Steam application itself crashes NVIDIA driver

[semmelbroesel]

Hi.

A few days ago while starting the Steam client on my Windows 8 computer, the video driver crashed:

Display driver stopped responding and has recovered
Display driver NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 452.06  stopped responding and has successfully recovered.

My driver was on an older version, so I have updated the driver since then and rebooted, but the same happens when I start Steam (so the message above is from AFTER my driver update).

Today, I shut my computer down (it typically runs 24/7) to be sure. I started, logged in, and the first thing I started was Steam - and I received the same crash error.

After the crash, I get weird graphics artifacts (mirroring at strange angles, weird patterns, etc.).

I just tried a 3D app in Chrome and a 3D game that doesn't require Steam, and both ran fine.

My computer is a few years old but still runs most modern games just fine. There have been no other changes in ages.

The GPU is an nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti.

I already blew out some dust this morning before my last restart.

When I research this error, I get everything from uninstall driver complete before re-installing, the video card is dying, either RAM or HD is dying, and so on.

I'm just very curious why only Steam causes this and if anyone has an idea on how to track it down.

Let me know if there's any more information I can provide.

Thanks

[Satoru]

Generally that means your nvidia drivers are corrupted

you should do a clean uninstall/reinstall

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Does opting into the beta help?

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/announcements/detail/2887326531239258960

[SLAYER187]

nvidia drivers crash themselves not the other way around. I run radeon only and i never suffer from those issues which why i do not use nvidia they are a mess.

[semmelbroesel]

Thanks for your responses.

Satoru, I guess I'll try that. I think I read about a clean nvidia uninstaller, so I'll go hunt for that.

Hotsauce, Steam has updated twice since this issue started, so I'm not sure the beta would make a difference.

JR, thanks for contributing nothing valuable.

[semmelbroesel]

Well, I ran DDU in Safe Mode, restarted, installed the latest nvidia drivers (offline installer), and the issue still persists.

[OakGecko]

Hey semmel did you manage to resolve your issue? I'm having the same issue with a Windows 8.1 machine & Nvidia 780Ti

[jiminychris]

Same here. Windows 8.1 with GeForce GTX 780 and Game Ready Driver Version 452.06.

Here’s what I’ve tried
- Clean reinstall of the driver
- Messed with the TDR setting in the registry
- Uninstalled and reinstalled Steam
- Different monitor
- Different graphics card (same model)

Everything works fine until I launch Steam. That’s when the driver continually crashes and restarts or I just get a BSoD.

I’ve noticed that the driver will continue on its crash loop even after I’ve quit the Steam app.

[Ravenwolf Silvermoon]

Hello. Having the same issue since the update/patch about a week ish ago. Have Windows 8.1 Pro and it only happens when i run the steam application. When i restart my pc, everything works fine, i can run other apps and games. but once i try to open steam, i get the "display driver stopped responding and has recovered" message.

Not sure if it happens to players with windows 10 or such, but seems some folks who has windows 7 & 8 are having the display driver. And yes I have updated all the drivers. Even uninstalled, reinstalled, etc. Again when i restart computer, all other apps, programs and games works fine. Its only when i open Steam that the "display driver stopped responding and has recovered" message shows. Does upgrading to Windows 10 help?

[kosayen]

Bump this

[EDIT]
I just got BSoD and pc restarted but..its magically working, idk how.
i uninstalled steam (the client not its game, even though its just Among Us lol) and updated my driver (without DDS or all that crap, did do a clean install upon updating however).
[EDIT#2]
False alarm, trouble still persists. Disabling the driver from control panel is a temporary fix.

Win 8.1 Pro, Nividea GTX 780 Ti
Desktop pc so dont tell me about those power options
Great specs (custom pc thats around 7ish yr old)

[semmelbroesel]

I still have no solution. Windows 8.0. Sorry I didn't see this earlier - Steam no longer sends me notifications to my subscribed topics for some reason...

I contacted Steam support directly, and at first they sent me to their basic troubleshooting page concerning crashes of Steam itself.

I replied that Steam doesn't crash - it crashes a driver.

Then they sent me to a forum post that may or may not be related - it talks about crashing the computer, not the video driver.

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/2924479876991978828/

From there, I found the following two (in links inside first post, I think):

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/2924479876989747689/

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/2924479876989537109/#c2924479876990827499

The last one includes a link to Vulkan drivers (never heard of such a thing before) that could help if copied into the Steam folder, but I haven't tried it yet. Restarting my computer is slow...

If any of this works for you, please let me know. I'll see if I can try it myself eventually.

[Callahan420]

This might help

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/2850173019345658859/#c2850173019346314255

[semmelbroesel]

I was feeling courageous and tried it - and it worked! Thanks!

Some of the instructions did not look the same in my version of Windows 8.0 - I did not see an option to Deny anything or choose All Users, so I skipped that part. When I hit Apply, Windows basically verified if I wanted to deny access to all users, so that worked.

[semmelbroesel]

Also, after I made the changes to the Vulkan files and started Steam, Steam ran its auto-updater and installed a new version of itself. The Vulkan files did not get changed (well, they can't without access), so this fix should survive Steam updates.

I wonder if we'll ever know if Steam chooses to fix the issue on their end and implements it...

[semmelbroesel]

Ah, I found the fly in the soup.

Steam now will ALWAYS find a new update even after I run the updater and let it install.

My guess is that it wants to overwrite the Vulkan files and can't.

So ... how do we know when to remove the Vulkan file permission change? Or can we ever?

Will we miss future updates because Steam remains stuck on trying to fully install the update from 9/3?

FYI, Windows Event Viewer is not showing any errors in relation to the Steam installer.