I wanted to share how I resolved the frustrating nvlddmkm issue many people continue to experience. TL;DR: One of two DIMMs (RAM sticks) on my computer was faulty, causing errors in the GPU's ability to consistently access the graphics driver. Removing the faulty DIMM solved the issue. The issue: Many users (myself included) experience a crash while playing games or using graphic-intensive applications. This can manifest as a black screen, crash to desktop, unresponsive system or sometimes immediate system restart. In Windows Event Viewer, this can show as a Warning from Source: Display, Event ID 4101: "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and successfully recovered." It also appears in Unreal Engine crash reports as an Unreal Process crash: "Unreal Engine is exiting due to D3D device being lost". Issue appears in 3D Mark as a crash during benchmarking, with a benchmarking score of 0 and notification "an error has occurred" . Interestingly, Heaven Benchmark did not encounter this issue. Attempted fixes: Many people have posted solutions to this issue, and sometimes they work for some users, but never did for me. These solutions include: Clean Re-install of graphics driver. Removal of old drivers using DDU. Manually updating every system driver on the computer via Windows Device Manager. Automatically updating every system driver on the computer via DriverEasy. Changing Timeout Delay Recovery (Tdr) in the system Registry**. Ensuring all overclocking is set to default settings. Underclocking the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). Setting all system power setting to maximum performance. Replacing Graphics Processing Unit with new and improved GPU. Replacing Power Supply Unit with new and improved PSU. Replacing Hard Disk Drive with new and improved Solid State Disk Drive. Clean install of Windows. Command Prompt diagnosis and file repair via System File Checker command. 3x visits to local PC repair shop. Checking computer Memory Integrity via Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool. **I must stress, updating the system Registry can have negative repercussions on system stability if done incorrectly. The solution that worked: The Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool didn't find any issues with my RAM, but it got me thinking. If there was a problem with only one of the two DIMMs, could the tool determine this? From some late-night YouTube watching, I learned that RAM is actually pretty darn important to the system, and also that RAM performance can degrade or even fail over time. Luckily, it's comparatively cheap to replace relative to the other computer components. I removed one of the two DIMMs, and found the computer wouldn't boot when powered on. Swapping the DIMMs resulted in a successful power-on and boot to Windows. Running off one DIMM, I was able to successfully run application without the nvlddmkm crash. Running off one DIMM was stable, albeit with performance limitations due to only 4GB RAM being available. Re-inserting the faulty DIMM caused nvlddmkm errors to return. I bought two new DIMMs to replace the old RAM, and hey-presto, 3-years of nvlddmkm problems were now resolved, and has never re-occurred 6-months later. Summary: If you are experiencing nvlddmkm error crashes, driver updates/software solutions may work for you. If not, you may have faulty hardware, and this could be the RAM, like I experienced. Test your RAM by removing one of your two DIMMs, and then swapping them and testing again. Luckily, RAM one of the easiest and most affordable components to replace. Hope this helps. Ben.

I am confirming this. The error "The description for Event ID 0 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. " is a RAM issue. Not the VRAM! It comes from the main memory of your computer. Solution Change your RAM. (yes, I know, it's bad :( ) Symptoms: You start a game Your graphics card cooling systems YELLS all it can afte 5 minutes of gameplay After 2 to 15 minutes of gameplay the game crashes. (Tested game with 100% crash certainty: Star Wars Battlefront 2 and Sniper Elite 4) Setup: Gigabyte x570 UD v1.0 AMD Ryzen 9 5900X Gainward RTX3080Ti And... 64GB RAM CMK64GX4M4E3200C16 - Corsair 4x16 RAM DDR4 3200 With this RAM -> the RTX3080Ti screams as soon as I require performance and ends up crashing on games that should not make a graphic card like that overheat or even complain, namely: Sniper Elite 4 and Star Wars Battlefront 2 The crash is systematic after a random amount of play time -> between 2 min to 10 minutes. OR 32GB RAM F4-3200C16-16GIS - G.Skill 2x16 RAM DDR4 3200 Everything works perfectly. This is the "original" RAM in my computer. I changed to the previously mentioned Corsair 64GB and since I did that everything went wrong Removing the 64GB RAM Reinserting the 32GB RAM Was the solution for me. Things I tried before changing the RAM: Installing any driver version from the last 6 months Trying to manually replace nvlddmkm.sys -> yes it's stupid, but who knows? Sometimes something stupid works Many reboots Disabling turbo boost on the CPU whatever the name is in the BIOS Underclocking massively the graphics card with MSI Afterburner Checking the power plan (I was already on "high performance") I am sure I forget some stuff, but yeah long story short: it's a RAM issue.

