NVIDIA driver continues to crash, recover, restarting PC

[morjo21]

Please let me know what specific information is required.

Essentially my issue sounds like others with the same title but i have not overclocked anything.

1) Geforce 8800 GTS - First my computer screen would go black then power cycle. I updated Drivers and reverted to older versions but issue remained.

2) Swapped to a GeForce 8400 GS i had in the cupboard - worked fine for ages then over the past 2 months would start failing and recovering (display driver). Would flash a few times then come back but a lot of times it continued to fail repeatably then my computer auto restarts. I downloaded utility to remove all graphics driver and installed an earlier version of drivers. Issue remains

3) Purchased a new Geforce GT610 - Same issue!!!

I dont play games i just use PC to browse Internet and watch movies.

I notice the display driver fail primarily when i'm browsing the net (using either IE, Chrome or Firefox).

I am hoping this is Driver related and not hardware related to my PC. Its old but always been reliable.

Please help.

 

[Jaxx1111]

I don't have an answer, but I am having the same experience. My PC is just used for web browsing, email, YouTube, some video image editing with legacy software. I finally did a clean install of the latest Windows 10 1511 version, and ever since, my NVidia graphics card keeps shutting this PC off randomly, especially if I'm in a video chat, it just shuts off the display, not the PC itself. I have no alternative but to hard reboot. My guess is the NVidia Drivers, not the PC, because the first version of Windows 10 ran perfect. Maybe rolling back to the previous version of NVidia Drivers might help, I don't think the latest Drivers are compatible, even though they say they are... Just a thought. and DO NOT use GeForce Experience, I found that to be the most annoying and problematic software for Windows 10 (1511). I hope that helps...

 

[morjo21]

I don't have an answer, but I am having the same experience. My PC is just used for web browsing, email, YouTube, some video image editing with legacy software. I finally did a clean install of the latest Windows 10 1511 version, and ever since, my NVidia graphics card keeps shutting this PC off randomly, especially if I'm in a video chat, it just shuts off the display, not the PC itself. I have no alternative but to hard reboot. My guess is the NVidia Drivers, not the PC, because the first version of Windows 10 ran perfect. Maybe rolling back to the previous version of NVidia Drivers might help, I don't think the latest Drivers are compatible, even though they say they are... Just a thought. and DO NOT use GeForce Experience, I found that to be the most annoying and problematic software for Windows 10 (1511). I hope that helps...

Thanks Jaxx. I am running Windows 7 32 Bit Ultimate (legitimate). I do have the Geforce Experience software installed however i just use it as a means to check if new drivers are available...I usually manually download the drivers. I will uninstall the software just in case.....Additionally the only change to my PC was that I installed a Solid State Drive and clean install of Windows....all was good post installation and updates...This issue just randomly appeared, nothing specific that i can recall that i updated/changed and this issue started occuring.

 

[Jaxx1111]

Hi morjo21, guess what, I thought I solved an issue, which it did stop doing this random shutting off, but I am back to square one again. I did join a few reputable forums like this one, and all the advice seem to work for a day, then using the PC today, this whole issue I s back again. I cannot blame the PC itself, because I have a partitioned drive with Windows 7 Ultimate on the other partition, and it doesn't do this random shutting of my display. Plus, before I updated to Winver 1511, Windows 10 Build (The previous version - forgot the numbers) ran perfect, never doing what it is doing now. I am at wits end here because I have tried everything. I honestly do not know what to do. I am sure this isn't good for both the HDD and the software because I have to constantly shut off hard Windows 10 and reboot. I wish Microsoft would have more guidance. I even had them do "remote Desktop" and they pretty much did the same things I have done already, but to no avail, once again, it is back. I hope someone here might really have a solid cure for this.

My PC is an old model, but it never did this before, and on the partitioned other side of the drive, if I dual boot into Windows 7 SP1, it works perfect, no shutting of the display, only when I shut it down myself. I really like Windows 10 1511, and want to use it, paid good money for it, Pro as well. This is so discouraging. Anyone out there, I hope you read this and can come up with a solution. In the mean while, I am going to uninstall NVidia's latest driver for the card, and install the previous driver - maybe something is not compatible with "settings" in the new driver, who knows, I am really at odds. This PC really works fantastic. OK, I cannot play heavy games, but it actually edits video and images very well, and handles ESRI ArcMap 10.3 like its brand new. Anyone, please help :-((((

 

[morjo21]

Hi morjo21, guess what, I thought I solved an issue, which it did stop doing this random shutting off, but I am back to square one again. I did join a few reputable forums like this one, and all the advice seem to work for a day, then using the PC today, this whole issue I s back again. I cannot blame the PC itself, because I have a partitioned drive with Windows 7 Ultimate on the other partition, and it doesn't do this random shutting of my display. Plus, before I updated to Winver 1511, Windows 10 Build (The previous version - forgot the numbers) ran perfect, never doing what it is doing now. I am at wits end here because I have tried everything. I honestly do not know what to do. I am sure this isn't good for both the HDD and the software because I have to constantly shut off hard Windows 10 and reboot. I wish Microsoft would have more guidance. I even had them do "remote Desktop" and they pretty much did the same things I have done already, but to no avail, once again, it is back. I hope someone here might really have a solid cure for this.

