M17x R1 GTX 260m Driver Issues

After having my M17x for over a year, it has started acting up.

Recently, the nvidia driver has been crashing (While playing WoW, SC2, or browsing the internet), thus I recently did a fresh install of Windows 7 64bit and updated to the latest drivers. The BIOS is A05 also

I have a single 260M card. With the driver 257.38

Now here is where the issue is.

If I boot just from the integrated graphics, everything runs fine, I have no hiccups besides lower video settings.

If I try to boot the 260M, I get to the window's log-in screen and it begins to flash to a black screen several times. Sometimes it will reappear with the login screen, other times it will stay at the black screen, with my cursor.

If I am able to get logged in, as soon as I boot up a game, the driver crashes repeatedly until my computer completely locks up.

I have searched around here for about an hour and I could not find anything with specifics on how to fix this.

If anyone could help me with this issue, whether it is supplying me with the most stable drivers or providing me with some links with the same situation, I would appreciate it greatly.

 

Try hooking it to an monitor or TV and see if the problem persists.

 

Yes, the issue still persists after hooking it up to a monitor.

 

Do you have Active State Power Management enabled in the Bios graphics settings? I was having problems switching between Stealth Mode and Full Power Mode a few weeks ago and in the process of trying different Bios settings, I enabled ASPM. I wasn't sure if it had been enabled or disabled before but I figured I'd give it a try. After making the change, I was having some issues with both Microsoft Flight Simulator and Phoenix Flight Sim crashing a minute or two into gaming. I would get an audio stutter that would just loop continuously and everything else would be completely locked up requiring a hard reboot. I disabled ASPM in the Bios and haven't had a lockup since. Don't know if it's a coincidence or not but it's worth a shot. I'm also running a single 260m.

 

I do not have ASPM enabled.
Yesterday I managed to play WoW for several hours without the driver crashing once. There were a few lag-spikes, but no crashing. The black screen flashing while booting, is still there.

It seems that the flashing is occurring when the graphics are switched from integrated to the 260m, correct me if I am wrong.

If this is the case, is there any way I can apply more constant power to the card (or something along the lines of that), so it would not have the issues when it starts

 

I get the flashing as well but mine cycles between red, green, and blue, before finally settling on the windows login screen.