Windows 7: Graphic's driver crashing

While playing Fallout 3 i have been experiencing an issue with my graphics driver crashing. The game freezes, and than it dumps to a black screen. When the desktop loads back up my wallpaper is black (as opposed to the desktop slide show). I have installed the latest nVidia driver, and it made no difference.

System specs:
Mobo - MSI P6N Platinum LGA 775
CPU - Intel Quad Core Q6600
RAM - 6GB DDR2 800
Video - nVidia 8800 GTX 784 DDR3\
Sound - Onboard Realtek HD
OS - Windows 7 RC2

The game is modded, but I didn't include any mods that chanxge the games graphics. The mods are all content adders. I have the graphic settings maxed out on the game. My system can handle the load, so I am not sure why the driver is crashing. I have seen this issue posted on other forums, but there were no solutions. Is this just an issue tied to the RC, or is it a conflict between Windows 7 and the driver? If there is a solution I would love it...I am sick of my system crashing.

Most likely heat related. Run with a room fan blowing inside the open case to test. If no crashes, you have your answer.

Fallout 3 has had a lot of GFX issues, is the game patched? Are you using any of the addons? Also try getting a burn-in program for gpu's. If they pass it shouldn't be heat and you could then turn to something else. Though the fan idea is always good! I used to run mine with a fan in it when I oc'd my cpu. =P extreme cooling! hahaha

Hey guy, thanx for the responses. I actually have an after-market cooler on my video card and processor and a pretty decent air flow system, so over heating should not be an issue. I am also able to run other games like Warhammer and NFS Undercover with maxed out graphics, so this indicates to me that it is not an issue related to heat. It might be a heat issue because Fallout 3 is pretty graphically intense, but I am thinking it might be another issue.

I have the game updated with the latest official update. I am not sure if it is one of my add-on's, but I make sure to do my research before I install a mod and ensure it has a good rating (i.e. no know conflicts). However, since this is something that only happens with Fallout it could very well be an issue related to the game it's self. Still, if anyone has a resolution to this problem i would love to know what it is.

If Fallout 3 doesn't crash with a room fan blowing on the inside of case, then you know the answer.

If it does crash, then you again would have an answer and can look elsewhere for the problem.

There is a Fallout 3 patch or many. You can find it/the latest online.

There does seem to be some sort of glitch with nVidia graphics drivers and Win 7, though undocumented at this time. I had many wierd little problems with various programs in Win 7 when I was using nVidia graphics cards. This was with a 9800 GT and a GTX 285 in numerous combinations, stand alone, SLI, PhysX, and with several different drivers. I also did many clean installs of Win 7, 32-bit and 64-bit.

The type of problems I was experiencing were lockups in IE at least once a day where the mouse and keyboard would stop responding and had to hard power off computer. Another problem I was experiencing is sometimes I could not wake the computer from sleep mode because the mouse and keyboard had stopped working. A very popular golf game by Microsoft, Links 2003 has problems in Win 7 if you are using an nVidia graphics card, all documented at Linkscorner.com and the fix at this time is to get a ATi graphics card.

I had an old ATi X850 XT PE graphics card lying about so I installed it and low and behold all the problems that I was having have gone away. It has been two weeks now and I have not had any more problems with Win 7 or any programs. My conclusion is that there is a conflict between nVidias graphics driver and some other driver on my system. In fairness to nVidia, I have a second computer with a nVidia 9800 GT graphics card running Win 7 32-bit and no problems what so ever.

I actually seccond that, I'm using a 8800GT (most 9800GT's are repackaged G92's) and I would get crashes sometimes. Not often enough, and I did get the game finished. But it did crash sometimes, I thought at first it was heat related because I OC but after returning to original speeds it still crashed (though less often but still). That's why I said it has known issues and to make sure it's patched up to date. The newer patches crash less, but when I was playing most of the patches weren't out yet. =(

I also seem to get these problems. (while playing games, screen goes black, and usually recovers, sometimes I can't wake it from sleep mode, and firefox ocasionally runs very slow and/or crashes)
I'm running a Windows 7 64, Nvidia GTX295, and a 850w PSU

So, this issue still seems to be unresolved (though I haven't gotten a chance to play video games in over a week so at this point I really don't care). I was able to get some stability by turning the video quality down, but this is honestly an unacceptable resolutions. I have a system that can handle the game maxed out...I want to play the game maxed out.

Windows 7 has a plethora of driver conflict issues, all of which they are refusing to acknowledge. At this point, I am just glad that I have the RC and I have not paid the ludicrous amount of money that are asking for the retail version. I think I am just going to switch to Ubuntu and run Sun Micro System's Virtual box with an old version of XP for critical apps which Wine can't handle. I am done with Microsoft at this point.

They have no concern forh providing quality products or quality customer support. They are a corporate behemoth that relies on their long-standing monopoly of the PC market, their name recognition, and their bloated marketing budget which allows them to flood consumers with precisely engineered advertisements. Microsoft is an example of all that is wrong with the US economy. They don't care about the end user, so long as they get their money. Well....you are not going to get any more of my money Microsoft. I work to hard for my meager paycheck, to than turn around and throw it away on Microsoft's incompetence and greed. The end of the golden era is closing in, and a new dawn is rising when Operating Systems will be built with the end user in mind.

Google Chrome OS, Ubuntu, and (as much as I hate it) Mac OSX are leading the march. Microsoft, your death toll is ringing...I will not be among the mourners on the day that you fall and I believe the numbers will be few.

The RTM has some better stability than the RC but there are other issues. If you are still using build 7100 I wouldn't say it's Windows 7, as many people are getting mixed conclusions with the same hardware but different builds. Though I do agree, they do have stability issues yes, and they should be fixed. Though Vista had issues as well, and as with every new OS it is going to take time before all the wrinkles are smoothed out... You have to remember how many different hardware setups Windows 7 has to accomidate for compared to OSX.... And as much as I enjoy Linux, I will admit we have problems with it.... Though it has come a LONG way, and even come a long way in running windows applications... You even have the win/linux kernel (only 32bit) that runs Windows code in a native linux kernel.... It's pretty much wine intagrated into the linux kernel. But as much as hardware changes I'm not suprised to hear of these problems.