Solved Random Graphics card crashes, recovery, and sometimes BSOD's.

[Planetspectra]

Hi there

Really stumped as to where to even begin with this one. I checked the Nvidia website and installed the previous driver but that doesn't seem to have changed anything. The screen freezes, goes black, usually recovers. The I get an error message saying the graphics card has recovered from a crash. Then after a random period of time from 5 minutes to a couple of hours I'll get a BSOD event. Playing video or not doesn't seem to make much difference either way for example

Please find attached a zip of the SF Diagnostic Tool report if that helps. I couldn't get to a pen and paper on the error messages in time before my system re-booted.

Beyond a total clean and re-install of my system I'm at a loss for what to do at this point. I really hope someone here can offer some guidance.

Thanks

 

[Faladu]

Reinstall Direct-X also, then reboot, it's having trouble with major direct-x file. [dxgkrnl.sys]

You can try running a Live version of Linux (distrowatch.com to acquire one, free, runs all from disc) and if it still works perfectly then, it's a Windows 7 issue.

If that doesn't help:
That video card is circa 2008, so I would swap it out for another card to see if that is the problem.

 

[Planetspectra]

Thanks

I've tried re-installing the Direct-X but it has made no difference. About to try Linux...

 

[Planetspectra]

OK, so I tried playing multiple different video files from different sources, even running them at the same time and they all played fine in Ubuntu.

So if it does seem to be a Win 7 problem, do you have any suggestions on how to tackle it, other than a re-install of the OS?

 

[Faladu]

Linux no trouble at all, ok that is good news, not a hardware failure then.

Have you ever used tools like CCleaner (piriform.com and free) or Driver Sweeper?

I would use both, be careful with CCleaner and clean only related things for now, and scan the registry with it and see if it shows issues with anything that could be tied to video.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/83814-drivers-clean-left-over-files-after-uninstalling-2.html

It's times like these having a spare SATA HD that you can connect only and do a fresh test build run on, comes in handy.

I cloned my SSD onto a 250gig so once the SSD fails I will travel back to June 3rd, 2013 I believe, until the SSD replacement arrives.

In your shoes atm, I would buy another HD and reinstall 7 on it and connect both and convert old one for data use and backup all critical to you DATA, ASAP. (or move it all to the new drive assuming big enough) and then use from a command prompt: chkdsk /f D: (whatever the drive letter for this old one is, do for each partition)
But, again only after you have backed up critical data, first.

I am fast to not trust hard drives, too cheap now to risk it.

 

[Planetspectra]

Hi

Cut a long story short I've bought a new SSD + HDD combo, backed up my files pulled out my old HDD and re-installed everything on the new drives. Seems to have fixed my problems and given a fresh lease of life to this old desktop. I guess I should have done this a good while ago!

Thanks for your help!