A few months back, my laptop's GPU suddenly failed, with errors pointing to nvlddmkm.sys. The situation escalated to the point where my dedicated GPU (RTX 3070 mobile) stopped working altogether. Now, after getting a new Lenovo Legion 7i Pro with an RTX 5070 TI, I've encountered crashes while launching games, showing a "tdl video failure" error, and again, the culprit seems to be nvlddmkm.sys. I find it hard to believe that two laptops with NVIDIA cards would have hardware issues. I suspect it might be driver-related since multiple friends are facing similar crashes on both new and old models. I've ruled out overheating and just reinstalled Windows with a clean driver reset using DDU, but the problem remains persistent and random during gaming sessions. Any ideas on what could be causing this?
2 Answers
Given your history, it might not be a hardware problem. The fact that your friends are experiencing similar issues could point more towards a software glitch. Have you considered rolling back the driver to an older version? Some users have had success with that after a new update caused instability.
It sounds super frustrating! The nvlddmkm.sys errors are often linked to driver conflicts or issues, even if you've tried reinstalling them. Have you checked if there's a newer driver version or tried the beta versions? Sometimes they fix bugs that the stable releases miss. Also, make sure your power settings for the GPU are optimized, as they can affect performance and stability during gaming.
Definitely agree with checking for new drivers. I've found that sometimes doing a clean install of the driver helps, which means fully removing the old ones before installing the new. It's a hassle but can fix underlying issues.
I haven't tried rolling back yet, but that's a good idea. I'll give that a shot and see if it makes a difference!