Windows 7 Video Hardware Errors, frequent crashes, screen freezes.

"When I say hibernate, I actually mean hibernate.  Why is hibernation "problematic"?  I always choose hibernation over sleep because it consumes less power."

Why ? Good question, but I stopped using it long ago because it caused problem, and still read about people having problems when trying to use it.

The main difference between Hibernate and a low power Sleep where you can virtually shut down

the whole system, is Hibernate keeps saves the open programs and files to the HDD, and shuts the

machine down. Having to retrieve the data from the HDD and re-start Windows may be why it causes issues when 'waking' up again.

• I just thought of one possible issue. When the machine hibernates it may not save system settings and whatever else Windows does when you shut down or reboot via the Start Menu options, so if you are always relying on Hibernate, and never shutting down or rebooting things could get messed up.
• Sleep saves the programs and files to RAM and goes into a low power state. How low the power goes

depends on the options you use.

If you don't absolutely need to have various programs/files at you fingertips the next time you use

the PC you don't really need Hibernate.

As with Hibernate you wouldn't want to never reboot or shut down when using Sleep either.

Personally, I just close my programs, save any files and shut the machine down every night.

There was a time when it was suggested to leave the machine running 24/7 but that was when HDD's

were less reliable and prone to borking from having to spin up everyday. I stopped leaving my

machine on probably six-seven years ago and have not suffered ill effects doing so.

.

Alright, got a lot of questions to answer, here we go.

When I say hibernate, I actually mean hibernate.  Why is hibernation "problematic"?  I always choose hibernation over sleep because it consumes less power.

I also prefer to manually hibernate (or sleep) because I never leave my computer idle.  If I am not using it I hibernate it.

"if you switch to the Integrated graphics as you did earlier, it still works, yes?"

Yes, after the crash I took out my graphics card, switched the DVI cable to my integrated card output and booted up with no problems.

"Wonder why the Integrated graphics is not in Speccy?"

My guess is that Speccy automatically shows the GPU currently providing input to your screen, (could it display two at once?).  If I look at Speccy when im running off my integrated card, it displays it just fine.

"Do you use the same monitor input when switching from integrated to dedicated card?"

When I switch from my GTX 650 to my integrated card, the only thing I do is unplug the DVI cable from the output of the GTX 650 and move it to the output of the integrated card on the back of my PC.  The input to my monitor on the other end stays exactly where it is.

"When you are using the Integrated graphics is the GTX650  still shown as enabled when you look in

Device Manager? If not, will it enable - with & without a monitor cable plugged?"

This is a little of a confusing question, because I never run my computer on its integrated GPU while still having the GTX 650 inside the computer and hooked up.  Ive always thought it was a bad idea to run off of one card while having the other one hooked up inside the PC at the same time.  Would you suggest I hook the GTX 650 up, and then run off the integrated card and check device manager?  What exactly does this help determine?

"It may be best at this point to upload the Window Logs"

If you don't mind I would rather upload them to another site here or send them in a private message.

Here are all my windows event logs uploaded in one file.  If you want to receive them another way please tell me.

Event Logs:

http://www56.zippyshare.com/v/60363367/file.html

If you need more logs (that are from other categories) let me know.

Also, I use a program called Ccleaner which may affect my windows event logs (I read somewhere that it deletes them sometimes) so I apologize if the logs aren't complete.

"Regarding your case on the floor"

My computer is on carpet, my PSU is in the top back.

"Speccy has an option to 'Publish Snapshot'"

Sorry I keep forgetting to do this, next time I have the GTX 650 in and running I will.

"Why is your monitor set to 59Hz refresh rate?"

Very good question, I never actually realized this myself.  I just tried to go to

Control Panel>Appearance and Personalization>Display>Screen Resolution

and then clicked on "Advanced settings".  However with my integrated card, it doesn't appear that I can raise it above 60 Hz.  I am pretty sure that if I was running on my GTX 650 I could change it to higher than that, and next time I have the card in and running I will definitely try.

