Display Driver atikmdag / nvlddmkm Stopped Responding

atikmdag stopped responding screenshot

Atikmdag / nvlddmkm fix update

I would just like to say thanks to all those who have posted their fixes in the comments section below!

25.05.2010 - If you have found a solution please leave a comment below - click here
16.12.2009 - There have many more solutions suggested below
03.12.2008 - More and more solutions have been posted below
24.12.2007 - Seems some are having success using a variety of methods see the comments below

Purpose of this article

This error has been a constant problem on my new PC for the last 8 months. This particular error exists on both ATI and Nvidia cards and on a whole range of different PC builds.

The error you receive on the cards is different because obviously the driver that stops has a different name, but the symptom is the same, the screen will go blank and then sometimes the game/application will recover or it may crash. A small message will appear on the bottom right hand side of your screen if you are using Vista.

ATI Cards: Atikmdag has stopped responding and has successfully recovered

Nvidia Cards: nvlddmkm has stopped responding and has successfully recovered

This page contains all the information I have collected and possible fixes and puts them in one place.

This page will be constantly updated until a 100% Fix is found - the fixes that are listed work for some but not for others - so you might have to experiment a little until a solution is found

I will point Nvidia users to the best solutions for them and then list possible fixes for ATI users - I am a ATI card user myself and have found a few fixes which increase the stability of my system - this has reduced the frequency of the error but has not eliminated it entirely.

Best Forum Discussions about the atikmdag / nvlddmkm error

ATI atikmdag Discussions

Nvidia nvlddmkm Discussions

Fix 1 - Vista Users - ATI and Nvidia Users

Windows Hot fixes

Some users have solved the problem by actually uninstalling a windows hot fix, the "KB952287" patch. (Vista Users)

Matthew Utah (Popular Fix)

Posted at 6:14pm on August 25th, 2008

I had this problem and found it quite annoying. Due to other circumstances, I reinstalled Windows Vista, and found that I did not have this problem before installing updates. In fact, installing update KB952287 caused this problem to start, and when I un-installed this update, it went away.

I looked up the update, and it deals with some very specific SQL server issues that I will likely never deal with, so it will stay gone on my machine.

Karen Texas

Thank you Matthew from Utah!
Your solution worked for me.

I un-installed "update KB952287" and the problem is gone.

I also use the AMD 780G chip set.

Possible Helpful Patches

KB938194 - An update is available that improves the compatibility and reliability of Windows Vista
KB938979 - An update is available that improves the performance and reliability of Windows Vista

You may have these fixes installed already, write them down then check if you have them installed.

To check if you have them : start menu / control panel / system and maintenance / Windows updates / View update history

Fix 2 - Only using one stick of Ram - All Users

According to several posts I have read over the internet a sure-fire way to rid yourself of this problem is to only have one stick of ram in your PC. I personally have not tried this method as I only have 2gb of ram, reducing it to 1gb would not be enough for me as I am using Vista and have to run several applications.

quote from ocforums:

'Drivers, software, vista driver structure and sub-level timings, etc...simplest way to get rid of the problem is to run one single RAM stick...I kid u not. 1 ram stick and u will see the issue vanish almost instantly!'

If you are so sick of this problem and can reduce your PC to only one stick of ram then give it a go.

*Warning* Only remove ram if you know what you are doing - you can quite easily damage your components if you are not use to repairing computers.

Fix 3 - Cleaning the Registry

Some people report cleaning the registry and removing unecessary files using a registry cleaner has solved the problem for them.

Registry Cleaners with Free Registry Scans

Fix 4 - ATI users XP and Vista - Total Fix of the atikmdag error on my System

*Warning* You do all of this at your own risk - I am not responsible if anything goes wrong

Update 30.9.2007: I managed to totally remove my atikmdag error now following the information below

My PC Build:

P5W DH Deluxe
Intel Core 2 Duo 6300
2gb Geil Ram 800 mhz
Radeon HIS IceQ3 Turbo 1950 Pro

Tools you need:

