Display driver has stopped responding but has recovered

[Nope-Nope]

I'm at a loss on how to track down the problem. I routinely but randomly experience the problem. It doesn't appear to be tied to any tool. I haven't experienced any graphics related problems outside of Photoshop. I've tried several different drivers but none have stopped or reduced the frequency of the crashes.

I'm running Windows 7 Pro 64 bit and have a GeForce GTX 260 card.

[Chris Cox]

 From reading all these entries it seems to happen on a variety of Adobe programs from Photoshop to Flash Player so perhaps it IS a conflict between Adobe and the drivers.

Except that none of our products share code in that area, so it's more likely a driver, OS or hardware issue.

Basically, you're telling us that several independent applications have the same problem, and the common factor is your system.

[PC_Nana]

I'm greatful for all the suggestions sent to me yesterday after my post!!! However the Beta IE 9 had to have the Beta Adobe Square and between the two of them I could not get into my silly games at all.  So back to square one I went.  Google Chrome was the worst.  I did a computer Restore to a few days earlier when the problem was not AS severe in hopes that something might improve.  I went from 40 failures to 49 in a space of a few hours so that doesn't seem likely.  It even has occured while in Control Panel so I believe it is a hardware or OS issue and have contacted HP for the umpteenth time.  Perhaps when all the 32 bit software has been rewritten for all the new 64 bit hardware these problems will become obsolete.  Others will take their place I'm sure.  I look forward to Adobe having 64 bit Square released for real and perhaps IE 9 will work with it and cloud computing games will live happily ever after.  But it did seem odd that other people were having the same issue when using Adobe products --perhaps it is because you are working with photos or other heavy duty projects that stress the display driver and not "your fault" at all but a mere coincidence.  I wonder how much it is caused by the G230 card itself?

[Guest]

After the crash happens go into Windows Event Viewer and look for the hit. It will be listed there. Post the results here so people can take a look at it. If it is a windows 7 problem you can run the system file check command at a elevated command prompt. Sfc /scannow. This will scan system files for errors and fix them.

You can also type in Troubleshoot in search programs and files then click on that. This will give you a lot of tools to try and fix common computer problems.

[widelec]

I have the same problem, windows 7 x64, ps cs4 x64, gtx260 (coincidence?), display driver has stopped...

many drivers, many tests (memtest, furmark, voltage, temperatures, etc) and nothing

even with new system (only windows updates and adobe cs4 + updates)

it's enought to use the square/circle selection tool and boom

btw

the same problem on vista x64

on xp 64 - works like charm

[Noel Carboni]

Widelec, what driver version are you using, and have you checked for updates from nVidia's web site?

-Noel

[PC_Nana]

Noel the driver version I'm using is dated 6/29/2010 version 8.17.11.9819  I check regularly with NVIDIA, Microsoft and HP to see if there are new drivers.  Once or twice I have been told yes, I believe it was an August or even a September dated driver, I down loaded it but when I went to run it the NVIDIA site on my computer said it was not correct and that I had the most up to date driver already installed.  Very strange.

It has been suggested that I go to the Windows Event Viewer after it occurs and post the results here, but so far I must confess I have not found WHERE my event viewer is 😞  I have gone in Search but nothing turns up that is called that.  I am running Windows 7 64 bit so is it called something else in this OS?  This constant occurance is most annoying!!!!!

Again thanks for all the suggestions --I'm getting more help and support here than anywhere else!!!

[Noel Carboni]

With Vista or Windows 7 just type "event viewer" into the search box attached to the start menu.  Then click on View Event Logs when it comes up.

Double check that you have an exact match between your actual video hardware, operating system, and the driver set you're trying to install.

-Noel

[Nope-Nope]

If you can't find it via search you can ...

"Open Event Viewer by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, clicking Administrative Tools, and then double-clicking Event Viewer.‌ Administrator permission required If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation."

