Elder Scrolls Online / Crashing Display Driver (Windows 10)

Skolia · February 2016

Problem Statement

Having trouble with ESO on Windows 10, roughly every 1-3 hours, the display driver stops responding and restarts, this causes ESO to "freeze" (sound continues) and ultimately it crashes.

Overview

This is a clean install of Windows 10, previously the machine ran Windows 7 and ESO ran better on it (not perfect but better).

This is only happening with ESO, I've tried other games for long play periods without issue. These include Star Wars: The Old Republic (2011), The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015), and Tomb Raider (2013).

Hardware

CPU: AMD FX-8350
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 (2GB)
RAM: 16GB
OS: Windows 10 x64 (10586.th2_release.160104-1513)

Detail
The actual crash is logged by Windows under System\Display\Event ID 4101: "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.". This is actually a bugcheck (#141).

Attached
DXDIAG.txt

I can also attach the WER dumps.

Ignotus · February 2016

I had to give up on Windows 10 because of this error. I get it rarely in Windows 7, like maybe once a week or even less. With Windows 10, ESO is completely unplayable on my PC. Brand new install, tried several different driver versions, used the display driver uninstaller tool (don't recall name) between each driver install, and never got it resolved and never got any assistance with it. Good luck!

Cadelay · February 2016

This happened to me with my GTX 970 card in Windows 8.1, and now it continues to happen with Windows 10. I don't think it's the operating system, it's the Nvidia cards or the game or both.

Turelus · February 2016

Just to note currently (and for a while now) SWTOR has had an issue with some Nvidia cards. The "fix" there is to downclock them by 25~100Mhz when playing.

I won't say that will fix it here but it might be worth a try as it sounds like a similar issue. If you want more information on the SWTOR issue just Google "SWTOR drivers crash" and there are some official forums thread and Reddit posts.

Ashtaris · February 2016

I have been getting that same problem on my GTX-980ti as well. I'll be playing and everything freezes. 10-15 seconds later, it comes back to life as if nothing happened. I have a feeling it's either a driver related problem, or some change in ESO because this is only a recent problem, within the last 3 or 4 weeks. I've sure I've done at least one Nvidia driver update since then.

Skolia · February 2016

Turelus wrote: »

Just to note currently (and for a while now) SWTOR has had an issue with some Nvidia cards. The "fix" there is to downclock them by 25~100Mhz when playing.

I won't say that will fix it here but it might be worth a try as it sounds like a similar issue. If you want more information on the SWTOR issue just Google "SWTOR drivers crash" and there are some official forums thread and Reddit posts.

Huh, I've never had that problem with SWTOR.

Skolia · February 2016

I should add that it's happening even when things are really idle, like going through inventory or collections in a sparse area with very little going on.

lawliet675 · February 2016

I have a similar issue with a machine with windows 10, a laptop MSI GX70 3CC with a AMD processor and graphics and i have the last drivers in my laptop, and this issue i have in the last update of the game. But i can't even play, and I can't login, just open the game, and crash my display driver. All other games run well. But not with TESO. Please fix this.

System
- Provider
[ Name] Display
- EventID 4101
[ Qualifiers] 0
Level 3
Task 0
Keywords 0x80000000000000
- TimeCreated
[ SystemTime] 2016-02-15T15:09:41.871937700Z
EventRecordID 5926
Channel System
Computer MSI
Security
- EventData
amdkmdap

Skolia · February 2016

lawliet675 wrote: »

I have a similar issue with a machine with windows 10, a laptop MSI GX70 3CC with a AMD processor and graphics and i have the last drivers in my laptop, and this issue i have in the last update of the game. But i can't even play, and I can't login, just open the game, and crash my display driver. All other games run well. But not with TESO. Please fix this.

@lawliet675,

Wow, that's even worse.

I have an idea forming in my head though - especially since this is now two completely different chipsets... how far into ESO do you get? The login screen, enter your info and then boom?

I'm beginning to think it's something like this:

ESO calls DirectX to do Y, but under Windows 10 that operation isn't allowed (or not implemented) and the display driver crashes and restarts.

Might be related to one (or more) graphics settings in ESO.

(I'm gonna do some tests.)

lawliet675 · February 2016

Skolia wrote: »

lawliet675 wrote: »

I have a similar issue with a machine with windows 10, a laptop MSI GX70 3CC with a AMD processor and graphics and i have the last drivers in my laptop, and this issue i have in the last update of the game. But i can't even play, and I can't login, just open the game, and crash my display driver. All other games run well. But not with TESO. Please fix this.

@lawliet675,

Wow, that's even worse.

I have an idea forming in my head though - especially since this is now two completely different chipsets... how far into ESO do you get? The login screen, enter your info and then boom?

