Video error help

CommTech3906

For the last several weeks, I have been annoyingly having a video issue on my PC. My display will randomly reset, whether it be in a game, watching a movie, or simply on the desktop. When it recovers, I get the windows alert that the 'video display kernel (version) has stopped working and been recovered'.

I googled it and found several related issues with some 'solutions', but most of them look to be not only a few years old, but also on other Windows versions.

Im running Win7 32bit with an Nvidia GTX9800+. I know its a bit old but still does the job. Ive never had this issue before. I have tried multiple driver versions, consisting of completely removing drivers and hardware from system to start fresh.

I am more curious as to whether this is a solvable software issue or a fatal hardware issue. i dont have any performance issues when its working fine (games or movies), just the random video reset.

Any ideas before i kick this thing into my shower? lol

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Comcast Communications Technician 5+ years

oblioman

Could possibly be a heat issue. Have you pulled the fan from the vid card to insure that it is clean and running smoothly. Speccy will give you real time heat specs.

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CommTech3906

The thought occurred to me. I actually disassembled my video card about 2 months ago after never doing so in the 5 years ive had it because it was starting to overheat. Ive visually checked it and its still in good shape. I originally thought it was a driver issue as I didnt have the problem until a recent update (about 3 versions ago now) so thats when I started trying different versions; completely removing old files in the process.

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Comcast Communications Technician 5+ years

oblioman

Since you have eliminated the heat issue, one other thought comes to mind. You mentioned that you have installed, re-installed drivers several times, have you completely uninstalled the previous drivers before installing the new ones? Don't rely on the standard windows program uninstaller, use one that's a bit more in depth. CCleaner has a decent one but REVO uninstaller digs a bit deeper. Both are free downloads.

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CommTech3906

Yeah I did that at least once already (removed drivers). Did uninstalls as well as manually deleted files and folders. Its really quite odd.....I noticed today that I can play Borderlands 2 for at least 2-3 hours without the screen resetting, but it will do it in less than an hour in any other games, including just browsing around internet/desktop.

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Comcast Communications Technician 5+ years

oblioman

Then it's got to be the memory on the card. One thing piqued me curiosity is that you were getting a windows error (kernel). You went through and reseated the card, updated drivers, made sure it was not overheating, basically did everything right when troubleshooting. Kernel errors develop either with bad drivers or bad hardware. Since you have replaced drivers, me thoughts are that your vid card is taking a dump on you.

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CommTech3906

Thats like major super status lol. I was checking vid cards online the other night and they are easily $200 more than they were when I bought this one lol. I think I'll ride it out as long as i can lol

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Comcast Communications Technician 5+ years

lsilvest

You can get a card that's an upgrade to the 9800 for $70 to $80 even though the 9800 is still a good card. I only paid about 80 for an ATI 6770. If you had another card laying around that you could swap in it might tell you something before you get another one.

Also, Oblioman's suggestion of using Revo is an excellent idea. It will clean out things you will never find that could be causing the problem.

CommTech3906

I will check it out then. I assume Revo works on Windows7? When I clicked the link for it, all I saw was 'Maintain XP, etc.etc..' And I dont have another card unfortunately. I will actually do a format and windows reload before I buy a new one though. I keep things on seperate drives so I wont have much to replace if I do wipe it

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Comcast Communications Technician 5+ years

lsilvest

Revo works fine on 7. Also, before you buy a card, I suggest looking at the charts on Tom's Hardware which will show you which cards are comparable to your 9800 and which would be upgrades. You can also see the performance charts on various games with each card. If you can't find it I'll get you a link to it.