Display Driver atikmdag / nvlddmkm Stopped Responding

Johnny   Melbourne 

  Posted at 1:55pm on June 29th, 2009

I fixed my nvlddmkm problem by reducing the clock speeds. I have an XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog Edition which is the overclocked version of the 8800GT.

I just used the nVidia control panel to reduce the shader, memory and core clock speeds back to the normal 8800GT clock speeds.

This fixed my problem so if anyone has an overclocked GPU I recommend reducing the clock speed back to the original speeds.

Hope this work's!

Editor: This is what worked for me as well. Thanks for posting.

Karsten   Germany 

  Posted at 10:43am on June 26th, 2009

I would also like to highly recommend Bios-updates. It made it for me quite better since the memory compatibility was improved for my MB (ASUS PQ5 PRO)

Darryl   BC, Canada 

  Posted at 7:59am on June 24th, 2009

I have had this problem with my ATI 3870 since day one of getting it.
At first I thought it was a vista OS issue, so I switched to the windows 7 beta, after reinstalling windows numerous times the problem persisted.

Then I figured it was a problem with the card itself,
But when I tried installing the card on another computer, the error didn't appear.

Then I thought it might be my motherboard, so I bought a new motherboard, but the error still appeared.

Then I realized it might be my RAM,
So I tried testing it with each individual stick and it turns out that my problem was due to one faulty stick of RAM.

I have replaced it and so far so good.

Dren Rugova   Kosova 

  Posted at 11:28pm on June 10th, 2009

Hi guys,

This problem went away for me once I turned of the windows aero and put the classic theme on!!!.

Thank you for this brilliant article.

Ayden   Aus 

  Posted at 12:20pm on June 10th, 2009

I found out that if you are running a graphics card that is PCI-Express X16 on a motherboard with PCI-Express 2.0 vista will give u this problem.

I hope this helps cause it fixed my problems.

Jermyn   Singapore 

  Posted at 6:49pm on June 5th, 2009

hi guys, my laptop is still having e problem. switching to classic view dosen't help at all. sad. :(

jack   brooklyn ny 

  Posted at 6:40pm on June 4th, 2009

HP pavilion dv4..

I switched to classic view and everything is fine...

Danijel   Serbia 

  Posted at 6:40pm on May 29th, 2009

KB952287 caused this problem !!
just remove it!!

Jerome   Chile 

  Posted at 2:06pm on May 22nd, 2009

Removing KB952287 corrected the problem on a Dell Studio XPS 1640 with ATI Mobility HD Radeon 3670.

Thank you for having the solution on your site.

Chris   Syracuse 

  Posted at 8:38pm on May 18th, 2009

I had this problem in Vista.I tried Windows7 on another HDD and still had this problem.

Aways in DX10 mode only. I increased my PCI-E frequency from 100 to 105 now I have not had a single crash.

AF   SWE 

  Posted at 1:33am on May 2nd, 2009

I never had this problem until recently should mention that I have had vista installed since 2007-02-03

I'm bad in writing dates they all differers from country so writing it as it shows in my cmd anyway got "display driver not responding" while playing WoW and my first BSOD happened 27th of April this year the second one 30th April and the two last ones happened may 1st, while reading the dmp file atikmdag is the possible cause of this error.

Never even installed KB952287 still have it in available updates. Got the latest chipsets drivers and GPU drivers installed still not working.

Should also mention that I don't have any SP installed "yet"

Amma   UK 

  Posted at 4:07pm on April 21st, 2009

I changed my desktop display from the vista red one to windows classic. I've had no problems since, fingers crossed.

ATI   ATI 

  Posted at 3:30am on April 2nd, 2009

A directX error to be fixed by disabling Aero.

Xaver   Aufm Berg 

  Posted at 11:40am on April 1st, 2009

I am free of the error for 3 months now.

I deactivated Aero and used Vista Basic instead.

rawu   Czech republic 

  Posted at 2:17am on March 29th, 2009

Please hotfix or other update for kt600 chipsets and radeon x1300 512mb
thx

Martas   Lithuania 

  Posted at 4:26pm on March 24th, 2009

I think I know the cause of this problem, I was having same driver crashes all the time almost with all games and now I got windows7 and I have no crashes so basically its mainly Vistas fault

muz   Poland 

  Posted at 9:05pm on March 22nd, 2009

Hey all, I have had this problem for a while and nothing helped - even updating the driver from the HP website.

Updating the driver to the newest one downloaded from ATI website - I have ATI Radeon HD 3200 - did the trick. Remember that the driver on the pc manufacturers website - for me it was hp - is hardly ever the newest one! For ATI cards use game.amd.com!

