Corrupt Video Drivers
 

My work laptop is a Dell Latitude 6410 with the add-on Nvidia video card. Something in the software has corrupted. Every few minutes the system freezes, the screen goes black and then the video resets. I have been on the phone with Dell and we have replaced the motherboard twice and the other sub-systems once. We have tried the new Dell video driver and the newer yet Nvidia drivers. I have tried to roll back to earlier drivers. I have spent hours on the Internet looking for the solution.

Dell says, and I have seen this in numerous tech postings, that the answer is to reload my OS. The problem is, of course, that the laptop is my life. I have dozens of applications installed and tweaked. It will take me at least 1, maybe 2 days to reload after a fresh OS install.

Okay, I should know this but I don’t. . . If I do a Windows System Restore level backup, will that overwrite the OS as well as restore my data? Also, doesn’t that put my applications back in place too?

Any other suggestions on how to do this?

Most of your local settings are usually saved in your appdata folder (It's automatically hidden...you have to go to a runline and type in c:\users\yournamehere\appdata.) If you pick and choose what to backup, and you restore those files after you format/install software it shouldn't take that long.

You shouldn't have to reload Windows because of wonky video drivers. Boot into "safe mode", uninstall the video drivers, boot normally with the generic video drivers, then find the stable drivers for your video chip. Doesn't happen too often, but it does happen...

Thanks Art. I was hoping you would reply.

Unfortunately, BTDT. After fighting this with Dell and MS tech support plus hours researching, I am pretty sure I need a fresh OS load.

Just saw on /. about an exploit in the nvidia drivers ... Nvidia Display Driver Service Attack Escalates Privileges On Windows Machines - Slashdot

there is a free program called driver destroyer
it will remove any trace of old bad drivers

then re-install the current driver for your card

good luck

You really shouldn't have to reinstall the OS for bad video drivers. Maybe you have something else going on?

Most times, a computer company tech support's answer is Format/Reload because they really don't know how (or don't want to take the time) to fix an issue. There some problems so deeply embedded that formatting may be the better option but it does take time to reset your system.

If you had the time, I'd say "send it to me and I'll fix it and send it back"...

Okay, so. . . I ran across an extra SSD I had laying around but noticed it was a 128 GB unit, not 64GB. Maybe it was time to take a different approach.

I mounted the SSD into my laptop and loaded Win 8 Enterprise. After it loaded and a couple of tweaks for the Cisco VPN Client, I declared victory and moved into full setup mode. So far, it has been great.

Thanks for all the help, especially Art for offering to fix it for me.