PC is crashing bit by bit.

[DrPink]

I have posted this is the hardware forum, since I'm unsure what the fault is excactly.
Since I installed Vista on my machine, it sometimes closes down program, services and drivers. The most common error, is the screen gets all weird. A lot of pixelerrors (blinking pixels, whole windows freezes og disappers and windows becomes unresponsive. I can move the mouse though, but can't click anything. It then sometimes says, that it had to close the graphic adaptor driver and starts it again. I then have to hard reset.
Sometimes it says it needs to close a service or application, even if the computer is idle.
First I suspected the graphic adaptor, but when Vista is shutting down services, it sound like a driver problem?

Real life needs a mucical score.
------------------------------------
Dr. Pink isn't in today, he's gone insane!

 

[UTechnical]

Have you run a virus scan? If not, do so and run Malwarebyte's Antimalware as well.

Eric

http://www.upscaletechnical.com

Houston Computer Repair

 

[firewolfrl]

The most common error, is the screen gets all weird. A lot of pixelerrors (blinking pixels, whole windows freezes og disappers and windows becomes unresponsive. I can move the mouse though, but can't click anything. It then sometimes says, that it had to close the graphic adaptor driver and starts it again

either bad ram or bad video card does that...you need to test both

 

[linney]

What Video Card are you using (Nvidia has had lots of problems with Vista)?

See if there are any later drivers available via the manufacturer's site.

How often is the problem happening? When did it first appear?

Have you tested in Safe Mode "VGA Mode" to isolate the third party Video Card?

Any clues in the Event Viewer?

HOW TO: Verify Unsigned Device Drivers in Windows XP (+ Vista)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q308/5/14.asp

 

[firewolfrl]

Does this do this at boot sometimes? do you see any pixalization at boot?

pixalization is a pure hardware failure.

Unseat the video card and remount it...do the same with your ram (blow out the computer if it is bad with dust and lint)
Check to make sure if the card has fans on it they are spinning

Sometimes viruses can mask and do the pixel thing but its rare.
Most of the time when I see this failure its a video card.
Sometimes ram will cause this too.
Just test one stick of ram and see if the error stops or continues
if you did not have to force a driver or use a modified driver I don't think you have a driver issue. you will have a driver issue if you used a registry cleaner of some manner that may remove too much...that I have seen

Do you have Norton or McAfee running that has blocked your drivers?

Do you have another video card to test on the system?

Do you know what the GPU temp is running? your card may be too hot

That should be a good start

 

[DrPink]

Thanks for all the responses. Here are some replies to them:

Have you run a virus scan? If not, do so and run Malwarebyte's Antimalware as well.
Yes, I have run a virus scan with symantec endpoint protection, no viruses.

What Video Card are you using (Nvidia has had lots of problems with Vista)?
I'm using GF7900, AGP. I use the latest official released drivers from Nvidia.

How often is the problem happening? When did it first appear?
It's very much in periods. Sometimes it's all the time, then it can be months apart. No real pattern. It actually first began when I installed Vista Home Premium. No problems under XP (but don't bother suggesting a downgrade, I'm not gonna do that).

Have you tested in Safe Mode "VGA Mode" to isolate the third party Video Card?
I have tried to run in safe mode and it seems to work ok there. I haven't done extensive testing, as safe mode sucks to work in, but it seems to work better.

Any clues in the Event Viewer?
Not really, just that a service or driver had to close.

Do you know what the GPU temp is running? your card may be too hot
The temperature is about 70degrees Celsius, which is pretty standard, as far as I know.


When it works fine in safe mode, I lean toward a driver problem, but I can't understand that a lot of other services and drivers shuts down as well.
Hardware failure? well, if that was the case, would windows know anything about it? wouldn't it just keep running, instead of popping up with error?

Phew, that a long reply. Let me get your thoughts again.

Real life needs a mucical score.
------------------------------------
Dr. Pink isn't in today, he's gone insane!

 

[firewolfrl]

The video card is tied so close to the cpu and ram that if lets say the video card had one slot of onboard ram that is bad...it would not kill the computer but weird issues would pop up and it would act very erratic. Just like ram would

you may try some older Nvidia drivers versus the newer drivers...there are Hybrids out there that work great using the older drivers.

Are you using 64 or 32 bit?

this may work.

http://laptopvideo2go.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t17790.html

 

[linney]

My experience with two different Nvidia cards in Vista on the same particular machine has not been a happy one. This machine seems to run a bit better in Windows 7 with Nvidia but is still having the occasional Display Driver problem.

Microsoft and Nvidia blame each other and I curse them both. This same machine also runs XP (triple boot) and has no problems with the Display.

My advice to you, if you can afford to do so, is to dump or swap Nvidia for something else. Mind you ATI cards are not without problems in Vista too.