Display Driver Stopped Working and Has Recovered

[Xel-Naga]

From last two months I get this error time to time. Screen freezes for a second, turns off and then turns on automatically and I see the message popping up 'Display Driver Stopped Working and Has Recovered'. The good thing is, this doesn't occur frequently. I have checked my GPU temp when this occurs and the temp is always normal. This happens when I play a game and ALSO when I'm not doing anything or just browsing internet. My GPU doesn't even overheat when playing games. So my question is, could this be a driver issue or hardware issue? I'm kinda worried about this.

[VANGUARD]

From last two months I get this error time to time. Screen freezes for a second, turns off and then turns on automatically and I see the message popping up 'Display Driver Stopped Working and Has Recovered'. The good thing is, this doesn't occur frequently. I have checked my GPU temp when this occurs and the temp is always normal. This happens when I play a game and ALSO when I'm not doing anything or just browsing internet. My GPU doesn't even overheat when playing games. So my question is, could this be a driver issue or hardware issue? I'm kinda worried about this.

what is your rig? Your gadgets cannot be seen under your profile.

[Sami 1999]

The exact same thing happened with me after I updated my driver yesterday. My screen didn't turn off but start menu didn't pop out for 2 mins until I got that error message. Probably a driver issue I suppose.

[Xel-Naga]

what is your rig? Your gadgets cannot be seen under your profile.

I thought you knew. Anyway, here it is, if it helps -

Mobo - H170
CPU - I5 6500 3.2 GHz
GPU - R9 270
PSU - Coolermaster GX 550w

- - - Updated - - -

The exact same thing happened with me after I updated my driver yesterday. My screen didn't turn off but start menu didn't pop out for 2 mins until I got that error message. Probably a driver issue I suppose.

I really hope so but from last two months, every driver update I downloaded has not solved this yet.

[Sybaris Caesar]

Windows 10 problem or PSU/GPU is kaput!

[Speed]

Windows 10 problem or PSU/GPU is kaput!

definetly not gpu/psu issue. either os or driver. display driver problem are primarily bcoz of driver failure. has nothing to do with any hardware.

[Fox Mulder]

definetly not gpu/psu issue. either os or driver. display driver problem are primarily bcoz of driver failure. has nothing to do with any hardware.

Wrong. A faulty GPU could cause the display driver time out as well. But it could very well be OS or driver related at times.

@OP you should Uninstall AMD Drivers from Add/Remove Programs, download a utility called "Display Driver Uninstaller" by Wagnard, let it boot into safe mode, clear out the remains of the driver installation, and then reinstall to a last known stable driver that worked for you to make sure it's not an issue from the software side. From the description though, it sounds bad.

[Speed]

Wrong. A faulty GPU could cause the display driver time out as well. But it could very well be OS or driver related at times.

@OP you should Uninstall AMD Drivers from Add/Remove Programs, download a utility called "Display Driver Uninstaller" by Wagnard, let it boot into safe mode, clear out the remains of the driver installation, and then reinstall to a last known stable driver that worked for you to make sure it's not an issue from the software side. From the description though, it sounds bad.

& where did u learn that from? can u point me toward any case ?

[Swapnil]

& where did u learn that from? can u point me toward any case ?

I don't know about faulty GPU, but I've seen that happen when overclock fails, or when GPU overheats.

[Sybaris Caesar]

definetly not gpu/psu issue. either os or driver. display driver problem are primarily bcoz of driver failure. has nothing to do with any hardware.

Amar PSU noshto howar age dine 2-3 bar eita dekhaito. Notun PSU kinar por Windows 10 e week e 2-3 bar dekhay. Windows 8.1 e jawar por (few months ago) ekhon o pai nai.

[Xel-Naga]

Wrong. A faulty GPU could cause the display driver time out as well. But it could very well be OS or driver related at times.

@OP you should Uninstall AMD Drivers from Add/Remove Programs, download a utility called "Display Driver Uninstaller" by Wagnard, let it boot into safe mode, clear out the remains of the driver installation, and then reinstall to a last known stable driver that worked for you to make sure it's not an issue from the software side. From the description though, it sounds bad.

I always use Display Driver Uninstaller before installing a new driver. The last thing I gotta check is to install an old driver.

- - - Updated - - -

I don't know about faulty GPU, but I've seen that happen when overclock fails, or when GPU overheats.

The thing is, I never overclock and I have checked my GPU temp just after the error appeared and the temp is always normal, even when I play games my gpu temp hardly crosses over 65 degree.

[Sami 1999]

Amar PSU noshto howar age dine 2-3 bar eita dekhaito. Notun PSU kinar por Windows 10 e week e 2-3 bar dekhay. Windows 8.1 e jawar por (few months ago) ekhon o pai nai.

So its both O/S and hardware issue? Was your Windows 10 genuine or not? I think MS did something wrong intentionally so that it can only be fixed by updating Windows which is not available in illegitimate version.

[Fox Mulder]

& where did u learn that from? can u point me toward any case ?

I am speaking from personal experience, as I have gone through a lot of GPUs, specially in the AGP and early PCI Express X16 era.

[Speed]

I am speaking from personal experience, as I have gone through a lot of GPUs, specially in the AGP and early PCI Express X16 era.

& how many of them u found dead as a sign of display driver failure?

[shafi]

Same happened to me before my psu died. Might be a software/driver/os bug or issues in hardware

[Sybaris Caesar]

Same happened to me before my psu died. Might be a software/driver/os bug or issues in hardware

Dead PSU brothers

[Fox Mulder]

& how many of them u found dead as a sign of display driver failure?

Why does the driver crash? Because the driver sends it's commands to GPU and waits for the commands to be executed, and if the command queues keep pilling up but if the driver fails to get a response from the GPU's end, after a certain time out it crashes. This could be from a bug in the driver, or some incompatibility with the OS, a bad or inadequate PSU or because of the GPU itself failing to execute the command. With a faulty GPU that for some reason is not stable at stock, or has a erroneous memory modules, the same would happen. Swapnil mentioned a similar scenario, when it's overclocked past it's potential, the driver crashes. The card may or may not die in the future, but either the core, or the mem chip, or something else is defective on it and it will not function as it should a la the driver crashed during demanding 3D tasks. The first card that I had a similar issue with was a ATI X700 AGP that would crash every once in awhile, then the crashes became more frequent, and after awhile it had this behavior where it'd work for like 10 minutes during a game, then crash, then recover, then crash once more, and finally would hard lock the PC unless the game was closed, and after persisting this behavior, started showing garbled 3D graphics in the long run. I am not gonna go on to give you further examples, you may choose to believe what you want to.

Xel-Naga's case may as well be attributed to a bad PSU, but I don't rule out the chance of a bad GPU either. The best way for him to verify this is to take the card to someone else and test it, or try a different PSU.

[Sami 1999]

That's not a good news for me! It already crashed once. I just hope it was from software side. Will Gpu/Psu warranty apply in such cases?

[Swapnil]

That's not a good news for me! It already crashed once. I just hope it was from software side. Will Gpu/Psu warranty apply in such cases?

Did your's overheat? I have a 550TI that always crashes if it reaches 80º C (i.e. when I run games on it but forget to turn on the case intake fans).

[Sami 1999]

Did your's overheat? I have a 550TI that always crashes if it reaches 80º C (i.e. when I run games on it but forget to turn on the case intake fans).

Mines still under 75° C.

But I didn't try demanding games yet. I'll see how good it does then when it reaches 80°