“Display driver stopped responding and has recovered” error.

The replies from Peter and Joseph  sum it up -

The TDR error invariably points to the graphics drivers as they are the last man

standing when the machine crashes. This does not mean the graphics drivers

are at fault.

There are many possibilities -

Yes, a corrupt driver install ( not bad drivers - I've never had bad graphics drivers in just on ten years from either ATI or Nvidia, only a corrupt install).

A faulty graphics card a definite possibility, but this has to be verified.

Commonly the card will overheat or produce artifacts in all games.

One example of so many other possibilities for a TDR.

"maybe the USB hub is eating too much power and the vid card isnt able to compensate. Unplugged everything. Issue stopped.

Likely due to a power consumption issue but I figured I'd pass this along in hopes it helps someone. "

If you're still there Peter - What brand psu and what are your full system specs ?

The sad thing is, the TDR was supposed to prevent premature BSOD's (so is my understanding), but it is a failed concept, which seems at least, to cause more confusion and head banging then BSOD's  did with XP.

I finally just had to replace the video card, wasn't worth the aggrevation

I wanted to add my 'solution' to the mix as one more thing for anyone having this issue to try.

After about 2 days of diagnosing, I was able to resolve the problem by doing one absolutely stupid thing...

Unplugging everything from the 'Unpowered' slots on my USB hub.

I run an Asus Republic of Gamers Laptop with a Belkin 8 port USB Hub (separate power supply). Two of the ports are powered, the rest are not. After attending a part and snapping some photos, i plugged in my digicam and left it plugged in.

Issue started.

Chkdisk, memtest, driver reinstall, voltage tweaks, additional cooling/verified heat, reinstalled windows...still happened. Figured it had to be something new...thought...hrm, maybe the USB hub is eating too much power and the vid card isnt able to compensate. Unplugged everything.

Issue stopped.

Likely due to a power consumption issue but I figured I'd pass this along in hopes it helps someone.

Cheers-

My notebook is a Compaq Presario from HP, CQ40-714BR, 4gb ram. After working perfectly for almost 2 years, it began presenting this frustrating error.

I visited almost every forum and tried almost every solution and was impressed to see how many users had the same problem, with machines of all brands and makes.

Nothing worked for me.

I also did a lot of clean installs of Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, the original system. Nothing worked. As soon as I tried to run Google Earth, or even Firefox, I got the black screen flicking and seconds later the freezing of the system.

It is not a problem with drivers, either. I've tried them all. Automatic and manufacturer replacing.

Then I remembered that my machine was still within HP warranty.

They sent me media to recover the system to factory standards. Nothing!

Then HP collected the machine to their technical assistance.

They simply replaced the motherboard, and restructured the HD.

Voilá!

So, although I've always used my notebook on a cooling table to avoid overheating, I guess the motherboard was overheating after all.

Another information: I never used it to play games, because I don't like games.

It was used only to write, navigate on the net, to use Google Earth and to watch movies. These are the only video consuming apps I used, besides an occasional enhancing of a picture on Photoshop.