[HELP] Display driver crashing/BSOD

I have bought Zotac GT 710. Purpose is to use two monitors I have. Ever since I switched to GT 710 from iGPU, I'm facing issues. I installed latest driver 378.49 the very first day itself. Tried google, and tried some fix but none works for me.
- BSOD
- Crashing (Display driver stopped responding and has recovered)
- Flickering (sometimes)

Tried playing a 4k video (I don't have 4k display), there is so much tearing. My iGPU played better. GPU memory clock, core clock hits 100% even when I launch windows media player. After crash & recover, I had to reload pages (esp. the ones running flash player), Firefox title bar won't be visible (menu bar too I think).

What I am running?
OS - Win 8.1
At least 5 tabs in Firefox, android emulator, windows media player, ms office and 2-3 work related software. Yes, all of these running at the same time. Yes, sometimes its slow/hangs for few seconds when I was using iGPU, but never crashed or BSOD.
With this load, my CPU hits 90% easily and memory usage stays above 80%. It's not unusual, it's the case before and it's the case now.
My system was booting quick, shutdown was even more quicker. But now, after installing GT 710 they are slow.

What did I notice when BSOD?
When system collecting info before restarting, it showed something lik this "video_tdr_failure nvlddmkm.sys for more info"

What have I tried till now?
- regedit fix (tdrdelay)
- set to max performance in nvidia control panel (3d settings)
- Power options (PCI express > link state power mgmt > off)
- Uninstalled using DDU (guru3D) and installed the one came with the GPU 359.21 (now I am not getting BSOD, it's been ~24hrs. But crashing didn't stop)

Today, started monitoring temperatures. CPU hits 88 degree Celsius (max) and GPU hits 55 degree Celsius (max). No, crashing didn't occur at peak temperature. Crashed twice after installing 359.21, I didn't notice what was the temp once, the other time it was in 60's (CPU) and 40's (GPU). Yes, CPU is too hot I have to clean and apply thermal paste. But with iGPU I am good even at this temperature. So I guess temp is not the cause for this issue.

What kinda solution I am looking?
This system is not intend for playing games. The ultimate purpose of buying GT710 is to get multi-monitor support, nothing else. I had been running Windows basic driver with iGPU, if there is an option to use two monitors with windows basic display driver, that would be good. But I don't know if that's possible.

What's the problem here? What should I do to fix this? (no I can't buy a new system) Is there any stable driver I can use with GT 710 without causing any trouble?

I really could use some help guys.

MY RIG:
Intel Pentium Dual core E2160
Asus P5G MX
Transcend DDR2 3GB (2+1)
Seagate 160GB & Samsung 850 Evo 120GB
Samsung 732NW & Dell S2216H
Zotac GT710 1GB DDR3 Zone edition
Antec VP450P

It seems the version of nvidia drivers you were using earlier is buggy:

Nvidia's 378.49 GPU drivers break hardware encoding in Steam | PC Game

If the display drivers continue to crash despite rolling back to an older version there's a good possibility that something is amiss with the card itself.To check it,i suggest you install a more recent version of nvidia drivers that is known to be stable-i recommend using 372.70 as i've been using it myself for my gt 730 for over 2-3 months and i haven't experienced any issues with it so far.If the crashes persist even after installing the above driver,you should check your gpu on another system-if it works fine there then it can safely be concluded that the card is ok but something else on your pc might be acting up,thereby causing all those crashes.

To get a rough idea of what's causing your pc to crash,you may consider using an utility called whocrashed that's available here:

Resplendence Software - WhoCrashed, automatic crash dump analyzer

Update: Crash # 3

Turned ON the system, logged in, launched firefox, opened digit forum, logging in > crashed.
This is the only application and only one tab, so it's not crashing because of overload.

quicky008 said:
It seems the version of nvidia drivers you were using earlier is buggy:

Nvidia's 378.49 GPU drivers break hardware encoding in Steam | PC Game

If the display drivers continue to crash despite rolling back to an older version there's a good possibility that something is amiss with the card itself.To check it,i suggest you install a more recent version of nvidia drivers that is known to be stable-i recommend using 372.70 as i've been using it myself for my gt 730 for over 2-3 months and i haven't experienced any issues with it so far.If the crashes persist even after installing the above driver,you should check your gpu on another system-if it works fine there then it can safely be concluded that the card is ok but something else on your pc might be acting up,thereby causing all those crashes.

