PC randomly starts stuttering

[orso7]

So I ran into a strange Problem on my PC some weeks ago. Randomly the PC would start stuttering in about 2 second intervalls, restart/relogin fixes it. It might come back right away or it might work for a week or so. 

 

This is the Error I see in the event viewer.

 

I tried googeling but no fix so far did work, I also do not have hard crashes but just this stuttering.

 

Original (sorry for german):
 

Protokollname: System
Quelle:        nvlddmkm
Datum:         27.12.2025 18:50:09
Ereignis-ID:   153
Aufgabenkategorie:Keine
Ebene:         Fehler
Schlüsselwörter:Klassisch
Benutzer:      Nicht zutreffend
Computer:      Don-PC
Beschreibung:
Die Beschreibung für die Ereignis-ID "153" aus der Quelle "nvlddmkm" wurde nicht gefunden. Entweder ist die Komponente, die dieses Ereignis auslöst, nicht auf dem lokalen Computer installiert, oder die Installation ist beschädigt. Sie können die Komponente auf dem lokalen Computer installieren oder reparieren.

Falls das Ereignis auf einem anderen Computer aufgetreten ist, mussten die Anzeigeinformationen mit dem Ereignis gespeichert werden.

Die folgenden Informationen wurden mit dem Ereignis gespeichert: 

\Device\Video3
Restarting TDR occurred on GPUID:100

Die Nachrichtenressource ist vorhanden, die Nachricht wurde in der Nachrichtentabelle jedoch nicht gefunden

Ereignis-XML:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="nvlddmkm" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="0">153</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2025-12-27T17:50:09.0292246Z" />
    <EventRecordID>35178</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="19836" />
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>Don-PC</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>\Device\Video3</Data>
    <Data>Restarting TDR occurred on GPUID:100</Data>
    <Binary>00000000020030000000000099000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000</Binary>
  </EventData>
</Event>

 

any ideas? Would be awesome if someone could help me here.

[Mumintroll]

nvlddmkm is part of Nvidia drivers, so perhaps you can try updating/reinstalling those to see if that fixes it.

If you still get random stuttering check for other driver updates aswell, like chipset drivers.

[orso7]

17 hours ago, Mumintroll said:

nvlddmkm is part of Nvidia drivers, so perhaps you can try updating/reinstalling those to see if that fixes it.

If you still get random stuttering check for other driver updates aswell, like chipset drivers.

I tried reinstalling the latest driver, also tried with studio drivers instead of game ready. Updated all mainboard drivers yesterday, so far no errors, but unfortunately that doesn't mean it is fixed since it only happens some times.

 

My next guess was running memtest to make sure it isn't a memory error but somehow secure boot won't let me boot from a stick, will have to figure that out today.

[Mumintroll]

It might also be power problems, a too weak or faulty powersupply, or even bad power cables connected to it and the powersupply.

I can also be the motherboard. A bad pci-e slot.

Or a faulty GPU.

 

What's the pc specifications?

[orso7]

On 12/28/2025 at 2:40 PM, Mumintroll said:

It might also be power problems, a too weak or faulty powersupply, or even bad power cables connected to it and the powersupply.

I can also be the motherboard. A bad pci-e slot.

Or a faulty GPU.

 

What's the pc specifications?

I hoped that it was fixed after my last message but it isn't

Just happened again. I can't figure out what causes it.

 

Specs:
CPU i7-13700KF

MB: Gigabyte Z690 AORUS ELITE AX

GK: Asus RTX 3080

RAM: 2x16GB Kingston Fury 5600

PSU:  be quiet! Straight Power 11 Gold 850W
Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 1TB, WD Blue 2TB, another SSD and a 2TB HDD

 

 

 

[Mumintroll]

The i7-13700KF 

Do you get any other weird errors?

Something like errors when decompressing/unpacking things? Errors when installing big games that needs to decompress or when installing the Nvidia drivers?

Or perhaps when starting games made with Unreal engine and it fails preparing shaders?

Do other apps crash, do your web browser randomly crash?

 

I'm thinking about the infamous Raptor lake degradation.

But it can be something else entirerly aswell.

 

Have you done a memtest?

If you still cannot boot from usb to do memtest you can use the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool instead. It's better than nothing.

[orso7]

On 1/7/2026 at 8:47 PM, Mumintroll said:

The i7-13700KF 

Do you get any other weird errors?

Something like errors when decompressing/unpacking things? Errors when installing big games that needs to decompress or when installing the Nvidia drivers?

Or perhaps when starting games made with Unreal engine and it fails preparing shaders?

Do other apps crash, do your web browser randomly crash?

