Video Driver Failure Troubleshooting

[Surfer_2099]

Hey guys. Been a LONG while since I've posted but I need some expert help.

A bit more than a month ago, I started getting "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" error. It is intermittent and usually happens during some games during launch (I had the Alpha of Star Citizen installed - but have since removed it, Hearthstone, Age of Conan, some Steam games - but not all). Once launched however, I rarely get the error.

It has a tendency of happening most often when I am browsing the internet and watching videos in the browser. It does not matter which browser (Chrome, IE or Edge- see below).

My GPU was a Radeon 7950 (Gigabyte) - not overclocked. Note, my display is small and only runs at 1680-1050, so it's not the most stressful resolution in the world. Sometimes I would get a recovery message, other times I'd actually get a BSOD with the error code associated to GPU issues.

I did a ton of research and troubleshot as I could.

- I tested the RAM (it's ok)
- I tested the integrity of the HD (it's ok)
- I uninstalled, driver cleaned and reinstalled various versions of Catalyst drivers (that did not work)
- I ran MSFixIt for this error (did not correct it)
- I manually edited the Registry to change the timeout for video-card (did not correct it)
- I tried the GPU in other PCIE slots (no difference)
- I tested and stress tested the CPU and RAM (all good)
- GPU temps and levels were always good and not a question of overheating

So, I concluded that it was probably a failing GPU. I ordered an R9 380 (Gigabyte) and installed it, but the "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" message still continues intermittently.

A few weeks ago, I cleared the caches and forced the Window 10 upgrade.

Since then, it is LESS common and I never get the BSOD anymore. Just a black screen for a sec as the GPU driver restarts.

As of right now, I can usually successfully run a FurMark Benchmark and the numbers are fine.

Tonight, just before posting here, I had 4 crashed in about 5 minutes, but none since. For kicks, I ran a full FurMark STRESS TEST for a full 30 minutes with no issues.

So...

I am now at the point where I am thinking there is a significant enough issue with some of the OS files that I might have to re-install my OEM Win7 and then do the upgrade again. I really don't want to do that at all. Either that, or something is not right with some specific files somewhere and I need some suggestions as to where I should look and what I might try.

What do you guys think?

Surfer_2099

ps- I like the r9 380 so far (power draw and temps and quiet running) and if I can pinpoint the issue, I'd love to be able to reconfirm that my 7950 is still good and put it up for sale.

pps- As I was writing the above PS, I got the "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" error. And again, just now before hitting "Submit New Thread".

 

[ZZLEE]

How old the Motherboard Battery. ??

How old the power supply. ??

Check your household electric fore ground fault or arching on the cercut .

Full system spec will help us diagnose also.

 

[sweenytodd]

Most likely your power supply is shot.

 

[Surfer_2099]

Specs are updated in my profile.

Did not consider PSU as possible issue, however, I've been gaming since I posted and nothing went wrong, but now, as I opened my browser to post this response, I got the error message again.

Seems like mundane stuff is what's causing the issue.

That said, short of getting another PSU for testing (which I might be able to do), is there a way to check the integrity of the PSU while in the machine?

As for the other suggestions...

- Not BIOS battery (I checked and replaced anyways)
- Tried the PC in another outlet when I was doing some "open case" testing/troubleshooting and same issue

Will check PSU though to make sure.

More suggestions would be great in the meantime.

 

[sweenytodd]

Can you install HWmonitor and look for the 3.3V , 5V and 12V values. Let us know what voltages you have.

 

[Varroa]

My AMD driver kept "not responding" "had to reset" while on the desktop. The offical MS fix is to log out of your online MS account and use a local account to log in instead. I tried it and it actually worked (I have no idea why using a local account would fix this but it does).

AMD display driver 15.200.108.1 "stops responding" when using - Microsoft Community

 

[Arinoth]

I had this happening to me for a month and a half on my GTX 980 with nVidia drivers, the only way for me to truly fix the problem was a fresh install of Windows. Since then I have never run into the issue. Doing the Windows upgrade may not have allowed all the reg files to reset properly, which may be causing conflicting issues with the AMD driver.

 

[Shadowarez]

i had same issues i pulled my core clocks back fixed issues with driver crashes and restarts, thats in evga oc tool, and switching over to adpative sync with 2 frames rendered ahead,

 

[clshades]

I've been having this problem for ages and have chalked it up as windows BS. I find when I overcloxk it happens more often. I highly doubt its the PSU as I've had this happen with different PSUs and different setups. Nivida and AMD suffer the same issues bringing me back to Windows BS.

This is deffinately a driver or software related issue. I find I have less issues if I turn off my secondary monitor when gaming.

 

[Fudd Rucker]

This seems to be a win 10 issue. There is a thread around here for that exact problem with win 10. You can try what Vittra suggested, it seems to have limited success. Otherwise a reinstall seems to be the fix here.