“Display driver stopped responding and has recovered” error.

Yeh I agree with everybody about other problems that could cause various issues with the driver error. But on this occasion , this TDR business and technical jargon isn't solving this particular issue is it, because I read all that and tried it all and it didn't make a blind bit of difference .  I realised what was going on myself and after sitting and thinking a out it, I realised that this program that was running in the background when I started up the task manager was the culprit because when I clicked on it to see the properties I could see the exact date and time that this program entered my system and it was the exact time I was on my way to work so I knew for a FACT that this was the problem so this was the solution for a quick fix rather than a re-install of windows.

1. Startup task manager
2. Choose the 'start up tab'
3. Look through the processes for iehighutil , and you will see it is currently (enabled) .
4. Click on it and then choose to disable it from starting up when windows starts
5. Then choose to 'open file location' , so u know where this virus is located I. Your system.
6. Reboot in SAFE MODE
7. Goto the file location of the virus
8. Delete everything inside the folder
9. Reboot your system
10. Start up task manager and check the 'start up' tab again to see if its gone
11. If its gone its gone forever , but be careful u don't install whatever game or program that put it there in the beginning (you don't want to re infect your computer).
12. If it is still there ......'iehighutil'   Then make sure it is still 'disabled' as this will solve your issue with the graphics card driver and the random black screens and freezing.
13. PLEASE note, the little icon next to the virus 'iehighutil' may actually look like a Internet explorer icon or something , do not be fooled by this. As its part of the virus and whomever made it , they made it that way to blend in with the other program's .

I do hope that everything I have put on here helps people, it's the solution to the majority of the problems that people are having.

Mainly new people who don't know too much to much technical jargon about TDR and bios Etc etc etc. some people on here need to stop trying to be too technical and just make things simple for people to follow.

This is the answer to this problem end of story

Thanks

Phill

Phill, no need to yell :) That being said, THANK YOU!

I have no idea where this file/virus came from, but it was running on my system. I noticed this file the other day (in the process explorer), and was even telling my son, "What the **** is this process? I don't even use IE". So, I killed the process and my driver crashes were gone.

They came again after a reboot, because as Phill said, this virus was set to run at startup. After killing the process, I was able to simply delete it. While it was running, things got so bad that the NVidia driver would crash every 3 mins, every time my system was idle for 2 mins, then simply moving the mouse. I could recreate each time.

I've killed the process a few times, and that's why sometimes I had the problem, and other times I didn't. I've had this PC setup for 2 years, and my last one 2 years before that, both using NVidia cards, and I've honestly NEVER seen the NVidia driver crash like this. So for me, the problem was solely caused by the virus, and nothing else. For others, I'm not sure.

I can't imagine all the people I've seen posting about this (even with ATi boards) have this virus running. Like the next poster said, it's surely caused by other reasons as well, like TDR.

Oh yeah, I went to the website Virustotal, google it b/c I'm not sure if they allow links here, but that site uses about 15-20 different anti-virus engines to scan files that are uploaded, and only 2 AV engines detected this program as a virus/trojan. Neither AV engine was a popular one. None of the popular ones could detect a problem with the file.

I use this site to test any .exe that I think may be suspicious. I use Norton's via Comcast download (free to Comcast customers), and it could not detect a problem with this file. The nice thing about Norton's is that even if it can't detect a virus in an .exe, it usually catches an exe when it tries to do something "bad". It didn't this time though.

I use many different game trainers (cheats) and these, at least these days, are almost always trojans, or have viruses attached to them after they were made (usually by someone else). The internet has changed so much over the years, and not in a good way. I remember when you could download almost anything with no fear of it being a trojan, but now there are countless apps and such that are completely fake and have viruses attached... It's REALLY sad, and wish these jerks could be caught and be held accountable for what they have done.

One virus can costs hundreds of thousands of dollars "control" and eradicate, including repairing the damage they do, the lost productivity time when an infected machines are down, etc. Not to mention the internet bandwidth lost, especially by thousands of people downloading large files that are just 99% filler, with one tiny exe that contains the virus.

Oh well, at least the problem was solved. Finally. Thanks again.

Nice you fixed the virus that was causing your TDR problem, but contrary to an apparent belief

by some that everyone is involved in Piracy, they're not, so no, your virus is not the sole cause of TDR.

