Display driver nvlddmkm

Well, now that MG has helped me solve my own computer's malware issues, a new issue has cropped up... this time on my husband's computer.

"Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has recovered."

It started randomly. It first happens about one minute after the desktop shows. Then it happens with increasing frequency as you try to use the computer, and about five minutes later causes a blue screen crash.

I've read multiple threads about it here and elsewhere, but I honestly couldn't follow along, as they all seemed to have different reasons for the crash.

Any help would be awesome. The computer is unusable as is. And he just started SWTOR on my computer today, so... I need his for my Facebooking.

His PC:

Dell Vostro 220
Pentium Dual Core E5300 2.6 GHz
2 gigs RAM
GeForce 8400 GS

I've already tried downloaded the latest Nvidia drivers and installing them. That didn't solve the problem. I've read to try other driver versions, but it literally took me an hour just to try the first one. With the screen going black every 5 - 50 seconds, it's a little difficult to browse for drivers, and I don't have any way, currently, to move files to his computer from my own.

 

Ah I'm sorry, I forgot to add a pretty vital detail there, eh? He's running Windows Vista Home Basic SP2 Build 6002.

There is a yellow mark by the onboard graphics card in the device manager list.

As far as I know, no software was installed. He doesn't recall installing anything.

I have not yet tried to boot into safe mode. I will try that now... Yes, it seems to be working just fine in safe mode. I putzed around on it for a good five minutes and it didn't flicker at all, or give me that message.

 

I followed these two steps and rebooted into normal mode. A window opened that said something about downloading drivers for new hardware (or unrecognized hardware, something like that), and a message bubble was at the lower right saying that an incompatible display driver had been disabled. I didn't get to see either message clearly, as it almost immediately went to a black screen and then did a blue screen crash.

I have rebooted into safe mode and await further instructions.

 

Do give this discussion a read:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/270505-33-display-driver-stopped-responding-recovered-over-over

 

Yes, he added the 8400 GS later. It was a vid card out of my old computer, but it was better than his onboard graphics. He plans to upgrade at a later point.

I will hop over to his and uninstall then run the utility.

 

Okay, after I uninstalled the Nvidia driver from the add/remove list and rebooted into safe mode, a notification appeared at the bottom right. There were two, but I didn't notice the first one (sorry!) The second one said that the Nvidia GeForce 8400 GS drivers were installed successfully.

I attached the log. Several areas in the main UI of Speccy said "Cannot initialise dll" or something like that. I tried running as admin just in case that would make a difference, but it didn't.

 

I'll be perfectly honest here and say that I couldn't follow that thread. I'm not familiar with the ins and outs of graphics cards. I know enough to determine if a card I want to purchase is a good one (if it's an upgrade for me), if it's compatible, and how to install it.

Beyond that, I'm at a loss.

 

I apologize for the long response time.

I cannot boot into normal mode. It does the usual... black flickering screen, with the same notification from my original post.

I opened Driver Sweeper and it has a long list of things for Nvidia, but I didn't want to remove them yet, since I'm not able to boot up in normal... wasn't sure if you still wanted me to.

Here is the Everest log.

 

It's quite alright. I expected longer wait times around the holidays.

I ran Driver Sweeper and removed all entries for Nvidia. When the prompt appeared asking if I wanted to reboot, I let it reboot into normal mode, and here I am. It's working just fine. No error messages, no flickering, etc. Of course the screen looks awful, lol. Just like it has in safe mode, all stretched and not filling the monitor.

I'm sure we have the recovery disks somewhere, though I really wouldn't have the first idea WHERE they are. Probably in this giant desk of his somewhere.

Can I ask, why is it that the screen looks awful right now? When he got this computer new from Dell, it just had the integrated card and it looked normal, it just wasn't good enough for gaming. Why didn't it go back to looking how it did before the Nvidia card was installed? Or is there a physical connection missing in there now?

 

No cookies! lol

I downloaded and installed the Nvidia driver you linked and restarted when prompted. When it booted up, everything on the screen was GIGANTIC. I mean... freakin' huge. I heard the dreaded "bonk!" before the screen even loaded, and had a dialog box that said:

Then it started flickering and giving me the same nvlddmkm message.

I'm back in safe mode now.

 

Done. Back in normal mode and working just fine.

 

Yep, the same ugly stuff. lol

Windows Update lists:

nVidia - Display, Other hardware - NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS

Recommended Update

nVidia Display, Other hardware
software update released in May, 2011

Published: 7/6/2011

It has already downloaded and is ready to be installed.

Go ahead and do that and reboot into normal mode?

 

I couldn't install the update.

Retried three times.

 

The 8400 GS is the only thing in the list with a yellow "!".

I would actually rather take out the Nvidia card and go back to using the integrated than wipe the computer. The Nvidia isn't exactly great, lol, and since this isn't currently being used for gaming, the integrated should be just fine. All this PC is used for right now is me browsing the internet while he hogs mine.

What would I need to do to make this happen?

 

Okay, I yanked that sucker out and booted up. Everything's working great. We'll just have to upgrade the video card if he ever wants to game on this again. We needed to anyway, that one was super old and had been through three PCs, lol.

I really appreciate your help with this. Do you know what could have caused that to just randomly start happening? I'm afraid this stuff is a little bit over my head. Was it a hardware issue or a software issue?

 

Oh, forgot to mention... when I pulled that card out, I could barely turn the fan on it with my finger. Had to push pretty hard. It used to be smoked around pretty heavily, and I can't remember the last time this computer's "guts" were cleaned. Could that be a factor?

 

Tsk tsk. Looks like I'm going to have to go back on my vow to never again clean his desk, or deal with the expense of a lot of repairs and upgrades... lol.

Thank you again for all of your help, it is very much appreciated.

 

Yes, it's been working just fine. Not as good, of course, but able to run everything in normal mode and watch YouTube, Hulu, etc...

I did have a minor issue yesterday. The screen went black in several blocky areas and I got a message that was the same as my original one here, but with a different driver name... something with a g?

But it recovered and hasn't happened since, so I'm hoping that was an isolated incident.