Knowledge Base

Windows Stops Responding and You Receive a "Display Driver Has Stopped Working Normally" Error Message

Article ID: 328071

Article Last Modified on 4/28/2003

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Microsoft Windows XP Professional

This article was previously published under Q328071

SYMPTOMS

Your Windows XP-based computer may quit unexpectedly or stop responding, and then you receive an error message similar to the following:

The DisplayDriverName display driver has stopped working normally. Save your work and reboot the system to restore full display functionality. The next time you reboot the machine a dialog will be displayed giving you a chance to report this failure to Microsoft.

NOTE: DisplayDriverName is the name of the driver that may have caused the failure.

CAUSE

This issue may occur if you have Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) installed and your computer is experiencing a problem with a faulty device driver.

RESOLUTION

You may be able to resolve this issue by updating the drivers for your video adapter. Contact the manufacturer of your video adapter for updated drivers.

For information about how to contact the manufacturer of your video adapter, click the appropriate article number in the following list to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

65416 Hardware and Software Third-Party Vendor Contact List, A-K

60781 Hardware and Software Third-Party Vendor Contact List, L-P

60782 Hardware and Software Third-Party Vendor Contact List, Q-Z

Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact information.

MORE INFORMATION

When a Windows XP computer quits unexpectedly or stops responding, the issue is frequently related to faulty display drivers. When a failure of this type occurs, Windows XP SP1 tries to identify the device driver that caused the failure, and then provides this information in the error message. When you restart the computer, you are provided with the opportunity to report the issue to Microsoft.

For additional information about troubleshooting problems in Windows XP, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

308041 Resources for Troubleshooting Startup Problems in Windows XP

For additional information about how to obtain the latest Windows XP service pack, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322389 How to Obtain the Latest Windows XP Service Pack

Keywords: kberrmsg kbnofix kbprb KB328071

Microsoft KB Archive/328071

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