Crashing in Certain Games

I'm running legit copies of Halo 2 and Assassin's Creed, and they tend to crash my display driver/video card at any random old time. Usually around 5 minutes in. Less for AC. I know it's the display driver or video card or whatever because the game freezes with red squiggly lines all over the place, then the monitor says no input detected. The computer, however, is still running. I have Vista Ultimate 32bit, and an EVGA 8800GT. I can post more info if necessary, but please if you have any suggestions let me know. All my drivers are up to date and I disabled my onboard graphics in my bios so that only PCIE is outputting. Thanks in advance.

"If" you are overclocking, try turning the clock speed down. If not, then based on your description of the "red squiggly lines all over the place, then the monitor says no input detected." sounds like either the resolution is set to high, or more than likely, your video card is failing.

It would also help if you posted your system specs as well.

Thanks.

How are your temps? heat can bring down a good game in less than 5 minutes.

Ugh I'm on my phone, I'll post specs when I get home but I'm not overclocking, I don't really understand what it is or does haha. Definitely could be overheating I'll post temps too.

edit: dxdiag:

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 6/19/2009, 21:54:44
Machine name: TRAVIS-PC
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Ultimate (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.lh_sp2rtm.090410-1830)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: HP-Pavilion
System Model: RK574AA-ABA a1730n
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+ (2 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Page File: 1363MB used, 2966MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 6.00.6001.18000 32bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
Display Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 2: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D: 0/4 (retail)
DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)
DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce 8800 GT
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0611&SUBSYS_C8023842&REV_A2
Display Memory: 1269 MB
Dedicated Memory: 501 MB
Shared Memory: 767 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 170MP
Driver Name: nvd3dum.dll,nvwgf2um.dll,nvwgf2um.dll
Driver Version: 8.15.0011.8585 (English)
DDI Version: 10
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 4/30/2009 22:02:00, 7593472 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled

edit: temp at idle is ~56-58C

edit: ran AC windowed with coretemp running in sys tray, got to 62C before i got my newly named "Red Screen of Death" haha.

sorry for double posting but seriously. please?

http://www.vistax64.com/gaming/231791-call-duty-4-freezes-pixels-go-strange-4.html

follow my instructions here on installing and using riva tuner 3rd post down

come back and post your results

there is one problem , riva tuner at its current release doesn support the newest drivers , there is a way around it but its too complicated to go into right now , so the area where your gpu is normally listed will be blank , its not a problem , also your core temps will be slightly out due to riva tuner selecting the wrong monitoring plugin , but its not an issue

okay well i already had riva installed, i enabled all the options and whatnot but got no OSD of any sort in AC or Halo 2. This session, however, when trying to get riva to work, I ran Halo 2 and crashed with the Red Screen, then after restarting DreamScene came up with an error and my background went black. This usually happens but I make my background my usual dreamscene background and THEN play a game.

This time, I left DreamScene alone and started AC, played for 5 minutes longer than any other time, and then got the same screen, only in blue!!

I tryed ALT+TAB and ALT+ENTER as usual, and it worked, but the only thing my screen showed was BSOD, which is new:



then on my next restart after that windows showed me this, two images, one scrolled down one not:

You should download and install your graphics card software from NVIDIA then download and install these two updates:

DirectX (You need this whether you running DirectX 9, 10 or 10.1)
C ++ for Vista 32 bit

Once thats done reboot your pc and then download HWmonitor. Run HWmonitor and begin playing a game in windowed mode so you can play the game and see all the temps etc when playing.