Can a bad driver do this?

I have an XPS M1330 with the Nvidia 8400 video card. I know there have been plenty of problems with 8400 but I have this M1330 for over 2 years without a problem, until today that is.

I had a couple of Windows Updates and installed them, when I restarted I walked away for a few minutes and came back to find the display flashing crazy colors. I rebooted and after a few minutes there was a pop up bubble that said there was a problem with the video driver, then the M1330 froze, so I rebooted again. Then after a few more minutes I started having artifacts on the display, then the crazy colors again and finally the computer restarted itself. You get the picture.

I called Dell and the tech wanted me to try and reinstall the video driver and the BIOS but it started with the crazy flashing and self rebooting again so she set up a mother board replacement at my house.

A few hours went by and I tried using the M1330 in safe mode, and when I saw that I was able to do that I downloaded and installed a video driver which is actually dated before the one I had installed for what must be over a year.

That was about 3 hours ago and since then I have been using the M1330 steadily without a single problem.

So my question, is it really possible that a driver that has been working fine for more than a year all of a sudden cause the problems I described? The Dell tech is supposed to call me tomorrow to set up an appointment to change the motherboard and now I don't know if I should go ahead with it.

Any advice is much appreciated.

 

Did your Windows Update patches include anything for the Nvidia GPU? It's possible for a driver update or something like it to mess up your machine as described, but I think it's unlikely, and especially so if it's a driver that's been working fine for a while.

I think you should go ahead with the board replacement... just given the track record of the Nvidia GPU mess and the M1330 specifically, I think there's a good chance you aren't having a software issue.

Can never be certain, though, I suppose.

 

Thank you for your reply, I did check that and the only 2 things listed in the update were a security update and malicious software update, nothing regarding the video driver.
It's been about 12 hours since I was having the problem and not a single incident since I've updated the driver. I'm hesitant to have the motherboard replaced as I've heard that sometimes issues arise when these things aren't done at the factory such as scratches, cosmetic blemishes etc. I know that happens less often than more but if everything is ok now, as it at least seems to be I think I might wait to see if it happens again before going ahead with the motherboard swap.

I appreciate your comment, thanks!

 

What is the harm in trying out a remove and replace of the driver? Honestly I would try that if you get the same error.

 

Just started happening again. Definitely a hardware problem.

 

Have you removed and replaced the driver? If not try it out.

 

I did that yesterday. Has been working fine until a few minutes ago when the display started blinking on and off again. Glad I didn't get the call from the tech yet and refused the board.

 

I don't think it's driver related.

I had the same problem with my 8600M in my Inspiron 1520 a couple weeks back. It was a cooling issue - the cooler wasn't plugged in and the system was overheating. Once I rebooted and plugged in the cooler, the problem never came back.