 

I'm thinking about the infamous Raptor lake degradation.

But it can be something else entirerly aswell.

 

Have you done a memtest?

If you still cannot boot from usb to do memtest you can use the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool instead. It's better than nothing.

 

Not really, I quite regularly unpack things, never had a game install crash (unless it was of questionable origin). I very rarely get "display freezes", display goes black, comes back and everything works again. I somhow have the feeling these problems often occur when starting the broser or if "do something in it" (firefox btw). 

 

I finally got around to doing the memtest, everything passed there. But I noticed that I am probably not on the newest bios version so thats the next thing I will have to do. side question: do I need to deactivate secure boot before updating the bios? I did read of strange issues with secure boot.

 

 

[Mumintroll]

32 minutes ago, orso7 said:

 

Not really, I quite regularly unpack things, never had a game install crash (unless it was of questionable origin). I very rarely get "display freezes", display goes black, comes back and everything works again. I somhow have the feeling these problems often occur when starting the broser or if "do something in it" (firefox btw). 

 

I finally got around to doing the memtest, everything passed there. But I noticed that I am probably not on the newest bios version so thats the next thing I will have to do. side question: do I need to deactivate secure boot before updating the bios? I did read of strange issues with secure boot.

 

 

What Nvidia driver version are you on now?

There is also some recent unconfirmed reports of typical Nvidia driver crashes with black screen circulating since the latest January monthly update. But yours started much earlier than that. Windows 11 is not playing nice for plenty of people.

 

 

About bios upgrade.

You should atleast disable Bitlocker and let it decrypt fully if it's on.

I usually recommend leaving it off since for most home users it's not needed and will harm drive performance.

 

[orso7]

On 1/15/2026 at 8:05 PM, Mumintroll said:

What Nvidia driver version are you on now?

There is also some recent unconfirmed reports of typical Nvidia driver crashes with black screen circulating since the latest January monthly update. But yours started much earlier than that. Windows 11 is not playing nice for plenty of people.

 

 

About bios upgrade.

You should atleast disable Bitlocker and let it decrypt fully if it's on.

I usually recommend leaving it off since for most home users it's not needed and will harm drive performance.

 

I am on 581.80, currently downloading and later updating to the newest studio driver which is 591.74.

 

I did a bios update from F22 to F33 and a bios reset (did not have any special settings anyway). No change.

Updated all drivers and everything I could find (apart from the nvidia driver, which is still downloading). No change. 

 

Intrestingly it seems to have something to do with firefox. When I boot up the PC it never happens right away but the first hickup, if there is one, happens after starting firefox. I even had the suspicion that it has to do with multiple windows and youtube auto playing or loading a video. I tried to provoke this behaviour but with no success. 

 

One last thing I noticed today when adjusting my fan curves again, some CPU Cores seem to get kinda warm from time to time. I am currently idling at 40°-44° with a Noctua NH-D15, which I remember being lower when I built it. Max temperatures currently are at 82° in coretemp. No matter if that has something to do with the problem or not I probably should replace the thermal paste so I ordered some TPM7950 right away.

[Mumintroll]

40 minutes ago, orso7 said:

I am on 581.80, currently downloading and later updating to the newest studio driver which is 591.74.

 

I did a bios update from F22 to F33 and a bios reset (did not have any special settings anyway). No change.

Updated all drivers and everything I could find (apart from the nvidia driver, which is still downloading). No change. 

 

Intrestingly it seems to have something to do with firefox. When I boot up the PC it never happens right away but the first hickup, if there is one, happens after starting firefox. I even had the suspicion that it has to do with multiple windows and youtube auto playing or loading a video. I tried to provoke this behaviour but with no success. 

 

One last thing I noticed today when adjusting my fan curves again, some CPU Cores seem to get kinda warm from time to time. I am currently idling at 40°-44° with a Noctua NH-D15, which I remember being lower when I built it. Max temperatures currently are at 82° in coretemp. No matter if that has something to do with the problem or not I probably should replace the thermal paste so I ordered some TPM7950 right away.

 

If you suspect Firefox start it without any add-ons first. Maybe an add-on is not playing nice or doing something malicious in the background.

If that didn't help try reinstalling Firefox.

What happens if you close down all Firefox processes in the taskmanager when it stutters? Does the stutters disappear?

 

There are some random old threads on the net about Firefox causing Nvidia driver crashes. The usual workaround for that is to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.

 

[orso7]

On 1/17/2026 at 12:45 PM, Mumintroll said:

 

If you suspect Firefox start it without any add-ons first. Maybe an add-on is not playing nice or doing something malicious in the background.

If that didn't help try reinstalling Firefox.

