Windows Vista Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding - fix

This is a fix post. I was not able to try the Microsoft “fix” because it required a valid Windows verification and I was only able to bring the machine up in safe mode where it is not possible to start the license server (license server is required for authentic Windows validation) – those geniuses at Microsoft made it impossible to try their fix if the problem was preventing the machine from booting all the way up (i.e. that is, all the way up on the video side).

I was able to keep the Vista installation by renaming the driver from nvlddmkm.sys to nvlddmkm.sys.old in safe mode, and then rebooting into normal mode (go to \Windows\system32\drivers to do the rename). After rebooting I changed my screen resolution to 1280×1024 successfully and then rebooted the machine again to see if would hold the video mode and reboot properly, and it did (note that I was not able to do a normal boot prior to this change, on our 17" Gateway laptop). So I don’t have all of the support that you get from the nvlddmkm.sys driver, but atleast I can use the machine at a nice screen resolution without having to install another OS.

I did not read every post on this very long thread, so if someone else had already proposed this fix then I apologize for repeating it here. BTW – I was not expecting this to work, it was simply a last-ditch effort before installing another OS (I already had the OS CDs out when I tried this). Hope this helps.

 

Hi and welcome to the BBS,

Thanks for sharing that with us.

Did you happen to try selecting Low Resolution Mode at the Startup Options menu (F8)?

Just my preference, but I might rename the file nvlddmkm.old or nvlddmkm_sys.old, because some programs still seem to recognise it as the original.

Do you have the original drivers CD for the graphics adapter? I always go back to those if updated drivers don't seem to work.

Glad that worked for you.

Matt