I was wondering if someone could help with this. The video card on my laptop just suddenly stopped working. I noticed when I tried to play a Windows game and got the message "The game is running in software rendering mode" It went on to suggest checking harware acceleration etc. I've checked everything, along with dxdiag and my card doesn't show up there. I uninstalled the card drivers and let Windows reinstall on reboot, but it's still gone. I opened it in Device Manager it shows the message "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)" I've had some overheating problems with certain games in the past. Maybe it finally burned up??? Any ideas? The card is an nVidia 8800M GTS.
Thanks!

Zookeeper, I googled Code 43 and found this webpage that appears to have a fix for your problem. At least, I hope so.

Gil.

Hmmm... don't know about that one - it's a webpage devoted to WiseFixer, a registry cleaner. I'd be a little leery...

This Microsoft support page mentions driver issues for error code 43. Microsoft Support Error Code 43

Maybe try downloading drivers from the video card manufacturer's website? Maybe Jenny or Inland will know more.

I don't. It might be a driver problem or it might be a registry problem or it might even be a problem with the video card itself.

I guess the first thing I'd do would be to use ccleaner, which is free. Check how to use ccleaner's registry cleaner here
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/tour/registry-cleaner

If that didn't help, I'd try uninstalling and reinstalling the video drivers. And if that didn't work, I'd try uninstalling the drivers, using a driver cleaner to remove all vestiges of those drivers, and then reinstalling the drivers.

After that I'd start suspecting the card. I'm going from easiest possible solution to hardest.

I agree with Jenny.

What I would do first is grab the latest driver from NVIDIA for the card.

I'd then uninstall my current drivers + run driver sweeper (http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/).

Then I'd install those new drivers to see if it corrects the problem.

Thanks for your help everyone. I have the latest drivers, have uninstalled and reinstalled them. I haven't tried ccleaner or a drive sweeper yet. Will try those, but I suspect my card might be fried. We'll see.

Don't assume the "latest" drivers are the best drivers for your card. You might want to try going back to drivers that you know were working.

I'm curious to know what game you were playing when this happened and if you have any "picture" on your monitor? You seem to be able to see Windows and go into the Device Manager etc. So, SOMETHING has to be working, doesn't it?

Jenny, I updated the drivers about a year or so ago and I did that because the card was running hot. Although the update didn't help alot.
I also have a new icon on my desktop that appeared the same time the card went south. It's concerning a fatal error in Java runtime evnironment. Not sure if that could be related. And I've also lost the option for hibernate or sleep in the shutdown menu...wierd.

Draclvr, I wasn't playing anything at the time. I noticed during a boot that I was getting wierd white lines and through more investigation found that games won't play and stuff. Also, Windows defaults to svga when it's not using the card so I can use my computer, I just can't run programs.

I'm not sure why you'd get an icon from having a Java crash. What does the icon look like?


How much video RAM does it show you having on the Display tab of DXDIAG?

Jenny, the icon is a notepad icon and it's titled hs_err_pid7152. I have no memory showing on the display tab. Actually I show no values at all. Everything is n/a, 0, or Not Available. I only show the current display mode.

I haven't had a chance to try the suggestions above. I'll try tomorrow. Would running chkdsk help at all?

Chkdsk would show problems with the hard drive. It's possible that problems with the hard drive would damage the video drivers or Windows itself and there's no harm in running it.

Zookeeper,

If all the above suggestions from Jenny 100 don't work, the white lines on your bootup that you mentioned sound eerily familiar to when my ATI video card went on my laptop years ago. Shortly after the white lines in the display started appearing, I soon got the blue screen of death referencing the ATI video. I took it to the Geek Squad since I had purchased an extended warranty, and they ended up having to replace the mother board since the ATI card is a chip on the mother board in laptops.

I sure hope you discover your issue is much more benign.

JK,
I have a feeling that's what I'm looking at too. I checked my warranty and found out that I have a couple months left. I thought it ran out, so nice surprise. I called Gateway and they're having me do a system recovery. If that doesn't fix it I'll send it in.

Jenny,
CCleaner is charging 24.95 for a download now. I know it used to free. Unless I can find it on another site, but I guess that's moot since I'm going ahead with the system recovery anyway.

Thanks everyone for your input and help.

It's still free - use the link below.
Download CCleaner

Yes, you have the wrong download - CCleaner is still free.

Thank you Inland. I ran it and it didn't fix the problem. I went ahead and did a system recovery and that didn't help either. So my laptop will be bound for repair this week.