And download the newest catalyst center, unpack it and install the update from the hardware manager - not from the installer, it may screw up some machine-specific options, such as touch screen

hawkeye1967   UK 

  Posted at 8:39am on March 22nd, 2009

I Uninstalled KB952287 update as per instructions at top of this page,then ran an update and KB952287 is there to be updated and states it is is IMPORTANT!

Do I never update this file number?

T-Bone   Tallinn, Estonia 

  Posted at 8:31pm on March 16th, 2009

I found a solution to my "display driver has stopped responding" problem.

1)disable vista aero
2)stop and disable a service called DWM (device window manager)

stopped my flickering :)
let me know how it works out

Joe   USA 

  Posted at 7:47pm on March 16th, 2009

Would these fixes work with a
Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family
graphics card on windows vista (32bit)?

erhan   erhan 

  Posted at 3:19am on March 14th, 2009

thanks

Martas   Lithuania 

  Posted at 11:32am on March 10th, 2009

So me and my classmate brought identical PCs from same shop and I'm having this problem with Ati radeon 4870 and today I think I found the problem.

The difference between our PCs was that he turned off windows Vista Updates from day he bought it and i didn't so now I'm manually uninstalling about 50 updates one by one.

Hope this helps.

Editor:

Thanks keep us informed!

Lewis   England 

  Posted at 9:15pm on February 23rd, 2009

I have a feeling it is because I'm running an integrated chip. Although I will admit I had this problem from the second I got my laptop and it was fixed when I downloaded Vista SP1. Now it only occurs when I try to play this specific game.

Just so anyone else knows I'm running:

Dell Inspiron 1601 (Laptop)
TK-53 processors 1.7ghz (Athlon 64 x 2)
ATI Radeon 1150 integrated chip
2gb ram

Martin   Isle of Wight 

  Posted at 6:50pm on February 17th, 2009

Intel g31 mx-k mobo
q6600 2.4
4gb ram 800mhz
2 500gb hd not raid

Removing one stick of ram solves this problem for me but another solution is use windows 7 beta with ati beta drivers 3d mark vantage ran fine for me and nearly always crashes when running on vista!

Jan Derk   Netherlands 

  Posted at 9:09pm on February 16th, 2009

The dual monitor set-up was causing my problem too. No more crashed after disconnecting the old Samsung 171P DV.

After the Catalyst 9.1 driver was released I reconnected the old monitor. And sure enough: no more crashes after 2 weeks.

It looks like ATI fixed the problem with the dual monitor setup in the 9.1 driver.

Ray   New York 

  Posted at 6:37pm on February 15th, 2009

Great Article.

Turning of Aero worked for me. Vista is terrible. I would use stronger language to describe my feelings but the swear blocker prevents me.

Kevin   USA 

  Posted at 12:29am on February 13th, 2009

Gux from France is right. its the Windows Experience that does it.

I restored my system to the day before WE was run for the first time and the problem went away immediately.

Tony   Podgorica 

  Posted at 12:10pm on February 9th, 2009

Hey guys
This is how I resolved this problem.

After trying all the above solutions on my new computer. none of them worked for me.

In my case the problem was a unstable home energy system. And my old UPS wasn't strong enough to maintain the needed power during the games.

So I bought a stronger UPS and the problem is gone.

I'm not saying this can work for you to0. But its worth trying. Of course don't buy a stronger UPS. Borrow it from someone just for testing.

My Pc configuration
Intel Core2Quad Q9400
MB Asus P5Q Deluxe
Ram 4 Gig (4 sticks)
VGA Ati4870 1GB 256bit DDR5

old ups 500W
new ups 1000W

Aleks   Russia 

  Posted at 3:40am on February 9th, 2009

I had this problem for 10 months(!)

I tested all the possible solutions, but the problem was in BAD RAM MODULE, so, try to test yours, and this may help!!!!!!

Ian   London 

  Posted at 2:10pm on February 6th, 2009

Dell 420 XPS
Intel, Core 2, Quad CPU
ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
3 Gig RAM

I recently done as Steve from Australia done. I went back to one monitor recently and realised all was well.

But, my card has two ports, why can I not use them both at the same time!!

Hybridchild   Ireland 

  Posted at 9:45pm on January 29th, 2009

Well I was having problems with my 4850 in that when I hooked up a second display the computer locked up in Vista 64, XP was fine.

However I upgraded to the latest Catalyst drivers (9.1) and it seems to be gone, have a second display hooked up and working fine with no problems so far.

Hopefully it stays like this

theman1364   Klamath Falls 

  Posted at 9:41am on January 25th, 2009

I have the same problem all the way at the top, the display driver...
and I don't get what your saying on how to fix it, if someone knows how 2 fix it can they pm me asap at

neil.rulz@hotmail.com

please I am begging you! I need help!

krkim   seoul 

  Posted at 8:03pm on January 24th, 2009

I also met same problem on HP Proliant 115/Windows Server 2008.
I wonder it is really Physical problem(PSU/MEM/..etc)..