I have noticed a weird pattern pertaining to when/how long my GTX 650 will work for before crashing.  It seems that the longer I keep it out of my computer for, the longer it will work after I put it back in.  For example, before a couple days ago I had kept it out of my PC for a good 3 weeks.  When I put it back in it worked for almost an hour (over the course of two days)  before crashing.  However if I put it back in now it will almost immediately crash because it crashed recently.

This same pattern occurred when this card first started having problems.  At first I only crashed once, then day with no crashes.  Then twice in one day.  The frequency started to increase exponentially, to the point where I couldn't get to desktop before crashing.  But if I keep the card out for a couple weeks then put it back in, it will work for a little while before crashing.

I am not sure if this helps at all, but it sure is a weird pattern, makes me curious as to what causes it.

One last thing:  Do you think we could rule out my PSU as the problem at this point?  Have you seen enough about the voltages of my GTX 650 from the speccy images I provided, or do we need more information?  Last time the card crashed the only program I had running was firefox, so it doesnt seem that the card crashes when under load (during a game) due to insufficient voltage.

Its getting pretty repetitive to thank you for the help at this point, but all I have to say is that I'm impressed someone like you would take the time and effort to continually write out responses on a problem that is so hard to solve.  I really appreciate it.

[ Had this ready to go earlier but the site crashed, and this new format... Well it's has mysterious ways.

Just for starters, when you copy/past back it double spaces everything. Ah well... Moving on. ]

So near, yet so far, eh!

..."so I hibernated it. "

(I should edit here, but... ) Are you using this term loosely for shutting down, or do you use Hibernate ?

If so, disable Hibernation and just use a Power Option that puts the machine to sleep after xx  minutes.

Hibernation has always been problematic.

"I logged in to my account, but never reached the desktop, same sort of black screen crash."

• I gather the machine does boot into Windows, and if you switch to the Integrated graphics as you

did earlier, it still works, yes ? (Hmm - Wonder why the Integrated graphics is not in Speccy ?)

• By way of verifying the input on the monitor - Do you use the same monitor input when switching

from integrated to dedicated card ? If not try the card on the input you use for the Integrated graphics.

• When you are using the Integrated graphics is the GTX650  still shown as enabled when you look in

Device Manager ? If not, will it enable - with & without a monitor cable plugged  ?

• It may  be best at this point to upload the Window Logs - System and Application logs  from Event Viewer to Skydrive (make the files public).

Use SkyDrive to upload collected files and post screen shot/picture. (Updated: 1/16/2012)

"By the way, I listened for error messages when booting up... didn't hear anything (not even the normal single beep?).  Maybe its too quiet for me to hear?"

• Or no motherboard speaker ? These days they often use a tiny little piezo speaker that just dangles

off the motherboard, but some cases may still have a small traditional magnetic speaker.

• Or POST Check is disabled in BIOS.
• The temps look good all around, and I don't think there is a problem there, but temps do drop

quickly when quitting a game you get better accuracy with  MSI Afterburner , which I linked

earlier, has it has an option to create a log file.

• Regarding your case on the floor. Not on carpet ? If on carpet is the psu mounted in the

top of the case, or bottom ?

• The Nvidia Control panel has a power option as well. This defaults to 'Adaptive', but sometimes it

is best to use 'Prefer Maximum Performance'.

You can also change this with games individually in the 3D profiles tab, and leave the global setting

at Adaptive to save some power when not playing a game.

btw - Speccy has an option to 'Publish Snapshot'. This will create a 'unique URL' that you can

copy and paste to the forum which allows use to see the report without you having to copy/paste

sections.

Speccy shows a lot more information, including running processes, services, power settings,

Windows updates and other stuff which may be useful.

Curious - Why is your monitor set to 59Hz refresh rate ? Is there a problem using 60Hz ?

I see the specs say 50-75Hz. Will it run @75Hz ?

.

Sorry, what exactly are you trying to ask? Are you saying "What happens when you turn off hibernation?

I have automatic hibernation and sleep off for my computer, so the only way it ever hibernates or sleeps is when I manually tell it to.

What  happens when you turn off hibernation ? Or sleep  ? 

And manually turn it on and off .