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Started by Greatham | | 3 answers
Computer Crashes / Freezes - NVLDDMKM.sys
Hello, hope someone can help me with this one. Basically I have been getting a lot crashing while playing computer games, these is so far only proven on steam games.

Originally I was getting the NVLDDMKM error message with a blue screen, I followed the known fix to replace the file in the Nvidea folder but the only thing that sorted was stopped the blue screens, instead of the blue screen I now have one of 3 different issues,
1. either the game window will go black,
2. the whole PC will completely freeze and I cannot do anything - No keyboard or mouse commands will work,
3. The game freezes and i get the error message saying my graphics card has stopped responding and windows has recovered the problem - game either continues eventually or completely crashes out.

I have tried a number of suggested fixes, I have a feeling its all to do with the "NVLDDMKM" error am getting but I am unsure if it is possibly another issue because i have swapped my graphics card with one of my friends - although my friend might have had issues with this card before.

PC Specs

OS: Windows 7
Processor: AMD Phenom(TM) II X4 965 Processor 3.40GHz
Ram: 8 GB
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA 890GPA UD3H
Current Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GTS 250
Old Graphics card (Downgraded to see if it made a difference): GeForce GTX 285 Black Edition
SSD As boot Drive
HDD for holding Games (2 HDD's in total)
Case: Antec Nine Hundred
PSU: Corsair 650W
Disk Trays 3 (1 Blue ray, 2 DVD RW)

This issue mainly started happening after I upgraded my computer to an SSD, I clean installed windows 7 and all my drivers onto the SSD and games onto SSD i then started having issues, so I wiped my SSD again, reinstalled all my drivers, and installed my computer games on a different HDD to see if that will make any difference which it did not.

I was originally using my GeForce GTX 285 when I started getting these issues, it was happening fairly frequently, I then borrowed my friends Graphics Card which is a Nvidia GeForce GTS 250, the issues still happen but not as much, (I will be swapping the cards back soon to see if it happens more or less again soon) I am fairly sure my friend occasionally got the "Graphics card not responding and windows has recovered from this issue" error message

I had a thought it might be my power usage which using a website estimated my max usage to be around 550w which put me off that idea, although I could be wrong or put something in incorrectly.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

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October 17, 2014 1:51:26 PM

Thanks Sam80jr
Have tried this and so far so good will keep fingers crossed on this.
If that is the issue am gonna be annoyed tbh.... something I shoulda tried.....
October 17, 2014 12:21:36 AM

just keep rolling back drivers till you get one that works, but remember to COMPLETELY remove the current driver, dont just do a windows control panel uninstall. Its def a driver issue, not hardware so dont worry. THis a known issue that I and many, many others have faced. Its all over the forums from here to steams game forums and nvidia is well aware.

Best solution chosen by Greatham

October 17, 2014 12:18:46 AM

completely remove your current driver with a utility like DDU, or use a system restore to an earlier point to ensure no traces of the current driver are left. Then do a clean install of the newest driver 344.16 (if thats the one your using, then downgrade to the driver before 344.11 - since .11 and .16 use the same base files you will have the same issue with both).

This is a common problem with the latest revision of drivers for some reason. With some ppl, like me, the last batch of drivers (the 340.76 or whatever) was the culprit, and i had to wait for 344.16. But with other ppl, 344.11 and .16 are the issue and they had to rollback to 340.76 or eariler - try 340.53 if this sounds like you.

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