“Display driver stopped responding and has recovered” error.

I have the same problem, but I have an NVidia 660 TX.

I've had the card for about 6 months, and then after I installed a new boot SSD (Samsung 840, to replace my Samsung 830), removed an older one, that's when the problem started.

I have 4 standard HD's in my system, and 4 SSDs.

The problem never happens in games, I know the card is not overheating (using tools to read the temperature), etc, and only really occurs when the system is completely idle, sitting at the desktop.

Sometimes it happens every 3 mins, other times it takes a day to show up.  It usually happens when the system is idle, and then I move the mouse, then boom, the video card drivers crashes and recovers.

Here is what I've tried so far, from my own experience (I've built at least 15 PC myself over the past 15 years, and currently own and maintain 8 PCs), not counting those at work, and other suggestions on the net, EVGA tech support, etc.

BTW, NONE of these steps have solved this problem

1. I have removed my video card, used compressed air to clean the dust out of it, cleaned out the PCI slot with alcohol to remove any dust from the contacts, and reseated it, and did the same for the power connections running to the card.
2. I have tried the MS fix based on the timeout value, both using the MrFixit tool, and by modding the registry settings manually, following the KB steps.
3. I have removed all video card drivers, reverted back to the MS VGA drivers, made sure there were not remnants of the old drivers, and did a clean install of the new drivers.
4. I removed, and disabled the NVidia HD Audio driver (I don't use it anyway), suggested by EVGA support
5. Tried to raise the video card voltage (idle voltage) a little, and this seemed to work for a day or two, then the problem appeared again.
6. I checked the +12v in the bios, and it's within tolerance, so my power supply should not be part of the problem.

There have been other steps that I can't remember.

I still have this problem, and it's driving me crazy.

Out of all the forum posts on different sites I've found, there are very few answers, and 95% of the posts are people reporting this problem.  There are posts *everywhere* on this problem.

I would love to know how to solve it.

I haven't tried removing the new SSD from the system yet, as that's when the problem began, but that would require a ghosting the SSD to another SSD, removing the new SSD, and booting with that.  The new SSD is my boot drive, so that's a long and painful process.

To respond to this, in my 20 years of experience with PC, and all other computing platforms on the planet, but mainly building and maintaining PC's, I have NEVER, EVER heard that having a PS with a higher wattage than the system needs is a cause for ANY problem.  If the system doesn't use the Wattage, again, I've never heard of any problem relating to this, nor have I ever had a problem with a PC using a PS that has more wattage than it needs.  I currently have 9 computers in my home.  Several have PS's that have much more power that the system can use, and this keep up with future upgrades, which several of these machines have had.

Currently, I have an 850W Corsair, 4 SSD's, and 4 standard HD's.  My PS is being put to good use in my main system.

My problem only started when I replaced my boot SSD with the new Samsung 840, replacing the Samsung 830, which is still in the system.  I did remove an older Vertex 3 after swapping boot drives.

I have tried every step I've read about, tried my own steps to fix the problem, and NOTHING has worked.  I even know the voltage levels from my PSU are well within tolerance levels.

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

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.