Stage 1

Disable UAC - Vista Users (see below) - reboot
Disable any Antivirus software
Remove Current drivers
Reboot into safe mode - to do this you wait until after the bios screen has disappeared (bios is the start-up screen) then tap the F8 key until the windows booting options come up - select safe mode
Run Driver cleaner - select the following options below and then click start
Empty your recycle bin
Reboot into normal mode
Install Catalyst 7.9
Turn Antivirus and UAC back on
Reboot your PC

Stage 2

This stage is what removed the error for me. My ATI card is a HIS Ice3q 1950 Pro which is an overclocked video card. Doing some research I found that it wasn't very stable running at the speeds it is set at, so I made one small change to the VPU clock speed. Obviously I don't know what card you have and weather this will make any difference for you, but I can say that before most games had this error every 5 minutes of game play and after I haven't had the error since.

On the ATI tool main menu you will have your graphics card clock speeds. My core speed was 621 I reduced this to 600 and pressed set clock - the tool set it to 594 - I saved the profile and that was it - that little adjustment removed the error. Your graphics card will run at different speeds to mine, but it might be worth dropping the core speed by 20 points to test if this works - also make sure you go to stage 3 as well.

Stage 3

In ATI tool select the setting button - bottom right of the main panel
At the top - open the menu and scroll down and choose 'Fan control'
Tick the box 'Override Fan Speeds'

Select dynamic based on GPU temperature and set it up like the screenshot above - save this profile so you can load it the next time you need it - then press apply - *Warning* - Some say that fix the percentage at 100% and that's it, but I wouldn't advise that as you may wear out your fan much faster than normal.

I'm hoping the above has also fixed your error - if it has or hasn't leave a comment at the bottom of this page.

Fix 5- Various methods that work for some - Vista Users

Reading through all the hundreds of posts I took down notes and kept a record of what worked for some people, some responded saying that it worked, some say it made no difference. So give some of these a try and see if it makes a change.

Turning off Aero: Start / control panel / under appearance and personalization / change the color scheme / Select Windows classic theme and apply.

Turning off UAC (User Account Control) - *Warning* UAC is designed to help keep your PC more secure - try this if nothing else works, turn it back on if it doesn't help.

Type msconfig into the search bar (pic below) - run the program

Select tools and scroll down to disable UAC and click launch (see pic) - reboot your PC

system config

Fix 6 - More Possible solutions to the atikmdag / nvlddmkm error

This is basically as far as it goes for now, but these are few other fixes that you could try:

Fixes from comments below:

Robb from Canada:

Had the same problem until I set my bios setting to auto! Now everything is good to go!

Steve from Australia:

If you are using EXTENDED DESKTOP WITH DUAL MONITORS then disable it and revert back to using one monitor.Ta Da! no more crashes!

Greg from UK:

I have got the system stable by uninstalling the ati driver and using the standard vista vga driver, aero and window transparency don't work, nor do any of the screen savers but no more BSOD..

Possible fix - worth a try - Vista Users
Another possible fix for Vista users from the Hard Forum

Repair crashes, fix errors and improve PC performance

Still Isn't Fixed? - if you still have problems or can offer a solution to the atikmdag or nvlddmkm error please post a comment below - Thanks!

Comments to date: 237. Page 1 of 7.

