Over the past few months, we've noticed an increasing number of reports from Nvidia GeForce RTX users experiencing random game crashes that all appear to share one thing in common: NVLDDMKM Event ID 153 appearing in Windows Event Viewer. Reports span RTX 4090, RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 graphics cards, suggesting the problem isn't limited to a single GPU generation.
We've experienced the same behaviour ourselves. One of our systems running an RTX 5090 began suffering from game crashes, while another RTX 4090 system has shown the same symptoms. In both cases, Event Viewer consistently logged NVLDDMKM Event ID 153 when the crashes occurred.
The common symptoms
Although the exact behaviour varies from game to game, users are commonly reporting:
- Games crashing back to the desktop.
- The graphics driver appearing to reset during gameplay.
- NVLDDMKM Event ID 153 being recorded in Windows Event Viewer.
- The issue occurring only in certain games, while others remain completely stable.
Is the graphics card faulty?
This is where things get interesting.
Many owners initially suspected a faulty graphics card and even went as far as replacing their GPU. However, a significant number report exactly the same crashes after installing a different card.
One user summed it up by saying:
"Glad people are having the same issue as me. I did a direct replacement of my video card from a 4090 to a 5080 just to test if it WAS hardware and yeah, it popped up again today, so glad to know it's not hardware related."
This mirrors what we've seen ourselves and what many others are reporting across Microsoft's support forums and Nvidia's own community forums. Simply swapping the graphics card doesn't always eliminate the crashes.
A software or driver issue?
At the time of writing, Nvidia has not confirmed a specific cause for NVLDDMKM Event ID 153, and there is no official statement linking it to a driver bug.
However, the timing is notable. Since the release of Nvidia's newer driver branches introduced alongside the RTX 50 Series, users across RTX 30, RTX 40 and RTX 50 graphics cards have reported a range of stability problems, including black screens, game crashes and driver resets. Several driver hotfixes have already been released to address some of these issues, although reports relating to Event ID 153 continue to appear.
That doesn't prove every Event ID 153 error is caused by Nvidia's drivers, but the growing number of similar reports across different systems suggests that, for many users, replacing hardware may not be the answer.
What should you do?
If you're seeing NVLDDMKM Event ID 153:
- Check whether the crashes began after updating your Nvidia driver.
- If possible, test an older, known-stable driver version.
- Make sure your motherboard BIOS and chipset drivers are up to date.
- Verify power cables are fully seated, particularly on RTX 50 Series cards.
- Don't rush into replacing your graphics card solely because of Event ID 153, as many users have found the issue persists with completely different hardware.
Final Thoughts
Based on what we've experienced and the growing number of community reports, NVLDDMKM Event ID 153 appears to be affecting a wide range of Nvidia users rather than a handful of isolated systems.
While there isn't yet a confirmed root cause, the evidence suggests that many of these crashes are more likely to be related to software, drivers or system configuration than defective graphics cards. We'll continue monitoring the situation and update this article if Nvidia provides further information or releases a driver specifically addressing the issue.
