“Display Driver Stopped Responding And Has Recovered” – Easy Troubleshooting Steps

The “Display driver stopped responding and has recovered” error occurs when a feature in Windows called ‘TDR’ recognizes that the graphics card has not responded on time, then the card will restart instead of the computer. When this issue appears on the machine, leave you with the drawbacks such as an unresponsive page. There are a variety of reasons why this problem occurs. Some of those causes are if the display driver has any malfunction, then you can encounter this error. Also, when the driver is not up to date, then you can also get this problem. Further, if the processing time of the graphics processing unit is low, then this issue can pop up. Moreover, when there are multiple graphics-intensive software running at the same time, or if the dust gets accumulated, then there is a chance to face this problem.

Methods to Mitigate Display Driver Stopped Responding And Has Recovered Problem

In this section of the article, you will get various points that will help you to eliminate the problem “Display driver stopped responding and has recovered”.

Remove Dust from the Graphics Card Radiator Fan

You can get this problem if the radiator fan over the graphics card processor is accumulated with dust. Due to this dust, the video card can get overheated. So, the only solution to resolve this issue is to clear the dust. To do that, follow the line beneath.

  • First, take out the graphics card installed on the motherboard of the computer.
  • Then, take a small brush and try to remove the dust from the radiator fan. Do not give pressure to any component on the graphics card, just gently swipe the brush and clean it.
  • Take some time to completely remove the dust from the fan.
  • Once the dust removal is complete, then take a lint-free microfiber cloth and wipe the radiator fan clean.
  • Finally, install the graphics card on the computer and start it. Next, check if you are still getting this error or not.

Reinstall the Driver Software of the Graphics Card

You can get this problem if the driver software of the video card is corrupted somehow. The most feasible solution to resolve this issue is to uninstall and then install it once again.

  • First, tap on the combination of both the ‘Windows + R’ keys altogether. This will launch a dialogue box called ‘Run’.
  • Next, on this dialogue box type the text on the blank space “devmgmt.msc” just beside the label ‘Open:’. After that, tap on the ‘OK’ button. This opens a new window called ‘Device Manager’.
  • In this window, you will get all the devices and their respective drivers on a list.
  • From that list, locate and then double-tap on the device category ‘Display adapters’, this opens the options of display driver within the sub-list.
  • Next, from the sub-list, choose the display driver and right-click on it. After that, from the popup menu that comes up, select the option ‘Uninstall’.
  • Now, if you get the prompt message on the screen, then choose the button ‘Yes’ to start the uninstallation procedure.
  • Once the removal process gets over then, restart the machine. After the computer starts up once again, then visit the official website of the graphics card and download the latest driver software.
  • At last, when the setup is downloaded, then install the driver by following the information that comes on the screen and see if this error gets resolved or not.

Procedure to Increase the Process Time of GPU

If the processing time of the Graphical Processing Unit within the video card is taken up by many high graphics-oriented software, then you can get the “Display driver stopped responding and has recovered”. To get rid of this issue just increase the processing time of the GPU. For this to happen, follow the below sentences.

  • First, right-click on the ‘Windows’ logo present within the taskbar. Then, a ‘Menu’ comes up, choose the option ‘Run’. This will launch a new dialogue box, that has a similar name as the one mentioned in the previous line.
  • On this dialogue box, next to the label ‘Open’ type the following text “regedit” on the space. After that, tap on the ‘Enter’ key to launch the new window ‘Registry Editor’.
  • Inside this window, type the path “Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers”.
  • Next, go to the right panel of the window and right-click on the blank area. Then, from the popup menu that comes up, select the option ‘New’.
  • From the popup menu that comes up choose the option ‘DWORD (32-bit) Value. Now, a new registry file will open up.
  • Double-click on the newly created file. Then, this will launch a new dialog box with the name ‘Edit DWORD (32-bit) Value’.
  • Within this dialog box, enter the text TdrDelay, under the label ‘Value name: After that, inside the ‘Value data:’ within the label, input a number ‘8’  and click on ‘OK’ button.
  • Lastly, close the ‘Registry Editor’ window, then reboot the computer and check if this error comes back or not.

Update the Driver of the Graphics Card

If the “Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered” appears, then it can be due to the obsolete driver software. The only correct way to mitigate this problem is to update the driver of the video card. Here are the steps you can follow:

  • First, right next to the ‘Windows’ select on the ‘Cortana’ logo. This is to open the search area.
  • Within this space, type the following text “device manager”. Then, from the output list of the search, choose the option ‘Device Manager’. This will open a new window that has the same name as the option chosen on the last line.
  • In the ‘Device Manager’ window, there contains a list of all the devices and their drivers installed on the machine. Next, from that list, find and choose the arrow before the category ‘Display adapters’. Now, an expanded list will show up, where the driver software is present for this specific category of device.
  • After that, from that sub-list, select the video/graphics card driver and right-click on it. Next, from the popup menu that comes up, choose the option ‘Update driver’.
  • A new window will then show up, where there are two links. Out of the two, select the first one which says ‘Search automatically for updated driver software’.
  • At this moment, the Windows OS will search for any updates available for the device driver. If there is an update, then that will be automatically downloaded and then installed.
  • Once the installation is complete, restart the computer and inspect if this issue reappears again or not.

Alter the Visual Effects within the Windows Operating System

Sometimes, when the visual effects features are active within the Windows OS, then you can also encounter this problem. The answer to this glitch is to change the appearance of the ‘Windows’ so that its performance can increase. For that to happen, follow these lines underneath:

  • First, to open the search area hit both the ‘Windows + S’ keys simultaneously. After that, within the blank area, type ‘performance options’. Then, from the result of the search, select the option ‘Performance Options’.
  • Now, a new window will appear, that has a similar name as the option you chose on the last step. Inside this window, choose the tab ‘Visual Effects’.
  • Under this tab, you will get four options. Among those four, select the third one, which is ‘Adjust for best performance’. Next, choose the buttons ‘Apply’ and ‘OK’ respectively.
  • Finally, attempt to execute a high graphics-intensive software and look carefully whether you are still getting this error or not.

Stop Background Apps on Windows 10

If there are many background applications running simultaneously on your machine, then you can face this error. The simplest solution for this problem is to disable the graphics-intensive applications that are being executed in the background. Follow the lines below to do that.

  • First, tap on the combination of keys ‘Windows + I’ altogether, to open the new ‘Settings’ application.
  • Within that window, you will see several categories to choose from. Out of all those, choose the category ‘Privacy’. This will open up a new page within this window, that has the heading ‘General’.
  • On that page, go to the left panel and then under the subheading ‘App permissions’, scroll down a little bit to select the option ‘Background apps’.
  • Next, move to the right side of that page with the same heading name, as one chosen on the previous step.
  • After that, look under the subheading ‘Choose which apps can run in the background’, where there are the names of all the applications within a list.
  • From that list, go to applications that you think use a good amount of GPU individually and slide the toggle switch to ‘Off’ position i.e. left.
  • If you do not know which applications use the GPU, then the best thing to do is go to the top of this page. Then, under the subheading ‘Background Apps’, turn Off the option ‘Let apps run in the background’.
  • At last, quit from the ‘Settings’ window and see if this error comes back or not.

Conclusion

You can resolve the “Display driver stopped responding and has recovered” error easily, by following all the points on the previous section carefully. But, if even after following every step on the above section of the article still, you are unable to fix this error, then do not panic. Provide

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Nathaniel Villa
Nathaniel Villa
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