Nvlddmkm.sys error--anyone know a solution?

[bball3212]

I dont know if this problem has ever come up at these boards, but I have been searching for a solution for about 1 1/2 years with nothing.

The problem consists of many things.

1. Boot up--most annoying. Up yo 70% of the time, either after the vista load up screen or after I log on the screen will flash different colors and either stay on the color or restart itself with a blue screen saying "Nvlddmkm.sys has stopped responding and couldnt recover."

2. Same happens when waking up from sleep--either after log on or right away.

3. 50% of the time same thing will happen when opening a game, movie, itunes, etc. Anything that requires use of graphic memory.

I have tried many different drivers, using the complete uninstall/clean/install etc. I have chated with dell about it (yea like they know anything) and tried everything. I dont know if any of you have come across this problem, but I am looking for any solution.

PS I have tried 17x, 16x drivers. The newest ones, just about everything. Would you recommend downgrading BIOS? Would that make a different at all?

System INFO:

Vista Home premium

2 GB ram

Nvidia 8600m GT 256 MB

Any help is appreciated.

[Guest WILD WILLY]

SAME ISSUE- HP COMP- BRAND NEW, VISTA 64 512 MB 8800 GTS CARD- $3000 DOLLAR HP PAVILLION HDX COMPUTER AND NO WOW. WORKED FINE FOR MONTHS, THEN WOW PATCH CAME OUT AND IT'S ALL OVER. NVIDIA WILL NOT SUPPORT HP, HP WILL NOT SUPPORT BLIZZARD, BLIZZARD WILL NOT SUPPORT 64 BIT SYSTEMS. I'VE SEEN ALL KINDS OF CORNBALL SOLUTIONS, MY UNDERSTANDING IS THAT IT IS STRICTLY A SOFTWARE/DRIVER ISSUE. DON'T REDO YOU ENTIRE COMPUTER- IN THE PROCCESS OF WORKING MY WAY DOWN FROM THE NEWEST DRIVER AND BACK DOWN FOR NEW DRIVERS. WILL LET YOU KNOW IF ANYTHING WORKS- BUT SOMEBODY WHO IS A REAL GAMER AND LAPTOP EXPERT HAS TO HAVE FIGURED THIS OUT, BUT LOOKS LIKE MOST JUST GAVE UP ON VISTA OR THIER GRAPHIC CARD.

GOOD LUCK

[wook]

have up installed SP1 for vista? this fixes some issues with nvidia GFX

i get the same issue. *** has stopped responding and has SUCESSFULLY recovered. so its not too bad. but still need to do a restart if i intend on using my GFX.

[Andrew55]

Yeah, pretty much everyone gets it at one point or another.

[Guest WILD WILLY]

HP HDX 9300, BADDASS LAPTOP- THAT I CAN'T USE 512 CARD 4GIG MEMORY

I JUST SPENT ALL DAY WITH TECH SUPPORT AT HP- THEY SUGGESTED COMING HERE AND BEGGING FOR HELP. LOOKS LIKE LOTS OF IDEAS HERE BUT ANYONE WITH A LONG TERM SOLUTION FOR THE 8800 GTS SERIES CARD ON VISTA 64 BIT. I HAVE THIS PROBLEM WITH WORLD OF WARCRAFT, AND DON'T WANT TO REDO THIS EVERY PATCH. HERE'S WHERE I'M AT SO FAR IF SOMEONE CAN PLEASE CONFIRM- OR ADD ON TO THIS? PLEASE FORGIVE ME- I'M A SUPER NOOB AT THIS AND FORCED TO DO MY BEST DUE TO ZERO CUSTOMER SUPPORT

BTW-

I HAVE ALL THE LATEST WINDOWS UPDATES (WHICH MAY BE A PROBLEM)

I PURCHASED THIS COMPUTER WITH SP1 INSTALLED (08/2008 PURCHASE DATE)

I HAVE TRIED SYSTEM RESTORE

JUST FOR REFERENCE- I DID HAVE THIS ISSUE AS OF THE LAST WOW PATCH- NOT 3.02- BUT THE ONE BEFORE THAT-

I WAS ABLE TO DUMP MY WOW FOLDER TO MY EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE- DO A SYSTEM RESTORETO ONE WEEK BACK, AND DUMP THE GAME BACK ON WITHOUT REINSTALL OF THE PATCH OR GAME- GOT ME BY FOR 3-4 WEEKS. BUT SINCE NEWEST PATCH THE PROBLEM CAME BACK WITH A VENGANCE. THIS SOLUTION DID WORK ONCE TEMPORARILY FOR ME IF ANYONE WANTS TO TRY IT.

