Display driver keeps shutting down and recovering, but only at first PC boot

[Fazi]

Hey guys,

So a very strange thing has been happening to me lately, I will try to describe it the best I can.

So the problems is, that my display driver keeps crashing down(games keep freezing, but onyl until drivers recover, kind of like in this image), and after a small time the applications usually throws me out to Windows where a notification will inform me that the Display driver has stopped responding and has recovered. If I go back into the game, this pattern will keep repeating, but only until I reboot the PC. After a reboot, everything will work just fine, no more crashes!

So here is the short version: At the first PC boot of the day, if I start any demanding software(like a video game, Internet browsing/movies do not crash display drivers!), the display drivers will crash and recover until a reboot of the PC. After that, everything will just be fine!

Now here are some things that I have been thinking of:
Software related: This couldnt be it, because technically the software is the same after a reboot, so there is no difference from this perspective.
Hardware related:(This is where the issue is I think):
Motherboard: Im not too knowledgeable about MBoards, so if you guys think this could be an issue, please tell me. However, maybe some motherboard functions do not get enough power from the PSU at the first start??
PSU: This I am not sure of, could be that the GPU does not get enough power at the first start, but only after a reboot.
GPU: Well this would be awkward, a GPU that only works if you restart the Operating System.....


So here are my current system specs:
MBoard: Asus P5KPL-CM
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo e7400, 2.8GHZ
GPU: Nvidia Gefore GTX 750
PSU: Spire Jewel 550W
RAM: 4GB DDR2
OS: Windows 7 32 bit

So what do you guys think?

 

[RaDiKaL_]

Sounds like a PSU/GPU issue to me, like some capacitor or another component is being unable to charge itself correctly until a second boot (this is a somewhat more common issue with mobo's capacitors that reboot themselves after a few seconds only to fully charge and then they work as intended).

Easiest way would be to try with another PSU, you could monitor its voltages as well but sometimes it's not that obvious to notice if it's failing or not.

 

[Fazi]

Well If I remember correctly, I had this exact same issue with another GPU in this PC, so that technically rules out that this GPU is the problem. However, I will be getting a new PC rig tomorrow, so I will be able to test this GPU then. Also, a new PSU will yield some results. However I would still like to know if the old PSU or motherboard are flawed. How could I test this? Is there any specific software that could show me the differences between, lets say, voltages in the first and second boot?

 

[RaDiKaL_]

HWMonitor Pro and AIDA64, perhaps the free version of HWMonitor will give you all values, can't remember which values are for pro version only.

Also you could monitor them directly with a multimeter (there are several guides online if you're up to it.)

 

[Fazi]

HWMonitor Pro and AIDA64, perhaps the free version of HWMonitor will give you all values, can't remember which values are for pro version only.

Also you could monitor them directly with a multimeter (there are several guides online if you're up to it.)

Well, I tried experimenting a bit with the mentioned software (HWMonitor Pro), but I couldn't really tell the difference(maybe I need a little more experimenting??). I mean it only shows volts. If the problem would be a capacitor, that would be an amperage problem no? So it wouldn't really show up on HWMonitor? Is there a better way to thoroughly test the motherboard for power issues?

Oh, and I just noticed, there is no beep when the PC starts. This could be due to the fact that a balbe is not connected to the motherboard, or maybe it is also related to this...I will get back to you on this one...

 

[RaDiKaL_]

Ahm HWMonitor Pro does show temps as well...

As for testing the power in the motherboard you can do that directly with a multimeter (several guides in the web so look around).

If there's no beep but the pc starts without needing you to press some key to continue then it's booting properly, the lack of beep could be simply because the speaker is not correctly plugged in.

 

[Fazi]

Ahm HWMonitor Pro does show temps as well...

As for testing the power in the motherboard you can do that directly with a multimeter (several guides in the web so look around).

If there's no beep but the pc starts without needing you to press some key to continue then it's booting properly, the lack of beep could be simply because the speaker is not correctly plugged in.

Well after reading that you mentioned temperatures, I noticed that CPU temps, were a bit high. So I removed my MOBO, and reset the CPU fan. Now CPU temps are back to normal, and with that(not saying this was the direct solution, maybe just some MOBO cables were lose or something) everything went back to normal, and no more display driver crashes.