↑ 🌐 TECHNOLOGY | Computer Hardware Diagnostics

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nvlddmkm.sys crash (NVIDIA drivers)

I was having some issues with my computer freezing or just going into a blue screen. After some debugging and looking at the Windows Event Viewer it pointed to an issue with my graphic drivers, especially nvlddmkm.sys.

The problem with that issue is that it is way too obnoxious and could be anything even about stuff not related to the GPU at all, so if you really want to understand what's happening you might have to dig deeper than just cleaning/updating your drivers... I have some pointers on Computer Hardware Diagnostics that might help because honestly this error can be triggered by all sorts of things like bad RAM, unstable power, or even a dying motherboard. Forums are not really helping either because this error can be so random so if you're here honestly good luck it's not going to be an easy journey.

Errors

These are some of the error messages I would get in the Windows event viewer:

The description for Event ID 13 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event:

\Device\000000d8
Graphics Exception: SKEDCHECK03_LOCAL_MEMORY_HIGH_SIZE failed

The message resource is present but the message was not found in the message table
text

The description for Event ID 13 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event:

\Device\000000d8
Graphics Exception: SKEDCHECK14_SHARED_MEMORY_SIZE failed

The message resource is present but the message was not found in the message table
text

The description for Event ID 13 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event:

\Device\000000d8
Graphics Exception: ESR 0x407020=0x200400 0x407028=0x100 0x40702c=0x2319f2b4 0x407030=0x0

The message resource is present but the message was not found in the message table
text

The description for Event ID 153 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event:

\Device\000000d8
Error occurred on GPUID: b00

The message resource is present but the message was not found in the message table
text

Fixes

You will find some fixes documented below, hopefully they'll be sufficient for you as it worked for others from what I found online.

Keep in mind that it can also be dependent on external factors: bad motherboard, PSU, RAM...
In my case using 4 sticks of RAM with XMP enabled seems to be the issue, disabling XMP fixed it. I used MemTest86 to diagnose the issue.

• Someone with the same issue

Reinstall drivers

First, turn off Windows Update Hardware Driver install:

1. Press Win + S to open the search menu.
2. Type control panel and press Enter.
3. Navigate to System > Advanced System Settings.
4. In the System Properties window, switch to the Hardware tab and click the Device Installation Settings button.
5. Select No and click Save Changes.

Next download DDU (do NOT extract and install yet)

Then disable Fast Startup (Windows 11)

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Click on Hardware and Sound.
3. Click on Power Options.
4. Click the "Choose what the power button does" option.
5. Click the "Change settings that are currently unavailable" option.
6. Under the "Shutdown settings" section, uncheck the "Turn on fast startup" option.
7. Click the Save changes button.

Reboot into Safe Mode (not Safe Mode with Networking)

Once in Safe Mode extract DDU and run as normal removing the driver.

Reboot, if you do the normal boot out of Windows after the DDU safe mode driver removal and you're at native resolution then you messed up somewhere.

Then reboot Windows and install 531.61 with custom install selected as well as clean install checked. Do not install GeForce Experience.

Apparently if you have Fast Startup enabled it will load a cached driver to maintain that startup speed unless you do the above methods and disable it.

Change permissions of nvlddmkm.sys

Just enable user permissions to full control (security tab under properties) for nvlddmkm.sys in system32 (use windows search, there can be multiple files with that name). If you can't change the permissions you might need to change the owner of the file :

• Right-click on a file or folder.
• Select Properties.
• Click the Security tab.
• Click Advanced.
• Click "Change" next to the owner name.
• Click Advanced.
• Click Find Now.
• Select your username and click OK

Classic commands

If you have corruption in your system files it could cause all sorts of weird behavior including driver issues. Might not help but won't hurt, try these two commands in an admin CMD:

Checks for component store corruption and fixes it using Windows Update. Let it run, it might take a while.

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
powershell

Scans all protected system files and replaces corrupted ones with a cached copy. Run it after DISM completes.

sfc /scannow
powershell

Reboot after both finish and see if things feel more stable.

Clean Windows install

If doing a clean install doesn't fix your issue it's still valuable as it's always good to test and debug on a clean system without the noise added from other software or drivers.

Conflicting drivers could also be a cause for this error. I won't guide you through the reset process as it's pretty easy to find good resources about it online but you'll absolutely want to do that using a USB stick and making sure you are starting fresh and not just doing this from Windows settings as it will not remove all the drivers.