Geforce Go 6800 - display corruption and lockup on fullscreen

[Morac]

Laptop: Dell Inspiron 9300 (with all bios and driver updates from Dell)

Memory upgrade: 2 GB from Crucial (tested with Memtest and Dell's own diagnostics)

Video: NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 (256 MB) with 6.14.10.7851 drivers (latest from Dell)

O/S: Windows XP Pro SP2 with all the latest updates

Resolution: 1920x1200

I have not overclocked any component in my system.

I have an issue that occurs where the screen becomes completely corrupted (almost as if the refresh rate was suddently set too high). I can usually recover from this if I open a windows console window in full screen mode. Sometimes (around 30%) though immediately after the screen corrupts the whole machine hard locks and I need to hold the power button down to shut off.

While I've seen it happen when opening a windowed program, 99% of the times when it occurs I'm alt-tabbing from the windows desktop into a full screen game such as World of Warcraft. It doesn't always happen when going back into a full screen game, but it does happen often enough (I'd say around 10%). I normally run the games at the same resolution as my desktop (1920x1200).

I did replace the original 512 MB of RAM that came with the laptop with 2 GB from crucial, but I've experienced this problem in the past before that happened. I probably notice it more often now because with 2 GB of RAM, I can easily switch in and out of games.

I had problems with the NVidia Desktop Management software causing blue screens in the past or causing explorer to hang (I currently leave it disabled) which leads me to believe there are driver problems.

I ran the video diagnostic program that came with Dell without any problems and I practically never have a problem unless I switch from windows desktop to full screen game.

I posted on the Dell forums and had a few people respond that they've had similar problems, but no response from Dell.

Anyone ever experience this or have any ideas what the problem is? Is the card bad, the driver?

[Bill]

Go here and try the 81.98 driver and Pieter's mod INF.

Also you should disable the nview desktop manager, or add your games and programs like IE to its disable list. (application tab>disable)

I would tell you to stop alt tabbing out of the game, but that shouldnt cause a blue screen if everything is in working order.

Anyway I do think the problem is just with the driver or the desktop manager.

Some programs just dont like the desktop manager. (or it doesn't like certain programs)

Excuse my photobucket mess, these forums are just too popular!