Graphic Drive FREEZING!

Question

First of all, thank you for your time! So I have this Alienware since like 1 year ago and I'm having my first issue... From time to time, out of nowhere, my screen simply freezes for like 5 seconds and the system (not the hardware) emits some bizarre noises (the current sound freezing, I believe). It usually take a long time to happen (many  times a day though), but interestingly, it ALWAYS happens when I turn on or I 'awake' it. Sometimes, especially when I turn it on and it freezes, that yellow triangle shows up by the clock bar and a window shows something like 'Your NIVIDIA Geforce XXX.X (driver version) Windows Drive failed (or something like that) and just recovered', and then the window disappears. Funny is that it happened before I updated the drivers, and it keeps happening after I updated it. Any suggestions?

beamermt79 · Answer

Everything is locking up because Windows and Nvidia are trying to recover from a Driver crash. If I were in your shoes, I would download a fresh copy of the Drivers from Nvidia's website if you don't have them already. Then I would uninstall completely, the drivers you do have, restart the computer and install the new ones. After restarting you may have to wait as Windows may install some basic drivers for your graphics card.

See if that helps.

Milena M458 · Answer

I agree with Beamermt, what I will recommend you as well is to disable the windows updates, that way they will not interfere with the NVidia driver.

Yarouge · Answer

It didn't work, everything is pretty much the same!!!

purple397 · Answer

You could run the Diagnostics. If you still have Warranty, then you might give Technical Support a call. They would probably remote Desktop your system.

As it happens when you first start it up, one would guess it might be possible for some program is trying to phone home to the Mother Ship for more updates. Might look to see which programs are enabled in the Start Menu as well. If you have Printer Drivers. Well, I hate Printer Drivers because the Printer Manufacturers use Update to keep your OS apprised of where you might buy cartridges and spies on you. If you can not live without the printer, Then at least find a Printer Driver which is the minimal version and does not do all this spy and sell stuff at the expense of your resources.

As I think more, I should have had more coffee this morning. Try to make it a habit to turn off the internet, when you shut down, so when you start, then if you can start and not have all the crash and such, it is likely a program trying to use the internet using up your resources.

One could also guess, that if you are not starting your computer with many programs in the Start group. Then you might also just turn off the better graphics on your laptop, as you should have , hopefully, enough with the basic MOBO graphics to start and not have yellow triangles, noise. That would rule out the MOBO versus just your graphics card, and drivers.

Try to get your Drivers from the Dell Site instead of the NIVIDIA site. or to put that differently. I looked for an improved driver for the TouchPad, and the manufacturer said do not use theirs, use the one from the manufacturers site (Dell in my case). I suspect the Touch Pad manufacturer is sure that the drivers on the Dell site are better suited to exactly the Touch Pad in MY computer.

I guess I am thinking, after running the Diagnostics on the Hardware, then try to isolate some software program as eating up your resources.

Let us know what works. Likely you are not the only one who has problems like this.

Yarouge · Answer

So today my SupportAssist, the Aliwanre software, sent me a notification saying that some people were having some problems that I don't even remember, but it had nothing to do with videoboard...

Well, I accepted the update and since then the problem has been gone!

Thank you so much for the time spent helping me!

Locked Topics – Alienware General

Graphic Drive FREEZING!

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