screen goes black computer locks up when playing video games

[Shepsti]

I race simulators rfactor and codemasters f1 2010. Both work for awhile then the screen instantly goes black and the computer locks up so the only option is to turn it off and start again.
I have a Toshiba Qosmio X305 Q701 notebook.
It uses a GeForce 9700m GTS card. It is not hot.
I thought it was a problem with Vista so I bought 7 professional and formatted the hard drive, erased everything and booted 7 from disk.

None of that changed the crashing to black screen.
There is no common time interval. Sometimes it crashes after 5 minutes other times after 2 hours sometimes not at all unless I am racing online.
Playing online always causes a crash but once again the time is unpredictable.
We race week by week the real F1 schedule and some top professionals are part of our group. I have yet to finish a single race because of this problem.
Also replaced router/modem.
Have also turned security off.
Have also ran games windowed and non windowed and it does not matter.


If anyone has an idea of the solution to this problem I am more than willing to try it.
Thanks
Shepsti

 

[richc46]

Happened once to me, my case it was the video driver that stopped working. Go to device manager and find out the information about your driver and then go to the website of the manufacturer and update.
Look for any yellow markers when inside the device manager
How to Find Drivers
search Google for the name of the driver
- compare the Google results with what's installed on your system to figure out which device/program it belongs to
- visit the web site of the manufacturer of the hardware/program to get the latest drivers (DON'T use Windows Update or the Update driver function of Device Manager).
- if there are difficulties in locating them, post back with questions and someone - will help you search Google for the name of the driver
- compare the Google results with what's installed on your system to figure out which device/program it belongs to
- - if there are difficulties in locating them, post back with questions and someone will try and help you locate the appropriate program.
- The most common drivers are listed on this page: http://www.carrona.org/dvrref.html
- - Driver manufacturer links are on this page: http://www.carrona.org/drvrdown.html
To remove any left over driver remnants, especially from graphics cards, use driver sweeper
www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/

 

[Shepsti]

Thanks but when I installed windows 7 I went straight to Invidia and downloaded the specific drivers for the video card.

 

[richc46]

Does not mean it is not corrupted
Or
Maybe a better card is needed
or
Maybe another solution is needed

 

[Shepsti]

new symptom

Black screen is now happening everytime F1 2010 is used in less than 10 minutes.
New symptom, Screen flashes red before going to black lockup.
I have downloaded the Invidia drivers multiple times so unless their drivers from their website are corrupt that should not be the problem.