FIXED nvlddmkm gaming/video crash error (Bad RAM).

Question

I wanted to share how I resolved the frustrating nvlddmkm issue many people continue to experience.

TL;DR:
One of two DIMMs (RAM sticks) on my computer was faulty, causing errors in the GPU's ability to consistently access the graphics driver.
Removing the faulty DIMM solved the issue.

The issue:

Many users (myself included) experience a crash while playing games or using graphic-intensive applications.

This can manifest as a black screen, crash to desktop, unresponsive system or sometimes immediate system restart.

In Windows Event Viewer, this can show as a Warning from Source: Display, Event ID 4101:

"Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and successfully recovered."

It also appears in Unreal Engine crash reports as an Unreal Process crash:

"Unreal Engine is exiting due to D3D device being lost".

Issue appears in 3D Mark as a crash during benchmarking, with a benchmarking score of 0 and notification "an error has occurred".

Interestingly, Heaven Benchmark did not encounter this issue.

Attempted fixes:

Many people have posted solutions to this issue, and sometimes they work for some users, but never did for me.

These solutions include:

• Clean Re-install of graphics driver.
• Removal of old drivers using DDU.
• Manually updating every system driver on the computer via Windows Device Manager.
• Automatically updating every system driver on the computer via DriverEasy.
• Changing Timeout Delay Recovery (Tdr) in the system Registry**.
• Ensuring all overclocking is set to default settings.
• Underclocking the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU).
• Setting all system power setting to maximum performance.
• Replacing Graphics Processing Unit with new and improved GPU.
• Replacing Power Supply Unit with new and improved PSU.
• Replacing Hard Disk Drive with new and improved Solid State Disk Drive.
• Clean install of Windows.
• Command Prompt diagnosis and file repair via System File Checker command.
• 3x visits to local PC repair shop.
• Checking computer Memory Integrity via Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool.

**I must stress, updating the system Registry can have negative repercussions on system stability if done incorrectly.

The solution that worked:

The Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool didn't find any issues with my RAM, but it got me thinking. If there was a problem with only one of the two DIMMs, could the tool determine this?

From some late-night YouTube watching, I learned that RAM is actually pretty darn important to the system, and also that RAM performance can degrade or even fail over time. Luckily, it's comparatively cheap to replace relative to the other computer components.

I removed one of the two DIMMs, and found the computer wouldn't boot when powered on.

• Swapping the DIMMs resulted in a successful power-on and boot to Windows.
• Running off one DIMM, I was able to successfully run application without the nvlddmkm crash.
• Running off one DIMM was stable, albeit with performance limitations due to only 4GB RAM being available.
• Re-inserting the faulty DIMM caused nvlddmkm errors to return.

I bought two new DIMMs to replace the old RAM, and hey-presto, 3-years of nvlddmkm problems were now resolved, and has never re-occurred 6-months later.

Summary:

If you are experiencing nvlddmkm error crashes, driver updates/software solutions may work for you.

If not, you may have faulty hardware, and this could be the RAM, like I experienced.

Test your RAM by removing one of your two DIMMs, and then swapping them and testing again.

Luckily, RAM one of the easiest and most affordable components to replace.

Hope this helps.

Ben.

Answer 1

I am confirming this.

The error "The description for Event ID 0 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. " is a RAM issue.

Not the VRAM!

It comes from the main memory of your computer.

Solution

Change your RAM.

(yes, I know, it's bad :( )

Symptoms:

You start a game

Your graphics card cooling systems YELLS all it can afte 5 minutes of gameplay

After 2 to 15 minutes of gameplay the game crashes. (Tested game with 100% crash certainty: Star Wars Battlefront 2 and Sniper Elite 4)

Setup:

Gigabyte x570 UD v1.0

AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

Gainward RTX3080Ti

And...

64GB RAM CMK64GX4M4E3200C16 - Corsair

4x16 RAM DDR4 3200

With this RAM -> the RTX3080Ti screams as soon as I require performance and ends up crashing on games that should not make a graphic card like that overheat or even complain, namely: Sniper Elite 4 and Star Wars Battlefront 2

The crash is systematic after a random amount of play time -> between 2 min to 10 minutes.

OR

32GB RAM F4-3200C16-16GIS - G.Skill

2x16 RAM DDR4 3200

Everything works perfectly.

This is the "original" RAM in my computer.

I changed to the previously mentioned Corsair 64GB and since I did that everything went wrong

Removing the 64GB RAM

Reinserting the 32GB RAM
Was the solution for me.

Things I tried before changing the RAM:

Installing any driver version from the last 6 months

Trying to manually replace nvlddmkm.sys -> yes it's stupid, but who knows? Sometimes something stupid works

Many reboots

Disabling turbo boost on the CPU whatever the name is in the BIOS

Underclocking massively the graphics card with MSI Afterburner

Checking the power plan (I was already on "high performance")

I am sure I forget some stuff, but yeah long story short: it's a RAM issue.

Answer 2

Blind Monk, my friend.

I have had issues with this error code but only with the game Modern Warfare two. I don't get it. I tried lots of things including the most recent which was the end all be all fix, I replaced my ram.

I went from 4 sticks of 8 to 2 sticks of 16. I figured if it was my RAM, I will just replace it all. I ran great for a week, no crashes on Call of Duty MW2.

I was like wow, we did it boys I cant believe it.

Butttt then last night I crashed again and as well as today. Activision Support has given me absolutely no help. I work in IT so this one is frustrating, I've done a lot of research myself and haven't really gotten anywhere.

I just don't get it anymore. I've had crashing issues with this game since it came out in October have tried to rollback drivers. Switch drives that the game was installed on, played with settings etc. This is the only game that crashes for me, I am truly stuck.

Do you have any ideas? If it was truly my RAM, why doesn't it happen with other games?

Answer 3

I built a new computer and had this exact same problem. Turns out it was due to the AMD EXPO profile for my memory that I was using in my BIOS. After MONTHS of troubleshooting I found this and another post, reduced RAM speeds to "default" 4800MT's and the issue was gone.

I was then able to figure out how to configure the RAM to run at it's "EXPO" speed of 6000MT's without using the profile and all is well.

Answer 4

I have tried the RAM workaround myself as well, it didn't solve the issue. What did solve the issue though was changing few settings in the power options. So if you or anyone else have this annoying crashing issue, go to Control Panel ---> System and Security ---> Power Options ---> Change advanced power settings then switch the hard disk turn off option to Never, also Sleep after to Never.

This should solve the issue permanently if the crashing is caused by power settings.

Answer 5

Install MSI Afterburner and under-clock your GPU just a little. I have not had a single error since I did this. Just the Core clock as I did not have to touch the memory clock.