything.Everything works!I could also overclock my card without any problems.I also created a restore point just to be safe.

Now here's the weird thing.Whenever I try to install a game that updates Directx(Witcher and Devil may Cry 4), the problem immediately returns.Good thing I created a restore point. Hope this helps