Originally posted by: taltamir
How to fix the error:
"Display driver atikmdag/nvlddmkm stopped responding and has recovered".
A year ago if your video card crashed your computer will simply get stuck on one picture (usually with it being a distorted picture) and remain that way until you turn it off and then on again.
However with new drivers and the help of some new windows capabilities it will now terminate the driver and power cycle the video card. And then give you the message listed above... "atikmdag" for ati users. "nvlddmkm" for nvidia. This is a wonderful thing as it eliminates the need to restart when a video card crash occurs, protects your open data, and even allows some games to continue operating without crashing (some games can rehook into the driver once it restarts and proceed as if nothing happened).
Unless this is happening with only one game (in which case it is the fault of the game) then you have a HARDWARE PROBLEM!
For example, I get it under a very specific reproduce able scenario in galciv2. I get it whenever the buggy nwn2 crashes, and I got it a few other times with specific games where it STOPPED happening after they released patches for said games OR newer drivers... but if you are getting this all the time for all games then your video card is crashing.
It is ALSO possible for it only happen with some games and STILL be a hardware problem... Just short of a year ago I built a system that will crash after about an hour of intensive gaming on only two games... those were the only two games I played that were intensive enough to cause it (with frame limitations preventing it on others)... The reason was that my power supply was inadequate. Upgrading the power supply eliminated all the problems.
Here is a step by step process of testing:
1. Make sure your power supply outputs enough amps on the appropriate rails for your video card. Remember that factory overclocked video cards require more power and that some power supplys cannot MAINTAIN the max amount provided over long periods of time... So it should be a certain amount over the minimum.
Note: If available you can test the video card on another computer (which has a good enough power supply) to quickly find out if your video card is defective.
2. Run memtest+ from
www.memtest.org overnight, there should be 0 errors... even 1 error means your are overclocking the ram too hard, or that the ram / motherboard is defective.
3. If neither of the above is the problem then get a warranty replacement of your card!
4. If it still doesn't work get a warranty replacement for the motherboard.
5. If you have a factory overclocked card for which the warranty has EXPIRED you can try downclocking it to the "stock" speeds for the chip it uses. This will most likely solve your problem.
Unless you are overclocking or have ATROCIOUS blockages in your computer then cooling shouldn't be a problem... but it just might. I assume that if you are overclocking then you would know better and already realize that you simply need to overclock less aggressively.
Facebook
Twitter