Display driver nvlddmkm is crashing

[hbomb79]

I have tried looking through previous solutions for this problem, but none of the fixes I have tried seemed to have worked and I figured it would be better if the problem was asked again with my specific hardware.

Introduction to problem
I am running Windows 10, with the hardware listed here. My primary monitor is G-Sync, secondary is not -- Not sure if this detail is important.

First, a description of what's happening. While playing games (regardless of window mode) (has crashed on Battlefield 1, CS:GO and GTA V so far), both of my monitors lose signal and start searching for inputs. Sometimes the secondary monitor will change color after a brief pause (usually to black or white), while the primary stays disconnected. A second or two later, I here a windows notification (which is undoubtedly the 'Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.' notification. The primary screen has never recovered, I give it about 5 minutes before resetting the PC out of frustration.

The crashing started a few months ago, I stopped gaming until now out of frustration (bans in competitive titles such as CS:GO really annoyed me because Windows takes so long to boot after a force power down, especially on my old HDD [unbranded]).

Problem specific details
The problem is annoyingly difficult to troubleshoot because it crashes so inconsistently. Sometimes I can go entire gaming sessions without the problem, other times I crash 5 minutes in. I found the errors (there are two, not sure if this correlates to the amount of connected displays) inside the Windows Event Viewer. The details are included below, both of the event entries are identical with the exception of there record ID (1277 and 1276) and the time of creation, assumedly irrelevant details.

Spoiler

Log Name:      System
Source:        Display
Date:          08/28/17 9:40:09 PM
Event ID:      4101
Task Category: None
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      H-PC
Description:
Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Display" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="0">4101</EventID>
    <Level>3</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2017-08-28T09:40:09.610941600Z" />
    <EventRecordID>1277</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>H-PC</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>nvlddmkm</Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

It may be worth noting that I can sometimes still hear game sound (after a brief audio glitch the instant the monitors go dark). I can usually still control Spotify using my on-keyboard controls too.

Crashes have occurred irrespective of the following programs running (active or as background):
- Google Chrome
- Spotify
- Discord
- Logitech Gaming Software
- CoolerMaster 'MasterKeys Pro S'
- MSI Afterburner

Steps already taken
I have no form of third party antivirus running, only Windows Defender. I have fully reset Windows (removing all programs, reinstalling Windows and restoring settings to default). This has fixed other issues on the computer, but the crashing seems unaffected.

I uninstalled my Nvidia drivers using DDU, and reinstalled the latest drivers from Nvidia with no luck (however the crashing on CS:GO seems to happen after a longer time. Sometimes I would crash in warmup, whereas I can now play a few games before the crash occurs).

I have reset my BIOS settings (removing any overclock for CPU and RAM) to no avail. I use MSI Afterburner to monitor temperature, CPU stays at 56C and GPU and 60C no problem -- Confident overheating is not the problem.

I replaced my CPU, CPU Cooler, RAM and Motherboard a month ago. The crashing happened before the upgrade and the rate of crashing has NOT changed since upgrading -- Confident the new parts are not contributing to the crash.

I have checked over all cables connecting the computer and have reseated my RAM... no change.

This crash only occurs when playing games, and is terribly inconsistent. Any help is troubleshooting this problem would be appreciated. I have been unable to find any extra information inside of the Event Log, if someone knows where to look let me know. 'WhoCrashed' is unable to find any crash dumps, probably because the computer is still functioning as normal with the exception of the display (motherboard LEDs, fan speeds, media controls all continue working).

Is it possible that my Hard Drive is causing the issue, perhaps some weird texture caching issue? My HDD is old and came with the original PC (from HP), and is thus unbranded and poor quality. I was planning on upgrading the storage anyway, but I can fast-track the plan if you guys believe it could be the problem.

From what I can tell my PSU is good quality, and the GPU isn't very old (2-3 years IIRC). I'd be surprised if they were faulty, but I'm not ruling it out.

 

[hbomb79]

Crashed playing GTA V last night, 1652 error logs from source 'nvlddmkm', error code '13' -- Which Windows doesn't recognize. Regardless, there is still an error from the driver bundled with the data. Here is one of those errors for context:

Spoiler

The description for Event ID 13 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.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event:

\Device\Video3
Graphics Exception: Injected Bundle Error

Element not found

Every log I have looked at has a different exception attached, but it is always \Device\Video3, hopefully one gives someone an idea why this crash is happening.

I have only seen these errors be created when crashing on GTA V, crashing on CS:GO or BF1 have not ended up with these being created. Unlike crashing in CS:GO, when I crashed on GTA V I was still able to speak to users in Discord...

I have attached the error details in the hopes someone might be able to narrow down what is causing the driver to crash.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/otmaa3bajkg07xx/nvlddmkm_crashes.evtx

I understand MediaFire isn't ideal, if someone else has a better idea on how to attach the outputted logs (.evtx file), let me know please.

