Screen Flashes, Black Screen, Loud Beep, and Driver Crash

What does this all mean?

I was playing Guild Wars (a 3 year old game) on my laptop, which has been giving me heating issues for a while now (despite trips to HP's repair center).

Recently the screen flashes at times while I play Guild Wars. Then, just today, the screen started to flash again. Seeing as it became quite common, I shrugged it off, thinking it was no big deal. However, unlike the past, this time, the display showed a black screen and I heard a loud beep. Only after 10 or so seconds did the screen come back to life, and I was given a message stating "The display driver had stopped working" or something of the likes.

Is this a sign of GPU damage or excessive strain? I normally get 60+ FPS in Guild Wars, so it was kind of unexpected. Any cause for concern?

Thank you very much.

 

Wow...

I just had another 6-8 of those driver crashes within a 3 minute time frame. It literally crashed again and again the moment it recovered...I couldn't even log out of the game. In the last driver crash, nothing would show up when I was in-game, so I ended up having to Alt-F4 out of Guild Wars...

This is bad, real bad, isn't it?

 

Assuming that it only happens during guild wars:

The first step always is trying to defragment your computer. If that doesnt work send it to hp. If hp cant fix it, its about time you had a new toy. (Well even if u fix it i reccomend not to keep your laptop since judging by your post you have a long record of issues?)

 

I've sent it to HP twice already, and I only got it back maybe a week ago. I'm planning to send it to HP again soon, but it's just been out of my hands for so long ><"

 

Hp must be annoyed.

 

More like I must be annoyed >.>

So anyways, dying GPU, yes / no?

 

what are the specs of your notebook? how old is it?

 

Change your drivers first, its the ~nvdkllm.sys error. Use 169.09