Display driver keeps crashing on the computer and receive error message "Display driver NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver Version 306.97 has stopped working and recovered".

Anonymous
2012-10-29T09:27:10+00:00

Original Title: Display driver NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver Version 306.97 has stopped working and recovered.

Hiya,

I recently installed Windows 8 Pro, installed all my usual apps etc.

The problem I've encountered is the display driver keeps crashing. Or having time outs. The exact error message reads;

"Display driver NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver Version 306.97 has stopped working and recovered."

So far it randomly times out even when the computer is idle, and more frequently when I'm watching videos online. Also, viewing videos fullscreen on certain sites like YouTube is ok, but on others it's very laggy (image updates maybe once a second) and the audio is out of sync.

I can't find a way to properly uninstall the graphics driver.

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
2012-10-31T17:40:51+00:00

At least yours is semi working.. I have the GTS 450 ( uses the same drivers ) and mine doesn't work at all.. Stuck with the regular on-board driver atm and cant play any games... Microsoft tells me to wait a couple of weeks and to call back and Nvida says 10 ways to uninstall and re-install the same drivers. Hopefully someone with get a fix for this soon.

Hi guys,

Seems like it's not just me.

Just an update, I can't confirm it as a fix, but I haven't run into any problems (apart from a little screenlag) since installing the beta drivers. For me, the beta driver version is 310.33, R130. The only other change made to my system is updating the Adobe Flash version packaged with Google Chrome from 11.4.31X to 11.4.402 to eliminate severe problems when watching video in fullscreen.

System Info;

**Operating System:**Windows 8 Pro with Media Center 64-bit, Build 9200

CPU: AMD FX-8150 Eight physical cores

GPU: ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 TI

Primary hard disk: OCZ Vertex 3 120GB

Hope it helps

Edit: Still no crashes, 02/11/12, 4 days


Further edit;


If you still receive the error message, try the following steps;

A. Try performing a clean install of the driver.

Download the latest drivers for your graphics card. Run the downloaded file and select 'Custom Installation'. On the next screen you'll see a tick box or similar labelled 'Clean Install'.

You can do this by visiting nVidia Driver Downloads (www.nvidia.com/Drivers). Either automatically detect the correct driver or download using the form. The best way in my opinion is to use GeForce Experience, which will do everything for you with two clicks and a restart.

B. Close all other programs

It's possible that the error was caused by too many programs needing to use the resources provided by the graphics card/chip. It is also possible that a certain program caused a conflict which crashed the drivers.

You can either try closing some currently open programs one by one and see if the error persists or reboot your system with startup programs disabled and enable them one by one to find the culprit. If the error is too persistent to do the above, an easier option would be to boot into safe mode.

More information can be found below

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2665946/en-us

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-08-13T01:20:08+00:00

    I had the same problem a couple years ago.  After downloading driver after driver I worked my way back to 280.26 and it's been stable since.  Hope it helps.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-10-03T11:35:24+00:00

    Hi!

    I think I found a fix for this problem. Open Nvidia Control Panel and in the Set PhysX Configuration section set PhysX Processor from Auto-Select to GeForce GTX 560. It worked for me and already week without crashes :) Don`t know how to technicaly explain this, but it worked for me :)

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-11-17T23:40:08+00:00

    Hi!

    I'm very grateful. This, (the "TdrLevel" enter the data value as 0) solved the issue.

    And the problem still persist on some machines even with the 331.65 WHQL driver.

    I spent more than 10 hours from my life to find a solution, but -exept the driver rollback version- this is the only way to get rid of the "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered Display driver NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver" error message

    Best Regards: joedaddy

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-11-22T00:35:17+00:00

    anyone got this working ?

    I've updated to the latest vrsion of the driver (GPU is an old 450 of nvidia too).

    when uninstalling the driver, nothing crashes.

    also, when using linux instead (ubuntu 13.10), it doesn't crash at all.

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