I am out of ideas. Display driver nvlddmkm keeps crashing and recovering.

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Vedad1944

Vedad1944

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Aug 14, 2016
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Okay, so, I started seeing artifacts, my steam started giving me a laggy mouse, and games kept crashing.
I went out and bought a brand new GT 730 1GB GDDR5.
Plugged it in, installed the driver, and ran fine for 2 minutes. The driver crashes and recovers and steam is laggy (so are the games).
Shocked, I google it, and I:
Tried an earlier version.
Edited the registry.
DDU + older version.
Actually used the CD driver instead of Nvidia stuff online (without GeForce Experience).
Checked for miner viruses, negative.
Temps, 41C on full load.
Re-seated the GPU and RAM.
Reinstalled Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit.
Started swapping sticks of RAM around, the PC can't post, so I go through every stick individually, and it boots on every single one, I put them back like they were and it boots all of a sudden. The PCI driver is missing, and my network card fails to start. I install the PCI driver, and after a restart the network card is fine again.
The PSU is sufficient, my old card used 50W and the new one 50W aswell.
Uninstalled NVIDIA sound drivers.
MSI afterburner + Steam + Firefox on Google = Driver Crash (often).

[strike]I have not tried 2 things:
1. The GPU in a different PC.
2. The old GPU. (Kind of pointless, since steam was already laggy, but the driver didn't crash).[/strike]

Every time i see that "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered." message in the event logger, it makes me sick to my stomach. I have no clue as to where to start next. It all seems hopeless. And then Skyrim started showing artifacts again.
Also, sometimes it'd crash to a blackscreen, and I'd have to hard reset it. As the system states, no BSOD occurred.

Should I try and trade it in for another GT 730? Or an AMD card?
Is my RAM somehow causing interference? Or am I that dumb not to notice something.

It's a Dell Optiplex 755, C2D E6850, 5GB of ram (1x2GB, 3x1GB), 2xHDD (1TB+250GB), Silverstone 400W PSU, and a GT 730 1GB GDDR5.

Please, someone help me, it is my only computer and I rely on it to do work and kill time. If I could I'd just scrap it and get a new one. I was scared to type this, it'd crash and I'd have to type this over again.

Thank you in advance!
 
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T

TMTOWTSAC

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Jun 27, 2015
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GPU problems can be a lot of things. But combine that with the intermittent RAM and PCI issues...it could be your mobo giving out. Maybe a failing hard drive. You can try downloading the manufacturers utility for a health check on your drives but after reinstalling Windows it doesn't seem likely to be the culprit.
 
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smorizio

smorizio

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Jan 22, 2010
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with the gpu out run hardware info 64 bit or use a volt meter watch the 12v rail. add the gpu check the 12v rail on the mb and the gpu make sure it holding. my debug sence is telling me your old power supply is starting to not hold 12v rail under the gpu load.
 
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Vedad1944

Vedad1944

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Aug 14, 2016
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Alright, I will try HWinfo, I also have an old DC7600, so I will try to get it up and running and see if the RAM, GPU, and PSU are making the problem.
 
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Vedad1944

Vedad1944

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Aug 14, 2016
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Alright, there's a Dell Quick Scan thing on their site, supposed to check PC health, everything passed, and as soon as the test finished, the driver crashed and recovered right away.

I am going to get this old PC up and running, I originally replaced it since it was growing old, but Steam didn't lag, and the driver never crashed.
Will report within a few hours.
 
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Vedad1944

Vedad1944

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Aug 14, 2016
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Alright, I am typing this from the old machine with the Gt 730 inside.
Steam, smooth as silk, no crashes in two hours.

Will stress it a bit with 1080p youtube since that made a guaranteed crash.

dudeman, I don't know, best way to find out is to get another one, the crashing only happened on the GT730, the old GPU didn't do that, it only lagged steam and crashed games. And their wattage is the same, albeit the newer one has idle mode and the old one was full throttle the entire time.

Gonna go and chase down a replacement PSU asap, just to test it.

I can't express how happy I am that there is a forum such as tomshardware. It is just staggering to me that there are so many people willing to help.

Will post an update in an hour.
 
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Vedad1944

Vedad1944

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Aug 14, 2016
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UPDATE: I've reinstalled the Dell's original PSU, 305W, we'll see how it goes.
My mouse in steam still lags, might just be Steam's programming at this point.
Didn't BSOD or crash the driver in the DC7600, though the only difference in it is the PSU (365W), the mobo and the CPU.

I'm crossing my fingers, I hope this is it.

