Screen Blackout

[white_collar]

I have Windows 7 Pro 64. I bought and installed the NVidia Geforce GTX 460 video board about 3 months ago. I have 8 G memory and still have about 275G on the HD. I can be doing minimal things on the computer when the screen will black out. The monitor will tell me I am not getting a signal. Then after 2-4 seconds the monitor will come alive. I will get an error message on the right hand bottom of the screen telling me there is a problem with the video driver. I have upgraded the driver each time one comes out. I even went back to the driver that was first installed, but regardless, it still happens. I opened up the case and made sure everything was plugged in and the board was well seated. I have cleaned it out although the dust build up was minimal. My power supply is 700 W. So, I'm not sure why this keeps happening. Any suggestions? Thankfully I don't loose any data during these blackouts.

[Deadeye81]

Have all the former drivers for this Nvidia card been uninstalled before the installation of a new driver?

Have you removed the Nvidia card to test whether the integrated video shows the same symptoms? If it does, there may be a board problem.

You might also try to obtain updated Chipset Drivers for your motherboard. Check the motherboard manufacturer's site.

Is your Nvidia card under warranty? It may be defective.

[Roderunner]

This is how I install Nvidia, it never has given me any trouble. Nvidia.pdf

[curiousclive]

That is the most long winded way of installing Nvidia drivers I have seen.

Better to just download the latest drivers from ( http://www.nvidia.co.uk/page/home.html ). Click on the driver download tab. You can choose Beta and archived files.
You have to select your graphic card and operating system (32 or 64bit).
It then takes you to the page with a list of drivers for your card to download (you can opt for BETA or WHQL signed ones). It comes as an .exe file.
Once downloaded just click on the .exe file to start the install routine.
When get to correct screen choose 'custom install', tick the box to do a clean install which will uninstall the old drivers for you then install the new ones. Wait till finished and probably won't even ask you to restart computer but I always do to be on safe side.

[Roderunner]

If it's done your way, Nvidia keeps the old drivers for roll-back. I never was successful doing it any other way.

[curiousclive]

If ticked it uninstalls the old drivers but does keep the files for roll back which is a good idea. If you want you can go to the drivers store and delete the files there but I do not recommend this.