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Video stutters or the screen goes black in Chrome after the NVIDIA 621.01 driver

Last verified October 2026Tested against NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 621.01 WHQL (21 October 2026) — the version reported, NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 617.42 WHQL (6 October 2026) — the rollback target in all three confirmations, RTX 5060 Ti, RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5090 — the GPUs named in the reports, Windows 10 and Windows 11 (25H2 and 26H2 both named in reports), Google Chrome and other Chromium browsers; one report also names FirefoxGood evidence

Two different things produce this and they need different fixes. If your monitors run at different refresh rates, you are probably hitting a limitation NVIDIA has documented since 2018 — hardware-accelerated video on one screen alongside a windowed app on another stutters by design, and no driver version fixes it. Set every display to the same refresh rate first. If that is not it, 621.01 looks like a regression: six users on NVIDIA's own feedback thread report Chrome video stuttering or the screen blanking since 21 October 2026, and three got it back by clean-installing 617.42. NVIDIA's release notes list no open issues, so treat the regression as user-reported, not confirmed.

Start here

  1. Check the driver version and whether the timing actually fits
  2. Set every display to the same refresh rate
  3. Turn off hardware acceleration in Chrome

NVIDIA shipped Game Ready 621.01 on 21 October 2026 as the Modern Warfare 4 driver. Within three days its feedback thread carried a cluster of reports that had nothing to do with games: video in Chrome stuttering, skipping frames, or the whole screen cutting to black for a second or twenty and coming back. NVIDIA's release notes for the driver carry an open-issues section whose entire contents read 'N/A', so there is no vendor page to point you at. What follows separates the part NVIDIA has documented for years from the part only users are reporting, because the two look identical on screen and only one of them is fixed by changing drivers.

Symptoms

  • Video in Chrome or another Chromium browser stutters, skips frames, or freezes for a few seconds
  • The whole screen cuts to black for roughly one to twenty seconds, then comes back on its own
  • Event Viewer logs nvlddmkm Event ID 153 with 'Error occurred on GPUID: 100' and a \Device\VideoN name
  • Windows shows the notification 'Display driver stopped responding and has recovered'
  • Audio glitches at the same moment the screen blanks while watching YouTube
  • Video chat in a browser tab lags and stops while the camera stays on
  • In the worst reported case, a VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE (0x116) bugcheck naming nvlddmkm.sys and an unexpected restart

Why this happens

Desktop compositing across displays set to different refresh rates

NVIDIA documents this one directly, and it is not a bug in any particular driver. Section 5.4 of the 621.01 release notes states that when hardware-accelerated video plays on one display and a windowed application with G-SYNC or adaptive-sync runs on another, the video stutters, 'the result of desktop compositing on displays with differing refresh rates'. The driver's own mitigation is to switch G-SYNC off during video playback and back on when the video is paused or closed — behaviour NVIDIA has shipped since the Windows 10 April 2018 Update. Crucially the notes add that the stutter 'can also occur when displays are set to different refresh rates, even when G-SYNC is not used'. Rolling back to an older driver will not change any of this, which is why it is worth ruling out before you touch your driver.

Set every display to the same refresh rate

An apparent regression in 621.01's hardware-accelerated video path

This is the part NVIDIA has not documented. Six users on the official 621.01 feedback thread describe browser video breaking after the update, all of them on RTX 50-series cards. The most carefully tested report comes from an RTX 5090 owner who established four things: disabling hardware acceleration in Chrome completely stopped the stuttering, re-enabling it brought the stuttering straight back, Firefox played the same videos normally, and a second machine with a Radeon RX 9070 XT played them normally too. They also found rolling back to 617.42 resolved it entirely. Two other reporters independently name 617.42 as the last working driver and say returning to it fixed things. That is a consistent picture pointing at the driver's video decode path, but it rests on user reports — NVIDIA's release notes and launch article mention none of it.