What happens if you close down all Firefox processes in the taskmanager when it stutters? Does the stutters disappear?

 

There are some random old threads on the net about Firefox causing Nvidia driver crashes. The usual workaround for that is to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.

 

Ok thats great idea that didn't cross my mind and you are absolutely right. Happened again today, closed firefox, the screen went black for a few seconds, came back and everything worked like normal. Second time starting firefox, everything was ok. I need to look into how to deactivate the hardware acceleration in Firefox since I couldn't find it in the settings directly. Or maybe just swtich to a different browser.

[orso7]

On 1/17/2026 at 12:45 PM, Mumintroll said:

 

If you suspect Firefox start it without any add-ons first. Maybe an add-on is not playing nice or doing something malicious in the background.

If that didn't help try reinstalling Firefox.

What happens if you close down all Firefox processes in the taskmanager when it stutters? Does the stutters disappear?

 

There are some random old threads on the net about Firefox causing Nvidia driver crashes. The usual workaround for that is to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.

 

Ok, I did some more "research" and it seems to be youtube. The error only happens if either I open firefox (with it's last tabs) and there is a youtube tab loading or I open a new youtube tab. It also doesn't matter if it is loading the frontpage or a video link directly. When it occurs the firefox window will go "blank" first and then the stuttering starts. The solution is always the same, close firefox, nvidia driver apparently restarts (screen goes black and comes back). 

 

I am quite interested why this happens, what does youtube do so the nvidia driver crashes? Is it the browser? Extensions (Which i dont use too many)?

[Mumintroll]

1 hour ago, orso7 said:

Ok, I did some more "research" and it seems to be youtube. The error only happens if either I open firefox (with it's last tabs) and there is a youtube tab loading or I open a new youtube tab. It also doesn't matter if it is loading the frontpage or a video link directly. When it occurs the firefox window will go "blank" first and then the stuttering starts. The solution is always the same, close firefox, nvidia driver apparently restarts (screen goes black and comes back). 

 

I am quite interested why this happens, what does youtube do so the nvidia driver crashes? Is it the browser? Extensions (Which i dont use too many)?

 

Youtube is really a mess nowadays, with their fight vs Adblockers. They've made their site worse even for those not using Adblock.

I use Firefox and I've tried with Adblock+ and uBlock Origin, but they do make youtube glitchy.

Now I'm not using any adblocker on youtube, but it happens for me sometimes that Firefox freeze for a short moment and recovers. Only on youtube.

 

I haven't got any driver crash so far.

Maybe because I'm old school and usually close down the browser with all the tabs. They don't reopen again when starting Firefox again.

 

What happens if you use a Chromium browser, like Edge or Brave on youtube?

 

In Firefox there should be a "Report broken website" tool that you can use if you want to send a report to Mozilla.

[orso7]

On 1/31/2026 at 4:28 PM, Mumintroll said:

 

Youtube is really a mess nowadays, with their fight vs Adblockers. They've made their site worse even for those not using Adblock.

I use Firefox and I've tried with Adblock+ and uBlock Origin, but they do make youtube glitchy.

Now I'm not using any adblocker on youtube, but it happens for me sometimes that Firefox freeze for a short moment and recovers. Only on youtube.

 

I haven't got any driver crash so far.

Maybe because I'm old school and usually close down the browser with all the tabs. They don't reopen again when starting Firefox again.

 

What happens if you use a Chromium browser, like Edge or Brave on youtube?

 

In Firefox there should be a "Report broken website" tool that you can use if you want to send a report to Mozilla.

I wanted to try Brave anyway, maybe I'll switch for some time and try if it works there.

 

For the Firefox problem, I also tried to close all youtube tabs when it happened and it did not change, only restarting firefox will do the trick. I am just relieved that it is not a hardware problem, would love to build a new PC anyways but at the moment pricing somehow takes the fun out of it.

 

Thank you a lot for your Help, I was slowly loosing my mind over that stupid problem.

[Mumintroll]

32 minutes ago, orso7 said:

I wanted to try Brave anyway, maybe I'll switch for some time and try if it works there.

 

For the Firefox problem, I also tried to close all youtube tabs when it happened and it did not change, only restarting firefox will do the trick. I am just relieved that it is not a hardware problem, would love to build a new PC anyways but at the moment pricing somehow takes the fun out of it.

 

Thank you a lot for your Help, I was slowly loosing my mind over that stupid problem.

You're welcome

If you do get the same problems with Brave aswell you're allowed to resume your loosing your mind again. 

[orso7]

On 2/3/2026 at 9:47 PM, Mumintroll said:

You're welcome

If you do get the same problems with Brave aswell you're allowed to resume your loosing your mind again. 

