Question Can't stop nvlddmkm.sys from crashing in verifier.exe

Dec 15, 2020
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The amount of things I have done and still it crashes within 15 mins while verifier.exe is running...
Not to mention the horrific mouse lag while the verifier does it nefarious work.

I reinstalled the OS, a total of 3 times now, clean bootable USB installs, NTFS drive / UEFI Bios.
I erased the contents of OneDrive.
I bought new RAM and PSU. The RAM was bought and installed and used for about 2 weeks before the crashes started.
I ran a 4-pass memtest86 check, the bootable one, on the new RAM, no errors.
I used DDU to uninstall and reinstall 3x different nvidia drivers, 456 / 457 and 460.
I updated all the drivers, I will keep the Nvidia's 456 because people seem to hate the recent 460.
I ran multiple different stress tests on the GPU and CPU with AIDA64, OCCT, Furmark, Uningine benchmark, checking the VRAM as well, no errors.
I rolled back the BIOS to a version before.
I disabled AMD's Cool'n'Quiet.
I tried uninstalling the new 20H2 windows update, no change.
I uninstalled the rzdev__0084.sys, which the verifier.exe was also unhappy about, it's one of the Razer Synapse drivers for my Deathadder V2, thankfully it works without it. Should also be mentioned the verifier.exe once crashed because of a Malwarebytes driver, that was also uninstalled.
I unplugged all the peripherals for the duration of tests.
I turned off Fast Start-up, but it was always turned off anyway, it messed with my audiocard.

There is probably other things I have tried but had forgotten about by this point.

Now the story: my pc began crashing and hanging, hanging randomly, rebooting with the nvlddmkm.sys every time the verifier.exe was used or in some time while playing games or even just watching a video on YT. The permanent hangs were solved by removing the rzdev__0084.sys, the nvlddmkm.sys still causes crashes. There were also some Kernel related BSODS. Out of ideas by this point. I took the entire PC to a tech and the only thing he said was the power connectors to the SSD looked warped by time and heat, so I bought and installed a new one. He said all the error descriptions with nvlddmkm.sys like NONPAGED AREA or MISSING THREAD or whatever else it spat out are firmware issues. Issues I never had before. I owned this Razer DA2 for over a month now, Synapse did not cause my entire PC to hang before.

The GPU passed pretty much all tests I threw at it with flying colours.
My pc is Ryzen 5 1600 / R7 Radeon memory 2666mhz 8x2 / MSi B350 VDH-PRO MB / Gigabyte GTX 1060 6gb / Be quiet! System Power 9 - 600w.
I had a 550w PSU before that so its definitely not a wattage issue.


Is this normal for verifier to cause 1. your mouse to jitter every 3-4 secs for about a second and 2. eventually crash Nvidia's drivers while during the actual stress tests it behaves as new?

Please help.
 
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Dec 15, 2020
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What is verifier.exe, what software is it? I have quite a few computers and none uses this thing called "verifier.exe".


This isn't the guide I used to flush out the misbehaving drivers, the one I used didn't mention to not use Randomized low resources simulation, it mentioned to not tick DDI compliance checking though.
 
Dec 15, 2020
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What happens is I start the verifier with the settings, select both Nvidia drivers, nvlddmkm.sys and the audio one next to it, reboot, after 10-15 mins it crashes and reboots, at least it reboots now, before I replaced the PSU it sometimes wouldn't even post, so reboot, Powershell (admin) enter verifier /reset, reboot.
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
sorry, i didn't read that.. slaps self

have you ever, after ddu, run windows update and let Windows find older Nvidia drivers for GPU?
Have you tried using drivers from Gigabyte? they might be old but they should work with card. Most cards have their own support page.

try removing nvidia completely and see if Verifier is happy or if it moves onto another driver. It could be the cause isn't drivers but hardware and the blame keeps shifting. I seen ram do this, but you tested it.

Is the ram on the motherboard compatibility list? it was last thing you bought before problems started after all.
 
Dec 15, 2020
13
0
10
sorry, i didn't read that.. slaps self

have you ever, after ddu, run windows update and let Windows find older Nvidia drivers for GPU?
Have you tried using drivers from Gigabyte? they might be old but they should work with card. Most cards have their own support page.

try removing nvidia completely and see if Verifier is happy or if it moves onto another driver. It could be the cause isn't drivers but hardware and the blame keeps shifting. I seen ram do this, but you tested it.

Is the ram on the motherboard compatibility list? it was last thing you bought before problems started after all.

Windows offered 456 and I went with that.
I haven't tried using drivers from Gigabyte. https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-C...rev-10-11/support#support-dl-driver-vgadriver
Looks kind of old.
No my RAM isn't on the compatibility list. Nor was the 2400mhz one I replaced, which worked fine for 2 years.


I will try to do the verifier.exe test without the Randomized low resources simulation ticked, if that crashes, I will DDU the Nvidia, unplug from internet to stop it redownloading and run it for all non-Microsoft drivers.
 
Dec 15, 2020
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I have intermittent nvlddmkm with temp monitor black screen since my first new build a week ago. Every time during Youtube, the few hours I have gamed no issues. I'm still looking into it but mine is fixed with a (temporary?) patch using CRU. This patch is monitor specific though.

Ryzen 5 3600x | RTX 3070 FE | MSI Tomahawk X570 | Crucial Ballistix 3600 CL16 4x8 gb | Seasonic Gold+ 750w | Lenovo Y27Q20 | Windows 10 Pro

I have hwinfo charts showing data from crash but unsure if it exhibits hardware faults or a rebooting GPU from normal TDR reboot. With the following "patch" installed I do not get nvlddmkm so I feel it must be firmware/driver/settings within monitor, GPU, or Windows 10 Pro.

 
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Dec 15, 2020
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Having unticked Randomized low resources simulation the test went on for about 50 mins without crashing. with mouse lag still present, but at least it didn't crash. I will try to game a little later, will report back if I get a BSOD or any other errors.
 
I just read a bit about verifier and everyones advice is to avoid it, i also played a bit with it and a perfectly functioning computer for 2 years got BSOD when i rebooted to run verifier and i could make it boot again, i just got BSOD with driver verifier as cause, had to reinstall windows.
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
I just read a bit about verifier and everyones advice is to avoid it, i also played a bit with it and a perfectly functioning computer for 2 years got BSOD when i rebooted to run verifier and i could make it boot again, i just got BSOD with driver verifier as cause, had to reinstall windows.

that is why i only suggest it if every other option has been used before and we can't figure out a driver name. I generally tell people to set up a restore point before running it and make a win 10 installer as a boot drive, so that if you get a boot loop you can boot off the USB and run system restore. It doesn't always work as a escape route though.

another way would be to set PC up to boot into safe mode and then stop driver verifer from running
Here is another way to try to get to Safe Mode.
Boot to the Command Prompt of your boot disk (see methods to create below). Enter these BOLD commands and press ENTER after each.
(Note the colon after C with no space; then the spaces which are important - one after T before / & T before { & } before B & Y before L)
C:
BCDEDIT /SET {DEFAULT} BOOTMENUPOLICY LEGACY
EXIT
You are back to the boot screen -> Shutdown the computer.
Boot back up and "immediately" start tapping F8 (That means power button - then F8).
Hopefully that should get you into Safe Mode.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To reverse that you can use the same steps and type these (again note spaces)
C:
BCDEDIT /SET {DEFAULT} BOOTMENUPOLICY STANDARD
Restart but F8 will not work now.
 
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