To get a rough idea of what's causing your pc to crash,you may consider using an utility called whocrashed that's available here:

Resplendence Software - WhoCrashed, automatic crash dump analyzer

Thank you quicky.
I am sure it's nvlddmkm.sys is crashing. That's the only thing coming up when I check event viewer after crash.
I update mine to 372.70 and see how it works. :Fingerx:

Update: Crash # 4
While typing this message, it crashed again.
When its crashing, I see few other things in event viewer.
- Application firefox.exe has been blocked from accessing Graphics hardware. (though not this time)
- Application HD-Frontend.ex has been blocked from accessing Graphics hardware.

Did you check it on a single monitor?

chimera201 said:
Did you check it on a single monitor?

Nope, I haven't. I will try that.

Did GPU stress test (Furmark)
1080p preset- no crash (went upto 66 deg)
2nd run - it went on and on, so I stopped when it reached 79 deg
720p preset - went upto 79 deg
No crash at all during stress test.

- - - Updated - - -

Unplugged VGA from the GPU and running one monitor (HDMI).
Crashed in about 10 min.

Do you have a VGA/DVI cable? Check using that instead of HDMI. Also you are the one who had the color problem right? You didn't mess up something there right?

chimera201 said:
Do you have a VGA/DVI cable? Check using that instead of HDMI. Also you are the one who had the color problem right? You didn't mess up something there right?

Connected via VGA (removed HMDI cable from the GPU), crashed upon booting.

Yeah, I am the guy with colour problem. I guess I didn't mess up anything then. Just ran that reg modifier thing. But I have been facing this issue right from the beginning (I mean even before I asked about the colour issue).

You did uninstall the integrated graphics drivers right? Uninstall all graphics drivers that are present on your system and boot the system like it would have during the first time setup(check if this mode stays stable). Then do a clean install of Nvidia driver 376.33 . Also make sure you reverted everything you have tried until now before doing this.

chimera201 said:
You did uninstall the integrated graphics drivers right? Uninstall all graphics drivers that are present on your system and boot the system like it would have during the first time setup(check if this mode stays stable). Then do a clean install of Nvidia driver 376.33 . Also make sure you reverted everything you have tried until now before doing this.

Yes, I did uninstall using display driver uninstaller.
I will try that.

- regedit fix (tdrdelay) - DELETED
- set to max performance in nvidia control panel (3d settings) - I GUESS WHEN I UNINSTALL, THIS WILL BE DONE AUTOMATICALLY.
- Power options (PCI express > link state power mgmt > off) - THIS IS HOW IT WAS WHEN I CHECKED.
- Nvidia RGB toggler - AGAIN, DRIVER UNINSTALL WILL TAKE CARE OF THIS.

I thought how about try booting from iGPU and see if I can replicate this issue. And learned that no nvidia driver loaded when I tried this. If no nvidia driver, then there can't be any crashing of nvlddmkm.sys. Stupid try I don't know if I should stay in this and see if there is any problem before switching to graphic card.

boot the system like it would have during the first time setup(check if this mode stays stable).

This is pretty much like what I am doing right now, isn't it? If there is no nvidia driver, there can't be any crashing of nvlddmkm.sys (I am right here? Correct me if I am wrong). So obviously this would stay stable.

Downloading/uninstalling/installing driver would take some time. I will try that and get back to you guys.

- - - Updated - - -

Both 372.70 & 376.33 are crashing.

Microsoft basic driver is not crashing but it's not as good as iGPU (intel 945 chipset driver - again this is from Microsoft (Win 8.1)).
Windows update showing Nvidia display driver update 21.21.13.7653 (dec 2016 release, published on 19th Jan 2017), probably this is the latest driver 378.xx, may be not. But still I am thinking about trying this as well, wishing this would fix this issue.

376.33 driver is very stable that's the one am using for quite a long time.
Looks like you either have a bad card or something about it is incompatible with your very old DDR2 era system. Is your mobo BIOS updated?