I built a new computer and had this exact same problem. Turns out it was due to the AMD EXPO profile for my memory that I was using in my BIOS. After MONTHS of troubleshooting I found this and another post, reduced RAM speeds to "default" 4800MT's and the issue was gone. I was then able to figure out how to configure the RAM to run at it's "EXPO" speed of 6000MT's without using the profile and all is well.

I built a new computer and had this exact same problem. Turns out it was due to the AMD EXPO profile for my memory that I was using in my BIOS. After MONTHS of troubleshooting I found this and another post, reduced RAM speeds to "default" 4800MT's and the issue was gone. I was then able to figure out how to configure the RAM to run at it's "EXPO" speed of 6000MT's without using the profile and all is well. Greetings, I have been having both Audio popping and video issues with the nvlddmkm Event ID 0 The description for Event ID 0 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer. I have been trying to fix this for 3 months and it seems to happen after Nvidia drivers update then the Asus Strix RTX4090 OC becomes unstable. Last time I had to totally uninstall all drivers to get stability, but the Error persists when I am gaming and now I am experiencing total system lock up with no errors other than the nvlddmkm and a kernel power. Curious as to how you set the EXPO speed without profile My Asus Crosshair Extreme 670E.. Asus shows the QVL as a Corsair DDR5 for intel and not as a EXPO DDR5 for the Dominator 6000 64g I purchased direct from Corsair and the DDR5 is for EXPO only system. wondering if I should eat another 300.00 plus and just get the QVL DDR5 ? Because I think it is my ramm but all memtest show that both sticks work fine.

Greetings, I have been having both Audio popping and video issues with the nvlddmkm Event ID 0 The description for Event ID 0 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer. I have been trying to fix this for 3 months and it seems to happen after Nvidia drivers update then the Asus Strix RTX4090 OC becomes unstable. Last time I had to totally uninstall all drivers to get stability, but the Error persists when I am gaming and now I am experiencing total system lock up with no errors other than the nvlddmkm and a kernel power. Curious as to how you set the EXPO speed without profile My Asus Crosshair Extreme 670E.. Asus shows the QVL as a Corsair DDR5 for intel and not as a EXPO DDR5 for the Dominator 6000 64g I purchased direct from Corsair and the DDR5 is for EXPO only system. wondering if I should eat another 300.00 plus and just get the QVL DDR5 ? Because I think it is my ramm but all memtest show that both sticks work fine. We both here have the same problem and I've had system instability for a super long time and I know I've done a lot to even try to get it stable. The difference here is im on a 13900k and im betting youre on the 7800x3d. We both have done the test and we have no solution so far to check. If you have one around know let me know id love to hear because this is getting annoying on my end. "The description for Event ID 0 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer."

I've had this issue for nearly 2 years, at first I was convinced it was drivers or something else listed above in one post or another, everything I've done has some effect or another sending me down so many wrong paths, but my PSU recently killed itself and took out my 3080 with it, both got replaced under warrenty, I've done a full clean install and started to see this issue already, so now I'm gonna have to test the ram by doing the swap it out dance, unless there is a way to find this issue with some sort of memory test, but I'll have to check with my PC builder, hopefully I can get back with results fairly quickly.

FIXED nvlddmkm gaming/video crash error (Bad RAM).

Anonymous

I wanted to share how I resolved the frustrating nvlddmkm issue many people continue to experience.

TL;DR:
One of two DIMMs (RAM sticks) on my computer was faulty, causing errors in the GPU's ability to consistently access the graphics driver.
Removing the faulty DIMM solved the issue.

