X-51 BSOD - nvlddmkm.sys

I appear to be having the same issue.  I had the NVidia website scan my PC, and it told me that I had the most updated drivers for the GTX 555, so I don't think updating drivers will resolve this.   Like the OP, this only occurs when I'm doing something low key like typing an Email, or browsing a news site.  I can play Mass Effect 3 or Skyrim for 2 or 3 hours straight and it won't happen.   Any ideas?   Thanks!

I appear to be having the same issue.  I had the NVidia website scan my PC, and it told me that I had the most updated drivers for the GTX 555, so I don't think updating drivers will resolve this.

Like the OP, this only occurs when I'm doing something low key like typing an Email, or browsing a news site.  I can play Mass Effect 3 or Skyrim for 2 or 3 hours straight and it won't happen.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

The nvidia website scan will see the 555 as a non-supported card.  The latest drivers will in fact work it supports the 560se which i think is the retail equiv of the 555 oem. NOt saying my issue was a problem with the dell driver - may have been caused by a piece of software I installed - also others are running the latest dell driver without incident. I wound up with the latest nvidia driver as part of troubleshooting and to be honest it works just fine. My issue was remedied more than likely by the clean uninstall/reinstall. It ran fine after that for weeks.

** uninstall all nvidia software via control panel / programs and issue the reboots when prompted. One thing i had to do was when the graphic drivers themselves were removed i had to swap from the mini on the discrete card to the onboard to get my display back - after i issued the reboot i plugged back into the discrete and she displayed using the windows drivers. Cleaned up using ccleaner and installed all the nvidia drivers.

Since then I have done a clean windows 7 install with provided dvd - mostly due to acronis 2012 not wanting to clean up after uninstall. Recently i upgraded to 296.10 and she's good. The reinstall is no big shakes - leave the gpt partitioning alone and reinstall into existing c partition. It will place your current user and system data under a dir windows.old.

Still haven't crashed since.

If its happening while not doing much, I would think its something with optimus

Hi RICH, how's your experience so far? I just downloaded and installed 301.42 from nvidia site....

bought the new x51 3 days ago and system have been crashing consistently and the machine was extremely hot!!!

Have removed the cover and have a big fan blowing at it when i have my system on.

it crashes when i play diablo 3 after a while...will start to lag and then just go blank!!! system is on but screen just goes blank :(

anyone experiencing the same issue

system config as follows

ivy bridge i7-3770 8 GB RAM GTX 555 1 TB HDD etc

I have not encountered the issue again since taking Rich's suggestion back in March.  However sometimes, and completely randomly, the screen will become a distorted bluish color, where you can still see the screen details, but there are lines, and flickering dots.  It's almost like dropping a bunch of metal shavings on a magnetic surface, if that makes any sense.  The mouse will continue to work for a few seconds, then it freezes up and needs hard rebooted.  I have not yet figured out what causes this.  But that's for another thread I suppose.

You can contact Alienware support (800-254-3692, support@alienware.com) if you want to troubleshoot in depth and possibly get parts replaced by an onsite technician. What I offered is a quick troubleshooting step that you can do. I cannot speak to refunds. You will need to go through Order Support if you want to go that route.

sighz....like I've said, this is a brand new system and i'm really disaapointed.

yes, all fans are blowing and I've removed the side panel and am using a gigantic fan to blow at the entire machine :(

The 301.42 driver from nvidia did not work, have just done a clean install of the 296 video driver(latest) from dell drivers support site. am trying again ...but have tried this yesterday and it didn't work....

can suggest something better than upgrading the brand new machine to make your system(DEL ALIENWARE) to work? If all these fails, will there be a refund to the entire machine?

Bought the machine to play diablo 3 and it doesn't work. This is Alienware, come on....shhhh

stevew27,

Are all of the system fans spinning? Have you reseated any of the hardware on the motherboard? Is the system in a well ventilated area? You might consider purchasing some Arctic Silver Thermal paste and remove the CPU Fan, clean the old paste off of both the heatsink and CPU, apply new paste. Then retest.

thanks dude

sighz...crashed again....thanks for your inputs

Have confirmed! its the GTX 555 giving problem!

I tried the onboard intel graphics using a HDMI cable and everything works fine(had to tone down the video requirements for diablo though)...but it works! That's the good part....not the bad part....to sort out the GTX 555/driver issue with dell support.

Alienware is supposed to have 24x7 phone support but i don't seem to be able to get them :( number listed keep saying to call back the next working day ...anyone know the number to call? I'm from Singapore btw...

Problem solved! solution was here en.community.dell.com/.../20067358.aspx

Have left my comments here but dell says comments need moderation before msg can be uploaded.

In conclusion, the FAN blowing at the GPU was no connected...its well hidden and you'll need to pry open your system and should hear 2 fans blowing, NOT one...and its loud!

Comon dell, pls do a better job on QA. THere's no reason why a brand new machine have connects no connected properly :( Took me 3 days to troubleshoot a brand new machine...time loss to killing monsters and zombies in Diablo 3 !!!

That document was referring to the cabling interfering with the video card fan. But your saying the fan was not connected at all?