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nvlddmkm stops responding and has recovered
Vostro 1500 laptop with highest res display and nvidia 128mb video card. Vista Business 32bit. With Aero on the display freezes for some time, screen goes black and recovers with a ballon message stating the
the display driver has stopped responding and has recovered, and mentions the nvidia
nvlddmkm.sys driver as the problem.
There are numorous posts on the web regarding this since Vista was released and I have tried the 'fixes' to no avail. Among other things, I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the latest driver from Dell (the latest drivers directly from NVIDIA will not load as they don't recognize the DELL version of the card). There was an issue with the nvlddmkm.sys driver not being overwritten in the system32/drivers directory, but I did the manual overwrite and that did not solve the problem either.
In non-Aero mode, the error is pretty rare - maybe once a day or so. In Areo mode it's every few minutes. Based on this and the web posts it seems to be related to how much the video card/driver is working.
The web posts seem to come from geeks running some high powered games. I'm doing none of that. Outlook, Word, Windows explorer, etc. I love the machine, but this is ruining it for me.
The web posts have no Vostro laptop users. It seems that there may be more than a few variables that can cause this.
I've been to Dell chat 4 times and called once. They are offering me nothing the works.
Question: Are there any Vostro laptop users seeing this problem?
Question: do you have a fix?
Thanks
Msterf
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- I have a new Inspiron 1520 with the Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics driver and am experiencing the same issue. It happens when the PC is idle and occurs as many as 20 times a day. Again, my use is simple browsing, email, Word, Excel, etc. no gaming. Tech support uninstalled and reinstalled the driver and still no help. I'm hoping enough folks complain so that Dell does something as the driver, as noted, is customized for Dell and the Nvidia site is no good. I'm not a techie and am reluctant to download non-brand drivers. Help!!
- Ok, so I have an XPS M1330 with the GeForce 8400 GS card... I too have recently started experiencing this problem... but only recently...I bought this computer back in September... but about a week ago, my screen scrambled, then froze and crashed... when I tried resetting (unplugging the power cord and removing the battery), as soon as the computer turned on, the screen was gray... I would have to reset a few times before I could finally load up Vista...It was freezing up for a few days after... then yesterday, the computer just crashed and reset itself on it's own... I downloaded the latest display driver from Dell and now my driver seems to have rolled back from October to August of 2007... however, now I just keep getting the Display Driver Has Stopped responding bit without having to reset... it's getting annoying...
- Further to my reply a couple of posts ago, I too purchased my 1720 from Dell in September, and had non stop issues with this. Eventually I gave up and Dell admitted there is nothing they can do to fix it and agreed to take it back and give me a full refund. They came and collected the laptop on 12th October - it is now 11th December and I STILL haven't recieved the money back. I am having to instruct a solicitor at my own cost to issue notice of legal action against the shoddy bunch of misfits who run this company.If ever you get the message "do not worry" or "it takes 10-15 working days" in an email from these jokers - ignore it, they have no idea how to operate when something goes wrong!PS: Also, if they decide to try and fix your issue with remote assistance - keep an eye on them, my 1720 had a 8600mGT card, and the first thing they did was install a graphics driver for an intel Xpress onto it which was fun to watch at first but depressing when it came to realising there was no way they would know what the heck was going to fix it after doing that!
- I turns out that after numerous inquiries, re-re-re-installations of drivers, and a lot of time and frustration, I finally got a tech who listened to my woes and (I think) realized that I was an above average knowledge user and said he thought it may be a bad video card (despite the boot diagnostics not being able to discern a problem). He suggest sending the machine back for repair, but I opted to change the card myself. He also sent replacement RAM as he thought that could also be a less likely cause.The new Video card did the trick. I've been running without incident for a couple of months now.I would caution against changing the card yourself unless you are very comfortable mechanically and electrically and a bit adventurous. The Laptop has to be almost completely gutted and torn down to get the card and it's fancy heat pipe assembly out of the machine - lots of little connectors, antennas, the display comes off, skins, keyboard - the works. The instructions are on line in the Dell support site and you need to do each and every step (no shortcuts) to get the job done. Plan on an hour or two without interruptions (second time would go a lot faster). IF you can convince them to to replace the card and you either have on site service or can live without the computer for a few days, let them do it.Thanks to everyone in responding to my post and trying to help out. I hope this helps you guys out.Msterf
- Just as another comment about Dell service in general: I have a small business where we supply tech support for our own products. It ain't easy. The service you get is largely dependent on the person you get. I went through about 7 service people at Dell before before hitting gold. They mostly all seemed to want to help, but were ill equipped.I found it interesting that at least one of them googled the problem while I was on line with them looking for a solution. Seems to me that with Dell's resources and the importance of customer service to their business and that this seems to be a fairly extensive problem, that they would have had a trouble shooting tree, or an in-house database that could have offered their service people better guidance on how to zero in faster on the hardware problem.I understand it is a tough problem. Dell does a lot of things very well, but there seems to be room for some improvement here.Msterf
Ok, I have been having the same problems with various games also, What should i do??? I am lost, i know a bit about computers and i have been searching the web for an answer but all i come across is more of the same problem...
Anyone here have some advice or an answer?
Or should i just get rid of this machine, ive owned it for almost 3 months now and i bought it to play games, these errors are killing me.
I'm wondering if its a overheating problem...this is what Nvidia says:::
nvlddmkm has stopped responding" is a TDR (Timeout Detection and Recovery) Error. In earlier OSes something that caused the NVIDIA graphics driver to crash would cause your system or application to crash. In Vista, when your driver crashes you see an error message, and usually have a chance to save any open work. Some applications are even able to rehook the driver and continue operating.
There is no single solution to TDR errors because there are MANY causes. The most common are overheating and underpowering. These are hardware problems, not driver issues. What works on one system may not work on another because the TDR is being caused by a completely different issue.
I am closing this thread now. If you're afflicted by constant TDR errors, PLEASE make a new thread so that we can begin to address your unique system and situation.
Thanks for helping us help you help us all.
Amorphous
DiceDuP
2 Posts
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Posted October 26th, 2007 12:00