When reporting driver issues to NVIDIA, the information we require may vary depending on the type of issue you are encountering. The most common driver issues are seperated into categories below along with a list of questions based on the type of graphics related problem. When contacting NVIDIA to report driver related issue either through our support portal, NVIDIA display driver feedback form or by email, please consider including answers to the following questions below based on your issue.
Driver fails to complete installation:
1. If the driver install failed, click here to learn how to download the driver manually and performing a clean install of the driver.
2. If NVIDIA display driver installed successfully but the NVIDIA Control Panel is missing, please reference the FAQ "NVIDIA DCH/Standard Display Drivers for Windows 10".
3. If continued troubleshooting does not solve your installation issues, we will require installer logs from your PC in order to further diagnose the cause of of the installer issues. Please click here to learn more on how to enable installer logging so that you may provide it to an NVIDIA representative.
Stuttering/lower performance:
1. If you are installing a new graphics card, check if it is seated properly. When installing larger graphics cards, it may not be obvious when a graphics card is not inserted all the way. Reseat the graphics card if needed. If the graphics card uses external power, verify that the PCI-E power connectors are inserted all the way. Incorrect installation of the graphics card may result in performance or system instability issues.
2. If you updated your NVIDIA display drivers while a 3rd party GPU monitoring utility was running in the background, it is possible the Power Target setting is incorrect which can lead to lower performance. To learn more, please visit the following KBA:
Lower GPU performance may be observed in games after updating drivers while a GPU monitoring application is running in the background
Lower GPU performance may be observed in games after updating drivers while a GPU monitoring application is running in the background
3rd party applications, in particular system monitoring utilities such as anti-virus and malware scanners, may block the NVIDIA display driver installer from completing succesfully. If you did not close all applications running in the background before you launched the NVIDIA display driver installer, close all applications and try re-installing the latest driver again manually as described below:
GeForce Experience driver installation failed. How do I manually clean install the NVIDIA driver for my graphics card?
GeForce Experience driver installation failed. How do I manually clean install the NVIDIA driver for my graphics card?
3. To share a performance bug report, start by sharing the title of the game which you are seeing a performance issue. If an issue occurs across multiple games, we still require the name of a specific game that you are able to reproduce this behavior. Please do not give a broad answer such as "happens with all games" or "happens with all the games I play".
4. To share a performance bug report, start by sharing the title of the game which you are seeing a performance issue. If an issue occurs across multiple games, we still require the name of a specific game that you are able to reproduce this behavior. Please do not give a broad answer such as "happens with all games" or "happens with all the games I play".
5. Which platform are you playing the game on (Battle.net/Bethesda/Epic Games/Galaxy/Microsoft Store/Origin/Steam/Uplay/etc.)?
6. Please share screenshots showing the in game graphics settings you are using and the settings you have changed from the default values in the NVIDIA Control Panel.
7. Are you running more than one display? Does the problem go away if switch to single monitor only?
8. Close any background apps and check if the stutter persists. If you are using any apps that insert an overlay (eg. Discord, EVGA Precision, MSI Afterburner, Steam Overlay, etc.) in your app/game, disable the overlay and verify the performance results again. To disable the in-game overlay for GeForce Experience, click on the settings icon -> toggle off the IN-GAME OVERLAY setting as shown in the screenshot below.
9. GPUView trace logs - If the performance issue started after a driver update or after the game received a patch update, we will likely need logs in order to investigate the cause of the performance drop as the issue may very well be specific to your system configuration. Click here to learn how to collect GPUView trace logs. We typically need about 30 seconds to 1 minutes worth of gameplay logs. These log files can be quite large in size (typically over 1GB in size) so you will need to upload the files to a file sharing site such as Google Drive/One Drive/Dropbox/etc.. Then you will need to email the URL to download the file to driverfeedback@nvidia.com or share it with the NVIDIA Customer Care representative you are working with.
Graphic Corruption/Missing Graphics:
1. 1. If you are installing a new graphics card, check if it is seated properly. When installing larger graphics cards, it may not be obvious when a graphics card is not inserted all the way. Reseat the graphics card if needed. If the graphics card uses external power, verify that the PCI-E power connectors are inserted all the way. If you are using a 3rd party PCI-E power cable/adapter, try swapping the cable for the one that came bundled with your graphics card or power supply. If the graphics card is not receiving sufficient power under heavy load, it may manifest as a black screen system freezes.