I HAVE SINCE DONE A SYSTEM RESTORE, RE INSTALLED WOW AND NORTON, AND MANY OTHER MINOR REPAIRS. I ALSO DID THE EXPAND THE DRIVER FILE TRICK- BUT IT DID NOT WORK, OR WAS NOT ALLOWED TO WORK BECAUSE I DID NOT WIPE ALL THE DRIVER FILES THAT I DON'T HAVE THE ABILITY TO REMOVE. i CAN'T MODIFY THEM OR REMOVE THEM IN ANY WAY, EVEN AS ADMIN.

CAN YOU HELP ME FILL THIS LIST IN AND IN THE RIGHT ORDER?

1) DOWNLOAD NEWEST VERSION OF DRIVER FROM THIS SITE ONLY- INCLUDING THE MODIFIED FILE(IS THE 174.74 VERSION BEST FOR ME?)

2) UNINSTALL MY DRIVER IN SAFE MODE

3)DOWNLOAD A DRIVER SWEEPER AND USE IT TO REMOVE ALL TRACES OF THE DRIVER

(?- I AM PERFORMING A SEARCH FOR NVLDDMKM, BUT EVEN AS ADMINISTRATOR I DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO DELETE OR CHANGE DIRECTORY, AS IN THE .SYS.OLD SOLUTION I'VE SEEN- WILL SWEEPER REMOVE ALL OF THESE?)

4) SHUT DOWN AND REBOOT IN SAFE MODE- SWEEP ONE MORE TIME

5) INSTALL NEW DRIVERS USING HAVE DISK TRICK (SUPER SWEET BY THE WAY- DOES THAT WORK FOR OTHER PROGRAMS AND SUCH?)

6)REBOOT AND GOOD TO GO?

OPTIONAL STEPS-HEARD OF THEM BUT NOT SURE

RUN WITH USER ACCOUNT CONTROL TURNED OFF?

REMOVE NORTON?

TURN OFF AERO?

ONCE THIS WORKS- DO SYSTEM RESTORE AND START OVER? I'VE DONE ALOT OF UNEDUCATED FOOLING AROUND WITH MY COMPUTER SO PROB A GOOD IDEA ONCE I GET THIS SOLVED TO FALL BACK TO SYSTEM 1 MONTH AGO AND THEN APPLY ONLY THE RIGHT REPAIR?

PLEASE HELP- FOR ME AND EVERYONE ELSE- IF THIS THREAD GETS PICKED UP BY SOMEONE AT THIS SITE- CAN YOU PLEASE CONSOLIDATE IT INTO STEP BY STEP- EVEN OPTIONAL ONES- I KNOW LOTS OF PPL HAVE THIS PROBLEM-

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU, ESPECIALLY THOSE OF YOU ON TECH SUPPORT WHO WANT TO HELP BUT CAN'T BECAUSE YOU ARE ON TAPE! I'VE TALKED TO SOME GOOD FOLKS- DON'T BE TOO HARD ON TECH SUPPORT AT A BIG COMPANY- ONLY SO MUCH THEY CAN SAY.

[wook]

seems to be a lot of that going on lately... they try their best, but it comes down to experience. and they probably dont get a lot of users asking for this issue.

THis is a common error for WOW, DVD playback and Aero. ALso 1gb of ram does not appear to have this issue. interesting.. anyway...

1) Press the windows button and type 'msconfig' then press enter

under 'start up' tab tick the box nvidia media center library. you may also want to take off any adobe or office products from starting up. speeds up vista a lot.

See if that helps. if not...

2a) Download a free app caleld 'driver sweeper' and install it.

2b) Go to system properties, device manager. CLick update your driver. 'browse my computer for a compatable driver', 'let me pick from a list'. Then tick on the box 'show compatable hardware' update to: standard VGA adapter. once this is installed you will be prompted to restart. Do this and restart.

2c) Once your system has restarted sucessfully, restart it again. this time press F8 just before boot up. Choose safe mode.

When it has booted up. run an application called 'driver sweeper'. Then click nvidia device drivers, and clean them out. This will get rid of everything.

2d) Restart system. Then install 178.24 with DOX modified in file available here:

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index....c=21100&hl=

(download the driver and the modified inf file. extract the driver to a folder, copy the modified inf file to that same folder. when prompted to overwrite say yes. Then run setup.exe)

This should solve the issue. If not...

turn off aero.