That nvidia update (from windows update) is 376.53 and experienced bsod.

chimera201 said:
376.33 driver is very stable that's the one am using for quite a long time.
Looks like you either have a bad card or something about it is incompatible with your very old DDR2 era system. Is your mobo BIOS updated?

Last BIOS update for my board is from 2008, version 0404 and mine is also 0404. So yeah, it's the latest/updated.
Is there any way I can enable two monitor support without the need of installing nvidia driver?

I don't know about running without drivers. But it seems that the card is bad or your system is incompatible with it. Can you test the card on any other system?

chimera201 said:
I don't know about running without drivers. But it seems that the card is bad or your system is incompatible with it. Can you test the card on any other system?

Pretty much all of them here using laptop, so trying this card on another system is quite thin. Will see if I can find anyone who can try it in their system.

do these issues persist when the discrete gpu is removed from the system?It seems likely that u may have received a defective card.

quicky008 said:
do these issues persist when the discrete gpu is removed from the system?It seems likely that u may have received a defective card.

With iGPU, I don't have this issue (GT 710 still in the slot, just VGA plugged in motherboard). I don't even have to remove the GT 710, if I use Microsoft basic display driver (with discrete card) there would be no crashing.

Update:
Yesterday morning, there was no crash for about 5 hours and I shutdown the system. Last night crashed on booting.
Today, I have been working since morning, there is no crash yet.

Is there any way I can find how many BSODs have happened in the last two weeks?

^ Event Viewer

chimera201 said:
^ Event Viewer

Thank you. Under what level/source I look for this. There is no mentioning of BSOD. With google, I can't able to find.

- - - Updated - - -

I think I got it. I am narrowing down with Event id's (41, 6008, 1001)

nac said:
Thank you. Under what level/source I look for this. There is no mentioning of BSOD. With google, I can't able to find.

- - - Updated - - -

I think I got it. I am narrowing down with Event id's (41, 6008, 1001)

Should be in summary > critical category, with timestamp listed

Can you test your system with another discrete gpu?If it works fine and causes no crashes then you can be certain that your gt 710 is faulty.

quicky008 said:
Can you test your system with another discrete gpu?If it works fine and causes no crashes then you can be certain that your gt 710 is faulty.

Yet, to find someone with desktop who can try discrete graphic card.

Update:
In the last 3 sessions (6+hours each), crashed only once.

I still recommend testing it with a spare gpu just to make sure your gt 710 isn't the culprit.Also try booting your system into linux using a live distro and check whether you experience any signs of system instability or not.

quicky008 said:
I still recommend testing it with a spare gpu just to make sure your gt 710 isn't the culprit.Also try booting your system into linux using a live distro and check whether you experience any signs of system instability or not.

Getting a spare gpu is also tough. I will try if I can find one.
Yeah, I can try it in linux. But I can't work in linux for long. If there is no crash while using linux, I can't conclude that it's stable. Thanks for the suggestion.

- - - Updated - - -

I tried last night in linux for about 4+ hours. But pretty much most of the time it was running update. Before that in windows, there was 8 events (display crash). Each crash and recovery takes about 3-5 seconds, during which time screen flickers and goes blank
First with basic driver that comes with ubuntu. Then installed nvidia driver 367.57. Surprising didn't take much time. When I was installing in windows, downloading alone took more than an hour. But in Ubuntu, it just took about 15-20 min or probably less. Then from 14.04 LTS to 16.04 LTS. I will try again tonight and see if I can get driver error.
By the way, where to find if there was any error in Ubuntu (like we check event viewer in windows).?

I'll be honest, i did face the issue myself when i assembled a new system with 660GTX. I was using windows 10 and none of the drivers was working fine. I wasnt even able to simply browse the system without BSODs/crashes. I tried almost 10-15 different versions but failed everytime.

Link to my problem thread: *forum.digit.in/pc-components-confi...d-nvidia-driver-issue-newly-build-system.html

Finally, I reinstalled windows 8.1 on my system and voila, it worked fine. Then i immediately tried updating it to Windows 10 using official microsoft updater but started getting same problems again. So i switched back to windows 8.1 and ran it for some weeks.
In the meantime, it downloaded all the required updates and got more stable. After three weeks, i again tried updating it to Windows 10 and now its running at its full potential.