It is just one more example of how many potential causes there are for TDR, and why it is so

difficult to sort out, and another example of why  no possible cause of TDR  should be discounted without verifying through thorough troubleshooting.

What Anti-Virus are you running that would have missed the   iehighutil.exe  ?

TDR is a system introduce by MS to prevent premature BSOD via a timer which is set to 2sec by

default, so anything that  causes or results in a 2 sec processing lag can cause a TDR.

The main reason that graphics drivers are indicated by the TDR as the cause is because the

graphics drivers are at the end of the chain of events that lead to the TDR, so the TDR error is

often misleading, as with many other  Windows errors.

It your case you got a 'free'  Virus you got with your 'free' game, so there is a connection

to  TDR and the graphics driver/gpu, but obviously the drivers themselves are still not the direct

cause of the TDR.

Your Virus has also been reported on the Nvidia forums as a cause of a TDR  resulting from

a gpu running at 100% when there is no apparent reason for full load.

btw - I've had maybe six TDR  errors  in three years. Always when pushing the system with high

graphics settings in games.

Listen very carefully THIS IS THE FIX YOU ALL NEED TO UNDERSTAND !!!!!!!!

I didn't have to do this, I have registered because there is soooo many people with this problem and I have found exactly what it is

first of all it is NOT !! a hardware fault so don't panic

everybody who thinks its a power issue ... it is NOT

everybody who thinks its some setting or TDr or registry key ... it is NOT

this problem is none of them at all

it is NOT a cooling issue either

I built a new computer, worth £1000 in parts

everything brand new , I have windows 8 pro

you don't needs the specs of my computer its irrelevant to what the fault is.

this is also NOT a driver fault although everything points to the driver

READ CAREFULLY

I read every forum on the internet after it happened to me and I came across the fix by chance

THIS IS WHAT IT IS

I was playing my pc fine, I went to bed and left it on downloading through the night

I got up the next day and turned the monitor on, everything was fine.

then I could see that my download had finished , unrared and sitting in a folder

it was a copyrighted game, yes it was a pirate game !!

I will not disclose what game but it was a new one.

anyway heres what happened

I mounted the game on a virtual drive and when I did I either released the problem then or ... when I chose to autorun the files, either way I did not install the game because I was going to work....... but then that's when my screen went black

snd then recovered , with the error about the driver kernel.

it happened every 5 minutes or less but I had to go to work, so when I was in work I read everything I could so when I got home I could fix it.

I got home and tried everything that people say , ive even heard people buying new graphics cards just to see if it helps and it doesn't, you know why ....

because its a virus that attacks the gpu on your graphics card

I realised this when I checked to see what was in my windows start up sequence

because something called iehighutil.exe was trying to access my graphics card and I wanted to know what it was

when I looked , and checked the properties... this thing arrived on my computer at the exact time I was up for work and attempted to install the pirate game.

do I knew it was something to do with that because it was the only thing that had changed from the night before when the pc was perfect.

so I disabled it from the startup sequence of windows

there is a file located on my c drive called temporary.. there was a folder empty in it and a very small .bin file

this wont allow itself to be deleted

however, I managed to stop the virus from starting up when windows starts ......

now I imagine a format and re-install of windows would wipe this out ... but ... the people who do this have prob got the same problem because .... whatever they are installing onto their system must have a similar virus (maybe named differently) if not then check out ieutil, or iehighutil.exe (that's what mine was named and was attacking my graphics card and ive stopped it in the startup sequence of windows.

I have not deleted it from the computer , its there but inactive , this way I wont lose any of my other games by formatting.

I suggest re-installing your windows , and check after every install of new games or programs , watch carefully and assoon as you get he problem back ... you know it was the last thing you installed ... that's the culprit !

my pc is back up and running again perfectly with no issues at all, and ive managed to do this by chance ....... and a little research

ITS A VIRUS

you cant get rid of it with an antivirus !!!!!!!!!!!!! you need to disable it from working or ... re-install windows and be carefull what you put on your system .

I didn't have to post this , ive done it because people are in trouble and blaming Microsoft and NVidia and drivers and their own hardware ........ its NONE of this stuff

so take care and I hope this helps

Phill