5) Last resort... open up your unit and swap the ram over. slot one into slot two vice versa

you said you did a system restore. what about a clean restore? format hard drive after you have back up everything. then install vista back on.

I know a lot of people are going to recomend moving to XP 64, and i am one of them. But thats another issue.

This more than likely will not fix. but helped me with some nvidia issues.

[bball3212]

seems to be a lot of that going on lately... they try their best, but it comes down to experience. and they probably dont get a lot of users asking for this issue.

THis is a common error for WOW, DVD playback and Aero. ALso 1gb of ram does not appear to have this issue. interesting.. anyway...

1) Press the windows button and type 'msconfig' then press enter

under 'start up' tab tick the box nvidia media center library. you may also want to take off any adobe or office products from starting up. speeds up vista a lot.

See if that helps. if not...

2a) Download a free app caleld 'driver sweeper' and install it.

2b) Go to system properties, device manager. CLick update your driver. 'browse my computer for a compatable driver', 'let me pick from a list'. Then tick on the box 'show compatable hardware' update to: standard VGA adapter. once this is installed you will be prompted to restart. Do this and restart.

2c) Once your system has restarted sucessfully, restart it again. this time press F8 just before boot up. Choose safe mode.

When it has booted up. run an application called 'driver sweeper'. Then click nvidia device drivers, and clean them out. This will get rid of everything.

2d) Restart system. Then install 178.24 with DOX modified in file available here:

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index....c=21100&hl=

(download the driver and the modified inf file. extract the driver to a folder, copy the modified inf file to that same folder. when prompted to overwrite say yes. Then run setup.exe)

This should solve the issue. If not...

turn off aero.

5) Last resort... open up your unit and swap the ram over. slot one into slot two vice versa

you said you did a system restore. what about a clean restore? format hard drive after you have back up everything. then install vista back on.

I know a lot of people are going to recomend moving to XP 64, and i am one of them. But thats another issue.

This more than likely will not fix. but helped me with some nvidia issues.

I have done that whole driver sweeper clean install of the drivers maybe 100 times to no success. This is not a recent problem for me or a periodic one...it happened since the day I opened the dang thing 18 months ago. Do not ask me why I didnt return it :)

Anyways, I am beginning to think it is a hardware issue...but how could it be if none of the diagnostics report any problems? All the diagnostics Dell told me to run come up with straight passes.

Is there a reason you recommend 178.24 in particular? Just curious.

[Dox]

178.24 is the newest driver by "build" date.

wook linked you to my drivers which has adjustments to nvidia display driver service and other optimisations which may fix your issues.

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index....t=0&start=0

just scroll down and download for your relevant OS.

Driver files are already in the setup.exe so no need to do what wook suggested i.e

"(download the driver and the modified inf file. extract the driver to a folder, copy the modified inf file to that same folder. when prompted to overwrite say yes. Then run setup.exe)"

[bball3212]

178.24 is the newest driver by "build" date.

wook linked you to my drivers which has adjustments to nvidia display driver service and other optimisations which may fix your issues.

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index....t=0&start=0

just scroll down and download for your relevant OS.

Driver files are already in the setup.exe so no need to do what wook suggested i.e

"(download the driver and the modified inf file. extract the driver to a folder, copy the modified inf file to that same folder. when prompted to overwrite say yes. Then run setup.exe)"

Any other place those are uploaded? The links are blocked by our webfilter here for games and/or personal media storage.

[Guest wild willy]

I will try the link- but i just downloaded directly from this website- same driver right- just different ways to get to it?

here are some modifications i had to make to the instructions given-

2b and 2c-

i had to repeat these steps several times and add a few to wipe all the drivers off-

I went to control panel- uninstall programs- and also removed/uninstalled any nvidia software, as well as windows/hp updates displayed there that had video drivers

after first restart i went to device manager again- despite driver sweeper and uninstall i still had 2 nvidia drivers available- the only way to remove them was to install them via the instructions given in 2b- and then uninstall them(from device manager), make sure that you check the box that says to delete all the files. repeat 2c again.

keep repeating this until the only driver available in device manager is the standard vga adapter- which will reinstall automatically when you get to a point that it is the only driver left. this happens weather you want it to or not- as it was recommended in the instructions it should not be an issue- but anyone know if having no driver at all would help?

