Screen flashes randomly and BSOD's in Games

[DarthMoose]

I bought this laptop nearly 2 years ago and it's been giving me tons of issues as of late, It flashes and will occasionally crash during games (ex: DOW2, Global Agenda, ME2) The flashing will also happen occasionally happen outside of games and is nearly guaranteed a BSOD within 15 minutes or less from World of Warcraft (Seriously?)

At this point I'm rather certain I'll need to replace it.

Specs;
Win7 Premium x64 OEM (Reinstalled to factory Defaults 3 months ago, didn't help)
CPU- P8700 @ 2.53GHz
Mobo- Gateway Godzilla-N10
Video Card- GeForce GTX 260M
Ram- 4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 531MHz (7-7-7-20)
HDD- WD5000BEVT-22ZAT0 500GB 5400RPM 8MB cache
Laptop Model Gateway P-79

I swear, If you can help me I'll buy you a pizza or something.

 

[FredeGail]

You need to buy me pizza after this. Just kidding.

Hello Darthmoose & welcome!

As you said, while you're gaming it's flashing or generating a BSoD. There's a pretty good reason for that. Windows saw that your video driver was failing and tried to recover it but failed.

Please update your Graphic Card Driver

You're using Nvidia I see.

*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE (116)
Attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed.
Arguments:
Arg1: fffffa8003fd3010, Optional pointer to internal TDR recovery context (TDR_RECOVERY_CONTEXT).
Arg2: fffff8800f635cd8, The pointer into responsible device driver module (e.g. owner tag).
Arg3: 0000000000000000, Optional error code (NTSTATUS) of the last failed operation.
Arg4: 000000000000000d, Optional internal context dependent data.

Debugging Details:
------------------


FAULTING_IP: 
nvlddmkm+170cd8
fffff880`0f635cd8 4883ec28        sub     rsp,28h

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  GRAPHICS_DRIVER_TDR_FAULT

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT:  1

BUGCHECK_STR:  0x116

PROCESS_NAME:  System

CURRENT_IRQL:  0

STACK_TEXT:  
fffff880`085eb988 fffff880`06b2f000 : 00000000`00000116 fffffa80`03fd3010 fffff880`0f635cd8 00000000`00000000 : nt!KeBugCheckEx
fffff880`085eb990 fffff880`06b2ed87 : fffff880`0f635cd8 fffffa80`03fd3010 fffffa80`0434a850 fffffa80`076f8010 : dxgkrnl!TdrBugcheckOnTimeout+0xec
fffff880`085eb9d0 fffff880`06a0ff07 : fffffa80`03fd3010 00000000`00000000 fffffa80`0434a850 fffffa80`076f8010 : dxgkrnl!TdrIsRecoveryRequired+0x21f
fffff880`085eba00 fffff880`06a39b75 : 00000000`ffffffff 00000000`0008992a 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000002 : dxgmms1!VidSchiReportHwHang+0x40b
fffff880`085ebae0 fffff880`06a382bb : 00000000`00000102 00000000`00000000 00000000`0008992a 00000000`00000000 : dxgmms1!VidSchiCheckHwProgress+0x71
fffff880`085ebb10 fffff880`06a0b2c6 : ffffffff`ff676980 fffffa80`076f8010 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : dxgmms1!VidSchiWaitForSchedulerEvents+0x1fb
fffff880`085ebbb0 fffff880`06a37e7a : 00000000`00000000 fffffa80`0434a850 00000000`00000080 fffffa80`076f8010 : dxgmms1!VidSchiScheduleCommandToRun+0x1da
fffff880`085ebcc0 fffff800`02f7dfee : 00000000`fffffc32 fffffa80`07724a10 fffffa80`03ce8b30 fffffa80`07724a10 : dxgmms1!VidSchiWorkerThread+0xba
fffff880`085ebd00 fffff800`02cd45e6 : fffff800`02e58e80 fffffa80`07724a10 fffff800`02e66cc0 fffff880`0146c384 : nt!PspSystemThreadStartup+0x5a
fffff880`085ebd40 00000000`00000000 : fffff880`085ec000 fffff880`085e6000 fffff880`0a198b30 00000000`00000000 : nt!KxStartSystemThread+0x16


STACK_COMMAND:  .bugcheck ; kb

FOLLOWUP_IP: 
nvlddmkm+170cd8
fffff880`0f635cd8 4883ec28        sub     rsp,28h

SYMBOL_NAME:  nvlddmkm+170cd8

FOLLOWUP_NAME:  MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: nvlddmkm

IMAGE_NAME:  nvlddmkm.sys

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP:  4e391010

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  X64_0x116_IMAGE_nvlddmkm.sys

BUCKET_ID:  X64_0x116_IMAGE_nvlddmkm.sys

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

0: kd> lmvm nvlddmkm
start             end                 module name
fffff880`0f4c5000 fffff880`10129000   nvlddmkm T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: nvlddmkm.sys
    Image path: nvlddmkm.sys
    Image name: nvlddmkm.sys
    Timestamp:        Wed Aug 03 11:08:32 2011 (4E391010)
    CheckSum:         00C5B5DF
    ImageSize:        00C64000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

Fred.

 

[DarthMoose]

Wiped my current driver and updated to the latest (285.62), still no luck. I did find some oddness that these errors will not appear so long as my laptop isn't plugged in, not too sure what to make of that.