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

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

Which Catagory did you run for troubleshooting?...I really want to play TF2...

I have not had this problem on my NVIDIA GeForce GT 220 since installing the Beta Nvidia drivers 260.89, then the final 260.89 (just released).

I believe you need to add those keys yourself. Microsoft stresses that they are used for debugging purposes only. I'm not certain whether you need to create a key called "TdrLevel" and within that key create the reg_dword "TdrDelay", or if the "TdrDelay" goes into the GraphicsDrivers key. I just added both, and set it to 6 (probably decimal, but they don't specify it), so it's on a 6 second timeout instead of 2. Whether this still works in Windows 7, I don't know. But the TDR technology is certainly still in Windows 7, so it very likely still works. Here is another link where people talk about the TDR setting: http://forums.amd.com/devforum/messageview.cfm?catid=328&threadid=100142 Thanks for that link. Meanwhile I have installed NVidias Beta driver 260.89 to see if that makes any difference. If I still get the failure I will try that Reg fix.

“Display driver stopped responding and has recovered” error.

Anonymous

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

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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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

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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334 additional answers

Anonymous

2010-12-01T02:22:04+00:00
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:
1. 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.
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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
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Anonymous

2010-10-24T19:47:57+00:00

Which Catagory did you run for troubleshooting?...I really want to play TF2...
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Anonymous

2010-10-24T10:56:54+00:00

I have not had this problem on my NVIDIA GeForce GT 220 since installing the Beta Nvidia drivers 260.89, then the final 260.89 (just released).
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Anonymous

2010-10-15T06:15:41+00:00

I believe you need to add those keys yourself. Microsoft stresses that they are used for debugging purposes only. I'm not certain whether you need to create a key called "TdrLevel" and within that key create the reg_dword "TdrDelay", or if the "TdrDelay" goes into the GraphicsDrivers key. I just added both, and set it to 6 (probably decimal, but they don't specify it), so it's on a 6 second timeout instead of 2.

Whether this still works in Windows 7, I don't know. But the TDR technology is certainly still in Windows 7, so it very likely still works.

Here is another link where people talk about the TDR setting: http://forums.amd.com/devforum/messageview.cfm?catid=328&threadid=100142

Thanks for that link. Meanwhile I have installed NVidias Beta driver 260.89 to see if that makes any difference. If I still get the failure I will try that Reg fix.
Was this answer helpful?

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