also if you have hp- go to c/swsetup/look for an spxxxx file that has nv files in it. this is the system restore folder to reinstall the hp driver- dell prob has the same- and manually delete it. also do a search on the start tab for nvlddmkm files and manually delete any you can. also delete all drivers you may have been experimenting with- don't download until your machine is as clean as it can be.

now after these steps- took about 10-12 restarts you can go to 2d- I didn't need the have disk method- setup worked for me.

i turned off aero, but didn't seem to make a difference

RESULT- I had a minor improvement- ie- took 10-15 seconds for error to occur rather than 5 secs or less- so may work for some ppl but not for me. This only affects world of warcraft- however that is the most graphic intensive thing i run. And also the only damn thing i want to run, lol.

I have some follow up-

should i try another driver version?

i did install the moddified inf file- should i not have done this?

should i install the driver via the have file method instead- the setup launcher worked so I went with that- the have file trick is only last resort right?

ALSO- just a noob non computer guy theory but....

when i do a search on my start menu for nvlddmkm i can find (make sure that you search everywhere and check the box to display hidden files)

I find several unwelcome driver files that i do not have access to- even as an administrator.

i have 8 instances of this file- of which only 2 belong- one from the file saved on my desktop from this site, and one in my windows/system32 file

the rest of the files are in either windows/system32/driverstore/filerepository

one belongs there- it is the back up of the 178.24 driver (so 3 out of 8 belong there i suppose)

MY THEORY-

HERE ARE THE ONES I THINK ARE AT THE ROOT OF THIS PROBLEM AND CANNOT BE MODIFIED OR REMOVED-

one in windows/winsxs, the rest in system32/driverstore/filerepository/(a very long folder name)

they are all nv_xxxxxxx files of some sort- as in the folder they are in

these are all nvlddmkm.sys files

these four files are desribed as such when i hover over the file name:

NVIDIA COMPATIBLE WINDOWS 2000 MINPORT DRIVER, VERSION 96.86

EVEN STRANGER- DATE CREATED IS 11/2/2006 7:41 AM, HOWEVER DATE MODIFIED, AS SHOWN ON SEARCH RESULTS IS 10/13/2006 AT 10:04 PM

How can the file be modified before it is created?

As i said- i am a huge computer idiot- forced by my horrible addiction to wow to learn how to fix this, maybe this makes sense in computer terms, but logically it does not. I seem to have an error that involves my graphics card "firing up" or actually having to work- my card looks for the driver it needs, the driver gets put under stress, then my computer finds conflicting versions and vista's magical timeout feature puts the card on hold, and restarts it to prevent a crash.

I have been told by some helpful tech people that registry files are often, "built upon" older versions- and that is why they could be there, but it doesn't make sense to me and these could be the offending files. Also why do they not uninstall with the rest of them- any thoughts please?

also- I'm at work and nervous about taking apart a laptop, (not to mention I don't have any microscrewdrivers handy) so no go on the memory stick swap, and i have not done a full blown system restore to factory condition as of yet. I am still under warranty with hp and working with them on this issue (unofficially as well, since they can't talk about it on tape). I may have to give up and return the computer, but this is the coolest laptop on the planet and don't want to give up yet. But this laptop, this vid card and vista may be too cool to hang out with the rest of the world.

Thanks all for the help so far! If I ever learn enough to open a paypal account you'll be first on my list.

[wook]

i mentioned the ram issue. open it up and take one out.just have one slot. This has fixed the issue in other systems.

[Guest wild willy]

i mentioned the ram issue. open it up and take one out.just have one slot. This has fixed the issue in other systems.

NO GO :)

I tried both options for the memory (super easy to do on this laptop btw)- switched them and removed one- no change either way. (the computer did acknowledge the change at startup- so no chance I screwed it up)

also tried the 175.63 and 174.74 drivers

went back to the 178.24 dox version for this test.

I am totally out of options- I don't want to do full system restore until I have a solution, this is a work computer as well so I have office, on screen take off, and a few other items- not to mention e-mail needs to be open. Took me about 16-20 hours to do that last time- down from 30 hours when i first got the comp, but still....

IF you really really think it would work I will try to do system restore with HP customer support, otherwise i can try to fall back a few weeks again and retry this solution, and save myself some time. I have done lots of uneducated "dicking around" with this. 2-3 week restore would wipe all the recent changes right?

