Nvidia Driver Keeps Crashing

[Gdepp519]

I decided to update my workstation PC, and for some reason the nvidia Driver keeps crashing sometimes, 2-3 times in a row. After the second or third time the screens just go black. I had thought I fixed the issue by installing a later version of the nvidia drivers from Dec 2013, and it worked for a day but I keep running into the same issue.

Sometimes I will get a blue screen error message. But I just recently updated the settings so that the computer doesn't automatically restart after a BSOD. (so I can at least write down the error message)

Parts:
-Windows 7 Ultimate - 64bit
- HyperX 8GB Kit (2x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3 PC3-12800 CL9 DIMM XMP Desktop Memory, Black KHX16C9B1BK2/8X
- Intel Core i5-4670K Quad-Core Desktop Processor 3.4 GHZ 6 MB Cache - BX80646I54670K
- Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Single Unit Version Internal Solid State Drive MZ-7TE250BW
- ASUS Z97-A ATX DDR3 2600 LGA 1150 Motherboards Z97-A
- EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SUPERCLOCKED 2048MB GDDR5 DVI HDMI DP Graphics Card 02G-P4-2662-KR
- - Antec TruePower Quattro TPQ-1000 1000W Continuous Power ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC "compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply

**I appreciate your input!!**

 

[denis280]

Could something else.download this and come back with result.http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed

 

[Ketchup]

a later version of the nvidia drivers from Dec 2013

I'd go all the way up to the ones released in June, but also see if there is a minidump with the utility Denis mentioned (although it's probably an nvidia driver).

Do you know what your CPU/video card temps are like?

 

[Gdepp519]

I'd go all the way up to the ones released in June, but also see if there is a minidump with the utility Denis mentioned (although it's probably an nvidia driver).

Do you know what your CPU/video card temps are like?

Wow that far back? Ok I will get that information and post it tonight after work!

Thanks!

 

[tomroark]

Created an account after doing a search and finding this thread. I'm having the same issues. First started while playing Guild Wars 2. Computer would completely crash, and the issue persisted intermittently. After troubleshooting, I confirmed it wasn't the game and attempted restoring the computer. Didn't work. I did a complete reinstall of Windows 7 and performed all of the updates and reinstalled the latest driver for my graphics card (nvidia gtx 560ti) which happened to be an update from the driver I was previously using. This did not work either.

I found a simple way to consistently reproduce the issue (control panel > appearance and personalization > change the theme > switch back and forth between different aero themes). With the driver installed, this consistently reproduces a crash, every single time. Without the driver installed, no issues whatsoever.

I downloaded the "whocrashed" application as was recommended in this thread, and these are the results:

crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\070314-6801-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: nvlddmkm.sys (nvlddmkm+0x9A3608)
Bugcheck code: 0x116 (0xFFFFFA800D2E0480, 0xFFFFF8800FA06608, 0xFFFFFFFFC000009A, 0x4)
Error: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\nvlddmkm.sys
product: NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 320.49
company: NVIDIA Corporation
description: NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 320.49
Bug check description: This indicates that an attempt to reset the display driver and recover from a timeout failed.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: nvlddmkm.sys (NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 320.49 , NVIDIA Corporation).

I've tried at least three different drivers (latest driver, a driver from a couple months ago, and a driver from over a year ago). Nothing has seemed to work. At this point I'm starting to think that there may be some conflict between one of the latest Windows updates and the nvidia driver, but I can't be sure as I'm not very familiar with these types of things.

If anyone has any ideas or tips, it'd be much appreciated! The driver consistently crashes at this point once I have it installed.

Edit: Wanted to add that I consistently monitored Speedfan throughout this ordeal and have confirmed it is *not* temperature related.

Edit2 (computer specs):

windows version: Windows 7 Service Pack 1, 6.1, build: 7601
windows dir: C:\Windows
Hardware: ASRock, Z68 Extreme3 Gen3
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz Intel586, level: 6
4 logical processors, active mask: 15
RAM: 17068638208 total
VM: 2147352576, free: 1935081472

 

[denis280]

335.23 is working fine for me so far.all others fail

 

[Ketchup]

Found a couple things. Just keep in mind my 660 has not given me this error (just a weird Physx problem that didn't seem to actually be caused by the card), so YMMV:

Here is a video of a registry edit that may may help. The responses seem to be about 50/50:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrOKlh9fC9g

Also, are you guys installing the Nvidia 3D Vision and Experience software with this? My thought is 'if you don't use it, lose it.'

And if neither of those help, open up services.msc. There should be at least 3 Nvidia services running. Set all to Stop (and Disable if you want) and see if you can reproduce the problem.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[tomroark]

Update: 335.23 did not work when I installed it (clean install without Nvidia 3D Vision or Experience software).

I also followed the steps to the registry edit, and unfortunately that did not work either for me.

Next, I tried opening up services.msc as ketchup79 suggested, but I could only find 1 Nvidia service- "NVIDIA Display Driver Service." Not sure if I'm supposed to have 3 or not, but only 1 is present currently. When I stopped running this process, the issue was not reproducible using the method I previously described (which has been working 100% of the time). **Interestingly enough, when I resumed the service the issue did not continue, it seems to have resolved (which I don't know why stopping the service and resuming it would fix this issue when a complete reinstall would not). I restarted my computer and haven't been able to reproduce the crash yet (about 10 minutes clean, wanted to update here).**EDIT: ISSUE RESUMED, SEE NEW POSTS**

I'll continue pressing forward and if the crashing resumes I will update, but for now stopping and restarting the "NVIDIA Display Driver Service" service seems to have (at least temporarily) resolved the issue.

