Video Drivers, ANY Drivers, Causing BSOD in P-6831FX

I have a 4 yr old P-6831FX with a GTS 8800M. I've been running a modified (so it'll install on a laptop) Nvidia driver for a couple of months. It was 275.xx something. Then, out of the blue a couple of days ago, my computer started to get BSOD every couple of mins. It appeared that my video driver was the issue. Fair enough, so I uninstalled it (although you'd think I would have seen this problem sooner).

I decided to play it safe and get an official driver. To my surprise, Nvidia offers drivers that install on laptops now. I installed 280.28. It did not solve the issue, still getting BSOD. I get HWMonitor. My max GPU temp. is 57C before crash.

Alright, so then I decided to use no driver for a while. Can't play Starcraft II but at least I can still browse the internet and watch videos. No BSOD! For days!

I've been testing various drivers and my computer crashes on all of them. My conclusion is that installing a video driver, any driver, causes BSOD right now.

I've had my 6831 for 4 years with no hardware issues- until my HD crapped out 2 months ago. Is this a sign that other parts are reaching end of life? Or maybe (hopefully) this is still a software issue. I'm still betting on software since I don't get crashes in safe mode, even with a video driver installed.

Edit: It appears in Safe Mode, the installed Nvidia driver is bypassed and the default VGA controller is used. That would explain why there is no BSOD in Safe Mode.

Edit#2: A little more detail about the crash process. First the screen would turn dark and then return to normal. On the taskbar, I get a bubble that says the video driver had stopped working and was restored. About 15 secs later, the screen would turn dark again and everything would freeze. Finally, I'd get the BSOD.


Any insight or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

You should maybe try driver sweeper and a clean driver install, if that doesn't work then maybe a clean install of windows, if that doesn't work it sounds like it might be the problem with the GPU separating from the motherboard. Look up GPU reflow.

 

Did you try Gateway's?

Gateway Support - Downloads & Support Documents - Notebook / P Series / P-68

Possibly, I have the same machine as you and recently this happened. Mobo was sent to a technician but I'm considering to get a replacement.

Good luck!

 

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Used Driver Cleaner Pro to clear stuff out. Used CCleaner to clean up the register after. Did not help. No BSOD without driver, BSOD with driver.

I've tried Gateway's driver, I've tried Nvidia's driver. It's like my 'puter is allergic to video drivers all of a sudden .

Side note, I can't update my BIOS. I'm using 64-bit Win7 and the BIOS update only works on 32-bit machines apparently. Any way to get around the error message it's giving me?

Edit: A little more info. In the Action Center, I have about a dozen of these flags, one for each time my system crashed:
Description
A problem with your video hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly.

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: LiveKernelEvent
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
Locale ID: 1033

Files that help describe the problem
WD-20111007-2221.dmp
sysdata.xml
WERInternalMetadata.xml

View a temporary copy of these files
Warning: If a virus or other security threat caused the problem, opening a copy of the files could harm your computer.

Extra information about the problem
BCCode: 117
BCP1: FFFFFA8002A16010
BCP2: FFFFF8800F1D86C4
BCP3: 0000000000000000
BCP4: 0000000000000000
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 256_1

A search for Locale ID: 1033 or BCCode: 117 shows that quite a few people have/had this problem but no clear solution.

 

I would suggest you wipe your hard drive and reinstall your OS.

 

I rather not use the nuclear option just yet. I've been having luck using the Gateway driver 167.46. Too bad it's 4 years old.