Anyone else have anything- this has now reached the point where I was a excited to possibly fix this and become a junior computer geek- to being absolutely flustered and ready to return the system.

downgrade to vista 32 bit?- or all the way to xp?

sniff.sniff. and god forbid- go back to a desktop?

quit wow and watch movies all day on my beautiful 20" screen until a solution is found?

downgrade graphic card?

buy a mac?

[wook]

reformatting and installing again. cant promise the issue wont change.

xp wont have that issue. garanteed!

im a big fan of macs. just over prices and expensive to upgrade. mac book pro is a nice unit, had one last year for work.

[Guest wild willy]

THANKS FOR STAYING ON THIS WOOK!

Anybody else have anything?- It looks like I will have to do a full factory restore, if nothing else than to satisfy HP that every avenue was tried. But more than likely it sounds like this issue will always return based upon all I've read on the web. Looks like I will be returning this notebook soon. I really love it, really actually do like the features in Vista too, anyone have any advice and want to talk me off the ledge or have most of you given up on Vista too for reasons like this. I do have to give up on the laptop because HP will not support me if I downgrade and because this is primarily a work machine and I'm not savvy enough to go without support I will need to return it.

I guess I need to go with a desktop and a docking station set up with a simpler laptop for portablility. My main goal with this laptop was to use it as a portable desktop, and run two to three monitors on it and treat it as a desktop. Sigh- never even got that far.

[wook]

the ony real solution is to not get an nvidia based card. but newer mother boards dont seem to have this issue.

it certianly suck. i feel your pain.

[Guest wild willy]

the ony real solution is to not get an nvidia based card. but newer mother boards dont seem to have this issue.

it certianly suck. i feel your pain.

Wook- if I do return it and buy another how do I know the motherboard is better? My comp is only 2 months old but it and 8000 series are discontinued now- (i posted on another thread but since you replied here...) All the new hp's are coming with a 9600 card- read some stuff online and that card may be based upon the same platform and run into similiar issues?

Also one last ditch effort- should i sweep off all the nvidia stuff- as in also check the nvidia chipset box? I am not sure how the card and motherboard work together and if they are made by same company or not- but if i uninstall chipset drivers is that also a good idea- didn't see it mentioned anywhere.

Thanks again for help- sorry to choke up the site with new threads.

[wook]

if i were in your shoes, i would return it. and go for a unit with 1066 FS instead of 800 FSB which i assume your one does.

Then you can pretty much be assured that it wont have this issue. (brand new motherboards)

the 9600m GT will be fine. if you are into gaming go for the 9800GTS is only a couple hundred more. and 25% faster than 9600.

Nvidia chipset is for nvidia based mobo's. so you wont need to do that.

dont worry about posting additional threads. you may get a better answer than we give here.

regards,

Hamish

[Claw]

1. Boot up--most annoying. Up yo 70% of the time, either after the vista load up screen or after I log on the screen will flash different colors and either stay on the color or restart itself with a blue screen saying "Nvlddmkm.sys has stopped responding and couldnt recover."

I get the issue when overclocking my memory clock too high... Just a naive thought - maybe downclocking your GPU a little would help (even if it's not o/c)?

[Guest benton]

finally found some people with this problem!!! ok so, the reason i ran into this was because my laptop (Asus m51SN, 9500m GS) wouldn't go into sleep mode. when i went to the performance monitor, it said that nvlddmkm.sys wasn't working, except it was from a version 167.49 driver!!! i currently have the 179.13 drivers with modded inf, just upgraded from 176.28 to see if sleep mode would work. still same problem. i went all through the even viewer and looked everywhere on the internet, but couldn't find anything. my only option might be to delete the driver out of the repository, but that requires taking ownership of the file, and i can't quite figure out how to do that.

thanks,

benton

[Guest dreamer]

Joining Guest_benton, having the same problem with no solution yet.

i removed all driver components (directly deleted files) and i'm working with Vista (64) built-in driver until will find a solution

Nir

[Guest Auroron]

Hey, yeah, I have the exact same problem, running a 9800GTX. I get the error on start up, after I log in. I can also see some red and blue pixels o nthe screen that goes away when I scroll down or open a new window or something.

When I try to open a game, I get the error.

I haven't overclocked any of my parts.

TWO QUESTIONS:

1. Downgrading to xp. Will it work, and anyone knows a detailed guide about it? Don't want to do anything wrong.

2. Also, don't shoot me, but I have a desktop with this problem. I have read that a weak PSu will cause it too, is 550W enough for a 9800?

And, will the 9 series get new drivers, now that the 200 series are released?

Thanks