The issue:

Many users (myself included) experience a crash while playing games or using graphic-intensive applications.

This can manifest as a black screen, crash to desktop, unresponsive system or sometimes immediate system restart.

In Windows Event Viewer, this can show as a Warning from Source: Display, Event ID 4101:

"Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and successfully recovered."

It also appears in Unreal Engine crash reports as an Unreal Process crash:

"Unreal Engine is exiting due to D3D device being lost".

Issue appears in 3D Mark as a crash during benchmarking, with a benchmarking score of 0 and notification "an error has occurred".

Interestingly, Heaven Benchmark did not encounter this issue.

Attempted fixes:

Many people have posted solutions to this issue, and sometimes they work for some users, but never did for me.

These solutions include:

Clean Re-install of graphics driver.
Removal of old drivers using DDU.
Manually updating every system driver on the computer via Windows Device Manager.
Automatically updating every system driver on the computer via DriverEasy.
Changing Timeout Delay Recovery (Tdr) in the system Registry**.
Ensuring all overclocking is set to default settings.
Underclocking the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU).
Setting all system power setting to maximum performance.
Replacing Graphics Processing Unit with new and improved GPU.
Replacing Power Supply Unit with new and improved PSU.
Replacing Hard Disk Drive with new and improved Solid State Disk Drive.
Clean install of Windows.
Command Prompt diagnosis and file repair via System File Checker command.
3x visits to local PC repair shop.
Checking computer Memory Integrity via Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool.

**I must stress, updating the system Registry can have negative repercussions on system stability if done incorrectly.

The solution that worked:

The Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool didn't find any issues with my RAM, but it got me thinking. If there was a problem with only one of the two DIMMs, could the tool determine this?

From some late-night YouTube watching, I learned that RAM is actually pretty darn important to the system, and also that RAM performance can degrade or even fail over time. Luckily, it's comparatively cheap to replace relative to the other computer components.

I removed one of the two DIMMs, and found the computer wouldn't boot when powered on.

Swapping the DIMMs resulted in a successful power-on and boot to Windows.
Running off one DIMM, I was able to successfully run application without the nvlddmkm crash.
Running off one DIMM was stable, albeit with performance limitations due to only 4GB RAM being available.
Re-inserting the faulty DIMM caused nvlddmkm errors to return.

I bought two new DIMMs to replace the old RAM, and hey-presto, 3-years of nvlddmkm problems were now resolved, and has never re-occurred 6-months later.

Summary:

If you are experiencing nvlddmkm error crashes, driver updates/software solutions may work for you.

If not, you may have faulty hardware, and this could be the RAM, like I experienced.

Test your RAM by removing one of your two DIMMs, and then swapping them and testing again.

Luckily, RAM one of the easiest and most affordable components to replace.

Hope this helps.

Ben.

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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41 answers

Anonymous

2023-10-14T17:26:51+00:00

I am confirming this.

The error "The description for Event ID 0 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. " is a RAM issue.

Not the VRAM!

It comes from the main memory of your computer.

Solution

Change your RAM.

(yes, I know, it's bad :( )

Symptoms:

You start a game

Your graphics card cooling systems YELLS all it can afte 5 minutes of gameplay

After 2 to 15 minutes of gameplay the game crashes. (Tested game with 100% crash certainty: Star Wars Battlefront 2 and Sniper Elite 4)

Setup:

Gigabyte x570 UD v1.0

AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

Gainward RTX3080Ti

And...

64GB RAM CMK64GX4M4E3200C16 - Corsair

4x16 RAM DDR4 3200

With this RAM -> the RTX3080Ti screams as soon as I require performance and ends up crashing on games that should not make a graphic card like that overheat or even complain, namely: Sniper Elite 4 and Star Wars Battlefront 2

The crash is systematic after a random amount of play time -> between 2 min to 10 minutes.

OR

32GB RAM F4-3200C16-16GIS - G.Skill

2x16 RAM DDR4 3200

Everything works perfectly.

This is the "original" RAM in my computer.

I changed to the previously mentioned Corsair 64GB and since I did that everything went wrong

Removing the 64GB RAM

Reinserting the 32GB RAM
Was the solution for me.