Turn off hardware acceleration in Chrome · Clean-install 617.42 — and do not use the Windows rollback button

A GPU timeout that has nothing to do with this driver

Event ID 153 from nvlddmkm means Windows reset your graphics card and recovered, and it names no cause. Microsoft's WDDM documentation explains the mechanism: when the GPU does not finish work inside the default two-second timeout, Windows resets it, and 'the only visible artifact from hang detection to recovery is a screen flicker'. That is precisely the one-second black screen people describe — the symptom is the recovery, not the fault. The same signature predates this driver by a long way. In March 2025 a reporter on NVIDIA's developer forums logged Event 153 with the identical 'Error occurred on GPUID: 100' and \Device\Video3 payload on driver 572.83, triggered by dragging windows between monitors while a video played, and rolling the driver back did not help; they ended up replacing a power supply and cable. So the signature alone does not establish that 621.01 is your problem.

Check the driver version and whether the timing actually fits

Fixes

Check the driver version and whether the timing actually fits

about 10 min

Event 153 tells you Windows reset the GPU, not why. Establishing that this began with 621.01 is what separates a driver regression from a fault that would survive any rollback.

Applies to: Windows 10, Windows 11

  1. Read your driver version: open the NVIDIA app and look under Drivers, or open NVIDIA Control Panel and choose Help then System Information. Confirm it says 621.01.
  2. Work out when the stutter started. Game Ready 621.01 was released on 21 October 2026. If your problem predates that, this driver is not the cause and rolling back will not help.
  3. Open Event Viewer, go to Windows Logs then System, and filter for the source nvlddmkm.
    eventvwr.msc
  4. Read what you find rather than assuming. Event ID 153 with 'Error occurred on GPUID' is a GPU reset that Windows recovered from. Microsoft's driver documentation describes the mechanism: Windows resets the card when it misses the default two-second timeout, the only visible artifact is a screen flicker, and Windows logs 'Display driver stopped responding and has recovered'. Five or more resets inside one minute make Windows bugcheck instead, which is the 0x116 crash one reporter hit.
  5. Note whether it ever happens with no video playing anywhere. If it does, you are looking at general GPU instability rather than the browser-video problem this page covers.

Confirmed by the vendor.

Source: Microsoft, NVIDIA GeForce Forums, NVIDIA Developer Forums, NVIDIA

Set every display to the same refresh rate

about 5 min

NVIDIA documents this stutter as a product limitation caused by compositing across mismatched refresh rates. It looks identical to the driver regression and no driver version fixes it, so rule it out before changing drivers.

Applies to: Multi-monitor systems, Windows 10 April 2018 Update (RS4) and later, Any NVIDIA driver version

  1. Open Settings, then System, then Display, then Advanced display. Select each display in turn and read the 'Choose a refresh rate' value.
  2. If the values differ, set them all to the highest rate that every display supports, then retest the video. NVIDIA's note on this is explicit: the stutter 'can also occur when displays are set to different refresh rates, even when G-SYNC is not used. To resolve in this case, make sure all displays are set to the same refresh rate.'
  3. Check whether the stutter only appears when a windowed app with G-SYNC or adaptive-sync is open on another screen while video plays. That is the documented case, and the driver already mitigates it by turning G-SYNC off during playback and back on when the video is paused or closed.
  4. If matching the refresh rates fixes it, stop here — you were never hitting the 621.01 problem, and updating or rolling back the driver would have changed nothing.

Confirmed by the vendor.

Source: NVIDIA

Turn off hardware acceleration in Chrome

about 5 min

This takes the GPU's video decoder out of the path altogether, so it both tests the hypothesis and works as a stopgap while you decide whether to change drivers.

Applies to: Google Chrome and other Chromium browsers, Microsoft Edge (same setting, under System)

  1. Type the settings address into Chrome's address bar, turn off 'Use graphics acceleration when available', and press Relaunch. Save your work first — Chrome reopens your tabs but not unsaved data in them.
    chrome://settings/system
  2. Confirm it actually took effect: open the GPU status page and check that the Graphics Feature Status entries now report software only rather than hardware accelerated.
    chrome://gpu
  3. Retest the video that was stuttering. On an RTX 5090, one reporter found disabling hardware acceleration completely resolved the stuttering and re-enabling it brought the problem straight back — the cleanest single piece of evidence that the GPU video path is involved.
  4. Expect a cost while it is off: software decoding raises CPU use and drains a laptop battery faster, and some camera and video effects stop working. Turn it back on once you have changed drivers or a fixed driver ships.
  5. If the freezing also happens in Firefox, this will not be enough on its own — one of the six reporters describes freezing in both browsers. Go to the rollback instead.

