• TIL: Restart your graphics driver!

    From Spalls Hurgenson@spallshurgenson@gmail.com to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action on Mon Feb 9 12:22:05 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action


    Today I learned a new trick. Mostly I'm posting it here just as a
    reference for future me.*

    But if you need to reset/restart your video-card's graphics driver in
    Windows 11, all you need do is press the following key combination:


    WIN + CTRL + SHIFT + B


    The computer will beep, your screens will blank, and the driver will
    restart. It might fix some graphic anomalies, and it's faster than
    doing a full reboot. Or, you know, waiting for the driver to crash on
    its own ;-)

    How useful is it really? No idea. But it might come in handy one day,
    so I'm archiving it here. And who knows, maybe it might help you too!









    ----
    * hello future Me! You're welcome! ;-)


    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From PW@noneused@noneused.net to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action on Mon Feb 9 18:32:49 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

    On Mon, 09 Feb 2026 12:22:05 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:


    Today I learned a new trick. Mostly I'm posting it here just as a
    reference for future me.*

    But if you need to reset/restart your video-card's graphics driver in
    Windows 11, all you need do is press the following key combination:


    WIN + CTRL + SHIFT + B


    The computer will beep, your screens will blank, and the driver will
    restart. It might fix some graphic anomalies, and it's faster than
    doing a full reboot. Or, you know, waiting for the driver to crash on
    its own ;-)

    How useful is it really? No idea. But it might come in handy one day,
    so I'm archiving it here. And who knows, maybe it might help you too!

    When would I want to do this? Seems like something to know though.

    -pw
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Spalls Hurgenson@spallshurgenson@gmail.com to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action on Tue Feb 10 10:54:13 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

    On Mon, 09 Feb 2026 18:32:49 -0700, PW <noneused@noneused.net> said
    this thing:

    On Mon, 09 Feb 2026 12:22:05 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson ><spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:


    Today I learned a new trick. Mostly I'm posting it here just as a
    reference for future me.*

    But if you need to reset/restart your video-card's graphics driver in >>Windows 11, all you need do is press the following key combination:


    WIN + CTRL + SHIFT + B


    The computer will beep, your screens will blank, and the driver will >>restart. It might fix some graphic anomalies, and it's faster than
    doing a full reboot. Or, you know, waiting for the driver to crash on
    its own ;-)

    How useful is it really? No idea. But it might come in handy one day,
    so I'm archiving it here. And who knows, maybe it might help you too!

    When would I want to do this? Seems like something to know though.

    I... I'm not entirely sure.

    Well, that's not true. I remember 'back in the day', I had a weird bug
    where text would sometimes start getting scrambled in text editors
    after using the PC for a while, and the only real solution was to
    reboot the PC. Later, an updated driver solved the issue entirely but
    until they fixed it, that was the only solution. Being able to restart
    the driver on-the-fly would have been helpful (or at least faster).

    Not that I expect this to be a common solution; I don't expect people
    to restart their graphics drivers all the time. But there could well
    be similar edge-cases where it's a useful trick. I myself may need to
    remember how to do this in ten or fifteen years. And won't I be glad
    then that I wrote about it here?

    (Of course, in fifteen years I may be dead, or won't be using Windows,
    or Microsoft will have changed the key-combo, or disabled the feature entirely... but if it still works, I'll be glad. Don't take away my
    gladness ;-)

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Justisaur@justisaur@yahoo.com to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action on Tue Feb 10 15:49:01 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

    On 2/9/2026 5:32 PM, PW wrote:
    On Mon, 09 Feb 2026 12:22:05 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:


    Today I learned a new trick. Mostly I'm posting it here just as a
    reference for future me.*

    But if you need to reset/restart your video-card's graphics driver in
    Windows 11, all you need do is press the following key combination:


    WIN + CTRL + SHIFT + B


    The computer will beep, your screens will blank, and the driver will
    restart. It might fix some graphic anomalies, and it's faster than
    doing a full reboot. Or, you know, waiting for the driver to crash on
    its own ;-)

    How useful is it really? No idea. But it might come in handy one day,
    so I'm archiving it here. And who knows, maybe it might help you too!

