"Video driver stopped responding and was successfully restored" - problem solution

If not all, then very many gamers who have a graphics chip that meets the minimum requirements of some installed game can often see the message that the video driver stopped responding and was successfully restored. Okay, just a notification, but sometimes such a malfunction can be accompanied by the appearance of a "blue screen". And this is a symptom of the fact that something is wrong with the video system of the computer.

Error "The video driver stopped responding and was successfully restored": what is the reason?

Before making a decision to eliminate the problem, you need to understand the reasons for the occurrence of such a failure. If the video driver stopped responding, the reasons that caused this situation are usually explained by the conflicts of the video card with the system, both at the software and the "iron" level.

As you know, today the video card market belongs to only two of the most powerful manufacturers - AMD and NVIDIA. Nevertheless, even their most modern models are not immune from the issuance by Windows system of messages that an error has occurred in the device's operation (the video driver stopped responding). The image on the screen is fixed, and the computer freezes. The simplest explanation of the situation is that the installed video card is either too powerful or very weak for the system.

In the second case, the problem is that the operating system and processor in terms of processing information outstrip the graphics chip. In the first case, the situation is exactly the opposite - the system does not keep up with the graphics card processor, which takes on a priority role in the floating point calculations. But in either case, the card may overheat, and this is fraught with consequences.

The video driver (Kernel) stopped responding (successfully restored): what the history of the problem says

If you go into the essence of the problem, it is easy to see that it appeared only with the version of Windows XP, and such failures were detected only when using resource-intensive games with three-dimensional graphics. On the processor and RAM, as it turned out, it was not displayed in any way (even in the "Task Manager", the load on the processor, RAM or access to the disk could be minimal). And the system still hung up.

To finish the processes connected with the graphic chip, as a rule, it is possible only through its deactivation in the "Task Manager" or the stop of its own control application. So, for example, if the video driver (AMD Driver) stops responding, at best it will turn off only the corresponding console (or even remove it from the startup). But if you look, the problem is much deeper.

Method of quick troubleshooting through a rollback

Now go to practice and solve the problem (the video driver stopped responding). If the user of the computer accurately or at least approximately remembers the time and date of the state of the system before the occurrence of such a failure, there is nothing easier than to return it to its original state. Probably, the behavior of the card itself was influenced by some third-party component of the program type, which caused the driver to produce an error.

For rollback, we just enter the backup / restore section in the standard "Control Panel" and select the desired point. But this is the simplest thing that can be done. In most cases, the problem needs to be solved by more cardinal methods.

Update drivers

So, we can offer one more solution to the problem. The video driver stopped responding, for example, because of its outdated version.

In this situation, the most complete update of the driver files is logical. That's only to do this through the "Device Manager" is not necessary - all the same the system will choose the most suitable and declare that it is already installed. A disk with obsolete drivers, which could be bundled, also does not work. Therefore, it is better to contact the manufacturer's website and download the required distribution, taking into account the architecture of the OS (32 or 64 bits).

However, here you can apply one more solution to the problem if the system signals that the video driver has been successfully restored. What to do in this case? The solution is simple. You can install any program for automatic search and update drivers. In the optimal version is suitable Driver Booster.

DirectX update

But not all problems can only be in the graphics chip itself. Failure can occur for quite a trivial reason. The matter is that some popular, but obviously outdated games use in the installer the installation of such components as Microsoft Visual C ++ 2010 Redistributable or version of the Framework below the fourth. All this causes failures of one more bridge, called DirectX.

This is the link between the system and the "iron" devices, recognized by the Plug & Play type. If the user sees a message on the computer screen that the video driver stopped responding and was successfully restored, the point is that the graphics chip simply does not have time to process the incoming information. Updating DirectX, installed from the official Microsoft website, helps.

Disable hardware acceleration in browsers

Another misfortune for many users is the incorrect installation or lack of updates to one of the most necessary components - Adobe Flash Player. But in this case, the error related to the fact that the video driver stopped responding and was successfully restored, concerns only surfing on the Internet, although it would seem that the load on the graphics chip should be minimal.

Nevertheless, as an option to fix the problem, you can suggest updating the extension from the official site. To do this, just go to the appropriate resource, download, and then install the latest version of Adobe Flash Player or Shockwave Player. Sometimes, however, there can be software conflicts between these two components, so you may have to disable one of them in the browser settings and see how the system behaves in this case.

Using Smoothing filters

Another reason that a failure occurs, signaling that the video driver has stopped responding and has been successfully restored, may be the incorrect setting of antialiasing filters.

The essence of this problem is that in the game settings the filter can be turned on, and in the graphics chip settings this option is deactivated or the mode of substitution of settings is set. As already understood, adjust the settings to match them.

Using the Registry Settings

Finally, cardinal methods can be applied to solve the problem. To do this, you must use the Registry Editor, which is called by the regedit command through the "Run" console (Win + R).

After logging in, you need to go through the HKLM branch and find the GraphicsDrivers directory there, in which we are interested in the values of the two keys - TdrDelay and TdrLevel. If there are none, create two DWORD 32 bit parameters and give them the appropriate names.

Then there are several options for setting the desired values. The following values can be used for the TdrLevel level:

• 0 - completely disabled;
• 1 - detection of errors without recovery;
• 2 - recovery (for VGA mode not applicable);
• 3 - recovery with timeout (delay).

The TdrDelay parameter is set to the standard value of 2 seconds. You can try changing it to 3 or higher, and then disable the previous parameter (but not vice versa). In order for the changes to take effect, you must perform a complete reboot of the system.

Such a solution is well suited in case when a driver restart is not required if errors occur, and the problem itself is of a purely software nature. Otherwise, the hang of the system can become more frequent, so you need to set the values in turn, applying them depending on the situation.

BIOS update and overclocking issues

And one more question that is directly relevant to this situation. It may very well be that the problem is that the video card has an outdated BIOS version. First you just need to update the firmware, using the download from the official resource of the manufacturer of the graphics chip.

If overclocking (overclocking of the graphics card processor), for example by software methods, resulted in the setting of errors and failures, the default parameters should be set in the chip settings.

But here there are some nuances. You can set a slightly increased voltage level, using the Afterburner program for this. But this operation should be carried out only if the graphic system of the computer has a good cooling.

Another recommended condition can be called that the computer immediately after the end of the resource-intensive game can not be disabled. He needs to work idly for at least a few minutes, and only then make a trip.

In some situations, strangely enough, the way out is to disable Aero effects, and in the case of stationary PCs - removing or replacing one of the memory slots.

In general, you can also bring the video card to life by removing its own control program, when setting parameters will be assigned exclusively to the Windows system. However, it is recommended to do this only in the most extreme case, when nothing else helps.

Finally, you can simply reset the parameters of ATI PowerNow or NVidia PowerMizer, if the application of these technologies is in the active state.

Conclusion

As can be seen from all of the above, situations that provoke the appearance of this type of malfunction can be quite a lot. However, the problem-solving techniques used in each case are very simple and do not require special knowledge from the user. Nevertheless, at first it is better to find out the root cause and only then make a decision about the application of some method. If a user has a stationary computer with a stand-alone system unit, at least periodic cleaning of the internal components' dust, including a graphic card, is necessary, as in most cases, overheating occurs precisely for this reason. As for software methods, you will have to experiment, especially if the exact reasons for the occurrence of the error and the accompanying failure are not exactly defined.