I'm beginning to think it's something like this:

ESO calls DirectX to do Y, but under Windows 10 that operation isn't allowed (or not implemented) and the display driver crashes and restarts.

Might be related to one (or more) graphics settings in ESO.

(I'm gonna do some tests.)

Only i can see a black screen and listen the music and few sec later, crash my display driver, but the game still there in black screen always. But before the last update i can play 40 50 fps (i think) in the game, so run very well. I don't think it's windows fault, it's the last update fault. I'll try in other setup with a AMD FX8350 and HD7990 and 16GB of Ram, if there i have the same issue, the game is broken for me.

Skolia · February 2016

So far (different settings in ESO), no change.

I did run Witcher 3: Wild Hunt overnight, no display driver crash after 13 hours. (I chose it because ESO and Witcher 3 are both DirectX 11 games.)

lawliet675 · February 2016

Skolia wrote: »

So far (different settings in ESO), no change.

I did run Witcher 3: Wild Hunt overnight, no display driver crash after 13 hours. (I chose it because ESO and Witcher 3 are both DirectX 11 games.)

i test teso on the fx 8350 pc, and work but i cant test for a long time

only my laptop MSI GX70 not work the game.

WalkingLegacy · February 2016

Sounds like some driver sweeps are needed.

Google driver sweep. Use that to wipe out all graphics and audio drivers, reboot and reinstall your video and audio driver.

I use to have TRIM crashes all the time with W7. Had conflicting audio drivers and sidegrading (joke because w10 sucks) to W10 would cause same game crashes because MS thought my mobo was missing its audio driver when it's not. I have a dedicated sound card.

Skolia · February 2016

WalkingLegacy wrote: »

Sounds like some driver sweeps are needed.

Google driver sweep. Use that to wipe out all graphics and audio drivers, reboot and reinstall your video and audio driver.

I use to have TRIM crashes all the time with W7. Had conflicting audio drivers and sidegrading (joke because w10 sucks) to W10 would cause same game crashes because MS thought my mobo was missing its audio driver when it's not. I have a dedicated sound card.

My Windows 10 is a fresh install. I mean.... fresh. There is no leftover crap.

Be careful also with third party utilities like that, a lot of them are crapware (at best) and malware (at worst).

( I'm not entirely thrilled about Windows 10 but at some point Windows 7 isn't going to be supported anymore.)

WalkingLegacy · February 2016

Skolia wrote: »

WalkingLegacy wrote: »

Sounds like some driver sweeps are needed.

Google driver sweep. Use that to wipe out all graphics and audio drivers, reboot and reinstall your video and audio driver.

I use to have TRIM crashes all the time with W7. Had conflicting audio drivers and sidegrading (joke because w10 sucks) to W10 would cause same game crashes because MS thought my mobo was missing its audio driver when it's not. I have a dedicated sound card.

My Windows 10 is a fresh install. I mean.... fresh. There is no leftover crap.

Be careful also with third party utilities like that, a lot of them are crapware (at best) and malware (at worst).

( I'm not entirely thrilled about Windows 10 but at some point Windows 7 isn't going to be supported anymore.)

I've used the below link and driver sweeper before it so many times with zero issues.

http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

WalkingLegacy · February 2016

What Nvidia driver are you using?

Skolia · February 2016

WalkingLegacy wrote: »

What Nvidia driver are you using?

361.75

(361.91 just came out but I haven't had a chance to update yet.)

That's the only driver that's been on it for the card (this is a very new Windows 10 install, and it's not an upgrade, I did a fresh install).

@WalkingLegacy, I know you're trying to help but trust me, I've checked all the simple stufl already. This is an ESO problem. I suspect it's ESO doing something that Windows 10 doesn't like ESO is the only game this occurs on.

Unfortunately the DMP produced when the display driver is restarted is really useless, there isn't a good stack trace to show what functions the driver tried to do. Basically the stack trace is just the stupid restart.

