Question Graphics card/driver causing black screen and sometimes BSODs.

bford2660

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Jul 15, 2018
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I recently bought a brand new NVIDIA GeForce GT 720 from Amazon. It has had problems since I bought it but here recently I updated my OS to Windows 10. I don't have as many issues but there are still some that restrict what I can do. Firstly, I frequently have a problem where if I'm flipping through google images or go to websites that have lots of ads, the screen will go black (lights still on) and then go dark (lights off). It will then come back on. I went to event viewer and found this error when that happens, "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered." Another issue I have faced is that when I play games, they sometimes cause me to crash. I have tried installing newer drivers for my graphics card but during the install it BSODs with the error "SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED." So at the moment I'm currently using an older version of the drivers for my graphics card. I have tried multiple things such as adding a TdrDelay into the registry which didn't work. I used MSI Afterburner to set my clocks back by 100 which also didn't work.

I will leave my specs below.

OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i5 750 @ 2.67GHz
RAM: 6.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 531MHz
Motherboard: Dell Inc. 0X231R (CPU 1)
Graphics: S200HL (1600x900@60Hz)
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 720 (NVIDIA)
 

bford2660

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Jul 15, 2018
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I haven't checked the BIOS or the motherboard but Windows 10 was clean installed the other day (a couple times), everything is at good temperatures (just checked on Speccy), and all the fans are okay. I will check the BIOS and the motherboard. The PC is pretty old thought so I would guess that they aren't.
 

bford2660

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Jul 15, 2018
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I forgot to mention another issue. Sometimes while just on Chrome, it will go black and I will get a notification that says it has been blocked from accessing the graphics hardware.
 

bford2660

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Jul 15, 2018
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Oh sorry, I previously had an old NVIDIA GT 220 which started overheating. I just downloaded GPU-Z and came across something immediately.
unknown.png
 
Looks like it's a different card, a counterfeit, that's had the vBIOS flashed to make it look like a GT 720. The actual card appears to be much older, Fermi based, vs. Kepler which it should be. Much slower card going by specs alone being reports. What does other software show, such as HWinfo64 regarding GPU. I would definitely get in contact with Amazon, and inform them of counterfeit card/seller so you can see about getting a refund if it's not already to late. It's very likely the cause of your driver installation/black screen issues.
 
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bford2660

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Jul 15, 2018
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I went back to the page where I bought the card from and they aren't currently selling them anymore but I will still contact Amazon. Would there be anyway to actually see what the card really is?