    When would I want to do this? Seems like something to know though.


    Maybe if the game freezes or glitches out?
    --
    -Justisaur

    ø-ø
    (\_/)\
    `-'\ `--.___,
    ¶¬'\( ,_.-'
    \\
    ^'
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Dimensional Traveler@dtravel@sonic.net to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action on Tue Feb 10 17:43:57 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

    On 2/10/2026 7:54 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
    On Mon, 09 Feb 2026 18:32:49 -0700, PW <noneused@noneused.net> said
    this thing:

    On Mon, 09 Feb 2026 12:22:05 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
    <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:


    Today I learned a new trick. Mostly I'm posting it here just as a
    reference for future me.*

    But if you need to reset/restart your video-card's graphics driver in
    Windows 11, all you need do is press the following key combination:


    WIN + CTRL + SHIFT + B


    The computer will beep, your screens will blank, and the driver will
    restart. It might fix some graphic anomalies, and it's faster than
    doing a full reboot. Or, you know, waiting for the driver to crash on
    its own ;-)

    How useful is it really? No idea. But it might come in handy one day,
    so I'm archiving it here. And who knows, maybe it might help you too!

    When would I want to do this? Seems like something to know though.

    I... I'm not entirely sure.

    Well, that's not true. I remember 'back in the day', I had a weird bug
    where text would sometimes start getting scrambled in text editors
    after using the PC for a while, and the only real solution was to
    reboot the PC. Later, an updated driver solved the issue entirely but
    until they fixed it, that was the only solution. Being able to restart
    the driver on-the-fly would have been helpful (or at least faster).

    Not that I expect this to be a common solution; I don't expect people
    to restart their graphics drivers all the time. But there could well
    be similar edge-cases where it's a useful trick. I myself may need to remember how to do this in ten or fifteen years. And won't I be glad
    then that I wrote about it here?

    (Of course, in fifteen years I may be dead, or won't be using Windows,
    or Microsoft will have changed the key-combo, or disabled the feature entirely... but if it still works, I'll be glad. Don't take away my
    gladness ;-)

    But taking away your gladness is Microsoft's whole purpose! Do you want
    to take away the purpose of a huge mega-company?!
    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From PW@noneused@noneused.net to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action on Tue Feb 10 20:21:07 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

    On Tue, 10 Feb 2026 10:54:13 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

    On Mon, 09 Feb 2026 18:32:49 -0700, PW <noneused@noneused.net> said
    this thing:

    On Mon, 09 Feb 2026 12:22:05 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson >><spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:


    Today I learned a new trick. Mostly I'm posting it here just as a >>>reference for future me.*

    But if you need to reset/restart your video-card's graphics driver in >>>Windows 11, all you need do is press the following key combination:


    WIN + CTRL + SHIFT + B


    The computer will beep, your screens will blank, and the driver will >>>restart. It might fix some graphic anomalies, and it's faster than
    doing a full reboot. Or, you know, waiting for the driver to crash on
    its own ;-)

    How useful is it really? No idea. But it might come in handy one day,
    so I'm archiving it here. And who knows, maybe it might help you too!

    When would I want to do this? Seems like something to know though.

    I... I'm not entirely sure.

    Well, that's not true. I remember 'back in the day', I had a weird bug
    where text would sometimes start getting scrambled in text editors
    after using the PC for a while, and the only real solution was to
    reboot the PC. Later, an updated driver solved the issue entirely but
    until they fixed it, that was the only solution. Being able to restart
    the driver on-the-fly would have been helpful (or at least faster).

    Not that I expect this to be a common solution; I don't expect people
    to restart their graphics drivers all the time. But there could well
    be similar edge-cases where it's a useful trick. I myself may need to >remember how to do this in ten or fifteen years. And won't I be glad
    then that I wrote about it here?

