“Display driver stopped responding and has recovered” error.

Anonymous
2009-10-13T16:38:34+00:00
  • Running Windows 7, 32-bi,t on a Lenovo W500. Display Driver: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650.
  • The error message (“display driver stopped responding & has recovered”) follows a system freeze, a short blackout. Then everything works fine.
  • Downloaded the most current driver from the company's Web site.
  • Seeemd to work for a day, but now I'm getting the same behavior.

Crabby Office Lady

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2012-01-27T00:10:30+00:00

Hello Crabby Office Lady,

This error can happen because of an outdated video driver, to many programs running at one time or even high CPU activity. There is a link to a KB article on the following post that gives more info on the issue and helps to fix it, see:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/error-display-driver-stopped-responding-and-has/1b6c2b8b-b0a7-49d9-bc3b-e9cc98d51004

L.D.

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-10-10T23:12:29+00:00

    I have the same notebook running Windows 7 32-bit and it is happening even more frequently.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-10-10T23:39:59+00:00

    My computer developed this problem about 2 weeks after its first use. None of these solutions have worked so far. However, I have noticed that my computer never generates the error in Safe Mode. Now, running in Safe Mode isn't acceptable for the long term — I lose audio and printer capability, graphics are restricted, and so on. The obvious implication is that whatever is causing the error is not loaded during a Safe Mode boot-up. Perhaps that is a clue that will help wiser people deduce what is going wrong.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-10-14T14:03:29+00:00

    If transparent windows effects and etc is not that so important to you try to disable the (dwm.exe) Desktop Window Manager.

    I have Nvidia G210 and Nvidia 1Gig Gxxx(something) graphic card, having 4 monitors attached on it and it always gives me this "display driver stopped responding..." error.

    I am a developer and it was so annoying that I am in the middle of my debugging and suddenly this error pop up and crash the whole thing. By stopping the service for DWM  solves my problem for a couple of days now.

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-10-18T20:41:38+00:00

    I too am having this ongoing issue, but I am using a one year old Asus K501 notebook. Happens at least once a week, and it's not because of over heating. I sometimes have barely even began using it, half hour maybe, so I don't think its a heating issue.

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