STACK_TEXT:  
ffffd001`17a185a0 fffff800`baa971fc : ffffe000`fc9364c0 ffffd001`17a18740 ffffe000`fc9364c0 ffffe000`f9c098f0 : watchdog!WdDbgReportRecreate+0x104
ffffd001`17a185f0 fffff800`bb4f148d : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 ffffe000`f9478000 ffffe000`f9478000 : dxgkrnl!TdrUpdateDbgReport+0xec
ffffd001`17a18640 fffff800`bb55a988 : ffffe000`f9478000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000001 ffffe000`f947a001 : dxgmms2!VidSchiResetEngine+0x675
ffffd001`17a18920 fffff800`bb547751 : ffffe000`f9478000 ffffe000`f947a000 00000000`00000000 ffffe000`f947a000 : dxgmms2!VidSchiResetEngines+0x84
ffffd001`17a18960 fffff800`bb52de6d : 00000000`00000002 00000000`0201ee9c 00000000`003bce9f 00000000`00000001 : dxgmms2!VidSchiCheckHwProgress+0x19881
ffffd001`17a189c0 fffff800`bb4db8e5 : ffffe000`fab554c0 ffffe000`f947a000 ffffe000`fab554c8 00000000`00000002 : dxgmms2!VidSchiWaitForSchedulerEvents+0x31d
ffffd001`17a18a80 fffff800`bb53a5fd : ffffe000`f944bc40 ffffd001`17a18bd0 ffffe000`f944bc00 ffffe000`f947a000 : dxgmms2!VidSchiScheduleCommandToRun+0x3a5
ffffd001`17a18b80 fffff800`bb53a5c0 : ffffe000`f947a500 ffffe000`f947a000 00000000`00000080 ffffe000`f5820000 : dxgmms2!VidSchiRun_PriorityTable+0x2d
ffffd001`17a18bd0 fffff800`ef9695a5 : 00000204`acbb3dfe fffff800`ef9cd4ef 00000000`00010023 00000000`019884a0 : dxgmms2!VidSchiWorkerThread+0x80
ffffd001`17a18c10 fffff800`ef9cd626 : ffffd001`1b39c180 ffffe000`f945b840 fffff800`ef969564 00000000`00000000 : nt!PspSystemThreadStartup+0x41
ffffd001`17a18c60 00000000`00000000 : ffffd001`17a19000 ffffd001`17a13000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : nt!KiStartSystemThread+0x16

Adelade · February 2016

Turelus wrote: »

Just to note currently (and for a while now) SWTOR has had an issue with some Nvidia cards. The "fix" there is to downclock them by 25~100Mhz when playing.

I won't say that will fix it here but it might be worth a try as it sounds like a similar issue. If you want more information on the SWTOR issue just Google "SWTOR drivers crash" and there are some official forums thread and Reddit posts.

Wow so I'm starting to think this is a Windows issue. I had the exact same problem with Rise of the Tomb Raider where the driver itself would crash.

khele23eb17_ESO · February 2016

Turelus wrote: »

Just to note currently (and for a while now) SWTOR has had an issue with some Nvidia cards. The "fix" there is to downclock them by 25~100Mhz when playing.

I won't say that will fix it here but it might be worth a try as it sounds like a similar issue. If you want more information on the SWTOR issue just Google "SWTOR drivers crash" and there are some official forums thread and Reddit posts.

Most often the solution to unexplained driver crashes is either downclocking the card or upping the voltage on it.

Skolia · February 2016

khele23eb17_ESO wrote: »

Turelus wrote: »

Just to note currently (and for a while now) SWTOR has had an issue with some Nvidia cards. The "fix" there is to downclock them by 25~100Mhz when playing.

I won't say that will fix it here but it might be worth a try as it sounds like a similar issue. If you want more information on the SWTOR issue just Google "SWTOR drivers crash" and there are some official forums thread and Reddit posts.

Most often the solution to unexplained driver crashes is either downclocking the card or upping the voltage on it.

In this case, it is ONLY happening with ESO. I played Witcher 3 for over 12 hours without a video driver crash. Both are DirectX 11 games.

Skolia · February 2016

Update:

Today ESO only had the driver restart crash twice (over a 6 hour play session).

What's really odd is one of them, I was afk getting a drink.

(I haven't updated the nVidia driver yet, I doubt it's the issue since Witcher 3 ran for 13 hours straight.)

Odanen · February 2016

I have the same problem on Windows 7x64.
If i change settings in UserSettings.ini (SET GraphicsDriver.7 "D3D9" instead of "D3D11") i have a game crash with critical error. With D3d11 - black screen and music playing in the background.
Have no idea how to fix it.

PS sorry for possible mistakes - english isn't my native language

Raveni · February 2016

I've started having this problem after a windows 10 update, have updated my graphics driver but it's still happening. Playing the game for a year and never had it happen before. Playing on Intel Graphics.

Odanen · February 2016

In my case, the problem was solved by downgrade Nvidia drivers to version 350.12.
Win7x64, Nvidia GTX 760.
Yesterday, i was playing during 5-6 hours without any crashes.

jadealhayek · December 2016

Hi all,
i have a problem and i dont really know what to do really ( sorry with my english mistakes), well i have an Asus new with windows 10 and i saw this game at the game store and is was cheap and asked there if it was going to work with my system and the said it wont be problems.

So i got it and installed it,it was ok no problems at the beginning,i could log in,and saw the first cinematics,but takes ages to get to play and set the character,and then crashes..... any ideas?

Cronopoly · December 2016

Same issues, black screen or crash to desktop, with submit report. constantly lately. Lucky if I get a half hour of solid gameplay.