Hey everyone! I'm experiencing some frustrating issues with my Windows 11 PC, and I could really use your help. I'm pretty convinced it might be related to my GPU driver, but I'm not sure what steps to take next. Here's what I'm working with:
- **GPU:** Nvidia RTX 2060
- **CPU:** AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 4750G (with integrated GPU)
- **RAM:** 16 GB DDR4
- **Storage:** Two SSDs (one 512 GB for Windows, one 1 TB)
Recently, I've noticed that my PC doesn't wake up from sleep properly. Sometimes the screen stays black, and I have to resort to hard resets. This started about two days ago, and now I'm encountering random crashes with a message saying "your PC ran into a problem and needs to reboot." Sometimes I get an error code, but other times I don't. One error code I've seen is IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL which suggests it may involve RAM, SSD, or driver issues.
I've run Windows diagnostics for my RAM, which came back clear, and both SSDs are healthy according to CrystalDiskInfo. Additionally, I've run Microsoft Defender and sfc /scannow, both of which reported no problems.
After rolling back the latest Windows update, I managed to temporarily avoid crashes by uninstalling the Nvidia drivers. I even disabled sleep mode and set my power settings to maximum. However, after reinstalling the Nvidia drivers, the same issues returned just a few minutes into using Excel – I faced a system freeze and a black screen with a small white window saying "Microsoft Windows." Following a hard reset, I uninstalled the Nvidia drivers again, and now the system seems stable.
I'm really at a loss. Is there a way to run the latest drivers without encountering issues? Is there a specific version you'd recommend? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading my long post!
3 Answers
I just had a crash too after uninstalling the GPU drivers! Do you think a BIOS update could help address this? I’m unsure if that’s a reasonable step to take.
Have you managed to check for any dump files yet? They can help figure out what's causing the crashes. Just a heads up: there can be sensitive data in those files, so it’s understandable if you’re hesitant to share. No worries if you’re not super tech-savvy; we’re all here to help each other out!
To analyze those BSODs, you'll want to check for dump files which are basically crash logs from your system. If you can boot into Windows normally or through Safe Mode, head over to C:WindowsMinidump and see if there are any dump files there. If you find some, zip them up and share them via a file hosting site. Multiple dump files help us figure out what’s going wrong. If you don’t have any, check out the steps in this guide to configure Windows to create small memory dumps moving forward.
I haven't checked yet. Thanks for the heads up about the sensitive data! I'll be sure to look into it.