Please Help! "display driver stopped responding"

zoob76

zoob76

zoob76

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8 Apr 2011
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Hi all, I have a problem with a new build that is driving me crazy. My pc regularly freezes, the screen goes blank for a few seconds then "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" is displayed in the bottom right hand side...here is my build:

MSI 870A Fuzion AMD 770 Socket AM3 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
2 xPowerColor HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 in crossfire
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Six-core Processor - 3.20 GHz, 9 MB Cache, Socket AM3, 125W, 45 nm
G-Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600mhz Ripjaws Memory Kit CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V
Powercool 750W 80plus Certified Efficiency PSU
Windows 7 home edition

The problem ONLY seems to occur in windows or when using a browser. On the odd occation when i can actually get a game to load i can play for hours with no issues, same when running 3d mark or uningine. I initially thought that it might be the PSU, but i have kind of ruled this out as I dont get the error when the cards are running a game or benchmark. I have tried uninstalling the drivers, running driver sweeper and re-installing the latest drivers. I have tried a clean OS install with the latest ATI drivers....still the same problem. I have also disabled the windows TDR in the registry, still no luck. I have also tried disabling overdrive in catalyst control centre and tried lowering the clockspeed... I am really stuck as I built this PC over 3 months ago to use as a gaming PC and i really havent had any use out of it because of this problem......Please can anyone help???:confused:!!! Any advise would be much appreciated.
 
Hi, i've tried running with one card, tried them both individually but no joy. I havent tried mem test but i have tried running using only one ram stick (tried them both).
 
I remember looking at the event log and seeing something to the effect of "Display driver failed to respond" type error. I will try running mem test just to be sure..in work at the moment but will try when i get home.
 
had a quick look about, are the temps on your processor and graphics cards looking ok ?

coretemp for cpu gpu-z for graphics card.

bit more digging about, found this, think you'll need Catalyst Control Center loaded to manage your 3d settings.


Go to Manage 3D Settings. You will see 2 tabs, Global Settings and Program Settings.

In Program Settings, add dwm.exe (Desktop Windows Manager) from C:\Windows\System32 directory and set Power Management Mode becomes Prefer maximum performance for this program.
 
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- Try using Google Chrome as your browser.
- Try disabling Windows Aero.
- Have a good look at background apps and services you may have running. Disable non essential ones.
- Try running your PC at 'Maximum Performance' settings in the Power Options Control Panel applet for a few days to see if you still experience this crash.
- If running at Max Performance works, set the machine back to balanced, edit the balanced profile, Disable PCIE ASPM Link state management and carry on testing.

If you totally disabled TDR timeouts your machine should BSOD instead. Now since you don't mention BSOD's you possibly didn't disable it fully. But let's be honest, a TDR timeout beats a BSOD.
Sure, try increasing the TDR timeout period but don't disable it, it will be far more annoying. Nvidia users should test 275.33 (usually TDR free) vs 285.62.

Both Nvidia and AMD cards suffer from this issue these days. It's probably a result of over aggressive power management or incorrect voltage management on the cards.
This could be caused through the drivers but it's more likely that cards are being sold out of spec or very close to spec. The most common case seems to be random TDRs when simply sat on the desktop while using a web browser. This indicates that it's an issue related to hardware acceleration in these apps. Perhaps the constant rise and fall in performance states is the cause.

Personally, I have only experienced this problem twice, on the same evening, with a GTX260/275.33 while playing with hidden GPU/Vsync flag settings on Chrome Beta.

Most forums indicate that Nvidia and AMD are aware of this issue but they don't really know how to fix it for every card that vendors have produced.
 
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Thank you all for your time and help...i tried all the suggestions, but the only thing that has worked (so far!!) has been to create a new CC profile with increased idle clocks. This seems to have solved the problem so far!..thanks again guys
 
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