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Open-Event-Viewer

[widelec]

-

System

- Provider [ Name] Display

- EventID 4101 [ Qualifiers] 0

Level 3

Task 0

Keywords 0x80000000000000

- TimeCreated [ SystemTime] 2010-10-02T15:35:20.000000000Z

Driver version: 258.96

I spent 3 weeks trying to solve this problem on January 2010, but I gave up and came back to xp. I was thinking that it was w7's or first drivers' (universal versions) imperfection. I have installed the w7 again now, but nothing has changed, the problem is still the same.

[Noel Carboni]

Not that this log entry shows anything specific to imply this, but perhaps it's just time for a new video card, from a different vendor.

May I recommend the ATI Radeon HD 4670 (a bit old but if you can still get one of the VisionTek models from, say, Best Buy they're really quite cheap) or perhaps a new (and slighly more expensive) 5670.  For a hundred bucks you can have a solid, fast new card, known to work with Photoshop and Windows 7 with never a crash.

How much is your time worth?

-Noel

[Hudechrome]

I've been watching this with the same recommendation in mind except there should be no need to change vendors. As I mentioned earlier, we had the same message on initial evaluation of Win7 for software validation, and we had a number of 7 series nVidia cards from which to choose. Several simply would not run on 7, but ran fine on XP and Vista. We discarded the nVidia cards which malfunctioned on 7 but continued with the others, all suitably upgraded as to drivers. It certainly would not hurt switching vendors, but the fact that nVidia won't run at all would be  bothersome.

I also had an Asus board that had a PCIe slot defect, and nothing would run right, so if you can find a supplier that allows a reasonable return, that would settle the question,(hopefully!).

Right now I am running an nVidia 9500 GT with no problems on an Asus mobo with AMD cpu and chipset.

[PC_Nana]

Before I try to get at a video card in the tiny space of the HP all in one ---the draw back of a space saving device is that it IS space saving --this morning I was able to get the Event Log information.  And besides what seems to be a shocking 42,235 occurances of Event ID 7036 since Friday August 13th 2010 here is the rest of the information. ( Actually I didn't run down the list to make sure ALL of them were the same ID# but 8 from just this morning were)

Log Name: System

Source: Service Control Manage Loged    Event ID  7038    10/4/2010   11:52:18 AM  Level: Information  Kewywords: Classic

Product Name  Windows Operating System   Version 6.1.76000.16385

Locale ID 1033

It took me to a web site where it seems that the Windows operating system ---and it talked Vista ---had issues with display drivers!!!!!  But I have Windows 7.  So I guess it IS a conflict with the OS and the display driver.  It also mentioned the themes that were used on the desk tops.  So I may have to change the one I've got and use a plain one that came with the computer and see if that makes a difference ---I am using ones that were offered as themes but have them change every 15 minutes so perhaps that is when it crashes?????

I can handle software problems and suggested fixes usually without fear but I am not really a hardware person and would have to get to change out a video card.  Extra $$ on a brand new expensive system that is only a few months old.  I checked and HP is still selling this computer with the same video card.  I can not be the only person with this problem ---as others have also found this site and have reported here.  There must be an easy fix that we are missing some where or I have a lemon and HP owes me a new one.  Again thank you all for your suggestions!!!!!

[Guest]

HP all in one computers, just like most manufactured computers, come with their own brand of crapware. This software is mostly duplicates of what Windows 7 already offers as a operating system. Sometimes this extra software will have a hissy fit with Microsofts. This duplicate software also runs in the background. This eats up a lot of resources. This HP software can be safely removed. Example is like HP version of update, movie makers, anti-virus or spy checkers, firewalls........

all this can be removed.

I am not too sure about you all in one but is there a extra space in the unit that will fit the video card? The ones I have seen and worked on are sealed units.

Best bet is to remove all the extra HP crapware, rebooting, and do a defrag.

[Noel Carboni]

dec9 wrote:

do a defrag.

Dec9, I notice you often advise people to do this.  It's really not necessary and just wastes peoples' time.  The modern OSs do defrags all by themselves on a schedule.

-Noel

[Guest]

I have my Windows 7 and Vista defrag turned off. Windows defrag takes forever to finish. I use iobit smart defrag in the manual mode.

Yes, I do agree with you that the system will do it by itself.

[Noel Carboni]

If it's near new I'd certainly have HP replace the NVIDIA GeForce GT230 card for you as a first step.  Individual video cards can and do fail!

