Until recently my video card was crashing sporadically due to an apparent problem with the nv_disp.dll or something to do with the NVIDIA video drivers and Microsoft Windows interacting with the video card. I have a Dell Latitude C840 with a 15″ SXGA+ UXGA screen and an NVIDIA 64MB NV17 Video Card. It’s a good, loyal trooper that is 6 years old and is still going strong. Dell computers are built like tanks, they last forever. I recommend them to everyone.





I googled the error and came across various solutions that worked for some people, but most complained that their video card was still crashing especially when playing graphics intensive applications. In my case the the drivers would stop responding when I would Alt+Tab between Photoshop and Firefox, particularly if I had a Flash video or Pandora.com playing in the background. I began troubleshooting the problem by installing the most recent NVIDA drivers from Dell Support. That didn’t work. I proceeded to modify the display settings as follows:

Display->Settings->Advanced

Go to the Troubleshoot tab and drag the Hardware Acceleration bar all the way down to None. Then proceed to uncheck the Enable Write Combining checkbox, click OK and Restart.

By downgrading the Hardware Acceleration you’re doing away will fancy transitions and rendering. Unchecking the Enable Write Combining option is to ensure that Windows isn’t fucking up the video card, basically. These steps worked for me and I have not had an nv4_disp error since. Good luck mate!