Fix Display driver stopped responding and has recovered error

Fix Display driver stopped responding and has recovered error. Sometimes a Windows computer can become extremely slow during use, followed by the computer screen turning off and then back on, at which point an error message says Display driver stopped responding and has recovered can be seen in the Notification Area in the lower right corner of the screen. This happens when a feature called Timeout Detection and Recovery (TDR) determines that the GPU has been unresponsive for the specified amount of time and restarts the display driver to keep the user out of trouble when restarting the computer completely.

Table of Contents:

Common causes of the Display driver stopped responding and has recovered error

Some of the most common causes of the Display driver stopped responding and has recovered error messages are a lot of programs and applications running and putting stress on the GPU, a problem with the affected computer’s display driver, and GPU is overheating. This issue is known to affect all versions of Windows Operating System from Windows XP to Windows 10. If you happen to see the Display driver stopped responding and has recovered error message once in a blue moon, don’t There is cause for alarm. However, if you start seeing Display driver stopped responding and has recovered error messages quite often, there could be a pretty serious underlying problem.

Thankfully though, the Display driver stopped responding and has recovered error message can be fixed as long as it’s not caused by a faulty GPU. If you want to solve this problem, here are the most effective solutions that you should try.

Fix Display driver stopped responding and has recovered error

As we mentioned, there can be a number of reasons why your GPU is not working properly. Perform the tasks given below to minimize the problem.

Update the graphics driver

Outdated or faulty drivers can often lead to related hardware not working properly. That’s why we recommend keeping your drivers up to date.

If you are using Intel graphics drivers, you can use Intel Driver and Support Assistant to keep your drivers up to date. If you are using an Nvidia GPU, then use the GeForce Experience App to update your drivers.

Alternatively, you can also resort to automatic or manual graphics driver updates through the Device Manager in Windows.

Install pending Windows updates

Often times, backlog of Windows updates can cause the operating system to behave abnormally, resulting in other components not working as they should. Therefore, we recommend that you check if there are any pending updates. If so, install them.

To check for Windows updates, do the following:

1. Navigate to:
  Settings app >> Windows Update
2. Click Check for updates .

The system will scan for any pending updates. If found, click Download Now (if they don’t start downloading automatically).
Once downloaded, click Install Now (if updates don’t start installing automatically).
After installation, restart the computer.

When you come back, check if the problem persists.

Change the power plan to the best performance

Maybe your GPU is not getting enough power to work. If that’s the case, try optimizing your PC for maximum power by changing its power plan. Here’s how:

Navigate to the following:
Settings app >> System >> Power and Battery

Here, select Best performance from the drop-down menu in front of Power mode .

Once the power plan has been changed, check if the problem persists.

Turn off link-state power management

A feature in Windows called Link State Power Management is the amount of power saved when your computer is in sleep mode, as opposed to the time it takes to recover from sleep.

For example, when configured to maximize power savings , your PC saves maximum power but it takes a few seconds to wake it up. As opposed to Moderate power savings , which consumes a bit more power, but reduces latency to restore.

By default, Windows has this set to Maximum Power Savings, which can lead to the GPU driver going to sleep when it shouldn’t.

Follow the steps below to disable this feature completely so it won’t save power:

Change Power Mode to Maximum Performance

By default, the power mode for the network adapter is set to Medium Power Saving in the case of laptops running Windows 11. This needs to be changed to Maximum Performance to rule out the cause of the disconnection as a problem. care about power. Here’s how:

Open Power Options in Control Panel by typing in running powercfg.cpl .

1. Click Change plan s in front of the Selected Plan .
  
  Change Power Mode to Maximum Performance

On the next page, click Change advanced power settings.

Change advanced power settings
The Power Options Advanced Settings window will now open. Here, expand PCI Express, and then expand Link State Power Management.

expand Link State Power Management
Now select Off from the drop-down menu in front of On battery and Plugged in. Then click Apply and Ok.

Now check if the problem persists. If that’s the case, you can still do some other mitigations.

Reset visual effect settings

If you recently updated your visual effects settings, your GPU may not work due to the new profile. If so, you need to reset those settings with these steps:

Open System Properties by typing sysdm.cpl running.

1. From SYStem Properties, switch to Advanced and then click Settings .
  
  Reset visual effect settings

From the pop-up, select Adjust for best performance, then click Apply and OK.

select Adjust for best performance

Now restart your computer and check if you still see the Display driver stopped responding and has recovered prompt.

Turn off GPU overclocking

Users often overclock their GPU to get more performance out of it. This might work in some cases, but causes the GPU to overwork itself, resulting in overheating. Therefore, you should bring any hardware back to its original frequency, be it RAM, GPU or CPU.

Hardware cleaning (RAM and GPU)

Over time, carbon that builds up in the RAM and graphics card contacts can affect the communication between the device’s motherboard and the hardware. Due to this buildup, your GPU and RAM cannot function properly.

That’s why, as a possible solution to the problem, you should clean your hardware from time to time to make sure all the contacts are clean with no carbon or dust particles.

Increase allowed processing time

If all the solutions suggested up to this point don’t solve your problem, it’s likely that your graphics card needs more time to process the information, which causes the screen to go black and make a mistake.

This can be done by increasing the allowed delay time of the TDR. Note that this process involves making changes to the Windows Registry, which can harm your operating system if not done properly. Therefore, we recommend that you create a system restore point before continuing with the steps below:

Open Registry Editor by typing regedit in Run.
Now paste the following in the address bar for quick navigation:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers

Increase allowed processing time
Now right-click GraphicsDriver , expand New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value.

click DWORD 32-bit Value
Name this new DWORD TdrDelay .
Now double click on TdrDelay and set its Value Data to 8 then click OK .

set its Value Data to 8
Now restart your computer for the changes to take place.