How to reload Video driver to work around problems?

[mzso]

Hello!

For unknown reasons sometimes video playback becomes jerky (well 3d and flash video too, but that's a lot less significant.). But sometimes restart is not an option since I don't want to interrupt a long task which I'd have to start from the beginning. Reinstalling the driver works but it's far less then ideal, since I pointlessly reinstall the driver and also it takes a long time. I was wondering if someone knows of a tool with which I can simply force a driver restart/reload.

[SamKook]

I know you can do it on linux(I forgot how though and can't seem to find it), but I didn't think it was possible on windows until I started searching for how just now.

Many claim that restarting the video driver service will reload them, but since there's no visible result(like the screen going black for a second or two), I'm not sure if it's actually working.

To do it, start services.msc(you'll need admin rights), navigate to your video driver service, right-click it and select restart. Since I have an Nvidia card, mine is called "NVIDIA Display Driver Service".

[mzso]

I know you can do it on linux(I forgot how though and can't seem to find it), but I didn't think it was possible on windows until I started searching for how just now.

Many claim that restarting the video driver service will reload them, but since there's no visible result(like the screen going black for a second or two), I'm not sure if it's actually working.

To do it, start services.msc(you'll need admin rights), navigate to your video driver service, right-click it and select restart. Since I have an Nvidia card, mine is called "NVIDIA Display Driver Service".

I don't think its likely that that service reloads the driver. It supposed to be doing this: "Provides system and desktop level support to the NVIDIA display driver" (Whatever this means)
By searching for the program file's name ("nvvsvc.exe") I found that a lot of people keep this service disabled. No-one knew what it does though. :) One person claimed that it's responsible for the Nvidia tab on the display properties. (Which I don't know if it still exists after XP)

[SamKook]

Yeah, I didn't really have high hopes after I tested it.

Disabling and re-enabling the video card under device manager seems to do the trick. Not sure if it will reinitialize it, but when disabled, it switches to the default all purpose driver and goes back to the proper driver when enabled.

Since I only start having problems with it after 3 weeks of my computer staying open, I can't test if it actually reinitialize it for about 2 weeks.

[mzso]

Yeah, I didn't really have high hopes after I tested it.

Disabling and re-enabling the video card under device manager seems to do the trick. Not sure if it will reinitialize it, but when disabled, it switches to the default all purpose driver and goes back to the proper driver when enabled.

Since I only start having problems with it after 3 weeks of my computer staying open, I can't test if it actually reinitialize it for about 2 weeks.

It works for me too. Its fairly common here. Curiously it happened for months but didn't happen for a month or but started happening again when I posted this topic.

Apparently it can be achieved with Nvidia Inspector (http://downloads.guru3d.com/NVIDIA-Inspector-1.9.6.6-download-2612.html#download) too with the "-restartdisplaydriver" switch.