At this hard time, i know that you may think your hardware is faulty. But chances of it are very rare. You may try switching the OS if your problem is still not solved.

Vineet Sharma said:
Finally, I reinstalled windows 8.1 on my system and voila, it worked fine. Then i immediately tried updating it to Windows 10 using official microsoft updater but started getting same problems again. So i switched back to windows 8.1 and ran it for some weeks.
In the meantime, it downloaded all the required updates and got more stable. After three weeks, i again tried updating it to Windows 10 and now its running at its full potential.

Unfortunately, I am using Win 8.1 the one which stayed stable for you.
Okay, I will try this over the weekend. Clean/Fresh installation of OS.

I was suggested to install motherboard/chipset driver. But my motherboard doesn't have compatible driver for Windows 8.1. What should I do? Stick with Windows driver or is there any third party driver for my motherboard?

Just checked the official support site for your motherboard. I couldn't even find drivers for Windows 7, let alone windows 8 or 10. Third party drivers are rare/not available and even if you find any, I think those would not work well as well.
If I were you, I would definitely give Windows 7 a try. You can also test the card/system with spare gpu as others are saying, but I strongly don' think that you would find any problems there.

Clean installation of OS done. But, still crashing

Post fresh installation of OS, max temp shot up by 6 deg. (already it was high, now its even higher)

Yet to install the things I normally use, but still crashing.

Installed the latest driver, 378.66 > Still crashing
Installed just the drivers necessary for sound and dual monitor support > Still crashing (no phsyx, 3D, miracast, GE experience)

Only thing left is trying mine in someone else's system and/or trying their's in mine.

sorry to hear mate. Let us know about your findings after the hardware test.

Vineet Sharma said:
sorry to hear mate. Let us know about your findings after the hardware test.

It was a long weekend for me. There was multiple fresh installation. Hoping the next fresh installation would be alright and I will be free from this issue. But everytime within an hour experienced crash. Just the previous week disassembled the whole rig, cleaned and applied thermal paste. With Windows update running, CPU glued at 100% usage and made the CPU super hot. Again this weekend cleaned and reapplied thermal paste. God, windows update took forever to scan, download and install.

These were the instances I could see in the eventviewer. And the other one was LogonUI.exe.
- Application firefox.exe has been blocked from accessing Graphics hardware.
- Application HD-Frontend.exe has been blocked from accessing Graphics hardware.

For my system, launching Firefox is heavy load. Opening multiple tabs in quick succession make it hang for few sec. This explains Firefox.exe
I use Bluestack and it's super heavy for my PC. This explains HD-Frontend.exe
Bluestack starts with startup and there is no way to stop it from startup other than uninstalling. This explains LogonUI.exe

Spent a considerable amount of money after a long delay on this graphic card and I really didn't expect something like this would happen.

I couldn't find anyone who could try my graphic card. So don't want to wait anymore and shooting a mail to Zotac. Let's hear what they have to say about this.

Removed graphic card from the PCI ex slot and plugged into my iGPU port. Now I am not getting native resolution. Windows display option is giving a recommended resolution of 1024x768 and max resolution is 1280x1024. It's supposed to be 1440x900 (Monitor1) or 1920x1080 (Monitor2). I have tried in both the monitor.

I uninstalled MS basic display driver and rebooted. I have done it several times. Still I am not getting. Checked if something I changed in BIOS. Not a lot of option I see there. Update option says I am upto date.

Internal Graphics Card - Disabled > If I pick this option, system automatically choose 8MB enabled
Internal Graphics Card - 1MB enabled > I get even worse resolution 800x600
Internal Graphics Card - 8MB enabled > I get 1024x768 recommended.

What went wrong guys? Ever since I bought this card, everything goes south. God!!!!

Guys help me fix this issue.

^ You need to install the integrated graphics drivers if you plan to use it. You must have uninstalled it before.

chimera201 said:
^ You need to install the integrated graphics drivers if you plan to use it. You must have uninstalled it before.

I don't have compatible driver for my chipset in windows 8.1. I have been using windows driver for a very long time.

I have uninstalled the driver from device manager and rebooted. Still isn't working.