Things I tried before changing the RAM:

Installing any driver version from the last 6 months

Trying to manually replace nvlddmkm.sys -> yes it's stupid, but who knows? Sometimes something stupid works

Many reboots

Disabling turbo boost on the CPU whatever the name is in the BIOS

Underclocking massively the graphics card with MSI Afterburner

Checking the power plan (I was already on "high performance")

I am sure I forget some stuff, but yeah long story short: it's a RAM issue.
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Anonymous

2023-10-19T00:44:59+00:00

I built a new computer and had this exact same problem. Turns out it was due to the AMD EXPO profile for my memory that I was using in my BIOS. After MONTHS of troubleshooting I found this and another post, reduced RAM speeds to "default" 4800MT's and the issue was gone.

I was then able to figure out how to configure the RAM to run at it's "EXPO" speed of 6000MT's without using the profile and all is well.
Was this answer helpful?

5 people found this answer helpful.

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Anonymous

2023-10-23T06:39:12+00:00

I built a new computer and had this exact same problem. Turns out it was due to the AMD EXPO profile for my memory that I was using in my BIOS. After MONTHS of troubleshooting I found this and another post, reduced RAM speeds to "default" 4800MT's and the issue was gone.

I was then able to figure out how to configure the RAM to run at it's "EXPO" speed of 6000MT's without using the profile and all is well.

Greetings, I have been having both Audio popping and video issues with the nvlddmkm Event ID 0 The description for Event ID 0 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

I have been trying to fix this for 3 months and it seems to happen after Nvidia drivers update then the Asus Strix RTX4090 OC becomes unstable. Last time I had to totally uninstall all drivers to get stability, but the Error persists when I am gaming and now I am experiencing total system lock up with no errors other than the nvlddmkm and a kernel power. Curious as to how you set the EXPO speed without profile My Asus Crosshair Extreme 670E.. Asus shows the QVL as a Corsair DDR5 for intel and not as a EXPO DDR5 for the Dominator 6000 64g I purchased direct from Corsair and the DDR5 is for EXPO only system. wondering if I should eat another 300.00 plus and just get the QVL DDR5 ? Because I think it is my ramm but all memtest show that both sticks work fine.
Was this answer helpful?

1 person found this answer helpful.

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Anonymous

2023-11-07T21:20:07+00:00

Greetings, I have been having both Audio popping and video issues with the nvlddmkm Event ID 0 The description for Event ID 0 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

I have been trying to fix this for 3 months and it seems to happen after Nvidia drivers update then the Asus Strix RTX4090 OC becomes unstable. Last time I had to totally uninstall all drivers to get stability, but the Error persists when I am gaming and now I am experiencing total system lock up with no errors other than the nvlddmkm and a kernel power. Curious as to how you set the EXPO speed without profile My Asus Crosshair Extreme 670E.. Asus shows the QVL as a Corsair DDR5 for intel and not as a EXPO DDR5 for the Dominator 6000 64g I purchased direct from Corsair and the DDR5 is for EXPO only system. wondering if I should eat another 300.00 plus and just get the QVL DDR5 ? Because I think it is my ramm but all memtest show that both sticks work fine.

We both here have the same problem and I've had system instability for a super long time and I know I've done a lot to even try to get it stable. The difference here is im on a 13900k and im betting youre on the 7800x3d. We both have done the test and we have no solution so far to check. If you have one around know let me know id love to hear because this is getting annoying on my end.

"The description for Event ID 0 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer."
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Anonymous

2023-11-19T18:11:45+00:00

I've had this issue for nearly 2 years, at first I was convinced it was drivers or something else listed above in one post or another, everything I've done has some effect or another sending me down so many wrong paths, but my PSU recently killed itself and took out my 3080 with it, both got replaced under warrenty, I've done a full clean install and started to see this issue already, so now I'm gonna have to test the ram by doing the swap it out dance, unless there is a way to find this issue with some sort of memory test, but I'll have to check with my PC builder, hopefully I can get back with results fairly quickly.
Was this answer helpful?

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