[HELP] T410 - nvlddmkm.sys - BSOD on boot

Since receiving my T410 earlier this month, I have been getting a Blue-Screen-of-Death every two days or so, and it would take me to the recovery mode. The problem seems to be nvlddmkm.sys and installing new driver from Lenovo doesn't seem to help at all. I called Lenovo Tech Support but they just told me to run ThinkVantage Toolbox - Diagnostics or reimage my HDD. What can I do to fix this?

Here is my T410 spec:
i5-M520
4GB (2GB X 2)
Nvidia 3100M 512MB
250GB 5400RPM HDD
Win7 Ultimate x64

 

This seems to be a problem with the Nvidia graphics drivers. Take a look at these threads, where people are having similar problems that you are:
TechTips - NVIDIA Blue Screen of Death from Nvlddmkm.Sys - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com
nVidia BSOD nvlddmkm.sys - Vista Hardware Devices

You can try installing the most recent appropriate graphics driver from the Nvidia website to see if that will fix your problems.

 

Has anyone managed to find a solution? I looked through a few different threads on different sites but didn't manage to find anything remotely close to a permanent solution.

 

Try going to safe mode (keep tapping F8 before the "Starting Windows" boot screen appears). Uninstall the graphics driver and then reboot so that Windows will use the basic visual drivers instead (this is so it doesn't try to load up the Nvidia driver which seem to be causing the problem). Afterwards try downloading the driver directly from Nvidia themselves and install it.

The drivers from Nvidia should be much newer than the revision Lenovo gives out so maybe this can make the graphics drivers more stable.

 

I tried getting the latest drivers from Nvidia, but the installer could not find my video card. From what I've read, it's something to do with what Lenovo did with the hardware ID. I tried installing the same drivers from laptopvideo2go and it finished half way before giving me an error message about "control panel could not be installed" and reverting everything.

 

Strange as this is the first time that I heard an OEM manufacturer that doesn't allow the end user to install the vendor's original driver. Have you tried installing the drivers manually as in guiding Windows to search for the driver folder?

 

Yes, but it gave me the same error message about "control panel could not be installed" and reverted everything.

 

OK nivlam, i'm just going ask a few more questions so we can deduce the problem, I try my best to help you as it is a bit difficult here without a T410 to test this out myself.

- Before you installed the new driver did you uninstalled all NVIDIA components before first? Don't try to update or overwrite the old drivers in place as this may cause some confusion with the installer. Restart afterwards, ideally in Safe Mode.

- Try a registry cleaning tool such as CCleaner which wipes off any rogue entries in the registry that may conflict the install. Also check the Program Files section to see if any NVIDIA folders remain and delete them.

- Try installing the new driver in Safe Mode and not the usual Windows mode.

- If for some reason the generic NVIDIA driver still refuses to install and the Lenovo driver work fine then you can try and attempt this (it’s a long shot). Since nvlddmkm.sys is the source of the problem, I would extract that particular file from the generic NVIDIA driver and place it in the Lenovo install folder (Display folder). This will overwrite the old file and hopefully the Lenovo installer will install the newer version of nvlddmkm.sys instead. I taken the liberty and done this for you so download the generic nvlddmkm.sys file here and place it the the Display folder. Try installing again and see if this works out better.

 

- I uninstalled all Nvidia components and restarted. Ran CCleaner and cleaned out the registry and restarted again in safe mode. Tried installing the video drivers from laptopvideo2go and failed again with the message "nvidia control panel could not be installed".

- Installed the latest drivers from Lenovo and restarted in safe mode. I override the nvlddmkm.sys file and restarted. But after replacing this file, Windows Aero wouldn't work and it was just stuck in basic mode.

So I've uninstalled the drivers I got from Lenovo and let windows update install the video drivers. The drivers that were installed from windows update are an older version (188.25). I'll try this for a few days to see if I continue to get the BSOD.

 

I noticed you attempt to use drivers from laptopvideo2go, can I ask which version of drivers you try to use because laptopvideo2go distributes unofficial modified INF drivers that may be unsuitable for your graphics card hence the error.

Windows Update usually provide generic (yet older) drivers from the vendor. If this works then I can't see why the new generic driver from NVIDIA will not work. Have you tried the " 258.96 WHQL" from NVIDIA directly and not the "laptopvideo2go" version?

 

I used this one: Drivers | laptopvideo2go.com

Yes, I tried downloading that version from Nvidia's website. But whenever I ran setup, it could not find my video card.

 

I see, it's a rather unfortunate predicament you have there. The Intel GPU versions allow you to freely choose OEM or Generic drivers so I don’t see Lenovo’s logic of locking it out the Nvidia drivers (maybe disable Switchable Graphics option?).

Reading upon the issue, a suggestion saying downgrading to Lenovo driver version 8.16.11.8898 actually solves the BSOD problem altogether. Upgrading to the current version actually causes more problems than its worth which is strange.

You can obtain the file here and upgrade (to 8.16.11.8898) if you wish. Of course you can always rollback to the original Windows Update drivers if the problem arises again but hopefully Lenovo sorts out this problem soon so that this BSOD problem can disappear once and for all.

 

Thanks, I'll try that.