Restart Display Driver

Question

When a display driver crashes, Windows will recovery it by reinitializing the display driver.  Is there a way to do this manually, if my display becomes corrupted?

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Answer 1

Hi Shawn B. Keene,

If display drivers go corrupt then, we may have to uninstall and install the latest available drivers.

In order to do it manually, you can uninstall the driver from the computer through device manager and\or from control panel to install it.

**Step 1:**From Device Manager.

a.       Click Start and type “devmgmt.msc” (without quotes) and press Enter.

b.      Find Display Adapters and expand it. Right click on the adapter select Uninstall.

c.       Restart the computer. Windows should install the drivers required.

**Step 2:**You may also uninstall the drivers from Control Panel.

a.       Open Programs and Features by clicking theStart button, Control Panel, Programs and thenPrograms and Features.

b.      Find the drivers form the list and then clickUninstall.

If Windows does not install the drivers, you can log on to the manufacturer website to download and install the latest ones.

Regards,

Syed N – Microsoft Support

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Answer 2

Of course it is not the "Answer".

It is just another example of "Answer Marking Nepotism" in the MS Answers community.

Answer Marking Nepotism works like this:

When one Microsoft engaged alleged "expert" replies to a topic, if the topic goes idle for 5-10 days another Microsoft engaged alleged "expert" will mark that reply as the "Answer" even if the reply is untested, impossible to work, doesn't make sense - it doesn't even have to be close.  It IS the "Answer".

In the case it took only 8 days for automatic answer marking nepotism to kick in.  This is very likely how these alleged "experts" are able to keep up their answer performance quota...  marking each others replies as answers seems like excellent job security.  They certainly are "experts" at that.

Since this practice of answer marking nepotism has been allowed to go on for many years one can only imagine the thousands and thousands and thousands of "Answers" that have polluted the community that are not answers at all.

Answer 3

Have you tried the Win-Shift-Ctrl-B key combination? It usually restarts your graphics driver and purges the graphics stack in Windows 7 and above.

Answer 4

This is not an answer to the question that was asked.

Sometimes an application has an error and corrupts the video buffer, or leaves the display driver in an unusual state. Restarting the display driver can resolve these issues.

The question asked was not "How do I reinstall my display driver" or "should I reinstall my display driver", it was "how do I RESTART my display driver?"

I'm here because I'd like to restart my display driver without restarting my computer. It sucks that this incorrect answer has been here for so long that it's #1 on google.

Answer 5

Wow, you learn something every day.  I had never heard of this shortcut before now.  I got curious and found several places that mentioned it, including official Microsoft Surface troubleshooting documents: https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/surface-wont-turn-on-or-wake-from-sleep