Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.

Hi guys.

Has anyone seen this error on their VPC-Z series?

I've seen it twice now... it flashes up something about "188.8" or something but that vanishes quick. In Event Viewer, it says:

Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.

Is it bad, or just iffy drivers? It recovers instantly.



Edit: I am hoping this is just a driver issue... but if you guys think it's a hardware one I will get this laptop returned. It cost way too much for it to possibly go wrong already

 

Just to add this is not during gaming, and I have been running the nvidia gpu core temp gadget, and it gets to a max of 60c so I don't think it's overheating.

On my previous VAIO Z (which was 32bit win7) I never experienced this at all.

Event Viewer shows this has happened twice (not on the same day).

:/

 

I have seen that once or twice on mine, too. I think it's just the usual "almost ready for production" nVidia drivers. Sometime in the next year (or so) perhaps a new driver will be released.

 

Welcome to the wonderful world of Nvidia drivers.

I had this happen once my Z11 once during a return from sleep.

It happens, also infrequently, on the GTX295 in my workstation.

Good news is that Windows 7 recovers from the failure with no reboots or lost configurations. Unless this changes, it probably safe to ignore these.

 

Oh thank god it's not just happening to me then!! How can you distinguish whether this is a bad driver or an actual hardware issue though?

I'm sure every Z owner will worry a bit about this in case it is a hardware issue after how much they cost!!!

 

more information about wddm timeouts can be found here:

Timeout Detection and Recovery of GPUs through WDDM

if you wanted to troubleshoot the actual problem to see if it's closer to something hardware related or software then you could set the TdrLevel value like it says in the article, then generate a crash dump and run a !analyze -v in WinDbg - that will tell you the exception that led to the timeout/hang, and give you a bit more info.

 

I had this issue and it was hardware related. Basically if I was in speed mode (Nvidia video) watching video or just surfing the web, the error would come on for no reason. I was able to stress test out my video by playing SF4 and within 5 min it would crash the system. In the end, I just figure I had a dud nvidia grphic chip and exchange it for another z11. This one works great and no issue at all.

Here was my older thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/472587-best-buy-vpcz11-issue.html

 

I think this is hardware issue. I don't own a Z series but my thinkpad t61 before dead with faulty NVidia GPU had exactly the same problem and then later on, just all blue screen.
I think you should check with SONY

 

I can confirm this is a DRIVER issue (not sure how stupidolive can confirm a hardware issue).

I have suffered this on my old Z with the stock Sony Hybrid drivers, in the stock Windows Vista setup. There were two scenarios when this happended though.

1. Happens when excessively using the GPU. My Z26 didn't automatically recover; it just starts displaying a black screen with a short flicker of the desktop every ten seconds or so (the machine is still responsive, barely), and all I had to do was to patiently start up Task Manager, and close whatever app is hogging the GPU. When that app is closed, the OS returns to normal, and displayed that little ballon on the bottom right saying it recovered from the exact same error mentioned by the OP. This can happen on both the Intel and nVidia cards, but more-often on the nVidia.

2. Completely random. Again, on the stock Vista OS with stock drivers. Same symptoms as above. Again, went into Task Manager and closed whatever seemed to be using the most CPU resources, and the problem is resolved with the same balloon popping up.

I am now running a clean copy of W7 Pro x64 with the W7 GPU driver (made by Sony), and have not come across the issue since.

So @ the OP.
You can try Nautis's customized drivers or wait and hope that Sony will release updated drivers in the near future; don't hold your breath for the latter...

 

Well i was just trying to say that check hardware in case. my thinkpad had bluescreen like crazy when that problem happened and someitmes it could not recover. Then t61 died completely - then i got lenovo changed my motherboard b/c of faulty GPU and now it works like normal. i'm just saying that you should be careful

 

I doubt it is a hardware issue because a lot of people have this issue. I just hope we can get a new driver as soon as possible.

 

Thanks for the replies guys! Let's hope the driver comes soon and before the 1 year warranty runs out!!

Just to add though, this has only happened twice (on completely different occasions and during really light use; just browsing).

 

Here with my Z71JB (Z 3 generation from japan) had this issue and was worried about that. It happened to me when on battery and randomly...

Sinci i upgraded to lastest Sony drivers and W7 pro... i never had a problem.
Note that i removed Kaspersky wich gave me lot of problem with drivers.



But some times after hibernation i cannot shut down my laptop and have a black screen after log out screen, but this is another problem...

 

Well if lots of you are seeing the problem, then take 5 minutes, generate and upload a crash dump and send a link to the guys at NVIDIA, then they'll be able to fix the problem quicker and get you a new driver........if you help them, maybe they'll help you......

 

Doesn't work that way with Sony laptops.

If people want this to stop, call Sony.