# My "Display Driver" Keeps Crashing.



## Trik

Hello everyone. I'm new here and in desperate need of some help. 

I'm not so sure if this is the correct section, so if it isn't can a mod please move it, thanks.


Ok, on to my problem.

Whenever I try to play some sort of game that needs 3D graphics [Such as Guild Wars, WoW, and sometimes even Runescape on high detail] my computer crashes.

This normally happens:

My screen freezes.
My screen goes black.
My screen comes back and I get the following pop-up:










Sometimes this happens like 5 times in a row, kind of ridiculous. 

Also, sometimes it doesn't even recover. It'll just restart itself. And, about an hour ago, it happened, and I got blue screened for the first time. It said "attempted to recover but failed" or something.

My current graphics card is: NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS

My operating system is Vista.

I'm on an HP Pavilion notebook.

I tried calling HP but since my warranty expired, they want to charge me $100 to HELP me fix it.

Sure as hell the last time I ever buy an HP >_>.


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## belfasteddie

I Googled your prob, it would appear its very common. Some people reported success switching to Classic mode. Another installed Xp on another partition just to run the games .


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## onlinesupport

You may be able to resolve this issue by updating the drivers for your video adapter. Contact the manufacturer of your video adapter for updated drivers.


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## Trik

belfasteddie said:


> I Googled your prob, it would appear its very common. Some people reported success switching to Classic mode. Another installed Xp on another partition just to run the games .


I'll try switching to classic, also, don't you need to buy XP in order to downgrade from Vista?



onlinesupport said:


> You may be able to resolve this issue by updating the drivers for your video adapter. Contact the manufacturer of your video adapter for updated drivers.


I downloaded one off the NVIDIA website, and it didn't do anything. But I'm not 100% if that's the one I need.


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## Trik

Alright, sorry for double post, but a quick update:

I've tried the classic theme idea, and it worked for about 5 seconds, lol.

I tried loading WoW, and while I normally crash instantly, I got to the login page this time, with the screen all distorted.

So while it may have helped for a second or two, it didn't do much overall. 

What is the XP idea, if someone could explain that for me?


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## TriggerFinger

Have you tried lowering the resolution?


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## Trik

TriggerFinger said:


> Have you tried lowering the resolution?


Of my screen or the game?

I'm not too sure how to do it in the game, but if I lower it on my screen it's pretty unbearable.


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## TriggerFinger

The screen I mean like 800x600 perhaps and color set to lowest quality. Yeah I know it would not be good to the eyes :grin: but see if the error comes up.


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## Trik

TriggerFinger said:


> The screen I mean like 800x600 perhaps and color set to lowest quality. Yeah I know it would not be good to the eyes :grin: but see if the error comes up.


Alright, I tried that, and it got even worse. I can normally see the first page of game for a few seconds and then I freeze, this time the game window was black and my computer restarted itself.

I checked windows updates, and there's nothing in there about this.

I checked the main website, and got this:










>.<


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## HumanoidComplex

As of right now i think i fixed my problem, went into my BIOS (tap the Delete key on bootup) and downgraded my RAM speed until i had a stable platform(1066MHz and 1.8 V). as of right now I think its ok. but I'll give it a week before I make an ultimatum.


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## RWilliam

Trik said:


> Alright, sorry for double post, but a quick update:
> 
> I've tried the classic theme idea, and it worked for about 5 seconds, lol.
> 
> I tried loading WoW, and while I normally crash instantly, I got to the login page this time, with the screen all distorted.
> 
> So while it may have helped for a second or two, it didn't do much overall.
> 
> What is the XP idea, if someone could explain that for me?


Sounds to me like a conflict, either within your Operating System, or Hardware.

Seeing as this is a laptop, I'm gonna go with a conflict with your operating system. Please check the windows event viewer.

To open the EV console, click start and type Event Viewer in the Search bar at the bottom, the program should be in your results. I recommend you restart your computer first so you can filter out some events. Report any event with a warning or that looks like it may have to due with your problem. Copy your results down somewere, if there are any. 

If there are none there, I'm going to have you fully uninstall and install your display drivers.

1. Right click computer in the start menu.

2. Select properties > advanced system settins(Possibly N/A)> Hardware > Device Manager > Display Adapters.

3. Right click, and select uninstall, follow the on screen instructions.

4. Restart your computer.

5. Download install the correct drivers for your graphics adapter.

6. Restart and see if the problem persists.

There may infact be something wrong with your computer, has it always done this?


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