I found it works good on Ubuntu / Windows 2003,but it is still problem with Vista/7/2008.

Didier   Alsace 

  Posted at 2:18pm on January 23rd, 2009

Hello,

I recently bought a new PC with two screens but He always loses the display driver atikmdag until the PC crash.

If I disconnect the second screen, the PC turns well and there is no more crash caused by the lost of the display driver.

Is there a solution to work with both screen ?

Didier.

OS : Vista 32bits
Graph card: ATI Readeon 4870
Motherboard: AsusTek P5Q PRO

debri   California 

  Posted at 5:17pm on January 22nd, 2009

I had problems with my Toshiba Tecra A9 laptop with NVidia Quadro NVS 130M. Uninstalling KB952287 did not work for me. Around the same time I began having start up hangs.

Eventually using Rivatuner to reduce the clock frequency slightly removed the problem. Still working on the start up hangs now.

Gux   France 

  Posted at 12:15am on January 22nd, 2009

I've tested most all solutions and finally found a new solution that definitely fixes the problem (with a ATI card).

I'm not sure the CCC is the cause, but I found when the problem start to occur : install the "display driver only" and NEVER, NEVER UPDATE YOUR WINDOWS VISTA EXPERIENCE INDEX !

LET IT BE 1.0 !!!

This is what destroy the system. If you test and update it, you're doomed !

Chris Wilkes-Green   London 

  Posted at 7:48pm on January 16th, 2009

Un-installing KB952287 worked a treat for me. Great work everyone, especially Matthew for taking the time to isolate the problem.

Tony   London 

  Posted at 9:10am on January 14th, 2009

What a load of rubbish... Guess work and premature conclusions all over the place.

I will not remove half my memory, half of my CPU cores, monitors or remove Aero to "fix" the problem. That would be like remove a leg just because your toes are in pain after you kicked a rock.

In most cases this is a problem with a very specific driver or with overheating / overclocking of some component (usually the graphics card itself, but could be anything else) so it fails. And to reduce the workload for that part by slowing down the rest of the system will often remove the symptoms.

But I didn't buy a fast computer just to NOT use its performance.

First try to remove any over clocking and increased voltage from your system (Gfx, RAM, CPU), and if that doesn't help, get some hardware monitoring software to see if you have a temperature problem (google "speedfan" for example).

If that doesn't help, you can start and chase drivers and updates. What the updates and newer drivers mostly do is to use more of your system's functionality, and therefore it increases the load / temperature on components and they will fail if they are not up for the task in the first place.

Also check your memory!

Vista comes with a memory check utility built in, other users can use memtest (again, Google is your friend).

Or you could file a lawsuit about something you don't understand, and blame someone else for your ignorance... ;o)

*Editor*
In lot's of cases people are simply removing a windows hotfix, this seems to clear up the problem.

In my case it was my overclocked video card (that's how I bought it) that was causing the problem, I underclocked it slightly to solve the problem.

It's a frustrating problem for everyone and no one fix cures all and judging by the poll it looks like some believe it to be either hardware or software.

Basically none of us want to spend our spare time trying to solve a problem that isn't our fault!

Todd   USA 

  Posted at 12:10am on January 14th, 2009

Fixed with solution 1) uninstalling the hotfix KB952287.

ATI HD3450 Hybrid graphics
Windows Vista Home Premium
AMD Phenom 8450 Triple Core

Hector   Venezuela 

  Posted at 5:53pm on January 13th, 2009

Uninstalling the "KB952287" patch works for my with the 8.12

SLU   miramichi 

  Posted at 5:13pm on January 4th, 2009

VisionTek Radeon 3870x2OC
4G RAM(4x1G
AMD Phenom 9500
WinVista x64

100% fixed now and after trying everything researched on the Internet, simply UNDER Clocking the card (using RivaTuner and only during gameplay) down from 840Mhz to 830Mhz and enabled low-level fan control to 80% duty cycle resolved it 100%.

I Was getting error for 1 month constantly after a minute or 2 of play, been 4 days now and never happened once!

trey   texas 

  Posted at 11:09am on January 4th, 2009

woooooooooo thank u guys so much!!!
I turned off aero and it worked like a charm now I can watch naruto with no problems good thing too cause I bought this hard drive from ebay and I thought I was getting ripped off lol!

Anyway thank you guys soooo much.

Toni   Finland 

Posted at 8:44pm on January 1st, 2009

KB953186 did the trick on vista.

James   UK 

  Posted at 11:03pm on December 25th, 2008

Hi,
I am running vista32 with an ati 4870 card, Catalyst 8.12.

The driver only seems to crash when using two screens with different inputs.

For example:
Screen 1 - DVI
Screen 2 - HDMI or d-sub.

