Computer Tips From A Computer Guy

Troubleshoot “thread stuck in device driver” error

Posted: 13 Aug 2009 03:12 AM PDT

Thread Stuck In Device Driver (stop code 0X000000EA) or also known as the infamous "infinite loop" problem, has about a hundred different causes. What's actually happening is that your video driver has essentially entered an infinite loop because your video adapter has locked up.

According to Microsoft this issue occurs if the graphics adapter is caught in an infinite loop while it waits for the video hardware to become idle. This can indicate that there is a problem with the video hardware, or that the graphics adapter cannot program the hardware correctly.

Most of the time you could just send an error report to Microsoft to get a resolution for your error report. You can do this by following the steps below:

Click Send Error Report when you are prompted to send the error report to Microsoft.

If a fix or a workaround is available, click More Information. This helps you obtain the fix or information about how to work around the issue.

Other tips that I know will work are:

Try upgrading your computer's power supply. A power supply of poor quality or insufficient wattage will be unable to provide adequate power to all your computer's components, and may result in a "brown out" of sorts in your system. Note that newer, more power-hungry video adapters are more susceptible to this problem.
Update your video card's driver using WindowsUpdate http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com. This will let you install the latest signed drivers for your device.
Make sure your video card is properly seated in its AGP or PCI slot. If it's a PCI card, try moving it to a different slot. Make sure that the notches are aligned and the clips at the side of the card are properly locked in.

Turn-off hardware acceleration.
1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Display.
2. On the Settings tab, click Advanced, and then click the Troubleshoot tab.
3. Move the Hardware Acceleration slider to None, and then click to clear the Enable write combining check box.
4. Click OK, and then click OK.

I hope this solve your infinite loop errors. In my experience, it was almost always a defective hardware or improperly seated cards that caused my troubles. If fixing hardware does not solve it, you can always try the software solutions shown above.