- - - Updated - - -

I don't want to spend the whole weekend again in front of the computer. I am leaving now, I will come back later this weekend to troubleshoot this issue. Thanks guys for your help.

You really need to build a new PC if you are going to use a new OS. A lot of stuff could be deprecated in the software side of things.

chimera201 said:
You really need to build a new PC if you are going to use a new OS. A lot of stuff could be deprecated in the software side of things.

Wish I could build a new one

- - - Updated - - -

I think I fried my motherboard when troubleshooting this issue. There was a burnt smell, now other than led light on the motherboard nothing is working.
- cpu fan not spinning
- psu fan not spinning
- no beep sound
- removed RAM, there is no continuous beep sound
- removed cmos and put it back after few hours, still no sign of life

ufff!!! Things are really going south lately

Bought a new motherboard (my old rig is digging a big hole in my wallet). I am yet to install graphic card on the new board, I don't know why I am not getting 1920x1080 resolution from MS basic display driver. Still working on 1024x768.

- - - Updated - - -

Installing motherboard drivers (couldn't install all) and updating dell driver and windows update brought back recommended resolution of 1920x1080

Even after new board and CPU, display driver goes blank at least few times a day.

Called Zotac and I was told I have to bear courier cost (to and fro)

and it will take 15 days for them to repair (or replacement???)

Got the replacement unit, still I am facing the issue.

Don't know what I should now

Take it to their service center and ask them to test it in front of you-the unit that they have given you as replacement might be defective.

Uninstall current driver.
Download and install 347.25
nvidia 347.25
TDR issue should be fixed.
Stay on this driver. Any newer driver will give you display driver crashes.

quicky008 said:
Take it to their service center and ask them to test it in front of you-the unit that they have given you as replacement might be defective.

For that I have to travel to capital city. I can't make a trip for this. And it doesn't crash every now and then. Sometimes it's not crashing for 2-3 days. Testing this in service center in front of me is not practically possible.

supergamer said:
Uninstall current driver.
Download and install 347.25
nvidia 347.25
TDR issue should be fixed.
Stay on this driver. Any newer driver will give you display driver crashes.

I will try this and see if it fixes the issue.

- - - Updated - - -

You sure? I don't see GT710 in the list of supported products.

supergamer said:
Uninstall current driver.
Download and install 347.25
nvidia 347.25
TDR issue should be fixed.
Stay on this driver. Any newer driver will give you display driver crashes.

why is it so,are the new drivers buggy?

[MENTION=125321]nac[/MENTION]:Maybe there's some serious design flaw in zotac's entire line of gt 710 gpus that causes the crashing,hence even the replacement gpu is acting up.You should send an email to their customer care dept.(technical@zotac.com) with a detailed description about this issue-also mention(ie bluff)that you had tested this card on another system but there too you encountered exactly the same problem(doing so is advisable so that they can't pin the blame on your pc).Then wait and see what steps they ask you to take to get this situation resolved.

I have a 'Galaxy GT 730' and I have faced this issue for past 2 years now on Win8.1 even with all OS updates.

There's a registry editing TDR fix but it never worked for me. TDR crash occurs basically when windows puts your GPU to sleep unexpectedly.

I wouldn't say Nvidia's newer driver are faulty, as I have tried almost each driver (for whatever little time the BSOD allowed me) and they showed definite performance improvement, but Nvidia has fundamentally changed something with it that just doesn't sit well with old hardware I suppose resulting in random TDR.

This past month however I have moved to Win10. I am on latest 378.92 now and within 2 week's usage I have not faced a single crash.
I haven't changed any hardware either. So it was definitely 'win8.1 + Nvidia driver + GT 730' combination that was causing this problem.

350.12 is the oldest driver I could find which supports GT 710 (at least it's listed in supported product list). Even it's not compatible when I tried to install. I got result that I don't have supporting hardware to install 350.12. So 347.25 is not gonna work

supergamer said:
Uninstall current driver.
Download and install 347.25
nvidia 347.25
TDR issue should be fixed.
Stay on this driver. Any newer driver will give you display driver crashes.

nac said:
350.12 is the oldest driver I could find which supports GT 710 (at least it's listed in supported product list). Even it's not compatible when I tried to install. I got result that I don't have supporting hardware to install 350.12. So 347.25 is not gonna work

Once you extract the drivers to folder like C:\NVIDIA\347.25 go to that folder and open a file called nv_dispi.inf with any plain text editor.
Search for 'GT 710' without quotes. If there's no entry for your GPU then drivers won't install for you.