    (Of course, in fifteen years I may be dead, or won't be using Windows,
    or Microsoft will have changed the key-combo, or disabled the feature >entirely... but if it still works, I'll be glad. Don't take away my
    gladness ;-)

    *--

    Good stuff any way! I will jot it down on a cheatsheet and mark it
    "Don't try!"

    -pw
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Anssi Saari@anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action on Wed Feb 11 12:11:09 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

    Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

    But if you need to reset/restart your video-card's graphics driver in
    Windows 11, all you need do is press the following key combination:


    WIN + CTRL + SHIFT + B

    How useful is it really? No idea. But it might come in handy one day,
    so I'm archiving it here. And who knows, maybe it might help you too!

    Well, I remember playing GTA Vice City way back when, some years past
    2002. I didn't have any other computer at the time so when I was running
    around doing jumps and collecting things I had to alt-tab out of the
    game a lot to consult maps and guides and whatnot. The game didn't much
    like that so sometimes there was a black screen and then a popup saying
    there was a crash and graphics (driver?) was restarted. Of course it
    didn't work every time so sometimes I had an outright crash.

    Oh, the hoops I jumped through to get the 100% completion stat :)

    Anyways, apparently there was autorestart in some graphics drivers
    already over two decades ago and now you can do it manually? Progress, I
    guess.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Spalls Hurgenson@spallshurgenson@gmail.com to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action on Wed Feb 11 09:55:28 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

    On Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:43:57 -0800, Dimensional Traveler
    <dtravel@sonic.net> said this thing:
    On 2/10/2026 7:54 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:


    (Of course, in fifteen years I may be dead, or won't be using Windows,
    or Microsoft will have changed the key-combo, or disabled the feature
    entirely... but if it still works, I'll be glad. Don't take away my
    gladness ;-)


    But taking away your gladness is Microsoft's whole purpose! Do you want
    to take away the purpose of a huge mega-company?!


    Now, now. I don't think ruining the end-user's experience is the
    purpose of Microsoft. It's just a side-effect caused by their lack of
    care and competence. ;-)


    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Xocyll@Xocyll@gmx.com to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action on Wed Feb 11 12:09:54 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

    Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com> looked up from reading the entrails of
    the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:

    On 2/9/2026 5:32 PM, PW wrote:
    On Mon, 09 Feb 2026 12:22:05 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
    <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:


    Today I learned a new trick. Mostly I'm posting it here just as a
    reference for future me.*

    But if you need to reset/restart your video-card's graphics driver in
    Windows 11, all you need do is press the following key combination:


    WIN + CTRL + SHIFT + B


    The computer will beep, your screens will blank, and the driver will
    restart. It might fix some graphic anomalies, and it's faster than
    doing a full reboot. Or, you know, waiting for the driver to crash on
    its own ;-)

    How useful is it really? No idea. But it might come in handy one day,
    so I'm archiving it here. And who knows, maybe it might help you too!

    When would I want to do this? Seems like something to know though.


    Maybe if the game freezes or glitches out?

    Dunno what rebooting the video driver is going to do when a game's
    executable has frozen. It'll still be frozen after the driver reboot
    and still not responding.

    Only rebooting or relogging is going to force-cancel the locked game.

    Xocyll
    --
    I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
    a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
    Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
    FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Dimensional Traveler@dtravel@sonic.net to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action on Wed Feb 11 17:43:12 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

    On 2/11/2026 6:55 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
    On Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:43:57 -0800, Dimensional Traveler
    <dtravel@sonic.net> said this thing:
    On 2/10/2026 7:54 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:


    (Of course, in fifteen years I may be dead, or won't be using Windows,
    or Microsoft will have changed the key-combo, or disabled the feature
    entirely... but if it still works, I'll be glad. Don't take away my
    gladness ;-)


    But taking away your gladness is Microsoft's whole purpose! Do you want
    to take away the purpose of a huge mega-company?!


    Now, now. I don't think ruining the end-user's experience is the
    purpose of Microsoft. It's just a side-effect caused by their lack of
    care and competence. ;-)

    Its not paranoia if they really are out to get you. And again,
    Microsoft doesn't consider home users their "real" customer base, they
    are after the corporate accounts.
    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2