"nvlddmkm has stopped responding"

[Gholbine]

I've searched the forum for this error message, and only one thread came up, in which it was mentioned only briefly.

So I've only recently begun having this problem. If you don't know what it is, it's where you will lose video output momentarily and when you regain it, it will say "nvlddmkm has stopped responding but recovered", or something to that effect.

I originally thought it was a hardware issue and spent a good deal of time swapping out components in my PC. The general consensus seemed to be that it was a G80 problem, however I did receive the error on occasion while using a 7600GS. I tried a fresh installation of Vista, flashing my BIOS, etc. Nothing helped.

Can anybody give me some insight? Is it really a driver problem? Could it be a hardware problem? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

It's everywhere. Looks like a bug with Nvidia drivers or hardware on certain cards.

 

[AlNom]

Yea, I get it too in Vista 32-bit with a 7950GT 512MB. It happens randomly on start-up usually. I've only had it happen once while the system was in use. It didn't seem to cause any real problems for me, but I only use that computer once in a blue moon.

 

[Gholbine]

Well, my situation is a little strange. Firstly I still got the error when I swapped out my 8800 for a 7600GS, but I also got the error when I first started Vista before I'd installed any Nvidia drivers.

Is it possible that the motherboard could cause the issues? Memory? Would that explain why these errors came literally out of the blue?

 

[Davros]

does this help
http://i.nconspicuo.us/2007/03/28/nvidia-nvlddmkm-vista-driver-fix-here-is-the-solution/

 

[BRiT]

Have you tried running the 169.71/73 drivers?

 

[Gholbine]

Have you tried running the 169.71/73 drivers?

169.71 is still in Beta for Vista, but I have tried them and the problem still occured. Is it supposed to be a fix?

I'm currently using 163.69.

 

[BRiT]

I ran the 163.69 for a while and hadn't had issues. Have you tested the system's memory?

When I was having the "nvlddmkm" issues, it was caused by a bad dimm. Once I had it replaced, everything went back to normal.

 

[L233]

Reverting back to driver version 158.45 is the only thing that worked for me.

 

[Gholbine]

I ran the 163.69 for a while and hadn't had issues. Have you tested the system's memory?

When I was having the "nvlddmkm" issues, it was caused by a bad dimm. Once I had it replaced, everything went back to normal.

Is that likely to show up on a memory test? I did test my memory recently using the default Windows test application, and it reported no errors.

Reverting back to driver version 158.45 is the only thing that worked for me.

Didn't work for me unfortunately.

 

[L233]

Didn't work for me unfortunately.

Try this:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers]
"TdrDelay"=dword:00000005
"TdrDebugMode"=dword:00000003

"This increases the TDR timeout to 5 seconds instead of the default 2, and makes sure the recovery will always proceed.
Following this change and a reboot I have not had the error. I used to have it continually, no matter the driver."

 

[BRiT]

Is that likely to show up on a memory test? I did test my memory recently using the default Windows test application, and it reported no errors.

My DDR2 memory hardware errors showed up in Memtest86+ and HCI Memtest.

 

[Gholbine]

Try this:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers]
"TdrDelay"=dword:00000005
"TdrDebugMode"=dword:00000003

"This increases the TDR timeout to 5 seconds instead of the default 2, and makes sure the recovery will always proceed.
Following this change and a reboot I have not had the error. I used to have it continually, no matter the driver."

So far this has actually worked. Do you know if it only works with the 158.45 drivers?

Thanks all for your help.

 

[L233]

So far this has actually worked. Do you know if it only works with the 158.45 drivers?

Thanks all for your help.

It prolly works with all drivers, though maybe only to a lesser degree. Other driver sets seem to be more susceptible to the error.

Anyway, there is a drawback: occassional bluescreens. I'm not sure why, maybe because the increased TDR timeout causes some errors to become irrecoverable. Anyway, this rarely happens and it's far better than no being able to do shit because the damn nvlddmkm.sys crashes all the time.