cro zagreb	Posted at 1:10pm on August 23rd, 2010
after changing memory modules everything works fine... :-)
Kraut Germany	Posted at 7:10pm on August 20th, 2010
Hi I had this problem for a long time, was really annoying while playing, the older games like DMoM&M,TF2 or Stalker1,hung up constantly and started working again after few seconds for like 5 mins. The newer games(esp. BFBC2) instead crush completely. I tried almost every fix i found for this problem, but nothing worked...until I switched my two RAM-bars to slot 2&4 instead of 1&3...everything is fine, for now ;) Administrator comment: Thanks for the information!
Anon Mouse Czechrepublic	Posted at 12:46pm on August 10th, 2010
I dont know if its related, but I had a similiar issue. VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE (116) but the name of causing module was ATIKMPAG. The weird thing was, it was crashing only while playing flv videos in browser. Sometimes instantly after start, sometimes a while later. I solved it simply by updating catalyst drivers from 10.6 to 10.7 configuration: win7 x64, radeon hd 4870, iCore 3
Arno Netherlands	Posted at 5:24am on July 30th, 2010
The right timings in bios for mem will help also. So check with your vendor what the settings should be. Manual put them in the bios to block out this...
Max Croatia	Posted at 2:48am on July 27th, 2010
Omg Omg Omg,Chuckster83 thank you so much for the tip, this has been killing me for months, but i finally solved it, turns out Win7 thought i had 4 processors, instead of the actual 2, jeez i couldnt be happier, thanks man! Cheers!
Linkin Park Japan	Posted at 11:30am on July 24th, 2010
What is aero?? Administrator comment: Windows Aero is the graphical user interface and the default theme in most editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7, operating systems. Just google "turn off aero" there are plenty of guides, its very easy to do.
optimusxcrime cleveland ohio	Posted at 6:51am on July 22nd, 2010
I tried every fix on this page and then some. tried about every operating system out there. nothing. b.s.o.d with atikmpag.sys error crash. Finally, I removed one of my sticks of ram and set the bios settings to default. now i never have any problems while only using one channel for ram. my eyefinity is working like a champ and i love it!! Thanks for all the help people....I was at my ropes end with this!! u guys rock!!!!!
goldygopher wash dc	Posted at 2:03am on July 21st, 2010
I disabled Windows Aero, and then did the directions as above...I think it may have worked: I found that if you go into the system configuration utility (Start menu then type "system configuration" in the search bar) and the choose the boot tab and then to advanced options. There you will see at the top two boxes that you can check one is processor and the other is memory. If you check both of these and choose one processor and then the max amount of memory that is on your system. Hit apply and ok. Restart your system and it should run quickly in 2d and 3d works!
Thomas South CA, USA	Posted at 9:25pm on July 20th, 2010
I found a solution that required manual entries for PowerMizer settings in the Registry. Essentially disabling the feature. No issues since then and GPU runs well below heat requirements. How do you set the parameters as described below for an i7-860?
Eric Ray Texas	Posted at 10:25am on July 17th, 2010
My computer crashed with this message when I had a game booted, I minimized it and when I clicked it again it froze and gave me the error message. I restarted my computer and immediately upon starting, I get the driver crashed/recovered message, seconds before getting a permanently black screen with just a mouse. any help?
Neatherblade Sweden	Posted at 9:23am on July 14th, 2010
Thanks to ZikO i got my nvlddmkm fixed. I suggest more people try his solution.
Chuckster83 london	Posted at 6:13pm on July 7th, 2010
Hey Presto!!!!! I got mine sorted!! My specs Win 7 ultimate 32bit, 2GB Ram, Ati Xpress 1100, AMD Turion 64 x 2 Step Flow: 1. Go to start 2. Type system configuration 3. Choose the boot tab 4. Then advanced options 5. There you will see at the top two boxes that you can check one is processor and the other is memory. If you check both of these and choose one processor and then the max amount of memory that is on your system. Hit apply and ok. Restart your system and it should run quickly in 2d and 3d works!
starcode Australia	Posted at 6:20pm on June 28th, 2010
switching off aero may fix it but I can't watch DVDs on this setting. Any suggestions?
Rafael Spain	Posted at 12:15pm on June 21st, 2010
It could be a problem with a damaged PCI-e slot, its not so unusual with this heavy graphic cards. In my case I changed the graphic card to the other PCI-e slot and Voila!
Chris Canada	Posted at 11:20am on June 18th, 2010
