Nvidia HD audio drivers causing bluescreen on wake from sleep?

[Termie]

Just thought I'd start this thread as I troubleshoot a problem that others might be having, and get insights on why it might be happening.

The situation: for the past few months, my main rig has been bluescreening about 1 out of every 3 times it wakes from sleep, but never during use. At first I thought it was my undervolted or overclocked CPU (depending on usage scenario), but resetting to stock hasn't changed anything. So I decided to do a bit of diligence on the handy file called a "minidump"...

The culprit: Using a developer-oriented program called Microsoft Debugging Tools (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/hh852363), I've determined that all of my blue screens have been caused by the nVidia High Definition Audio driver (nvhda64v.sys), which is part of the main nVidia GeForce driver suite. I am currently using an HDMI cable, attached to a monitor that does not support sound (hint, hint), after having broken my trusty DisplayPort cable that I'd used for many years (connector bent out of place).

The resolution(?): I have taken a few steps to resolve the problem, and I'm doing further testing to see if I have indeed found the culprit. First I uninstalled the nVidia HD Audio driver. I found, however, that Windows then automatically installed the generic HD audio driver upon reboot, so I simply disabled that audio device. My next step, which will have to wait until my Monoprice DP cable arrives, is to pull the HDMI from my system all together and avoid any potential for an HD audio driver to be engaged due to the presence of my nVidia graphics card. It's going to take a few days of sleeping/waking to see if I've actually found a solution, so I'll update this thread with what I find.

The cause(?): My hunch is that all of this started after I replaced my DisplayPort cable with a spare HDMI cable a few months ago. That led me to ponder whether running HDMI from a graphics card with onboard audio (i.e., all modern graphics cards) to a monitor without sound capabilities might have been the cause. I'd like to hear opinions on whether that is a possibility.

Anyway, this is more or less a Public Service Announcement for people having trouble with blue screens tied to sleeping the computer. I know there are tons of other causes (SSDs, motherboards, etc.), but I'm hoping I've found a simpler but less well-known cause.

 

[Termie]

Just a quick update to say that I haven't had a single bluescreen upon waking from sleep since uninstalling the nVidia HD Audio drivers and disabling the GeForce GTX670 as an audio device.

Hoping this will be of help to anyone else out there experiencing frequent bluescreens when waking from sleep on otherwise stable computers.

 

[blastingcap]

Thanks for your testing

 

[thirdbrother3]

Thank you.
I have an old motherboard in my machine and have recently updated with a new, albeit cheap, nvidia card. Almost immediately i was getting bluescreens and my sleep/wake functionality had changed. I’ve been prating around with different drivers, trying to see if there are older ones for my card. I even installed windows 8 to see if that would make my system stable. No.
After waking from sleep my fans start, but i have a black screen. Waiting doesn’t work. I realised if i press reset it would then boot fine, indicating it had hibernated not slept. I would then before long (usually prompted by a video/flash get horizontal white lines randomly changing position across my screen and before long the inevitable BSOD.
Reading your post made me think, i too have digital drivers (hdmi) installed, but i’m using VGA. I have now disabled all the nvidia HD sound drivers, leaving just my onboard sound.
So far i have not had one hint that my graphics is about to die. Unfortunately the wake from sleep thing is still doing the same thing which is a nuisance if i want to send a wake-on-lan packet, but i can live with that for now and can actually get some work done, and stop pricing up new components that i can’t really afford, and don’t really need.
Thank you again.

 

[HurleyBird]

Huh, I guess GTX 780 may be off the table for me then if this isn't fixed. I use a Smyth A8 Realiser.

 

[Peter Nixeus]

If you are using a DisplayPort connection that causes the BSOD, it may be that the DisplayPort cable is not VESA compliant. Non-compliant DisplayPort cables have the # 20 PWR Pin active that sends power from your monitor back to your Graphics Card/Hardware which may cause BSOD or damage your Graphics Card. That pin is suppose to be inactive in a DisplayPort cable.

For more information visit:

http://www.displayport.org/faq/ :

« Q: Why isn’t there a wire on pin 20 (POWER) on the standard external DisplayPort cables?

A: The reason power isn’t included in standard cables is because both source and sink devices are designed to provide power. Captive, attached cables often include the power wire. If it is desired, for example, that a particular source device utilize the power available from the mating sink device, then that Source device could include an attached or dedicated cable that carries the DisplayPort power signal. Same could be applied to a sink device. »

 

[wand3r3r]

Whoa this may be the cause of my troubles too! I quit using sleep due to this.

 

[Mr_Harley]

Update on similar issue with AMD Radeon HD 7900

Everything was working tiptop using the supplied DVI cable however it was really short and I wanted a little more slack for my display. This display (Asus VG248QE) has HDMI and the card has HDMI so I thought wouldn't it be better to buy a new HDMI cable instead of DVI.

That's when I started to get BSOD only after coming back from sleep. So I updated all the drivers. Still BSOD about 1 of three times after sleep. This is when I found your thread.

This display dose have sound capability, but I'll try jiggering my Audio drivers and post the results.

Might need to go back to DVI

 

[Termie]

Update on similar issue with AMD Radeon HD 7900

Everything was working tiptop using the supplied DVI cable however it was really short and I wanted a little more slack for my display. This display (Asus VG248QE) has HDMI and the card has HDMI so I thought wouldn't it be better to buy a new HDMI cable instead of DVI.

That's when I started to get BSOD only after coming back from sleep. So I updated all the drivers. Still BSOD about 1 of three times after sleep. This is when I found your thread.

This display dose have sound capability, but I'll try jiggering my Audio drivers and post the results.

Might need to go back to DVI

This is an old thread, but I'm glad it was helpful to you. Note that the monitor you're using, the VG248QE, is best used with a DVI cable, as HDMI can't support its high-refresh rate mode. So in fact DVI is better than HDMI in your situation.

Mods - feel free to lock this if necessary.

 

[Mr_Harley]

Thanks. Reading up more about it I've noticed that the DVI is the better choice to maximize the refresh rate.

But just as an update to the Blue Screen after sleep w/ HDMI problem. After disabling the HDMI sound driver I've had zero BSOD after a dozen returns from sleep.