2. Title of the game
3. GPU make and model
4. Windows version (click here for information on how to look up this information)?
5. Does this reproduce with other games/applications or just one particular game/application?
6. If possible, please provide a screenshot or a Youtube video showing the graphic corruptions you are seeing.
7. Please share screenshots showing the in game graphics settings you are using and also the settings you have changed in the NVIDIA Control Panel from the default settings. You may email the screenshots
Display flickers, no signal or missing display modes
1. If you are installing a new graphics card and do not get a picture on your display when you power on your PC:
- Check if the graphics card is seated properly. When installing larger graphics cards, it may not be obvious when a graphics card is not inserted all the way. Reseat the graphics card if needed.
- If the graphics card uses external power, verify that the PCI-E power connectors are inserted all the way. If you are using a 3rd party PCI-E power cable/adapter, try swapping the cable for the one that came bundled with your graphics card or power supply.
- Try a different port or connector on the display (eg. DisplayPort -> HDMI)
- Verify the display is connected to the NVIDIA graphics card and not the onboard graphics controller on the motherboard.
2. When providing feedback, please share the following:
- Display make and model (if you know the firmware version, please provide this as well)
- How is display connected (HDMI, DVI, VGA, DisplayPort, etc.)
- If you are using an adapter in between the display and graphics card, please state the type of adapter (ie DisplayPort to HDMI, DVI to VGA, etc.)
- Have you tested the other ports on the display (eg. switch to HDMI instead of DisplayPort)
- Is this problem specific to when the driver is installed or does it occur with drivers uninstalled
- Approximately how long of a cable are you using (does not need to be exact)
3. If your PC shows one of the following, click here to read how to capture logs to investigate your issue:
- Random desktop display flicker
- Blank screen
- No signal from one of connected displays following a driver update
- NVIDIA Control Panel/ Windows Display settings missing resolution/refresh rate
- Incorrect desktop color levels following a driver update
Applications/Games crashing to desktop or causing PC to BSOD
1. Are you overclocking your GPU or using a factory overclocked graphics card? If so you can configure your graphics card to run at NVIDIA reference clock speeds by enabling Debug Mode. To enable Debug Mode, open the NVIDIA Control Panel (right-click over your Windows desktop to locate the NVIDIA Control Panel context menu option) -> click on Help from the top menu -> click on Debug Mode. Next see if you are still able to reproduce the application crash.
2. Troubleshooting:
- Check if the graphics card is seated properly. When installing larger graphics cards, it may not be obvious when a graphics card is not inserted all the way. Reseat the graphics card if needed.
- If the graphics card uses external power, verify that the PCI-E power connectors are inserted all the way. If you are using a 3rd party PCI-E power cable/adapter, try swapping the cable for the one that came bundled with your graphics card or power supply.
- Verify your PC meets the system requirements for your graphics card. If the graphics card is not receiving sufficient power, especially under load, it may manifest as a system freeze or system reboot.
3. Are the crashes or system reboots limited to a single application or does it happen randomly with different applications? If the issue happens with multiple applications, it may be a hardware issue. Check your components such as system memory/power supply/motherboard and graphics card for possible hardware problem. If your memory or CPU is overclocked, try changing the clock speeds to default values. If you have a spare PC, try installing your graphics card in a different PC to see you are able to reproduce the crashes. If applications/games continue to crash when you use the graphics card on a different PC, then it is likely that the graphics card is going bad.
4. Some PC motherboards may be more sensitive to higher loads or frequencies. Update your motherboard to the latest system BIOS available. If you are using overclocked PC memory, lower the memory to stock speed/disable XMP memory profiles from the motherboard BIOS screen.
5. If your application/game is crashing to the desktop, please refer to the FAQ "How to save a Windows crash dump file after a game/application crash or TDR" to learn how to enable Windows full dmp file logging so that you may provide a crash dmp file to NVIDIA. If applications/games are instead causing your PC to reboot with a blue screen of death (BSOD), please refer to the FAQ How to save a Windows complete memory dump file after a blue screen of death/unexpected reboot" to learn how to enable Windows full dmp file logging so that you may provide a crash dmp file to NVIDIA. Windows DMP files can range in size from around one hundred megabytes to over a gigabyte in size. The size of the files will mean that you will not be able to email the files as an attachment. Instead as ask that you upload the dmp file(s) to a file sharing site such as Google Drive, Microsoft One Drive or any other service and then email a link to download the file(s) to driverfeedback@nvidia.com.