Need help: my display is freezing and PC crashing

[chitown87]

About 6 months ago, I began experiencing issues with streaming video online. Occasionally, my PC would completely crash while I was streaming video. I updated my graphics card drivers and it solved the crashing problem, but I began to have a new problem where anytime I would try to load video that was saved on my PC(like TV shows via media center), the display would freeze for 5-10 seconds while the audio continued to play. Then the video would start up and it was like nothing was wrong. Same thing would happen if I was watching something either with media center or youtube or whatever else and tried to set the video to full screen. This is not an HD-only problem, same thing happens with crappy quality videos on youtube. Lately, it's gotten much worse and media center has begun crashing my computer again. I don't have a great video card, but it's nice enough to where it doesn't need to be upgraded right this minute just to watch videos online, and I have plenty of RAM. Hardware specs are below. Any advice would be appreciated, it's gotten beyond frustrating. Oh, and I have updated my drivers 3 times since the issues started, including as recently as last week.

Windows 7 64-bit
Intel Core i5 CPU 650
8 GB DDR3 RAM
GeForce GT 220 video card

 

[chitown87]

More information:


My monitor is the Asus VK246H 24" 1080p
Display is set to 1920 x 1080, 60 HZ refresh rate
Connected to PC via HDMI

 

[vvhocare5]

So, start with the basics. Check the temps of the CPU and GPU.

Are the heat dissipation fins clogged?

Next some of those videos use Flash and Flash was recently updated to use hardware acceleration - this would put more strain on the GPU.

Is it possible to roll your computer back to 6 months ago - you can roll it back to present day if it doesnt help...

I dont know what you do, but do not install any video players, no matter what...

 

[chitown87]

I'm not exactly sure how to check the temps of CPU and GPU, or the heat dissipation fins. Any advice?

I have VLC media player installed, but I've had it for years on multiple PCs.

 

[chitown87]

I did a google search to figure out how to check the temps, and it led me to download Motherboard Monitor..except I don't know what my motherboard manufacturer/model is

 

[chitown87]

Also, when my screen freezes and then recovered, I get an error message in the corner of my screen that says 'display driver stopped responding and has recovered. Display Driver NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver Version 266.58 stopped responding and has recovered.'