driver has stopped responding and has recovered?

This is driving me crazy! At first i thought it was a heating problem but i fixed that. After a fresh install i install my drivers and this starts happening as soon as i try doing anything. It worked fine for years. It worked fine the other night too. I remember when i used it a lot more a couple years ago it did it a couple times too. Now i can't do anything. I tried a new driver and still nothing. I thought the ram was bad so i tried 1 stick at a time. I even switched out the hard drive.

Any suggestions?

 

What computer is it?
What graphics card?
What driver version?
We can't really help without the specs I guess.

 

i got same problem driver has stopped responding and has recovered
my computer is Asus G53SW -A1
VGA GTX460M
newest driver version 306.97

sbd help me, is it hardware problem?

 

This is known as a Timeout Detection and Recovery (TDR) error. It is extremely common with both AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards. Indiscriminately "upgrading" to the newest video driver is frequently the culprit. If your system was working fine with an older driver, go back to it. If it does it with all drivers, it can be an indication of a number of issues, including but not limited to:

• Crappy drivers (sloppy developers)
• A conflict between device drivers
• A corrupted Windows registry
• An overclock too aggressive
• Over-volting or under-volting too much
• Graphics card needs to be re-seated
• Overheating graphics card
• Failing graphics card

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Going back to a previous driver that worked correctly is frequently the easiest fix. Remember, the lastest driver is often not the greatest driver. If your system works great, don't "fix it" by installing new drivers arbitrarily. Only install new drivers if you have a compelling reason, such as hope that it will fix a specific error or enhance lackluster performance with a specific game, etc.

In some cases a conflict between device drivers can cause it. Fox example, an earlier version of Alienware OSD caused this and an updated version fixed it. So, if you recently added new hardware or a peripheral device (including USB devices) that can be a cause as well. Even a new software program that has inappropriate driver hooks can cause it. The first step in troubleshooting it will be determining what recent change invoked the problem and eliminating or fixing that change.

TDR was a feature introduced with Vista. It is intended to circumvent an error that would normally result in a BSOD. So, in sort of a sick way it is better to see that than a blue screen. I guess it's kind of like the idea it is better to have a poke in the eye with a sharp stick in just one eye than it is to have both eyes poked.

 

Have you guys tried a clean installation of Windows?

 

Sorry...its an alienware m9750. 7950 gtx. I used the driver that came with it on a disc and also updated to the newest driver off of the nvidia site.

Tried fresh installs. Changed the tdr in the registry and tried a new hard drive just for giggles.

 

See the list above of possible causes above. It might be overheating. What temperatures are you seeing with the graphics card at idle and under load? If your temps are on the warm side, if you haven't cleaned out the fans and heat sink radiators recently, give that a go. It may also be necessary to re-paste the heat sink if you have not recently done so. It is also possible such an old graphics card has served its useful life, showing problems due to fatigue and needs to be replaced.

If temps are good, you have tried a multitude of drivers and a clean OS installation, ruled out everything else listed above, I think it could be time to replace the GPU. I have an old Sager whitebox clone with a Geforce 7600 GPU that is showing evidence of expiration. (TDR errors is one of the symptoms it has.) It has performed marvelously for a very long time... gamed the living daylights out of that sucker... but, nothing lasts forever.

 

I was afraid of that. I'll give it all a shot before i order a new card.