 

[Colif]

MSI Afterburner itself can cause crashes.

So no BSOD?

event 13 appears to be Opengl error, here are some suggestions, this error isn't new: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Fix-the-Nvlddmkm-Error/ - most of the solutions are 9 year or more old.

what are specs of PC?

 

[hbomb79]

I linked the specs of the computer in the OP post, here they are again: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/mTgCxY

No luck in terms of the solutions linked. I tried solution 1 and 4. I have already reinstalled and cleaned my drivers when I reinstalled Windows (solution 3), and I recently cleaned the computer. I haven't got any spare RAM sticks so I can't remove them. My cooling is more than adequate, and I cannot afford to replace my card...

I am currently trying solution 5 and I'll let you know if it works. Thanks for your help.

 

[hbomb79]

Tried solution 5, no luck. As a matter of fact the crashes are occurring instantly in CS:GO. I am rebooting the computer and launching right into the game and crash within 2-3 seconds to black (or sometimes red/orange) screen.

I tried to reseat and rearrange my RAM to no affect. I'd really like to figure out if this issue is hardware or software based so I can claim a refund, I have sunk $1300 into this system and it can't do what I intended and the issue is not getting worse so that I can't get ANY playtime out of it at all.

 

[Colif]

Sorry about missing the specs, i had to look at the code of op to see where they are. I am just going blind.

red/orange screens of death are Graphics card errors, but we sort of knew that

Have you run ddu and instead of getting latest drivers from Nvidia, run Windows update and let it find a driver for you? I had issues with the July drivers and this was what i did to stop them

Don't suppose you can put GPU into another PC to see if it works okay, that would help answer hardware/software question. If the replacement parts made no difference its likely it was GPU all along.

 

[hbomb79]

No worries regarding the specs.

I will run DDU and let Windows Update find the new driver and see what happens. I don't have another PC to test with, however I have replaced the motherboard and CPU ruling out those parts as the cause (I was planning on upgrading my CPU anyway and a new motherboard was needed to do so thanks to the new socket, the crashing wasn't really a factor in my decision but I was hoping it would fix it).

Pretty sure my PSU is of good quality, although my HDD is pretty bad (I think? It is completely unlabelled, never came with one [got PC from HP]), not sure if the HDD could be causing a crash — I doubt it.

I ran the Furmark stress test for about 30 minutes last night, GPU climbed to 60 degrees and stabilised at 100% load, definitely not a cooling issue. No crashing while stress testing, but I understand that these tests need to be run for longer than 30 mins. I will download some more problems tonight in order to stress test my CPU and memory (any you would suggest I run and get back to you about?) Assuming all tests come back fine I assume this is a software conflict — which is surprising seeing as though I reinstalled Windows...

Thanks for your response.

EDIT: I should add that the last few crashes haven't been creating ANY output in the windows error log (except for the logs created by forcefully powering down the computer of course) making it more difficult to track this error down. I thought the changes I made to registry might have caused the lack off error reporting (the solutions you posted), but I reversed those changes and still no log stating the driver 'recovered'.

 

[hbomb79]

Without speaking too soon, removing the drivers via DDU and running Windows Update (after telling DDU to allow Windows to install the drivers) seems to have entirely fixed the problem.

Tested with several hours of CS:GO, which is the game that crashed the first time I encountered the problem. I'll test with BF1 and some GTA V when I can fit some game time in -- I'll post here again if the error persists.

 

[hbomb79]

Issue still persists, this time with COD: Black Ops 2. Both screens go black, after leaving it for a while the computer restarts itself. I used WhoCrashed and got the following:

On Tue 09/05/17 5:42:34 PM your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\090517-29703-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x16C560)
Bugcheck code: 0x133 (0x1, 0x1E00, 0xFFFFF80027DFB348, 0x0)
Error: DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION
file path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: The DPC watchdog detected a prolonged run time at an IRQL of DISPATCH_LEVEL or above.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem. This problem might also be caused because of overheating (thermal issue).
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.



On Tue 09/05/17 5:42:34 PM your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\WINDOWS\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: nvlddmkm.sys (nvlddmkm+0x1C75D1)
Bugcheck code: 0x133 (0x1, 0x1E00, 0xFFFFF80027DFB348, 0x0)
Error: DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION
file path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_ref_pubwu.inf_amd64_c0f7a2f5b2e4e6e0\nvlddmkm.sys
product: NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 384.94
company: NVIDIA Corporation
description: NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 384.94
Bug check description: The DPC watchdog detected a prolonged run time at an IRQL of DISPATCH_LEVEL or above.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem. This problem might also be caused because of overheating (thermal issue).
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: nvlddmkm.sys (NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 384.94 , NVIDIA Corporation).
Google query: NVIDIA Corporation DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION

I assume this is the same issue as it says the Nvidia driver is to blame... however if I update it I will start crashing in CS:GO again (w.r.t to CS, the crashing issue has been largely solved, I have crashed once since my last post). Not sure where to go from here.

