How to Restart the Video Driver Manually

Video drivers, like other drivers in the computer, can be found in the Device Manager. The Device Manager manages all the drivers found in the computer. This includes drivers for devices such as monitors, mice, keyboards, sound drivers and USB (universal serial bus) flash drives. If you need to enable, disable, uninstall, update or rollback a driver to an earlier version, it is all done through the Device Manager. Video drivers, which make graphics and images in the computer possible, can likewise be configured in the Device Manager.

Click the "Start" button. For Windows Vista and Windows 7, this is the circular button with the Windows logo on the lower left side corner of the screen.

Type "devmgmt.msc" without the quotation marks in the "Search programs and files" box. For Windows XP and earlier operating systems, click "Run" then type "devmgmt.msc." This opens the Device Manager management console.

Expand "Display adapters."

Right-click the video driver you would like to restart. The name of the video driver is dependent on the manufacturer and so it is different for every computer.

Click "Properties" after right-clicking the video driver.

Choose "Do not use this device (disable)" from the drop down menu under "Device usage," which is located at the bottom of the "General" tab. Click "OK" to apply the changes and close the properties box. This would disable and stop the video driver.

Right-click the video driver again and go to "Properties."

Select "Use this device (enable)" from the drop down menu under "Device usage." Click "OK" to apply the changes and close the properties box. This would start the video driver.