Update: I had posted earlier that turning off Aero had worked. (See below posts.) For the most part it had. Then I installed some Vista updates after which my system would freeze periodically when I had the Compro TV tuner software running. There would be no display driver error, just the PC would freeze and a cold restart of the PC would be required. After rolling back those Vista updates, it seemed the freeze problem went away. After seeing a special on an ATI Radeon 4350 ($25) I decided to upgrade my 690G IGP to a discrete video card to see if would improve performance. My Vista Experience score for Vista graphics went from 3.1 (IGP) to 3.7 (Radeon 4350 512M) and I turned Aero back on and so far it seems to be running smoothly. No display driver error crashes; no screen freezes requiring a reset when I run the TV software. My system seems stable now but I am not sure why. The 690G IGP was by ATI and upgrading to an ATI discrete video card seems to have worked. It could be because the video card has more horsepower so can run Vista more stably, maybe because it took some load off the shared system memory, or maybe because the drivers were better coded. It's really hard to say but its been completely stable for the past week even with Aero on and my TV software running in the back! Administrator comment: Thanks for your tips Chris!
Steve Florida	Posted at 6:01am on June 15th, 2010
Found my fix. My SLI was the issue or more importantly my 2 9800GTS. I tested both of them separately and found that one of them was not working correctly. My nvlddmkm error went away once I just used the single card. So, if you are using 2 graphic cards, then try one at a time.
Dave Florida	Posted at 10:39pm on June 10th, 2010
Finally a solution for me. Installed the latest driver from ATI 48 hrs ago and not a single video fault since. I'm back to using Aero and no other modifications. Driver 10-1_vista32_win7_32 Using Win7 32 bit
saleh dubai	Posted at 8:54pm on June 6th, 2010
Put the computer display to classic. It solved all my problems
Johnny Lim	Posted at 5:31pm on June 2nd, 2010
Using win 7 pro 64-bit here. I have been encountering this problem with atikmdag since the release of the 10.4 drivers. I have come to the conclusion that even with cleaning out old driver versions completely before installing new ones does NOT solve the atikmdag problem at all. I did a 100% clean install of the latest 10.5 and 10.5a hotfix drivers. Nothing I did seemed to solve the problem, so I wiped out the 10.5 drivers completely and installed their older 10.4a hotfix drivers instead. As the atikmdag BSODs kept re-occurring despite my doing a clean install of every single driver version and inspecting my hardware, it is only logical to conclude that this is due to major bugs inside the drivers and the only thing they can do now is to fix it. I have filed numerous reports of this issue to ati using their Catalyst Crew Feedback Form.
forest Lublin	Posted at 2:33pm on May 22nd, 2010
When I installed secondary 2GB DDR2 in my notebook this problem has appear. It looked like that: When I was playing Bioshock 2 every back to menu, saving, loading caused 1-2 sec freeze, before installing second module of DDR2 there was not freezing like its now. It seems to be VGA overloaded with Windows Aero. It works also when you playing games. I turned off Windows Aero and game now works without VGA reset. There are no longer any input lags. Only 1-2 second freeze in menu remains. But performance is a lot better than before installing secondary DDR2 Administrator comment: Good info thanks :)
anti-ati Hong Kong	Posted at 7:29am on May 22nd, 2010
Getting rid of ATI is the only solution. F*k you ATI! Administrator comment: LOL*
Linas Poland	Posted at 3:34pm on May 21st, 2010
I experienced such a problem every 10 minutes or more often with w7, but when I have played games there was no such error. so I disabled aero style and problem is gone...for now.. .thanks a lot ;)
deb india	Posted at 3:28pm on May 15th, 2010
I am using Ati 5670 1GB card. have installed 10.4 driver. Whenever I am going to play any game, it will freeze after few minutes and at the desktop, there is a notification:- "display driver amd stopped responding and has recovered" I am very much confused how to solve this problem !!
Anonymous Location unknown	Posted at 3:33pm on May 12th, 2010
I found a way around the problem not a fix. I just reduced my power level to power saving and presto.try it,it might work for you.
George Athens	Posted at 1:35pm on April 13th, 2010
For gods shake Get an antivirus and PC Registry Cleaner for Permanent Results. Do the obvious..
mam uk	Posted at 9:57am on April 10th, 2010
