Windows 7 BSOD on login: Attempt to reset the display driver.. Failed

[Ghillie]

Windows 7 BSOD on login ( After selecting user account - before the desktop is displayed )

-> Attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed
-> STOP: ...0x116

I have windows dump files as well as a generated ntbtlog.txt file containing the drivers that loaded, although the last driver to load varies so it seems useless.

The BSOD message stated a driver file 'nvlddmkm.sys' if I remember correctly, which is included in the Nvidia Driver for my graphics card.
Having discovered that, I booted into Windows safe mode - uninstalled the current Nvidia drivers 260.x - restarted - booted into safe mode again and installed newly downloaded drivers from the Nvidia website 285.x.
I then shut down and restarted my PC, attempted to login and I got a black screen (no BSOD) before it restarted again.
Since then the BSOD has returned holding the same message as before.

I tried to boot into Ubuntu after installing the new driver but it freezes after selecting the OS and I am forced to restart - never tried booting Ubuntu before installing the new drivers so I don't know when or what caused it to stop working.

Some info about my system:
Dual boot: Windows 7 Professional N x64 && Ubuntu 11.10 x64 (Grub 2 bootloader)
Intel Core i7 920
Nvidia Geforce GTX 480
6gb DDR3 1600

Any Help would be greatly appreciated, I will post files if they are needed. Can't seem to read the .dmp files as I can't access my Visual Studio within Windows. (Will try through safe mode soon)

 

[Snowcat78]

Attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed

Did you ever find a solution for this issue? I'm having the same problem with my gtx 450

 

[gamerk316]

0x116: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR

Basically, when the display driver crashes, the OS tries to re-set it. There is a 10 second period the driver has to reset and respond to the OS. If you get this Blue Screen, that did not happen.

The only times I've ever seen the BSOD is from two causes:
1: Bad display driver
2: Defective GPU [usually VRAM]

Try upgrading the display driver. If the issue remains, find another GPU to test with. You also might want to consider RMA'ing the GPU if a driver update doesn't fix the issue, in case its a genuine GPU fault.

 

[Rohit G Nair]

I too have it but I have a laptop onboard graphics and ATI manufactured and it is out of warranty.