EDIT: COD has been crashing for quite a while -- Before I started getting crashes in CS, perhaps this issue isn't resolvable without rolling *way back*, or breaking CS again? I'll try GTA and keep playing CS, if I don't crash then maybe I can just accept that COD doesn't work. If someone does know of a way to fix this without compromising other games, please let me know.

 

[Colif]

You have the July drivers which is odd, I was sure the drivers Microsoft are using still are the May drivers. I mean, I assume you don't have geforce experience on PC still as I think ddu removes it. I don't have any info on how good the August drivers are.

upload the dump file in c:\windows\minidump and I will get someone to look at it.

 

[hbomb79]

You have the July drivers which is odd, I was sure the drivers Microsoft are using still are the May drivers. I mean, I assume you don't have geforce experience on PC still as I think ddu removes it. I don't have any info on how good the August drivers are.

upload the dump file in c:\windows\minidump and I will get someone to look at it.

Nope, I purposefully avoided GeForce Experience after DDU removed it.

Here is the link to the minidump (I only uploaded the latest one, I can upload the other two if you need them [one is from yesterday, the other from last week] although I'm not 100% they are related to the exact same issue): https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzRQrz4llHB1d2ZQWElmaG4tdlE

EDIT: I looked at the dump files quickly in BlueScreenView. It seems the stack is the same (at a glance), always starting with: ntoskrnl.exe, hal.dll, kd.dll. I don't know if that information is at all relevant.

 

[VioDes]

hey guys,
I also get the error messages, that nvlddmkm stopped working and was recovered. However I don't get blackscreens or anything. The programm (usually a heavily taxing game or furmark) simply freezes and that's it. When I tab out, the window simply closes without any further notice.
System is brandnew, so I'd also like to know if it is soft- or hardware based.

My System is a
AMD Ryzen 1600
MSI B350 Tomahawk MB
GTX 1080 Zotac Amp Edition
Windows installed on a Sandisk Ultra II SSD

All the infos, that I found in the web didn't help me at all.
@hbomb79, have you tried getting in contact with the windows support already?

greetings

 

[hbomb79]

Just crashed on Black Ops 2 again, however unlike all the other times I have crashed on Black Ops 2 I heard the notification sound indicating the "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered." notification. I can also see the event in the event log (twice). Every other time Black Ops 2 has crashed it has black screened and automatically restarted leaving only a minidump (DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION) and no trace of the crash inside the event viewer.

It's interesting, at least to me, that the same game is now crashing two different ways (however, it always starts with a black screen). It might be worth noting that GTA V, BF1 and CS:GO all seem to be fixed using the current drivers -- These (and Black Ops 2) are the only games I have played so other games might be broken too.

If you need further information regarding the crashes I am encountering, let me know -- I can see how the crash history is getting all over the place now.

Also: I found no minidump of the last crash so I cannot provide that, I left the computer for about 5 minutes and it had not restarted (usually, after crashing on Black Ops 2 the PC would restart by itself after about 30 seconds of black screening -- This time it did not, instead it gave the 'driver has recovered' notification/warning).

 

[a991299]

I found a solution. It will work for cards with weaker chips. I am not sure if there are other reasons that make this "Display driver nvlddmkm" crash. Could be a driver issue too, but after I reinstalled the drivers on my 1080 TI nothing changed.

The reason I think all GPU's behave this way is because of GPU boost which sets their clock speed at 1650 Mhz and above (in my case) while stressing the GPU and as the GPU can't handle such high clocks it's drivers restart.

So here is the solution:
I am using MSI Afterburner.
1) While in the menu press Ctrl + F. This will bring out the Clock Speed - Voltage curve.
2) Set all the points that are higher than your default clock to it (if your default clock is 1450 Mhz, then lower all the points to 1450 Mhz if they are higher).
3) Close the curve window and press "Apply".
4) MSI Afterburner will reset everytime you restart your computer so it will be good to save your settings as a profile. You will have to apply the profile after each reboot!
5) I have also lowered my clock to 1250 Mhz, but I don't think it matters as GPU Boost doesn't give a ****.

That's it. I have ran Unigine Valley, Witcher 3 and Nier Automata for around 1 hour each and there were no problems. The games were set to Maximum quality on a 3440 x 1440 resolution.

If you want a GPU that can withstand overclocking and you wouldn't mind waiting half a year for a new one then RMA it, but if you are playing lighter titles or you don't mind lowering your quality settings a little then you won't have a problem.

Give it a try and I hope it will work for you!