Reported to work by one user; not confirmed by the vendor.

Source: NVIDIA GeForce Forums

Clean-install 617.42 — and do not use the Windows rollback button

Check before applyingabout 25 min

Three reporters independently got their video back this way. It has to be a clean install because NVIDIA states that Windows' rollback feature does not reliably restore all of the previous driver's files.

Applies to: RTX 50-series cards, where every report of this symptom clustered, Windows 10 and Windows 11

Before you do this

Going back to 617.42 gives up what 621.01 fixed. The 360 Hz QHD black flash (NVIDIA bug 4846825) and the G-SYNC Pulsar 320 FPS cap (6408986) are listed as fixed only in 621.01, and 617.42 still carries the 'Prefer Maximum Performance' bug. If you own a 360 Hz G-SYNC Pulsar panel, weigh that trade before rolling back. Your screen will also blank briefly during installation, which is normal.

First:

  • Download the 617.42 installer before you begin — you will be mid-install with no reliable video acceleration
  • Close Chrome, and any capture, streaming or overlay software
  1. Download the GeForce Game Ready 617.42 WHQL installer for your card from NVIDIA's driver download page first, and save it locally.
  2. Do not use Device Manager's 'Roll Back Driver', and do not use Windows' rollback feature. NVIDIA is explicit about this: 'To reinstall a previous or older NVIDIA graphics driver, do not use the Windows rollback feature. This method will not reliably restore all the previous driver files.' This is the step most guides get wrong.
  3. Instead, remove the current driver the way NVIDIA directs — through Windows' Add and Remove programs, which is Settings then Apps then Installed apps — then run the 617.42 setup.exe you downloaded.
  4. In the installer, choose Custom (Advanced) and tick 'Perform a clean installation' so no 621.01 state is carried over.
  5. Reboot, then retest the video that was failing.
  6. Stop the update from coming back: in the NVIDIA app, turn off automatic driver updates, or decline 621.01 when it is offered, until NVIDIA ships a driver that addresses this.
  7. If a clean install of 617.42 changes nothing, this is not the 621.01 regression. Put the current driver back and treat it as general GPU instability instead.

Reported to work by 3 users; not confirmed by the vendor.

Source: NVIDIA, NVIDIA GeForce Forums

Known issues

  • NVIDIA has not documented this. Driver 621.01's release notes do carry a section headed 'Open Issues in Version 621.01 WHQL', but its entire contents read 'N/A', and neither the notes nor NVIDIA's launch article for the driver mentions video playback, Chrome, browsers, black screens or nvlddmkm. Checked 24 October 2026.

    Affects NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 621.01 WHQL · Status: open

  • Claims that NVIDIA acknowledged this are unverified. Secondary coverage says an NVIDIA representative confirmed a filed bug report and asked affected users for crash dumps. Checked 24 October 2026: the feedback thread shows 189 replies but only the most recent load without an account, and none of those is such a reply; the two outlets making the claim are a paywalled post and an aggregator. Treat vendor acknowledgement as unconfirmed — which is why no fix here claims it.

    Affects NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 621.01 WHQL · Status: unknown

  • The multi-monitor video stutter is a documented product limitation, not a 621.01 regression. NVIDIA has listed it since the Windows 10 April 2018 Update and still lists it in the 621.01 notes as section 5.4. Readers who match this description will get no benefit from changing driver versions at all.

    Affects Windows 10 April 2018 Update (RS4) and later, All current NVIDIA driver versions · Status: workaround only

  • No hotfix has shipped. As of 24 October 2026, Game Ready 621.01 of 21 October remains the current release and no hotfix driver addressing browser video playback has appeared. The rollback is the only driver-side route for now.

    Affects NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 621.01 WHQL · Status: open

  • The reports disagree about Firefox, which matters for choosing a fix. Five of the six reporters name Chrome or Chromium; the sixth names YouTube without naming a browser. One of the five explicitly found Firefox unaffected on the same videos, while another reports freezing in both Chrome and Firefox. If yours happens in Firefox too, the Chrome setting cannot be the whole story and the rollback is the route to try.

