Windows 7: Seemingly random GPU freezes

I am running the 7100 64 bit version. I have a XFX 9600GSO installed, with the latest drivers from the nvidia website. During normal use, i.e. surfing the web, randomly the GPU will lose connectivity/use for a second, and then regain it. This also happens during any games I play, except that when it happens in-game or during watching a movie, the computer freezes and requires a hard-restart.

I have run memtest to see if it is a problem linked to bad ram, i have used several older drivers from nvidia, and the one from windows update.

Any ideas would be much appreciated, as anything that requires heavy graphics use seems to freeze the computer.

Hi gdmagnuson........

are you monitoring system temps..??, CPU / GPU.

how long has this been occuring..??, is it recent..??



SK

I dont monitor the temps actively while im running programs, i suppose i should. The CPU fan does run on high all the time, as does the GPU fan. It has been occurring since I installed 7, a fresh install, I just built the computer and figured id give 7 a try on it.
I will start monitoring the CPU and GPU temps tonight, and post back with the results.

To help some, there are a few programs I use for monitoring temps... for system-wide temps including newer nvidia GPUs, I use SpeedFan.
I also use EVGA Precision which has easy overclocking and temp monitoring (and it works on other non-EVGA cards, I now have a Gigabyte 9800GT).

Did it do this when you first installed win 7?
could you goto event viewer (event into search) and see if there are any errors related to this and if so.. could you use the snipping tool to upload a pic to us

Thanks

Ken

It has done this since I initially installed it. I am currently sitting in a class, so I can post information later. I ran speedfan, and got some pretty odd-looking results for my local/remote temps...said they were running at 112 degrees...which doesnt really make sense to me. My GPU came in at 55, and core temperature was 13. This was at an idle, although the computer has been running since yesterday.

I did look at my event viewer, although not entirely sure what to look for. I got a clip of one of the many application errors it had, not sure if thats what i should be posting.

you chould just send the clip not open it in a browser.

try it again if you can

Ken

ive got a ton of errors, im not really sure which will help


Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
Date: 6/29/2009 8:35:28 PM
Event ID: 41
Task Category: (63)
Level: Critical
Keywords: (2)
User: SYSTEM
Computer: Greg-PC
Description:
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power" Guid="{331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}" />
<EventID>41</EventID>
<Version>2</Version>
<Level>1</Level>
<Task>63</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000002</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2009-06-30T03:35:28.546875000Z" />
<EventRecordID>5882</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="8" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Greg-PC</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="BugcheckCode">0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter1">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter2">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter3">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter4">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="SleepInProgress">false</Data>
<Data Name="PowerButtonTimestamp">128908058427392578</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

Hi Gdmagnuson,

Your better off using the drivers provided by Windows Update since they are specifically for Windows 7 and 9/10 are more stable and reliable.

It sounds to me like a temperature issue but it could also be insufficient power being supplied to your GPU or its been over-clocked too high.

Can you upload a screenshot of GPUZ? GPU-Z Video card GPU Information Utility

Steven