I have been having this problem for some time and it only occurs when the charge is running out & I connect the power supply. I am not technical so the easiest way around it I have found is to plug power supply in before it gets too low, or recharge when PC not in use & I no longer have the problem. I know this isn't really a fix but its a workaround for anyone who doesn't want to risk damaging their system with file deletions etc. Hope this helps at least 1 person! Thanks for all your help with all the above
Chris Canada	Posted at 5:31am on April 8th, 2010
I am writing to inform that turning Aero off has permanently resolved my display driver crash problem. It has been a week and not a single incident. I run AMD Athlon DuoCore 4200+ processor with on board ATI video, 2G of memory 2x 1G, Vista and have had this video problem for over 2 years. The crash happens almost 2 to 3x daily. I have tried driver updates, uninstalling the KB patches, adding KB patches, changing video configurations and bit ratings, and none of these tricks worked. Finally I tried switching Aero to Basic and it has been one week problem free and I am certain the issue is resolved now. Thank you all for sharing your solutions.
Mike Location unknown	Posted at 8:58pm on April 5th, 2010
I use i7 and limit my cpu to 1 core and everything work fine but hell that is not a way to resolve this. Anyone have solution let me know. I have ati firepro m7820
AL13N13 Location unknown	Posted at 1:32pm on April 5th, 2010
I made a mistake. It was not GPU overheating making problems for me. Cooling GPU helped but it didn't completely removed the problem. What truly fixed problem for me was turning CPU values to default. I have AMD Athlon X2 5000+ 2.6 GHz which was OC to almost 3.0 Ghz. After I returned values to default I had no errors ( I have been abusing my pc for almost a week and there was no sign of error ). I turned AERO on, GPU is reaching 105 degrees under the load, i returned all RAM sticks back and all programs and games are still working perfectly. Btw my mobo is asus m4a78. I hope this helps. Administrator comment: Thanks for your help
Chris Canada	Posted at 1:30am on April 4th, 2010
Turning the Aero off worked for me.
Chris Canada	Posted at 4:53am on April 3rd, 2010
I have changed Aero to Classic and it seems to have solved the problem.
Azazel Finaland	Posted at 8:14pm on March 31st, 2010
I had the sam Bullsh*t right after I installed Windows 7. Spent a couple of days finding information online, and I found this forum. I think no-one here said it directly, (or i just missed it) but what really helped me was to downclock all your parts. I had to downclock my CPU from ~3.5GHz(O.C) to 3.4GHz (Stock) Memory from 1600MHz (O.C) to 1333MHz (Stock) GPU Used ATi Overdrive to put GPU core to 400MHz(idle) and memory to 950MHz. (Stocks@ GPU:775MHz and memory 1000MHz [Palits own overclock]) RIG: ASUS Crosshair III Formula AMD 790FX / SB750 AXP SuperNova 600W PSU AMD Phenom II 965BE 140W ~3.4GHz -Cooling: Zalman CNPS9500A LED 4GB Ripjaws DDR3-1333 9-9-9-24 @ 1333MHz Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition Creative SupremeFX X-Fi That fixed my problem 100% (hopefully). It is strange that overclocks were stable on XP and after changing to 7 drivers fail constantly.
AL13N13 Location unknown	Posted at 2:25pm on March 28th, 2010
I had the same problem for almost two weeks. I tried all these fixes including the clean reinstall of win 7 64bit but nothing worked. Then I tried to find solution by myself. I installed several monitoring tools and compared the results. I found out that my problem was GPU overheating. I have ATI HD4850 ( first version ) and when ever temperatures rose above 105-110 degrees Celsius the display drivers would crash. For some reason default cooler was no longer enough. I created profile in CCC with low GPU frequency and maximum fan speed. I use this profile to cool down the GPU to about 60 degrees then switch to default profile and I can play games for several hours, and then I repeat if necessary. I will post again when I buy some better cooler for my GPU. This is how i fixed my problem, I hope it helped.
ZikO Poland	Posted at 1:51pm on March 28th, 2010
I have windows 7 installed and this problem always occurs working with PS CS 4. I have GeForce Nvidia 275 GTX. My solution: Go to Advanced Srttings of your Geforce and switch Milti-display/Mixed GPU acceleration to either Compability mode or Single GPU. Hopefully it helps.
mevv Venezuela	Posted at 2:45pm on March 24th, 2010
I have the solution for my problem. I found that if you go into the system configuration utility (Start menu then type "system configuration" in the search bar) and the choose the boot tab and then to advanced options. There you will see at the top two boxes that you can check one is processor and the other is memory. If you check both of these and choose one processor and then the max amount of memory that is on your system. Hit apply and ok. Restart your system and it should run quickly in 2d and 3d works!