IMPORTANT PLEASE READ
This problem very well be due to something that you wouldnt even suspect, namely your SATA HARD DRIVE OR SATA DVD DRIVE.
I have had this same problem that has been driving me utterly insane for months. I almost scrapped my entire system and wasted a lot of money that i didnt have trying to get a function computer for work and school. My system specs:
Intel core 2 duo 3.0 mhz wolfdale
Asus P5N32-SLI deluxe
New video card: Geforce 460 GTX
Old video card: Geforce 9600 GTX
WD 300 GB SATA Hard drive
I literally scoured everything that i could find on the internet for the problem. I was getting the same "Display driver has stopped working...." error.
The steps i took to resolve the error:
- I tried to see if it was a heat issue. I downloaded Everest, checked my temp. Temps were ok. To be on the safe side, i installed another case fan (Although i have an Antec 900 and alot of fans already). I replaced my CPU heatsink and applied new thermal
paste. I even removed my north gate heatsink and applied a liberal batch of new thermal paste. Cooling was not an issue. I underclocked my GPU AND turned up fan speed to max.
the problem persisted.
- Next i tried every driver in the Archive for my graphics card, going back 2 years. For each one, i would delete the drivers manually from Device Manager and choose to delete the driver files. This didnt help. Frustrated, i reinstalled my old graphics
card which had been functioning perfectly well for over a year and LOW AND BEHOLD THE old graphics card was having the same exact problem. I did the same thing and tried EVERY driver going back 4 years. NO HELP AT ALL.
- I tried every TDR registry fix i could think of to no avail. Changed TDR level in EVERY control set, as well as tdr debug mode and all the others in attempt to shut down TDR.
- Finally, i rembered that when i first built the system with this MOBO, it wouldnt even function due to issues with the SATA drivers. THIS IS THE PROBLEM. The nforce drivers that come with windows 7 and get updated when you update your driver will crash.
Since its not really a graphics driver crash, but rather a nForce driver crash, circumventing TDR will do nothing for you.
To resolve this, check out which version of nForce your motherboard is. For me, it was nForce 790i. http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us, is where you can download the most current nForce drivers which resolve the issue. Go to your device
manager and DELETE nforce drivers. Look for nForce Serial ATA storage controllers as well as the nForce ethernet controller. Uninstall them and delete the files. After you have done this, Run the new installer that you downloaded then restart. Hope this helps
james culveyhouse