My PC is an old model, but it never did this before, and on the partitioned other side of the drive, if I dual boot into Windows 7 SP1, it works perfect, no shutting of the display, only when I shut it down myself. I really like Windows 10 1511, and want to use it, paid good money for it, Pro as well. This is so discouraging. Anyone out there, I hope you read this and can come up with a solution. In the mean while, I am going to uninstall NVidia's latest driver for the card, and install the previous driver - maybe something is not compatible with "settings" in the new driver, who knows, I am really at odds. This PC really works fantastic. OK, I cannot play heavy games, but it actually edits video and images very well, and handles ESRI ArcMap 10.3 like its brand new. Anyone, please help :-((((

Looks like we have a similar issue but mines with Windows 7 Ultimate. At one point i used booted in safe mode with networking and I didn't experience any issues at all so I was fairly confident it was the graphics card drivers causing the crash.

 

[morjo21]

So I decided to back everything up and start from scratch.

1) Backed up the data I wanted from C:\ to one of the other 2 HDD I had connected. Note - I had 2 x Hard drives (storage) & 1 x Solid state (Windows).
2) Disconnected the other 2 drives leaving only the Solid State Connected.
3) Installed Windows 7 ultimate 32-bit (exactly what I was using before) - Performed all Windows Updates
4) Installed Lastest NVidia Drivers for my Geforce GT610
5) Ran it like that for a week with no issues at all (Youtube, Internet).
6) About a week later I decided to reconnect my other 2 Hard Drives (Sata) and BANG!!!! Almost Immediately post install of the drives and browsing the Internet - ***Freaking Display Driver Issue again!!!!*** - Flashed a few times then PC Rebooted!!
7) Few tests (restarts/use) and my PC was continually experiencing the same driver failure and rebooting Issue.
8) Disconnected the 2 Hard Drive I recently connected....Machine is all stable has not happened once!!!!

I haven't had a chance to nail down if the problem is due to a particular hard drive but intend to format both HDD's and reconnect at some point.

I can stop pulling my hair out now....hopefully this is also the solution for others out there.

 

[morjo21]

Almost a month on and still no issues. definitely due to the additional hard drives.

 

[rlopezaparicio]

Almost a month on and still no issues. definitely due to the additional hard drives.

I'm having the same issue for a long time. I reinstalled windows 7 64 bits yesterday and it didn't restart in all day until I installed NVidia drivers (with GForce Experience). I also have 2 HDD. The main one is SSD. As you're saying, it seems to be related not only with NVidia drivers but also with having more than one HDD. So what is the solution. Update the HDD drivers? Uninstall NVidia drivers? Unplug the second HDD? My motherboard is gigabyte. I installed the chipset drivers but they may be outdated.

 

[morjo21]

Almost a month on and still no issues. definitely due to the additional hard drives.

I'm having the same issue for a long time. I reinstalled windows 7 64 bits yesterday and it didn't restart in all day until I installed NVidia drivers (with GForce Experience). I also have 2 HDD. The main one is SSD. As you're saying, it seems to be related not only with NVidia drivers but also with having more than one HDD. So what is the solution. Update the HDD drivers? Uninstall NVidia drivers? Unplug the second HDD? My motherboard is gigabyte. I installed the chipset drivers but they may be outdated.

Hi rlopez,
Unfortunately I spoke too soon as the issue returned last month Jan 2017. I had a good run of about 5 months with no issues and 2 drives connected (1 x SSD + 1 x SATA). I disconnected the secondary drive but the Issue is now relentless happening all the time and even with just 1 drive connected. I'm so annoyed I haven't turned my desktop on for almost a month. Been using my laptop instead.

From Aug 2016 through to Jan 2017 no issues and I installed all updates that NVIDIA released. Booting in Safe Mode fixes the issue so I still believe its driver related however I don't understand why there is no confirmed issue or fix from NVIDIA.

 

[rlopezaparicio]

Almost a month on and still no issues. definitely due to the additional hard drives.

I'm having the same issue for a long time. I reinstalled windows 7 64 bits yesterday and it didn't restart in all day until I installed NVidia drivers (with GForce Experience). I also have 2 HDD. The main one is SSD. As you're saying, it seems to be related not only with NVidia drivers but also with having more than one HDD. So what is the solution. Update the HDD drivers? Uninstall NVidia drivers? Unplug the second HDD? My motherboard is gigabyte. I installed the chipset drivers but they may be outdated.

Hi rlopez,
Unfortunately I spoke too soon as the issue returned last month Jan 2017. I had a good run of about 5 months with no issues and 2 drives connected (1 x SSD + 1 x SATA). I disconnected the secondary drive but the Issue is now relentless happening all the time and even with just 1 drive connected. I'm so annoyed I haven't turned my desktop on for almost a month. Been using my laptop instead.

From Aug 2016 through to Jan 2017 no issues and I installed all updates that NVIDIA released. Booting in Safe Mode fixes the issue so I still believe its driver related however I don't understand why there is no confirmed issue or fix from NVIDIA.

Thanks morjo21. I've just uninstalled GForce Experience and updated de chipset drivers. I'll let you know if that fixes de issue. If not, I'll try to remove NVidia drivers completely and maybe use the integrated display card.