 

[Ketchup]

Good to hear! And I should have entered the disclaimer that this was on my laptop with Intel/Quadro switchable Graphics, so yeah the options will be different.

So was yours the display driver service? I am glad you found a workaround, but I wish we could do better. Hmm..

 

[tomroark]

Unfortunately the issue resumed after about 15 minutes.

Edit: I'm assuming keeping that Nvidia service stopped disables the graphics driver?

 

[Ketchup]

OK. Leave the service disabled and see what happens.

 

[tomroark]

Ugh. It seems to be crashing with the service disabled as well now.

 

[denis280]

Gdepp519 and tomroark Both should check power supply.wires.dust.and if the card is siting properly.

 

[Ketchup]

Ugh. It seems to be crashing with the service disabled as well now.

If you haven't already, disable the service, reboot, and see what happens. I am not expecting a miracle here, but I was surprised when it worked the first time.

 

[tomroark]

I dusted the computer best I could, multiple times, and checked to make sure the card was sitting securely. I also attempted disabling the service and rebooted- issue persisted. I also tried a motherboard reset using CLR CMOS, didn't work either. A quick RAM test didn't give me any signs of RAM issues.

I did try a GPU stress test using FurMark. Unfortunately, the stress test immediately crashed the computer. At this point I've concluded that any time the driver/graphics card is used, it immediately crashes.

I'm starting to lean towards a failing GPU? I'm still not sure. The issue did start intermittently without warning and I had not performed any critical updates.

 

[Ketchup]

.... I'm starting to lean towards a failing GPU? I'm still not sure. The issue did start intermittently without warning and I had not performed any critical updates.

I am seeing that as well, unless your power supply is giving you problems.

 

[tomroark]

I am seeing that as well, unless your power supply is giving you problems.

Purchased a new PSU about a month and a half ago after that went out, so I doubt it's that. Sigh. Almost want to build an entirely new computer now.

 

[Ketchup]

Purchased a new PSU about a month and a half ago after that went out, so I doubt it's that. Sigh. Almost want to build an entirely new computer now.

Understand that. What power supply did you get?

 

[tomroark]

Understand that. What power supply did you get?

Corsair RM Series 750 Watt ATX/EPS 80PLUS Gold-Certified Power Supply.

 

[tomroark]

Tried taking my graphics card out to clean the ports and the graphics card better. Upon putting it back in, I'm now getting no signal to my display at all (fan on graphics card is working). I tried another slot and it's still not working (it connects via hdmi to my display). I tried CLR CMOS on the motherboard (that prompted it to turn on) but still nothing. I don't know what to do now. Hah.

 

[Ketchup]

Sounds like your problem is going to turn out to be the video card. That power supply should be able to run two of those with ease.

You may have mentioned this, but does the on-chip Intel video work ok?

 

[tomroark]

Sounds like your problem is going to turn out to be the video card. That power supply should be able to run two of those with ease.

You may have mentioned this, but does the on-chip Intel video work ok?

I believe it does, but unable to test currently. Unfortunately the monitor I have is hdmi only, and plugs directly into the graphics card. I'll have to find a monitor to test it with.

 

[Gdepp519]

Temperatures:
GPU: 28C or 82F
CPU: Core0: 30C or 84F
Core1: 29C or 80F
Core2: 29C or 80F
Core3: 29C or 80F

System Information (local)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

computer name: WORKSTATION
windows version: Windows 7 Service Pack 1, 6.1, build: 7601
windows dir: C:\Windows
Hardware: All Series, ASUS, ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC., Z97-A
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4670K CPU @ 3.40GHz Intel586, level: 6
4 logical processors, active mask: 15
RAM: 8530255872 total
VM: 2147352576, free: 1914458112




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crash Dump Analysis
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crash dump directory: C:\Windows\Minidump

Crash dumps are enabled on your computer.

On Wed 7/2/2014 1:17:48 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: Unknown (0xFFFFFA80074E3010)
Bugcheck code: 0x116 (0xFFFFFA80074E3010, 0xFFFFF880104150DC, 0xFFFFFFFFC000009A, 0x4)
Error: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR
Bug check description: This indicates that an attempt to reset the display driver and recover from a timeout failed.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error.
Google query: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR



On Mon 6/30/2014 11:25:34 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\063014-6489-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: nvlddmkm.sys (nvlddmkm+0x2BEA7E)
Bugcheck code: 0x1000007E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000094, 0xFFFFF8800FD6BA7E, 0xFFFFF88003FDE228, 0xFFFFF88003FDDA80)
Error: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\nvlddmkm.sys
product: NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 332.21
company: NVIDIA Corporation
description: NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 332.21
Bug check description: This indicates that a system thread generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: nvlddmkm.sys (NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 332.21 , NVIDIA Corporation).
Google query: NVIDIA Corporation SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M



On Mon 6/30/2014 1:41:17 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\063014-7831-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: nvlddmkm.sys (nvlddmkm+0x98BD1C)
Bugcheck code: 0x116 (0xFFFFFA800C62D3E0, 0xFFFFF88010439D1C, 0xFFFFFFFFC000009A, 0x4)
Error: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\nvlddmkm.sys
product: NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 332.21
company: NVIDIA Corporation
description: NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 332.21
Bug check description: This indicates that an attempt to reset the display driver and recover from a timeout failed.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: nvlddmkm.sys (NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 332.21 , NVIDIA Corporation).
Google query: NVIDIA Corporation VIDEO_TDR_ERROR

 

[Ketchup]

Try out 337.88 and see if the problems continue.

 

[Gdepp519]

It is worse with that driver. The majority of my crashes are with that driver. :/