    Affects Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox · Status: open

  • Every reporter who named a GPU named an RTX 50-series card: RTX 5060 Ti (two reporters), RTX 5070 Ti (two) and RTX 5090 (one). The sixth gave no GPU. No RTX 40-series report of browser video breaking on 621.01 appeared in the replies read. That is suggestive rather than conclusive, since it reflects who posted in one thread over three days.

    Affects RTX 5060 Ti, RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5090 · Status: open

If none of this worked

Event 153 from nvlddmkm is a GPU reset, and many things other than this driver cause one. In March 2025 a reporter on NVIDIA's developer forums logged the identical signature — Event ID 153, 'Error occurred on GPUID: 100', \Device\Video3 — on driver 572.83 with an RTX 4090, triggered by dragging windows between monitors while a video played. Rolling the driver back did not help; they went through a vBIOS update, PCIe changes, MPO registry edits and finally a replacement power supply and cable. That was eighteen months before 621.01 existed. So if your stutter predates 21 October 2026, if a clean install of 617.42 changes nothing, or if the screen blanks with no video playing, this page is not your answer: treat it as general GPU stability, check the power connector seating and test with a single monitor. One honest limit on this page — the evidence is three days of reports from one thread, with no vendor confirmation and no fixed driver.

Common questions

Is this NVIDIA's bug or Chrome's?
Unresolved, and nobody authoritative has said. The strongest evidence points at the NVIDIA driver: one reporter showed that the same videos played normally in Firefox and normally on a different machine with a Radeon RX 9070 XT, and that rolling back to 617.42 fixed it. That pattern is hard to explain as a Chrome bug. But NVIDIA's release notes name no open issues and NVIDIA has not commented, so this stays a well-corroborated user hypothesis rather than a confirmed driver defect.
Should I roll back to 617.42 or to the 617.70 hotfix?
The three reporters who confirmed a rollback worked all name 617.42, so that is the version with evidence behind it. 617.70 is a hotfix rather than a WHQL release and no report in this thread names it as a cure for the video problem. Go with 617.42 unless you need something specific that only the hotfix carried.
Why not just use Device Manager's 'Roll Back Driver' button?
Because NVIDIA says it does not work reliably. The 621.01 release notes state that to reinstall an older driver you should not use the Windows rollback feature, as it 'will not reliably restore all the previous driver files', and direct you to remove the current driver through Windows' Add and Remove programs and install the older one with setup.exe instead. A partial rollback can leave you with a mix of files and a problem that looks unfixed.
Is it safe to leave Chrome's hardware acceleration off permanently?
It is safe, but you pay for it. Video decoding moves to the CPU, which raises CPU use, makes a laptop run hotter and drains its battery faster, and some camera and video effects that depend on the GPU stop working. It is a good stopgap and a poor permanent setting, so turn it back on after you change drivers or once a fixed driver ships.

Did this fix work?

If a step is wrong, outdated, or did not help, telling us is the fastest way to get it corrected. Reports are reviewed before new articles.

Report a problem with this page

Related problems

Sources

  • Release 620 Driver for Windows, Version 621.01 — Release Notes (RN-08399-621.01_v01)Official

    NVIDIA · Release notes · checked Oct 24, 2026

    • Driver 621.01 WHQL is dated 21 October 2026 in document RN-08399-621.01_v01.
    • Section 3.2 'Open Issues in Version 621.01 WHQL' lists its entire contents as 'N/A'.
    • Section 3.1.2 lists bug 4846825 (QHD 360 Hz black flash) and 6408986 (G-SYNC Pulsar FPS drop to 320) as fixed in 621.01.
    • Section 5.4: 'If hardware accelerated video is playing on one display and an application is launched on another display in windowed mode with NVIDIA G-SYNC or adaptive-sync enabled, the video stutters. This is the result of desktop compositing on displays with differing refresh rates.'
    • Section 5.4 notes the stutter 'can also occur when displays are set to different refresh rates, even when G-SYNC is not used. To resolve in this case, make sure all displays are set to the same refresh rate.'
    • Section 5.4 states NVIDIA G-SYNC has been disabled during active video playback on multi-monitor systems since the Windows 10 April 2018 Update (RS4), and is re-enabled if the video is paused or closed.
    • Section 5.12: 'To reinstall a previous or older NVIDIA graphics driver, do not use the Windows rollback feature. This method will not reliably restore all the previous driver files.' It directs users to remove the current driver via Windows Add and Remove programs and install the older driver using setup.exe.
    • The release notes nowhere mention Chrome, browsers, video playback regressions, black screens or nvlddmkm as open issues.
  • WDDM Support for Timeout Detection and Recovery (TDR)Official

