FIX: nvlddmkm.sys has stopped responding and has recovered [VISTA ERROR]

I'm also surprised that most of u who built new rigs face this issue even with newer hi-end graphics cards from Nvidia/ATI... Mine was a "moderate gaming" rig back then... But i'm surprised that most ppl who dont have a hi-end rig these days, dont get this problem at all!!

Error FIX

I had the same error with windows 7 and determined that it was an issue with the HP Printer software. Uninstalled that and all was fine. Tried many other solutions to no avail and this worked.

cbbrink said:

I had the same error with windows 7 and determined that it was an issue with the HP Printer software. Uninstalled that and all was fine. Tried many other solutions to no avail and this worked.

Click to expand...

Did you uninstall the HP software or the print drivers?







Has anyone else found a solution for this in Win7?

Hiya.

Felt I should at least share a bit of what I found out about this problem.
Been having this trouble ONLY with trying to run NeverWinter Nights 2, everything else works fine, day to day is fine etc, other games no problem.

Anyways, I found this thread while looking for some solutions (sorry OP, didn't work for me) but I kept looking.

Just tonight I found this:
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=100800&hl=nvlddmkm

Which explains a bit about what is actually going on with Vista's timeout detection recovery (TDR). Might be interesting/useful for someone.

That led to this:
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/archive/index.php/t-86550-p-13.html

The short version, the default timeout that windows waits for the GPU to respond is 2 seconds. If it doesn't respond in that time windows thinks it's hung and resets the graphics stack which is probably part of what makes the program hang and die to the desktop. The link above gives the reg hack method to increase it to 5 (or your choice I suppose) which might be enough to let the program figure out what's going on and recover and carry on.

Anyways, I did this and checked again with NWN2 and so far it seems to work fine Yes it still coughs now and then but so far I still havn't managed to get it to crash to the desktop.

Sorry if you've seen all this before and I won't be offended if you want to ditch this post. Just thought it might be useful for someone.

if it's useful I'm running:
Vista Home 32bit
Nvidia GeForce GT240
Drivers 196.21

I'm trying to play Morrowind, and when look at the wrong thing, my game freezes up. I've tried a lot. And it's always the nvlddmkm.sys error.
System Specs: (copied from cpu-id)
x64 Vista
intel core i7 940
asus p6t motherboard
6GB DDR3 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275
If you need more info, tell me.

nvlddmkm.sys under windows 7

Hello everyone,

at first my system specs:

Intel core duo quad 6600g0
Sound blaster audigy 2 zs
4x 1gb Ram (G.E.I.L.) 800mhz
XFX Geforce 8800 Ultra X3
Asus P5N32-E SLI
Enermax Galaxy 850W
Windows 7 X64
Samsung f3 1TB hard drive (new)
Seagate Barracuda 250 GB (with the system installed) - 2 1/2 y/o

--> the processor/mobo/graca are almost 3 years old, the PSU and the RAM modules are newer

As you can read in the title I've got the same or a similar problem concerning the nvlddmkm.sys error. I'm running W7 and the PC was fine for almost 3 years.
Then about a week ago I got this well-known error while starting up Crysis - i wasn't familiar with the whole problem at that time.
I tried out Medieval 2, same problem: Computer freezes, tries to reset the display driver and goes into BSOD. Every time I started up the PC I'd get a BSOD after windows was loaded, the desktop was shown etc. - I couldn't even start to think about doing anything in normal Windows.
Safe mode always worked until now.
What I've tried so far:

- deinstalling all possible Windows updates in safe mode/in normal W7 mode
- replacing the nvlddmkm.sys file by another one from Vista (uploaded on the Inet): this worked as long as I had my nvidia drivers (latest ones from nvidia) installed (I'm also using nforce). But I couldn't use aero mode or the correct resolutions for my screen and as soon as I deinstalled the Nvidia drivers: BSOD
- I also tried to replace the nvlddmkm.sys with the original one from windows 7, which worked for a short time, then the OS crashed again
- as far as installing the nvidia drivers goes: I removed everything, also with nvidia nasty file remover and didn't restart. Then installed latest drivers... didn't help
- After several other little tryouts I reformatted the PC and installed W7 fresh again. As long as I didn't use Aero everything worked (well I could see my desktop at least)
- I also tried another PCI slot, which didn't bring about change
- I removed the ram modules, let memtest do a check, tried different ram slots and nr.s (1x 1gb, 2x 1 gb usw.) and also tried another 1 gb ram stick - didn't help
- some said it was connected to their drive, so I unplugged the power supply for that and it didn't help
- I cleaned my graphics card removed and added again my fairly old (but still fantastic) sound card
- the ventilation and temps are fine (kept the case open almost all the time these past days + 2 ventilator w/good airflow and a good CPU vent.)
- checked the Power supply of the room again (PC has a 850 W PSU, and it wasn't the least used to its capacity)
- checked the registry delay problem(almost no change)
- tried to change the RAM/CPU MHZ (didn't help)
- installed latest direct x again, because that has also been a cause (no difference)