But we can go ahead and manually create 2 lines for your GPU in that .inf file and make the drivers compatible.

Guru3d INF driver modding

## Under section [Strings] insert this...
NVIDIA_DEV.1281 = "NVIDIA GeForce GT 710"

## Under section [NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.3] insert this...
%NVIDIA_DEV.1281% = Section037, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1281

Save nv_dispi.inf and then run setup.exe

supergamer said:
Once you extract the drivers to folder like C:\NVIDIA\347.25 go to that folder and open a file called nv_dispi.inf with any plain text editor.
Search for 'GT 710' without quotes. If there's no entry for your GPU then drivers won't install for you.

But we can go ahead and manually create 2 lines for your GPU in that .inf file and make the drivers compatible.

Guru3d INF driver modding

## Under section [Strings] insert this...
NVIDIA_DEV.1281 = "NVIDIA GeForce GT 710"

## Under section [NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.3] insert this...
%NVIDIA_DEV.1281% = Section037, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1281

Save nv_dispi.inf and then run setup.exe

350.12 have both the entries yet it says incompatible.
Currently I am running the latest driver 38x.xx, still with the issues.

Downloaded and installed AVG tune up utility. Just did to see if it improves the performance.

There is no display crash for the last two days. I don't know if this is because of this utility or something else. Usually, I see atleast 5-6 crashes a day. Keeping my fingers crossed, would be wonderful if there will be no crash.

nac said:
Downloaded and installed AVG tune up utility. Just did to see if it improves the performance.

There is no display crash for the last two days. I don't know if this is because of this utility or something else. Usually, I see atleast 5-6 crashes a day. Keeping my fingers crossed, would be wonderful if there will be no crash.

If it works then some registry settings / entries must have messed up.

Once faced an issue with the game Sleeping Dogs - Registry Mechanic ( by Pc Tools ) software ( now discontinued ) fixed it. The game was not starting up.

No crashing for little over 3 days, it's started again. Don't know what stopped for those three days.

Were you able to take a memory dump at the time of crash? Might help if that is analyzed to find cause

Sent from my ONE E1003 using Tapatalk

I guess windows automatically save memory dump, right?

But I think it writes memory dump when system BSOD. The crash I am talking about is display crash, goes black for few seconds. I can check the details in event viewer, not more than that.

gt 710 seems like a unreliable gpu and is susceptible to causing frequent system crashes(other users have also reported facing similar issues on sites like tomshardware with this particular card)-i'd suggest getting rid of your gt 710 and replacing it with an older(but more reliable)gpu like the gt 210-you can find one for as low as Rs 500-600 in the used peripherals market these days.

my best guess faulty gpu - possibly gpu memory.

topgear said:
my best guess faulty gpu - possibly gpu memory.

I have RMAed. No difference.
Like people say, it can be because of different architecture/technology (proccy and GPU)

quicky008 said:
gt 710 seems like a unreliable gpu and is susceptible to causing frequent system crashes(other users have also reported facing similar issues on sites like tomshardware with this particular card)-i'd suggest getting rid of your gt 710 and replacing it with an older(but more reliable)gpu like the gt 210-you can find one for as low as Rs 500-600 in the used peripherals market these days.

That's was the idea, but I couldn't get any lower than 1100/- for GT 210 from used market. So the reason I opt for GT710.

nac said:
I have RMAed. No difference.
Like people say, it can be because of different architecture/technology (proccy and GPU)

That's was the idea, but I couldn't get any lower than 1100/- for GT 210 from used market. So the reason I opt for GT710.

did not notice you are using a ages old motherboard. Yes, it can be a compatibility isssue.

sharing one with one : I've had a 8600GT a long time back and the rmaed unit will work on most motherboard expect one gigabyte g31 motherboard - if I install it there the pc will not boot ( just stays on power on state ) and there's no display on monitor.

Every other graphic card worked fine on that motherboard though - though it may sound beyond logical but things like this happens.