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

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.

"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.

.

More - [ I'll  come back with something on the Event Logs later it no one else does ....

(Skydrive is not necessary, just the standard suggestion ). ]

Speccy shows both my Intel HD graphcis  and dedicated card, even with the Intel HD disabled

in Device Manager. Also if I unplug the cable. It's not critical that it doesn't show on yours, but

is a curiosity.

• We have verified the monitor input is OK because you use the same one with both graphics options.
• It's good the psu is mounted in the top. As you can imagine, a bottom mounted psu on carpet would

have the air intake blocked by the carpet, which would also be shedding dust and fibres into the psu.

"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. "

There is no harm having both graphics processors enabled. I keep both graphics processors connected

to my monitor. The machine defaults to the card, but I tend to disable the Inte HD in Device Manager.

No logical reason, but it's what I do.

I generally only use the Intel HD when troubleshooting games to verify they will run on that version of Integrated Graphics. When I do this I have to disable the card via Device Manager in order use the Intel HD graphics.

• I would use the Intel HD more often to save some power, but I forget to switch to the the card and that throws the settings of in some games. Not a big deal, but the card runs in a reasonably low power state when in 2D mode anyway.

Test :

• Try leaving the card in the machine with no power connected when using the Integrated graphics .

If you have another cable and monitor input leave it out for now.

• If the machine crashes it's looking more like a possible fault in the motherboards  PCI-e slot  or the PCI-e controller, as the card should be inactive.
• If the machine does not crash with the card installed and no power connected, shut down and switch

off. Then leaving the Integrated graphics connected, attach the power cable to the card and re-boot.

If there is no crash does the card show in Device Manager ?

• If the machine does not crash with the power connected to the card when using the Integrated graphics, leave it as is for a day or two to see if you still get this reoccurring crash.

If it does crash, after the power is connected where does that leave us ?

Same place ;)  ? Gpu or psu ?  Maybe, but lets see what we get from the error reports.

• If the machine does not crash when the power is connected to the card and you have booted into

Windows using the integrated graphics go to Device Manager and enable the card, if it is not already,

and switch the cable from the integrated to the card.

The screen will likely go black while the monitor detects the new signal, but hopefully you won't have

to reboot.

• If you have two cables use one on each graphics processor as this will make changing between

Integrated and the card work more smoothly when enabling/disabling via Device Manager.

Note that your may have to use your monitors OSD option to switch between DVI and VGA after

disabling one or the other graphics processor.

When I switch from my HD7970 to Intel HD  I have to use the monitor to select VGA, but when I

switch back to the card the monitor automatically switches back to DVI.

The same happens if I have both processors enabled in Device Manager.

• Also, if I shut down, or reboot while using the Intel HD, when I switch  back to the card from the Intel HD

I have to reboot to reload the drivers for the card, so try to avoid rebooting or shutting down

while using your Integrated graphics, at least while testing.

Re-enable the card via Device Manager before shutting down or rebooting.

When it comes time to reconnect the card to the monitor run MSI Afterburner and set it up to

save a log file so you can verify the card switches to 3D mode (clock speed and voltage goes up)

and that the voltage stays steady when in either 2D or 3D mode.

Regarding the monitor resolution.  Yes, the Integrated may limit the refresh rate. While there is not

much difference 60Hz is the preferred option on a PC monitor.

I only asked about 75 Hz because it would be the best option, if available.

Apparently some monitors have a theoretical 75Hz but it's not always attainable.

.

Error reports -

It looks like mini-dumps are being made, and there are others here who know more about dealing with them.

I was hoping one of them would drop in by now.

Maybe you need to go back to your old thread from before getting the card replaced and post more recent dump files, and if you don't attract SpiritX, Patrick, Gerry or one of the other more technically proficient to that thread, start an new thread  and include links to several more recent dump files along with the Error Logs, temps and the fixes we've  gone over here to date.

You could also try the Nvidia forums again.

• Did we have you check your HDD ? If not, run chkdsk to verify the HDD is not getting errors.

There are HDD errors  - several  controller error on Device\Disk5\DR8 (24-12-2013) -

and tons of paging errors (not sure if these are significant, but I don't have any).

• Meanwhile - I believe we went over the Nvidia drivers earlier, but maybe you need to try the 314.22 driver.

Drivers after this were a problem with series 400 & 500 but lets see if your GTX650 does better with

them. My GTX560ti works well with the 331.58...  but any port in a storm, eh!

Do the full uninstall regime using Driver Fusion after uninstalling and rebooting.

As I mentioned above, I'm not well versed in error reports or dump file intrepretation, but -

Obviously there are a lot of critical errors relating to the system shutting down without cleanly

rebooting due to not responding, crashing or loosing power.

These in turn would lead to other errors such as TDR. and software 'terminating unexpectedly' .

• There are also errors regarding drivers failing to load. This could be due to the system crashing

before Windows loads.

• At least one error regarding the motherboard NorthBridge  is ominous, but may also result

from whatever else may be causing the machine to crash.

• It may be the current nvlddmkm errors are being caused by you having the Nvidia drivers installed

without the card being installed.

-  There are times when there are a lot of  Bonjour  Service errors.

One of our old posters - Zuh l , fixed this by setting the Bonjour service to  manual.

However, it seems Bonjour can also cause a crash when the program is open

and Sleep or shut-down is attempted (maybe Hibernate too ? ).

• For more information regarding  Bonjour  you may want to visit the Apple forums.
• HotSpot Shield  has regular errors which seems to crash  ole32.dll. .
• If you have Windows Firewall enabled with Hotspot Shield disable Windows firewall.
• If you don't have Windows firewall enabled Disable or uninstall Hotspot Shield and enable the

Windows Firewall.

• Wouldn't have to do with your issue, but -

There are also a lot of  Search errors which reckon the 'content index database' is corrupt.

Not sure as I have Search Indexing disabled, but I imagine disabling indexing and

rebooting would clear the corrupt data base. Enable  search indexing after reboot if you wish.

.

When I hibernate my computer I close all open programs beforehand, wouldn't that help prevent problems?

And would you suggest I shut down my computer most of the time, or put it to sleep?  I am concerned about power use while the computer sleeping.  The other problem is that my computer takes a while to boot up...

I generally hibernate because the pc is so fast coming back on.  I reboot about once a week.

I am going to try to start working through your other two posts, might take me a while so don't be surprised if I don't post back here for at least a couple days.