What I'm going to do now is (only if problem will occur again *see edit):

- try out a different graphics card
- disable UAC

If anybody has come up with a new solution or knows how to fix the problem it would be good to see some new posts since the problem doesn't just disappear and might come back.

Thanks in advance,

Void

*Edit: Would it also be worth it to update the graphics card bios? The Mobo bios is updated but I'm kind of skeptical concerning the graca bios since it's said to be even more risky...?
Oh and I also changed the power settings in W7 to best performance already since that caused problems in the past*


* APPARENTLY the problem seems to be solved.. for now:

I installed windows 7, deinstalled any existing nvidia drivers.
To begin with I didn't find any nvl files but I still remembered where I had to put them (drivers and repository).
What I did was: run nvidia nasty file remover, driver cleaner didn't really work with me for some reason.
Since my installer didn't work anymore in safe mode I went to Windows 7(maybe that did the trick) with completely deinstalled graphics drivers and installed the latest ones there from scratch.
Afterwards I used the expand method and copied the expanded nvlddmkm.sys files.
So far I have no problems but I'll keep in touch. *

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Ok it wasn't fixed. I'll try a new installation incl. all the methods described by JenBell and if that doesn't help I'll try out another graphics card.

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Yup, my graphics card seems to be fried. I haven't tried a GPU update yet, but why would it be needed? I couldn't even install Windows 7 anymore and it is definitely not about the nvlddmkm.sys file anymore, at least no old version is causing the crashes otherwise I could at least install Windows 7 which had worked fine before or another OS. A friend of mine tried it on his system and he still has XP. He couldn't even install the driver. So I'm changing to ATI now. The 8800 Ultra xxx was of course a high end machine back in its time and is still darn good but it's time for something new I suppose. Good luck to all who suffer from the same problem!

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Hello all for a few years I've had this problem ( driver has stopped responding and has successfully recovered ) Or something very similar to that. I went through a lot of websites like this. For years trying to find the answer why I'm getting this. When I bought my computer. I had the best graphics card put in it. I wanted to make sure it could handle the games I do on it. But instead just with a few minutes of playing games I would get this error. So going to websites like these. I was told stuff like update your graphics driver, change your registry, restore your computer, reinstall your graphics driver, on and on with different things. Nothing worked. But there was one thing I kept hearing a lot. ( Overclocking ) and of course talking about going into your registry to do things like that. I never messed with my overclocking things before. But I was wondering maybe my computer is overclocking naturally. Maybe with the software and hardware that's there In my computer that when they communicate they overclock. So I looked into that and found a program called ( EVGA Precision ) from what I understand it's made to overclock your computer but it actually can turn everything down as well and was fairly simple. What I have found with this error is that there is many reasons. But for years all the reasons I was hearing wasn't fixing my problem. So I write this hoping to help someone who may have the same problem I had that maybe this program could fix for them. So I basically just turned everything down on the first menu screen except the fan. And I have not yet had the error returned again. I hope this is helpful for many. It's a pain in the butt of a problem so if you want to give it a try ( EVGA Precision ) It may work for you

I had this issue randomly about a month ago with my EVGA GTX570. I was playing Battlefield 2 and the boom ERROROROROR.

I researched it as much as i could, did the usual uninstall and reinstall of drivers. Did the whole boot to safe mode and clean wipe of drivers, etc.. Eventually I reinstalled Windows (win 7 x64) and still the problem was there. I even tried the beta drivers at the time and still nothing.

After 3 hours of dicking around with software/drivers, i was ready to give up. I decided to do a reseat of the card and problem was gone on the next boot and havent seen it since (knock on wood!!!!).

Its a miracle but maybe this will help someone save a few hours of their time by just reseating first!

mine's different

i read that most of you have a problem with display driver error but my problem is with the driver video.

i wonder if those are similar problems
can anyone help me??

