If not all, then many gamers who have a graphics chip that meets the minimum requirements of some installed game can often see a message that the video driver stopped responding and was successfully restored. It would be nice to just notice, but sometimes such a failure can be accompanied by the appearance of a blue screen. And this is a symptom that something is wrong with the computer’s video system.
Error "Video driver stopped responding and was successfully restored": what is the reason?
Before making decisions to resolve the problem, you should understand the causes of such a failure. If the video driver stops responding, the reasons that caused this situation, as a rule, are explained precisely by the conflicts of the video card with the system both on the software and on 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 to the Windows system reporting that an error occurred in the device (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 the processor are ahead of the graphics chip in terms of information processing. In the first case, the situation is exactly the opposite - the system does not keep pace with the processor of the video card, which takes on a priority role in the performed floating point calculations. But in that and in another version, overheating of the card may occur, and this is already fraught with consequences.
Video driver (Kernel) has stopped responding (successfully restored): what is the history of the problem
If you delve into the essence of the problem, it is easy to notice 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, this was not displayed in any way (even in the “Task Manager” the load on the processor, RAM or disk access could be minimal). And the system still hung.
The processes associated with the graphics chip, as a rule, can only be completed by deactivating it in the "Task Manager" or by stopping your own control application. So, for example, if the video driver (AMD Driver) stops responding, in the best case it will turn out to disable only the corresponding console (or even remove it from startup). But if you look, the problem is much deeper.
Technique for quick fix through rollback
Now we turn to practice and solve the problem (the video driver has stopped responding). If a computer user accurately or at least approximately remembers the time and date of the state of the system before the appearance of such a failure, there is nothing easier than returning it to its original state. Perhaps the behavior of the card itself was affected by some third-party component of a software type, as a result of which the driver generated an error.
For rollback, just go to the backup / restore section in the standard “Control Panel” and select the desired point. But this is the easiest thing to do. In most cases, the problem needs to be solved by more cardinal methods.
Driver update
So, you can offer another solution to the problem. The video driver stopped responding, for example, because of its outdated version.
In this situation, the most logical is a complete update of the driver files. It’s just that you don’t need to do this through the “Device Manager” - anyway, the system will choose the most suitable one and declare that it is already installed. A disk with outdated drivers, which could be bundled, will not work either. Therefore, it is better to refer to the manufacturer’s website and download the desired distribution there, taking into account the OS architecture (32 or 64 bits).
However, here you can apply another 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 some program for automatic search and update drivers. The best option is Driver Booster.
DirectX Update
But not all problems can only lie in the graphics chip itself. Failure can occur for a completely banal reason. The fact is that some popular, but obviously outdated games use the installer to install components such as Microsoft Visual C ++ 2010 Redistributable or the version of the Framework below the fourth. All this causes another bridge to fail, called DirectX.
This is the connecting link between the system and the "iron" devices recognized by the Plug & Play type. If a user sees a message on the computer screen that the video driver has stopped responding and has been successfully restored, the essence of the matter is that the graphics chip just does not have time to process incoming information. Installing DirectX from the official Microsoft site helps.
Disabling hardware acceleration in browsers
Another trouble 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 exclusively surfing the Internet, although it would seem that the load on the graphics chip should be minimal here.
Nevertheless, as one of the solutions to 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, between these two components conflicts of a programmatic nature may arise, 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 crash occurs that indicates that the video driver has stopped responding and has been successfully restored may be due to incorrect antialiasing filters.
The essence of this problem is that in the game settings the filter can be turned on, and in the settings of the graphic chip this option is deactivated or the settings replacement mode is set. As already clear, you should align the settings so that they match.
Using registry settings
Finally, cardinal methods can be applied to solve the problem. To do this, you will have to use the registry editor 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 in which we are interested in the values of two keys - TdrDelay and TdrLevel. If none are available, create two 32-bit DWORD parameters and give them the appropriate names.
Further, there are several options for setting the desired values. The following values can be used for the TdrLevel level:
- 0 - completely disabled;
- 1 - error detection without recovery;
- 2 - recovery (not applicable for VGA mode);
- 3 - recovery with timeout (delay).
TdrDelay is set to the default value of 2 seconds. You can try to change it to 3 or higher, and then turn off the previous parameter (but not vice versa). For the changes to take effect, a complete reboot of the system should be made.
Such a solution is well suited when a driver restart is not required if errors occur, and the problem itself is exclusively programmatic in nature. Otherwise, the system freezes can become more frequent, so you need to set the values one by one, applying them depending on the current situation.
BIOS update and overclocking issues
And one more question that is directly related to this situation. It may well be that the problem is that the video card has an outdated version of the BIOS. First you just need to update the firmware using the download from the official resource of the manufacturer of the graphic chip.
If overlocking (overclocking the video processor), for example, by software methods, led to errors and malfunctions, you should set the default parameters in the chip settings.
But here there are some nuances. You can set a slightly increased voltage level using the Afterburner program. But such an operation should be performed only if the computer's graphics system has good cooling.
Another recommended condition is that the computer cannot be turned off immediately after completing a resource-intensive game. He needs to be allowed to idle for at least a few minutes, and only then turn off.
In some situations, oddly enough, the way out is to turn off the Aero effects, and in the case of stationary PCs, remove or replace one of the memory slats.
In general, you can bring the video card to life by removing its own control program, when the installation of parameters will be assigned exclusively to the Windows system. True, this is recommended only in the most extreme case, when nothing else helps.
Finally, you can simply reset the ATI PowerNow or NVidia PowerMizer, if the application of these technologies is in an active state.
Conclusion
As you can see from the foregoing, there can be quite a few situations that provoke the appearance of this type of failure. However, the troubleshooting methods used in each particular 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 on the application of some method. If the user has a stationary computer with a separate system unit, it is necessary to at least periodically clean the internal components from dust, including the graphics card, because in most cases overheating occurs for this reason. As for the software methods, it will be necessary to experiment, especially if the exact causes of the error and the accompanying failure are not precisely determined.