It happened, I regainded the "loosing my mind"-status.

 

It isn't just firefox and it has something to do with video/audio decoding (?) It also happened a few times now with VLC, which doesn't palyback (or show any video at all if it happens). Closing it shows the same behaviour like with firefox. Display goes black, audio devices disconnect (at least I hear it it my headphones) and afterwards everything works fine. It also never happened twice in one reboot so far.

 

Edit: I checked if there is a Bios update available for my graphics card but unfortunately Asus does either not seem to provide them anymore or there just isn't any for my card (ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 V2 OC edition)

[Mumintroll]

4 hours ago, orso7 said:

It happened, I regainded the "loosing my mind"-status.

 

It isn't just firefox and it has something to do with video/audio decoding (?) It also happened a few times now with VLC, which doesn't palyback (or show any video at all if it happens). Closing it shows the same behaviour like with firefox. Display goes black, audio devices disconnect (at least I hear it it my headphones) and afterwards everything works fine. It also never happened twice in one reboot so far.

 

Edit: I checked if there is a Bios update available for my graphics card but unfortunately Asus does either not seem to provide them anymore or there just isn't any for my card (ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 V2 OC edition)

 

So now you're getting even more weird errors, and also with video decoding.

I'm starting to suspect your CPU, the Raptor lake degradation. When it starts to degrade it'll in most cases get worse, with more errors showing up, until it fails completely. Nvidia driver crashing and video decoding failure are known symptoms for a degraded Raptor lake.

 

Or it's a failing GPU.

 

I suggest asking a friend who has a spare pc.

Maybe you can bring your 3080 to test in someone's else pc?

 

[orso7]

On 3/8/2026 at 11:32 AM, Mumintroll said:

 

So now you're getting even more weird errors, and also with video decoding.

I'm starting to suspect your CPU, the Raptor lake degradation. When it starts to degrade it'll in most cases get worse, with more errors showing up, until it fails completely. Nvidia driver crashing and video decoding failure are known symptoms for a degraded Raptor lake.

 

Or it's a failing GPU.

 

I suggest asking a friend who has a spare pc.

Maybe you can bring your 3080 to test in someone's else pc?

 

I feared this but still have hope. I want to upgrade but not with the current prices.

 

I wonder why does it only happen once after a reboot. Just once, no matter if VLC or Firefox (with tabs that may contain video open) triggers it. Closing the application seems to trigger a driver restart and then everything works for the rest of the day.

[Mumintroll]

16 hours ago, orso7 said:

I feared this but still have hope. I want to upgrade but not with the current prices.

 

I wonder why does it only happen once after a reboot. Just once, no matter if VLC or Firefox (with tabs that may contain video open) triggers it. Closing the application seems to trigger a driver restart and then everything works for the rest of the day.

 

Nvidia has released a new driver 595.79, on March 10th. You can update to that version just to see if that helps.

 

You haven't ruled out a bad Windows yet, right? No repair or reinstallation of it?

In Settings --> System --> Recovery, there is a "Fix problems using Windows Update."

It'll keep all personal files and installed apps and almost all settings intact. Windows Update downloads a repair version with latest stable build to reinstall. It usually does take some time.

 

If you have already reinstalled Windows then skip it.

 

This is difficult to troubleshoot, I barerly remember what was written before because of the timespan. First post made in December 27th.

[orso7]

On 3/14/2026 at 10:50 AM, Mumintroll said:

 

Nvidia has released a new driver 595.79, on March 10th. You can update to that version just to see if that helps.

 

You haven't ruled out a bad Windows yet, right? No repair or reinstallation of it?

In Settings --> System --> Recovery, there is a "Fix problems using Windows Update."

It'll keep all personal files and installed apps and almost all settings intact. Windows Update downloads a repair version with latest stable build to reinstall. It usually does take some time.

 

If you have already reinstalled Windows then skip it.

 

This is difficult to troubleshoot, I barerly remember what was written before because of the timespan. First post made in December 27th.

 

TBH I feel really stupid for not thinking of that. Now that I think about it, it did not happen with windows 10 but I don't think it started right away with windows 11. It also not happens always, today, two restarts without any hickup.

 

Windows reinstall often breaks things for me becuase of some special software and tweaks but I might risk it.

[orso7]

Ok, it was a lot of tedious trying and A/B testing driver changes but I think (hope) I found the culprit. It seems to have been Vanguard anti cheat. I removed it from my autostart apps and it seems to have fixed the problem. 

This is the second time I had problems with anti cheat software causing some kind of wierd problems.

 

I was suspecting the graphics card tuning utility for quite some time since I had problems with an older card.