This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Looking at their forums, it should become apparent that nvidia does not care about problems their customers are having. Therefore, I have to turn to people they might listen to or work with to solve such problems - Windows and Microsoft.
I am running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 (Retail). My video card is a nVidia Geforce 8800 GT.
The issue is that the video is locking up, flickering, freezing, and even sometimes causing the "blue screen of death" - The problem is widely reported, and is also widely misdiagnosed as overheating. The card is not overheating, let me be quite clear on this. The card is also not old and ready to die (Another common misdiagnosis by techs who would brush difficult problems away.)
The issue is: Whatever nVidia has done with their drivers, they do not get along with Windows 7. The issue, if you search the web, is exclusively a Windows 7 problem.
I saw an article earlier regarding something that was implemented in Vista that would detect if the video drivers were crashing, and attempt to close and restart them without rebooting. I can not remember what this feature is called, nor can I find that info again (I found it while at work and did not save the URL sadly) - but it certainly seems like that's what is going on. The video will flicker while I am in a game, the game will freeze, and then after a second, the screen will go black, then the game will come back up, but at lower graphic detail. Evenually, the game will do the same thing again, and go back to full detail.
That's just a theory, though, of course.
I have tried the latest nvidia drivers, as well as the drivers from Windows update. I have not yet tried the nvidia beta drivers, but have read from other users that there was no luck in using them. Some users reported luck when using the default drivers of WIndows 7, or the Windows Update drivers, but I had no luck, and many others also didn't. I may try rolling back to some much older Vista drivers to see what happens.
In any case, my purpose here was less to get an answer, and more to really just spread the word more about this problem. Maybe a Microsoft employee will see this post and report it to someone who can have their people talk to nvidia's people, so to speak, because nvidia people do not frequent their forums. There are threads there with issues unsolved from over 2 years ago, and those are similar to some other issues we still have today with TV-Out. But that's another topic entirely.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Well, no problems so far beyond some flicker. The flicker does make me nervous, but otherwise, no crashes in almost 24 hours. I have been running Folding@Home on it constantly and it doesn't seem to have had any issues with that, either. Folding@Home has it running at 97-98% GPU usage constantly, and it's sitting at 67 degrees Celsius, which is just fine. It is looking more and more like it was my 8800.
But I do still wonder what the ____ could have caused it to act so crazy, hmm...
I found the solution!!! (I pray)
Got this reply from another person on another message board, tested it and the flicker is GONE!!!
===============================================================
I was having a similar issue, and I don't know if it's too late to help, but here's my story:
(Win7, ati gpu, intel dual core)
After I installed a PS2 emulator and ran it, I started getting screen flashes, with windows showing "Not Responding" for split seconds. It would flash other windows, or the desktop, with no pattern.
I found removing icons from my desktop helped allieviate issues when dragging windows around. After much searching, I found someone mention "Windows Desktop Manager."
I disabled it, and all the issues have stopped. The PS2 emulator works perfectly now too.
Instructions:
2. In the Start Search textbox type Services.msc If prompted by the UAC, provide a password or confirmation. Click Continue .
I have the same problem, and it is maddening. It happens under any/all applications at random times. This happened on TWO brand new laptops, both with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.
Laptop 1:
Toshiba Satellite A505-S6985 w/NVIDIA GeForce GT 230M
Laptop 2:
ASUS G60vx w/NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M
I found the video on YouTube showing EXACTLY what is happening and what it looks like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQA61_jwr4Q
I am so frustrated...after reading this thread I wonder if this will ever get addressed. Why should I have to pay for a copy of Windows XP so I can have a usable laptop?
Beyond annoyed,
Goldspark
I have kinda the same problem with crashing, I get everything, the weird colors all over my screen, BSOD, even stripes when starting up.
This is really frustrating, I tried a lot, all kind of drivers, i have the most current now.
I think it happend to me when I installed Age Of Empires 3 (this is where it first happend), I already did a system recovery with no avail..
I had the same issue. Blue screens and just outright reboots/resets without even a blue screen. I have a 8800GT using the driver 196.21_desktop_win7_winvista_64bit_english_whql. I finally found the issue to be with the windows desktop graphics (of course, I blame Nvidia's drivers).
The temporary solution is to disable all the advanced desktop features. Go to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Performance Information and Tools and select "Adjust Visual effects ". Then select "Adjust for best performance " to disable them all. Once I set this, I have not had a single crash since. BTW, the default desktop is kinda ugly after that, so I did have to go back and select the "Windows 7 Theme" but since all the accelerated features were disabled, I got a system that looks ok now and doesnt crash. Lets hope for a fix.
