Battlefield 3 Display Driver Crashing

[WarrenX]

Hello Guys,

I stopped playing Battlefield 3 a couple months ago (was working fine then). I tried to play it a few days ago, and am thus far unable to get it past the loading screen (for online games) without crashing to desktop with the following message from Windows, "Display Driver has stopped responding and has successfully recovered." This error does not occur on any other game I have played except for Battlefield 3.

Here is what I have tried:
1. Clean install three separate instances of display/chipset drivers: Catalyst 12.6, 12.4, and 12.3. I use the TWL cleaner method in safe mode for this.
2. Clean install newest Realtek HD Audio drivers.
3. Scan computer for viruses/malware using MSE and Malwarebyte: negative.
4. Stress test RAM using Memtest86: passed.
5. Tried Microsoft suggested fix, "Increase the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) processing time by adjusting the Timeout Detection and Recovery registry value."
6. Tried thinking of any major changes to the system that could be causing a conflict or instability in the two month span. I cannot think of anything, but I have notoriously bad memory.
7. Blown out case with air compressor and vacuum (I was not as confident in this clean out as in previous ones, it was admittedly rushed).
8. Disabled all overclocking functionality within the Catalyst Control Center (AMD Overdrive). All components are at their respective stock speed (at least using GUI).

I have made little progress so far, the game still crashes either before loading, or imminently after I start playing (with choppy frame rates). I am afraid to start experimenting with the voltage as I am a novice in that area, although I have heard reports from other forums that this may be a suspect (but why would my GPU spontaneously be starved of volts?).

Here is my new system specifics:
Motherboard: MSI 880GM-E35
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965
GPU: MSI Radeon HD 5770 1GB @ 875/1200 MHz
RAM: 2 x Corsair 2048 MB DDR3 @ 2000MHz (9-9-9-28)
HD: Samsung HD103SJ 1TB
Power Supply: Antec 700 Watt (I think, cannot find wattage label, and forgot what it was I bought, but I am pretty sure this is it. I will look for online order history and try to find exact model).

Thanks for any and all help, much appreciated. I will upload some CPUID HW screens at load and idle.

 

[WarrenX]

Here is my computer at idle.

*I did notice that one of my motherboard temperatures "TMPIN1" was higher than any other meter in the machine. I have heard this can be attributed to the north bridge, but is this normal at idle?

Here is my computer under load (loading BF3 level) right before it crashes.

 

[-RockMan-]

Hello Guys,

I stopped playing Battlefield 3 a couple months ago (was working fine then). I tried to play it a few days ago, and am thus far unable to get it past the loading screen (for online games) without crashing to desktop with the following message from Windows, "Display Driver has stopped responding and has successfully recovered." This error does not occur on any other game I have played except for Battlefield 3.

Thanks for any and all help, much appreciated. I will upload some CPUID HW screens at load and idle.

I looked at your profile signature, if your ram speed is indeed that high, that maybe the reason why bf3 maybe crashing.
Clock down your ram timings to 1333mhz or something safe to it, reduce your cpu speed to 3.6ghz and let it run that way.

Looking at your screens, I recommend you turn off aero theme for windows while you do online gaming.
It will keep half of the stress off of the cpu/vga card while being in use.

Let me know what happens later on.

 

[WarrenX]

Hey Mike. First thank you for your input, much appreciated . I thought I had basic on but I may have left a few aero elements intact so I switched out to basic again (good eye). As for RAM mhz, I've never much messed with the stock of my components before, can things like that spontaneously become a problem if you played fine with that configuration previously? I'll tone it down though and report back. Thanks again bud.

 

[Trotter]

This may sound nuts, but try uninstalling the game and reinstalling it. I realize that there is a crap ton load of updates and all, but it just might do the trick. I have had to do it a couple of times since the game came out.

 

[Jonny125]

This site has a lot of fixes for common gaming problems, worth having a look if you haven't come across it before.

Battlefield 3 - PCGamingWiki PCGW - Bugs, fixes and workarounds

When bf3 came out, I used to have display driver crashed message quite a lot when joining a server, I got around it by keeping the game minimised until it said 'Loading Map', then maximised and it would work pretty much every time.

Note sure if that helps, but goodluck either way.

 

[-RockMan-]

Hey Mike. First thank you for your input, much appreciated . I thought I had basic on but I may have left a few aero elements intact so I switched out to basic again (good eye). As for RAM mhz, I've never much messed with the stock of my components before, can things like that spontaneously become a problem if you played fine with that configuration previously? I'll tone it down though and report back. Thanks again bud.

To be honest, if your AM3 motherboard can handle the ram timings that high for that long, more power to you.
But like it was stated a while back most phenom 2 and athlon are just happy chewing on 1333 memory speed.
Anything higher and your asking for problems soon like I did last year/

Have a listen to what the others are telling you as well, I dont play bf3 wish I had a free key. but I don't and I can't comment much on it at all.

Best of luck!