    Microsoft · Documentation · checked Oct 24, 2026

    • TDR 'detects when the graphics card takes longer than expected to complete an operation. It then resets the graphics card to prevent the entire system from becoming unresponsive.'
    • 'The default timeout period in Windows is two seconds.'
    • 'The only visible artifact from hang detection to recovery is a screen flicker.'
    • On successful recovery Windows displays 'Display driver stopped responding and has recovered' and logs that message in Event Viewer.
    • Windows bug-checks the computer on the sixth or more GPU hang when five or more hangs (0x117) and recoveries occur within one minute.
    • Some legacy DirectX applications render black at the end of recovery and must be restarted by the user.
  • Phantom Blade Zero & Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 — GeForce Game Ready DriverOfficial

    NVIDIA · Documentation · checked Oct 24, 2026

    • NVIDIA's launch article for GeForce Game Ready 621.01 WHQL names no open or known issues and directs users with problems to the GeForce.com Driver Feedback Forum.
    • The announcement does not mention video playback, Chrome, browsers, black screens or nvlddmkm.
  • GeForce GRD 621.01 Feedback Thread (Released 10/21/26)Community report

    NVIDIA GeForce Forums · Forum · checked Oct 24, 2026

    • Six distinct users report browser video playback problems after updating to 621.01: M2xim (RTX 5060 Ti), Drklordnecro (RTX 5070 Ti), scorpionwuhao (RTX 5090 D2), Israel Fernndez (RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB), CaSsErDoDo and Qyoon_FR (RTX 5070 Ti).
    • Drklordnecro reports video chat in Chrome lagging and stopping and Windows cutting to a black screen for 10-20 seconds, names 617.42 as the last good driver, and rolled back to it.
    • scorpionwuhao reports Bilibili video stuttering and skipping frames in Chrome on an RTX 5090 D2, and that disabling hardware acceleration in Chrome completely resolves it while re-enabling it brings the stuttering back.
    • scorpionwuhao also reports Firefox plays the same videos normally, that another PC with an RX 9070 XT plays them normally, and that rolling back to 617.42 completely resolves the problem.
    • Qyoon_FR reports short black screens and audio glitches on YouTube with nvlddmkm errors in the event log, \Device\Video3 and 'Error occurred on GPUID: 100', and that going back to 617.42 solves the issue.
    • Three reporters independently state that returning to 617.42 resolved the problem: Drklordnecro, scorpionwuhao and Qyoon_FR.
    • Israel Fernndez reports freezing video on Instagram and YouTube and freezing navigation in both Chrome and Firefox on Windows 11 26H2.
    • recnam964 reports a VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE (0x116) bugcheck naming nvlddmkm.sys with Kernel-Power Event ID 41 after updating to 621.01 on an RTX 5060.
    • NVIDIA staff account Manuel@NVIDIA posted the driver announcement listing fixed gaming and general bugs with no open-issues section, plus a separate stickied bug-reporting guide. The thread shows 189 replies, of which only the most recent load without an account; none of those visible replies is an NVIDIA reply acknowledging the video playback problem.
  • Black Screen NVLDDMKM driver crash when playing videos and moving windows to other displaysCommunity report

    NVIDIA Developer Forums · Forum · checked Oct 24, 2026

    • A reporter logged nvlddmkm Event ID 153 with 'Error occurred on GPUID: 100' and \Device\Video3 in March 2025, on driver 572.83 with an RTX 4090 and four monitors, eighteen months before 621.01 shipped.
    • The trigger there was dragging windows between monitors while a video played on another monitor, and it did not occur during gaming or stress tests.
    • Rolling the driver back to 560.94 did not resolve it, and the reporter also tried vBIOS and BIOS updates, PCIe generation changes, disabling G-Sync, disabling MPO via the registry, and replacing the power supply and 12V-2x6 cable without success.
    • No NVIDIA employee addressed the technical issue in that thread; the only staff reply redirected the reporter to the GeForce forums.