After months of trying every possible solution posted in many forums regarding this problem, i came up with a fix for the issue. I'll basically mention what I did and if there is any doubts on the matter I'll return to help recreating my experience on the issue. First of all, I'm no pc guru or technician but I felt compelled to share what has worked for me. First, disable the display driver at device manager. There is a video on youtube which I will look for (since I can't recall right now where it is) that shows how to disassemble the laptop. My pc is an HP dvpp30us (4GB Ram, Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T5750 2.0 GHz Processor, 64bit, using Vista home premium sp2) I watched what a technician in Florida who claimed to fix the problem for a flat fee did and practically took off from there. He shows in the video I just mentioned, the proper way to disassemble the laptop therefore you know what you will encounter when you decide to do so. Once it was disassembled, I cleaned all the dust in all areas, with a small brush and a vacuum cleaner specially where the fan is. Then, I literally took a penny (one cent) and placed it right on top of the Nvidia chip. and afterwards, (with the penny there) re assembled everything back on. It took me less than two hours for the whole procedure, since It was only my second time opening up my laptop, but, as I said, after months of trying everything without success this finally worked. The technician in the video instead of using a penny uses a copper film, but in my case, it was too skinny to do the job, therefore I used a penny. I'm still amazed of how this worked, but hey, I only invested a couple of hours of my time and after almost believing that was the end of my laptop It's back in action and I couldn't be more happy. So I felt to share this with you all. I will come back ASAP with the link for the video I just mentioned. But keep in mind is no rocket science to get this done. And for those who have experience opening up laptops, this should be a walk in the park. Cheers guys!

(typo)* laptop model HP dv9930us

Ooops, almost forgot....(important), purchase some "thermal compound", (I did at my local Radio Shack), and apply some (a little) under the penny (between the chip and the penny) let it dry off for 20-30 minutes, THEN, reassemble all.

here's the link for the disassembling video I posted yesterday. PS. In my case (after a few weeks of the "display not working message" came on, my laptop refused to startup, it simply when blackscreened, although you could actually see it was on, nothing came up, just a somewhat bright light in the back, nothing else. that's when I thought i had lost it. Thankfully for this little trick I've been trouble free for weeks now. Another small detail, I noticed I'm unable to plug and play some USB's on ports, it simply wont recognize them. (I say some because the external fan, internet card plug in, and a flash drive, and an external hard disk work well thru USB's connections, although, when I try to plug in new ones , it simply won't acknowledge them. just to let you know. I went in the device manager and under portable devices H; it read; "Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19)

Click 'Check for solutions' to send data about this device to Microsoft and to see if there is a solution available." Also, obviously, the display driver Nvidia GE Force 8600M GS is also "highlighted" since is disabled as I told you at the very beginning of the procedure. One last hint, DO NOT enable this display driver. I did and the problem came back quickly. (little colorful lines and dots all over the screen) there's no need to enable this considering it will work just fine w/o it. Certainly, you wont be able to receive an accurate rating of your pc at system properties since the display driver is disabled, (i have a 1.1, lol, from a former 4. something) but I can live with that as long as the computer works. I'll be checking this blog in case anyone needs additional info. Have a great day all !

Note; The thermal compound WON'T dry in 20-30 minutes. It will only become a little pastier, like toothpaste (not actually dry). Still, give it around 20-30 minutes before assembling everything back on again.

Hello,

I know this thread is pretty old but it seems to have resolved my issue. I was in the middle of playing Firefall when the game froze and I couldn't recover back to Windows. At this time I started receiving the error/recovery message that is associated with 'nvlddmkm.sys' crash. I'm running the EVGA 980ti.

I happened to have my old 780 and swapped that in for testing. Strangely enough, the 780 worked fine, even before messing with the NV*.sys files as mentioned in this thread.

1. Booted with 780 into safe mode and removed drivers with Display Driver Uninstaller.
2.
2. Booted into normal Windows 10 with 780 and renamed nvlddmkm.sys to nvlddmkm.old
2a. I only had 2 instances of this file and they were in Windows\LastGood\system32 and Windows\LastGood.TMP\system32
2b. I renamed them anyway and had no other instances of nvlddmkm.sys
3. I installed Nvidia 359.06, rebooted, 780 was working perfectly.
4. Shut down, remove 780, reinstall 980ti, power on.
5. Windows 10 booted normally with generic Microsoft driver.
6. Went to Device Manager and "Update Driver" while specifying the 359.06 folder, detected, installed, rebooted to test.

All has been working fine since.

Thanks for this thread.