Driver stopped responding and was recovered.

[DreadAlert]

Hey guys.

Have had a custom laptop from PCSpecialist since about September last year. For months now, when I'm in a game or something, after regular intervals the screen will go black for a second or two, then come back on and be accompanied with a bubble from the taskbar stating that the driver stopped working and was recovered. And it keeps happening. I've tried un-installing drivers and cleanly installing the latest stable drivers and nothing solves it. 1920x1080 display with a GT765m active when I play games.

Any ideas?
Thanks.

 

[steaky360]

You say when you're in a game or something, is it happening during a specific application/game or is it happening seemingly at random?

I've seen that error a couple of times, but its very infrequent for me.

 

[DreadAlert]

It doesn't happen in League of Legends.. but it happens all the time whenever I'm on Garry's Mod, SSF4:AE, Rogue Legacy, and plenty of others.

 

[steaky360]

Has it always happened? What driver version are you using? I'd roll back to the last stable build (or to a version which you don't think it was happening in) see if that makes a difference.

 

[DreadAlert]

Not always. I don't know what triggered it. I'm using the 337.50 beta driver at the moment. I've already tried going back to the last stable driver and that didn't solve anything.

 

[steaky360]

See if you can go to the one before that? Normally I'd say its something to do with the game you're playing, however in your case its happening on several titles so I'd say its probably something else.

 

[Delinja]

Are you overclocking the GPU? I know that when I used to OC my desktop GPU if I set the clock too high it would do the same thing and reset the clock.

 

[DreadAlert]

See if you can go to the one before that? Normally I'd say its something to do with the game you're playing, however in your case its happening on several titles so I'd say its probably something else.

I've tried many different drivers and none seem to help.

Are you overclocking the GPU? I know that when I used to OC my desktop GPU if I set the clock too high it would do the same thing and reset the clock.

I'm not. I'm confused about how to switch GPUs on this laptop though, as it has the built in Intel HD graphics and switches to the other GPU when I open a game usually.

 

[steaky360]

It should be doing it automatically, choosing the dedicated GPU for games and then the HD graphics for normal use (to save power etc.). I'm a bit baffled as to why its doing it though. How long has it been happening? Can you try a system restore to a point in time before it started?

On the note of dedicated GPU vs HD graphics there's a good thread by Ceuotc here: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?18426-Nvidia-how-to-white-list-games-and-how-to-enable-Nvidia-GPU-monitor

 

[ubuysa]

In a similar thread some time ago (which I can't locate right now) Boozad posted a detailed description of how to do a completely clean reinstall of the NVIDIA driver. To save you searching for it this is what he said:

Download whatever driver you want to use to your desktop.

Next, go to Windows update and set it to 'check for updates but let me decide what to install' that will keep windows from automatically installing it's video driver.

Next go to C:/Nvidia, open the folder and you should see a folder named Display driver. Inside that folder you should see a folder for every driver you have ever installed. They will be names 320.49 and such. Delete every one of those folders, but do not delete the display driver folder, just the ones inside.

Next go to control panel > uninstall programs. Uninstall all of the Nvidia display programs, but this is important, uninstall the display driver last. Uninstall the Nvidia update, Phys X, 3D drivers (few people use them), Nvidia HDMI, and the Nvidia update (it does not work anyway). Last uninstall the display driver. You will be told to reboot, do so.

When you log back on, windows will install a display adaptor, that is OK. Open your driver that you have downloaded from Nvidia, agree to terms, do not select express install, select custom install. Make sure the 'clean install' check box is selected and uncheck everything except the display driver and PhysX, then install. You will have to reboot after that.

That will be the cleanest install you can get.

Conflicts with older versions of drivers that were not completely removed is not unusual, so give that a go with the latest stable driver and see how you get on.

BTW. When you're having problems I don't think it's wise to run beta versions of drivers (or any other software) unless you have good reason to believe that the beta version contains a fix for your issue. Beta software by it's very nature is not fully tested so you'll never know whether the problems you have are with your system or the beta software/driver.