Nvidia Driver failure.

Velmonte · May 31, 2014

Hey all,

I'm beginning to experience my nvidia gpu driver failing periodicaly. I'll be playing a game, where suddenly, it will freeze crash and be shown an error message stating "Nvidia Driver XXX.XX has failed and has successfully recovered". There have been occasional times where my screen will randomly black out and come back in game.

Anyone out there know a possible cause for this and a fix action? Any help is appreciated!

Thanks.

ImGunz · May 31, 2014

U playing Watch dogs? Because it does the same for me on that game only

pro player · May 31, 2014

I'm having very similar issues. Check your temperatures to rule out overheating.

Velmonte · May 31, 2014

ImGunz :

I was just playing WoW when all this happened.

Velmonte · May 31, 2014

pro player :

I did clean my pc recently, and keep an eye on temps regularly, which appear to be optimal.

If it helps, my gpu is the 780 ti, and never heats up past 50 degrees. Max is 95 according to Nvidia.

bdiddytampa · May 31, 2014

There can be a lot of causes for this unfortunately. This happens when there is a timeout failure in Windows. Meaning the driver/card fails to report or react to Windows before its timeout period. There are some drivers that just have this problem with Windows in general, and there is a way to change the timeout length, but if this just started happening to you, I doubt that is the case.

Did this happen after an update? Can you roll back to a previous driver and prevent this from happening? Is it just happening in one particular game? or in anything you play that is graphically intensive? What are the rest of your system specs? In particular what is the make and model of your power supply? Any specific info you can give can help us get closer to the cause and hopefully a solution for your problem

Velmonte · May 31, 2014

bdiddytampa :

I did just update to a new driver. How do I roll back to a previous one? My power supply is a Corsair 1000w (I know, a bit overkill lol)

Windows 8.1 OS
780ti gpu as mentioned before.
Gigabyte X79 MOBO.
Corsair 120mm closed loop liquid cooler.

As far as the games I play, I mostly only play WoW and few others occasionally. I've seen it happen while playing WoW, but it's mostly all I play.

bdiddytampa · May 31, 2014

You can use this search on Nvidia's website to come up with a list of older drivers. http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-us

You will have to completely uninstall your older drivers first, you can either do it manually or use a utility like this http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/display_driver_uninstaller_download.html

When you reboot, try the last good driver you used and see if that helps

Just don't let it update to newer drivers. If that doesn't work, it may be hardware related, but the only way to figure that out is to switch out parts one by one till the problem stops.

PS - A 780 Ti and you only really play WoW? What resolution do you play on?

Velmonte · Jun 1, 2014

bdiddytampa :

1920 X 1080, max settings.

I forgot to mention, that I have had my screen randomly black out and return before I installed this new driver. However, I only got the message telling my driver failed and recovered AFTER installing it, if that makes any sense.

bdiddytampa · Jun 1, 2014

Velmonte :

Wow, your PSU isn't the only thing that is overkill

You could get perfect gameplay out of a video card less than half the price of that, but that is a whole other discussion lol. To each their own I guess

At least you won't have to worry about upgrading for a while hahaha

Another thing I forgot to ask is are you overclocking at all?

Velmonte · Jun 1, 2014

bdiddytampa :

Velmonte :

Wow, your PSU isn't the only thing that is overkill

You could get perfect gameplay out of a video card less than half the price of that, but that is a whole other discussion lol. To each their own I guess

At least you won't have to worry about upgrading for a while hahaha

Another thing I forgot to ask is are you overclocking at all?

Not at all lol.

bdiddytampa · Jun 1, 2014

Some people are having problems with GPU boost 2.0 when it overclocks, after you try rolling back your drivers, try underclocking your card a bit with a program like EVGA PrecisionX. Some games just don't deal well with overclocks, period, automatic or not, and there were some people in the WoW forums saying that when they reduced the clock speed a bit, their problems went away. Worth a try anyway.

Let me know how the previous drivers work out for you.

Velmonte · Jun 5, 2014

bdiddytampa :

I'll give the EVGA software a shot. How will I know what I'm doing? Never used it before.

bdiddytampa · Jun 5, 2014

It's pretty easy, all the main settings are sliders. The one you are looking for is the GPU Clock Offset. On mine it goes to -47, just give that a shot. It's worth a try, and you can't damage anything. Did you try the rollback drivers?

Velmonte · Jun 5, 2014

bdiddytampa :

Not yet, I think I should try adjusting the clock speed before doing that first. I'm not sure what speed to go with though. What would you recommend?

bdiddytampa · Jun 5, 2014

Drop it as far as it will go, with a GPU that powerful and what you play it won't make a difference in your performance. If it helps, you'll know that is the issue and you can raise it bit by bit if you want till you see the problem come back, but you shouldn't have to worry about it.

Velmonte · Jun 5, 2014

bdiddytampa :

So mine dropped all the way to -105 MHz. Let's see how this goes.

By the way, I use a 144 hz monitor too. Is this something I need to factor in?

bdiddytampa · Jun 5, 2014

You are probably getting unsynced frames in the many hundreds, you should be fine

Nvidia Driver failure.

Distinguished

Honorable

Reputable

Distinguished

Distinguished

Honorable

Distinguished

Honorable

Distinguished

Honorable

Distinguished

Honorable

Distinguished

Honorable

Distinguished

Honorable

Distinguished

Honorable

Share this page