I don't know how to describe what fixed this problem, cause I really don't know!
ALSO SEE:
Can't open Resource monitor
After my mess up with Vista, I started using XP which was on 163.75 and guess what! The same instability problems started to appear!
So, it was crystal clear that this was a hardware mess up. I shut down my PC, tried to do a little dust sucking and blowing with the vacuum cleaner, remover and cleaned my 6600, RAM and put all stuff back.
Then, I started XP and after about an hour of usage everything was pretty normal. So, I switched over to Vista to find that the problem was still there, only this time there was no BSOD or stuff like that which could make my system crawl. It was just "Display driver has stopped responding and recovered successfully" balloon messages.
Next, I uninstalled the affected driver and installed 175.19 but this time through the device manager method. Everything went fine and in working condition.
Incidently, I noticed that Windows Update had an optional GeForce 6600 driver update which I selected to install. It was approx. 55 MB download and after installing, voila!
I was on 178.13, the newest driver with all my color settings copied over and rock solid reliability!
Everything is fine now, just one grudge that Vista chose to drop my Experience index from 4.0 to 3.8 and that too in Gaming grpahics!
I guess, my card had either become loose or the dust might have played a part. It could even be a corrupt installation file! Whatever it was, this has certainly added to my experience!
Thanks for all the help!