EDIT: Literately 7 seconds after posting this, it crashed again.
Microsoft mem check found no errors with the RAM, and neither did the Dell utility.

Any ideas?
 
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Vedad1944

Vedad1944

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Aug 14, 2016
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Well, the PC runs fine on Intel Graphics, and Steam doesn't lag, no crashes whatsoever.
I'll try and trade it in for an AMD card and see if I could just bypass the nvidia driver entirely.

Might get an HD7770 and a PCIE extender if the AMD card works.
 
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V

Vasil_1

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Dec 4, 2016
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Most likely you have an underpower problem. Try a 500w power supply just to test it. Also try to disable on your bios, the onboard graphics and leave only the PCI adaptor working.
 
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Vedad1944

Vedad1944

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Aug 14, 2016
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Tried it. Nope.
I plugged the GPU into the older PC with a smaller PSU and it worked, then I downgraded to the OEM 305W PSU on the DELL and no change.
The GPU has the same TDP as the old one, and the old one works fine, and the AMD card ran fine, just not the GT730.
The Silverstone 400W is fine in my eyes.

Now I'm even thinking of trading the GT730 for an HD 5850.
Maybe I could make it fit somehow?
PSU calculators say that I should be fine.

Your opinion?
 
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Vasil_1

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Dec 4, 2016
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The only options left here, is either your PCIe slot or the PCIe controller on your motherboard. Did you try to clean your PCIe slot contacts?

 
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Vedad1944

Vedad1944

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Aug 14, 2016
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I did, the thing is I tried 2 different cards (my old one and a borrowed AMD card) and they both run fine. No crashes whatsoever.
All of a sudden BOOM, BSOD. (like, 20 mins ago running on old card)
Can't even reach BIOS, so I kept restarting it, and swapped to the intergrated GPU. Artifacts!
I removed the oldest piece of RAM, and it booted up right quick! (did hesitate a little in the POST screen, but after another 3 restarts, it's fine)
Anyway, I already tested the GT730 with the oldest RAM stick out and it kept crashing.
So I'm gonna go with the 5850, it's a different card, and I hope it works.

If all of this turns out to be a faulty RAM stick (and I did check all of it with 2 different pieces of software, and manually booting up 16 times) I am going to be soooooo mad.

Gonna go try and force it to crash again (skyrim, lol).

Thanks Vasil for your responses!
 
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Vedad1944

Vedad1944

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Aug 14, 2016
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UPDATE: Well, after a lot of work, I fit the 5850 into the tiny DELL.

Now, not only did my games speed up (like 200-300% fps gains in some cases), but my system in general performs better.

Temperatures are optimal (CPU @60C max and GPU around 70C) and I haven't had a single error.
I've never seen such a performance "bump". Well, not a bump, more like a kick.

Thanks to everyone for trying to help me, I honestly appreciate it. I guess the GPU and the faulty RAM stick were creating a combined problem.

Now excuse me, going to go enjoy some FPS goodness :D
 
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Vedad1944

Vedad1944

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Aug 14, 2016
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It was a mildly used one, no warranty, guy didn't notice until he wanted to sell his PC, though the rest of my rig wouldn't probably handle all the new stuff.
I am pretty happy with DX11 pre-2014 games since I was stuck at DX9 until 10 days ago.
I can even record at 720p with no stutters or errors whatsoever and now I guess I don't need the external capture card I wanted a few months back :D
 
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Vedad1944

Vedad1944

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Aug 14, 2016
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Alright, raising this puppy from the dead, unfortunately.
Now, I get this driver crash and recover yesterday while using firefox, not a single one more during the entire day.
It BSODed this morning, about 30 mins ago, running chrome, i run firefox and disable the hardware acceleration, just in case.

Then I look up BlueScreenView, and it spits this out:
http://oi63.tinypic.com/2cr55c6.jpg
You can see the BSODs from before on the lower part, and it's all caused by the kernel process. That aside, that does not seem to be the case now.
Now it's caused by the watchdog.sys accompanied with dxgmms1.sys. Watchdog caused the BSOD, but could dxgmms1, like, help cause the BSOD.
Yesterday the driver crashed and recovered, but this time it BSODed and left this.
I have removed a faulty ram stick, as I said above. And the PC feels peppier without it. Games are running fine, and I will see if it happens again, since both were caused by browsers (hence i disabled hw acceleration). If it happens again, I will be sure to add more info here.

OH, also, the video driver WOULD NOT for the love of God install (from the suite thing) until i manually selected the video driver installer. It kept BSODing on "Hardware detection", but when I went for the installer directly it worked.

Can I just live in peace already, this thing wont get off my back.
 
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