-Noel

[Hudechrome]

I have themes disabled but I don't think that is the problem. If themes are compromised, it would add to my suspicions about drivers.

If you know for sure you have the 9xxx series nVidia HW, even though the card may be (usually is) from another vendor, you can, on principle d/l the drivers for that chip series and install it your self.

Hp should stand behind all this.

A concur with the above, who have quicker fingers than I.

Sigh! Growing old....

[PC_Nana]

I got an iMac after HP finally took the darn thing back.  Flash works fine now and all is well.

[Hudechrome]

Well, I have no problems with Flash, although I didn't include an open Flash in the line up.

If you have the money you can go to Mac. There is no theoretical reason that Mac is better than PC, although much can be said for having everything in house. The buck then stops there.

Mac "protects" it's users from themselves, which leads to unfortunate consequences for those who make other plans!

[Guest]

I opened a support ticket at Nvidia but after some reflection, if the adobe window is the only thing crashing which causes the video driver to crash and restart then I am thinking it needs to be addressed on Adobe's side and not nvidia.

[Chris Cox]

If the bug were on Adobe's side, it would most likely crash with all video card drivers.

But it only crashes with certain versions of NVidias drivers for certain cards -- which is a good indication that the bug is in the NVidia code, and needs to be fixed by NVidia.

There are many reasons why you might only experience the crash in Photoshop due to a bug in NVidia's code -- the most obvious is that Photoshop may be the only software you have that calls a certain (buggy) function in the driver.  But the fault is still in the driver, and the application is not likely to be able to avoid that fault easily (short of disabling all OpenGL support for your model of video card).

[Hudechrome]

It's kind of a stretch that vidia would have a special function which only PS would use. If so, I'm rather nonplussed that Adobe would not be testing this function. Obviously, the nVidia would have to inform Adobe of that. Or Adobe would be asking for it.

So, how does it work that PS would use a function in the code without the engineers being aware of it's existence? I would expect it to be tested, in any case.

Broadly speaking, those cards that failed at Intel whenWin7 RC was installed were a failure within Win7, and Win 7 had the failure notice, not any app or program.

[Noel Carboni]

Hudechrome wrote:

It's kind of a stretch that vidia would have a special function which only PS would use. If so, I'm rather nonplussed that Adobe would not be testing this function. Obviously, the nVidia would have to inform Adobe of that. Or Adobe would be asking for it.

So, how does it work that PS would use a function in the code without the engineers being aware of it's existence? I would expect it to be tested, in any case.

Broadly speaking, those cards that failed at Intel whenWin7 RC was installed were a failure within Win7, and Win 7 had the failure notice, not any app or program.

Lawrence, the OpenGL library is HUGE.  Literally hundreds of functions, if not thousands.  And with many complex parameters.

OpenGL is, at its heart, a 3D rendering system being used to show 2D images by Photoshop.

It may not be that Photoshop is using a particular function that NO ONE else uses, but it may be a particular function that no other app on the computer of the person reporting the problem is using, or a particular function being used in a particular way.

I'll go one further:  OpenGL has many things that have been added to improve performance over time (keeping in mind it has been developed to support video games)...  Imagine that there are ways to combine functions that create larger operations (e.g., creating and mapping a Vertex Buffer Object to hold specific information to be used to display an object via a polygon plotting operation, and on that object is a texture that was provided in another place via a Pixel Buffer Object).

Think complex.  Now multiply by 100.  You begin to imagine what's behind the scenes with OpenGL.

-Noel

[Noel Carboni]

To drive the point home a bit further...  Keep in mind that video drivers are delivered in a package that often runs upwards of 100 megabytes.  Think for a moment how huge that is!

It's a dynamic system.  There is no way to exhaustively test it.

-Noel

[Hudechrome]

Noted and understood, Noel. Most likely then, Windows is using a "One Message Fits All" notification, which is par for the course it seems.

Silly me! I thought I could actually believe those messages! No, seriously, if there was my one blockage that drove the software folks nuts about my perceptions of Windows messages when having an "Event" it was I wanted to believe what I read!