nvlddmkm stopped responding in Windows Vista

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Schezo wrote on 2011-05-14 20:33

Computer Specs:
[SPOILER="Spoiler"]Manufacturer: Dell
OS: Windows Vista 32-bit SP2 (You're blind if you missed it in the topic title...)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU
T5600 @ 1.83GHz
RAM: 1.0 GB[/SPOILER]

It began yesterday (GASP) when I tried to run Mabi, but then it froze. Then when I tried to reboot it I get a slightly cruddy resolution, and a notice about "Driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered." My NVIDIA driver happens to be GeForce Go 7600

Unfortunately, my brother is unfamiliar with this and I'm in no way a technofreak to solve this. The solutions I googled up seem outdated and gives me too many huge discussion threads in other forums.
Yoorah wrote on 2011-05-15 00:39

The first thing that comes to mind is a corrupt graphics driver. Uninstall your NVIDIA drivers, reboot, then install this: http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_notebook_winvista_win7_179.48_beta.html
Take note that it recommends running a certain update for certain Dell laptops before installing NVIDIA's drivers: http://www.nvidia.com/object/recommended_software_updates.html
Akemii wrote on 2011-05-15 00:44

This is what ruined my touchsmart computer.
Yoorah wrote on 2011-05-15 01:06
If it's not the graphics driver, it could be another driver causing a conflict with it. And if it's not that, it could be caused by hardware failure in the graphics card. You have an NVIDIA 7-series GPU, and those are known to have an very high failure rate, unfortunately. :(

Here's some potential causes for the error you're getting:
Common issues that can cause a TDR:
- Incorrect memory timings or voltages <-- does not apply to you
- Insufficient/problematic PSU <-- most likely doesn't apply to you
- Corrupt driver install
- Overheating
- Unstable overclocks (GPU or CPU) <-- doesn't apply, unless you tried overclocking..
- Incorrect MB voltages (generally NB/SB) <-- doesn't apply to you
- Faulty graphics card
- The issue can potentially be caused by a badly written driver or piece of software, but this is an unlikely cause in most cases. <-- unlikely, as it says :P
- Driver conflicts <-- did you install a new device or driver recently that could be causing a conflict?
- Another possibility that people tend not to like to hear, is that you are simply asking too much of your graphics card. What I mean by this, is that if you have your settings too high and the graphics card struggles and falls to very low FPS, then something graphically complex occurs, it could trigger a TDR. <-- doesn't apply to you
Taken from: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=100800&hl=nvlddmkm

Another thing to check is to make sure you have all the latest Windows updates. Some of them are stability related fixes.