Using both on a DVI connection seems to fix the problem. Of course, some screens do not have a DVI port so still waiting on ATI to fix it.

Hope this helps.

Jack   UK 

  Posted at 7:51pm on December 23rd, 2008

This is bad, I have tried all fixes without success. Including buying additional hardware.

I have removed 2/4 1GB PC8500 memory modules and it seems to be a bit more stable?
I'm using a 780i chip set.

Eduardo   Dias 

  Posted at 3:57am on December 21st, 2008

guys I finally found my fix if you have an asus mobo try setting your dram frequency to match your ram speed and check your ram manufacturer for the appropriate dram voltage and set the according to recommendations

please read your mobo manual to see how to do this

fritz137   Georgia 

  Posted at 12:33pm on December 5th, 2008

I was able to fix this problem by disabling Aero on Vista.

What a tragedy that neither Microsoft nor ATI did anything to help solve this problem for thousands of their customers.

grbenny   Oregon 

  Posted at 10:44pm on December 2nd, 2008

I have been having this same problem while using a Samsung external monitor with my Toshiba laptop.

There are a lot of solutions here, so I went with the simplest one - reduce the colour resolution on the "extended desktop" monitor.

I usually use the Samsung as the primary monitor and extend the desktop to the laptop.

I reduced the colour to 16 bit and also tried it at 8 bit and have not had a single ATIKMDAG error while running that way.

I can live with that but it sure seems like a problem that should not exist!

Thanks!

jhkim   Korea 

  Posted at 6:39pm on November 20th, 2008

The Matthews solution also worked for me.

I had experienced BSOD 3~4 times a week but now the problem almost gone.

After installed the KB952287 update, I have experienced BSOD only 1 time for the last two weeks

Thank you Matthew.

Windows Vista Home Premium (32bit)
CPU: Intel Quad Core Q6600
RAM: 4096MB
GRAPHIC: ATI Radeon HD4850 512MB
MOTHERBOARD: Asus P5Q-E

Im not a genius   Satu Mare 

  Posted at 5:38pm on November 19th, 2008

I THINK I FOUND THE PROBLEM!! Guys,you wont f***ing believe me. I have the same problem you have,that error with your display driver has stopped working when I want to play half life2 or any game related to it.

I was just sick about this error,after reading a bunch of comments I thought I should try to resolve the problem........so I right clicked my hl2 short cut and went to properties then I wrote at the target after the "blablabla" -config -atikmdag

When I entered in it I jumped, walk fast and the error was gone ,it didn't showed up, I don't know if it truly works but it didn't appeared any more,so you go to your game short cut then right click on it>>>>>properties then you look for the target after "D:half-life 2 episode twohl2.exe" you put -config - atikmdag hope it works!

*Update*

Guys,nvm it only worked for about 20 minutes -.-,damn it

Wim Verstraeten   Lovenjoel 

  Posted at 8:15am on November 15th, 2008

After 2 years of crashes I lowered the Memory Bus of my MSI8800GTX with +- 50Mhz and everything works perfect now. I use NVidia NTune on VISTA 32.

Henry Innis   Australia, Sydney 

  Posted at 11:32am on November 5th, 2008

Setting up a class action lawsuit against these people (Nvidia, Microsoft Ubisoft ((Ubisoft corrupted my files leading to this problem on my comp))). Email me henryinnis at Yahoo or visit freewebs dot com / SueNvidiaUbisoftMicrosoft

Randy   Canada 

  Posted at 1:55am on November 4th, 2008

After fresh format of Windows vista and latest nvidia drivers, the problem totally disappeared. But make sure you disable automatic updates, cause one of those updates brings back the dreaded error. (nvidmkm) Try it, you'll see

David   London 

  Posted at 4:16pm on October 29th, 2008

I would give this a 5, however there is one major problem. I try downloading the file updates but when it comes to installing the, they both say they do not apply to my system...despite the fact I know I am 32bit.

Below are my specs

System Info

Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium

System Manufacturer: TOSHIBA
System Model: *
BIOS: Ver 1.00PARTTBL

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7300 @ 2.00GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.0GHz

Memory: 2046MB RAM
Page File: 1624MB used, 2703MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DxDiag Version: 6.00.6001.18000 32bit Unicode

jc   bacoor, philippines 

  Posted at 1:55am on October 26th, 2008

I think they are correct, deleting KB952287 kinda solved my problem. I never crashes now. And then the next morning, Windows Update tries to install that fix again, i just hide it so it wont install ever again! lol

I have ATI Radeon 2600 PRO
Vista 32 bit
2Gb Ram (single stick)
Intel Core Duo 3Ghz

ps, when I have XP, I have the same problem, I just thought that switching to Vista might solve it, but i was wrong.. hahah