EVGA Nvidia GTX470 freezing issue

Hello.

I have an issue where my PC freezes, sometimes with artifacts, in desktop. However, when I get a boot where I do not run into any issues I can run games on ultra settings all day just fine. The freezing becomes more frequent after I update my drivers (I also updated the bios to the latest).

When I have the earliest Nvidia drivers, my PC will freeze 2 or 3 times when booting cold (sometimes with artifacts). However, even though it may be a GPU problem, I have a hard time diagnosing that since I can run games on ultra settings all day long when I get a good boot, with no artifacts at all!

I'm suspecting it is my motherboard, since it was an open box. The computer does freeze in bios sometimes as well.

I have run 7 passes of memtest and it passed. I am going to buy a better mobo just because anyway, whether or not it is the root of my problems. If that doesn't do it I will do a clean install of Windows with earliest drivers and run Prime95.

These problems only occur when Nvidia drivers are loaded. when drivers that came with video card and no windows updates are applied, the computer will freeze only when the PC is cold (it has been off for a while), and then it will work fine all day! When I update everything, the computer freezes consistently.


If anyone has seen anything like this before or has any advice which I did not list already, please let me know. This has been happening shortly after I built my PC and has really been bothering me.


Below are my specs:
Windows 7 64bit
EVGA Nvidia GTX470
Intel I7 875k @2.93
MSI H55M-P31 motherboard
2X GSkill 2GB 10333
Creative X-Fi Titanium
PC Power Supply and Cooling 610 watts (I don't know the model because my dad gave me this unit and the case).


Thanks in advance!