After installing the latest driver for my Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB video card, I've been experiencing some issues with the game F.E.A.R. Not only does the framerate seem to be worse (even though I've been told that happens regardless), but it is constantly crashing. The crashes are no ordinary crashes, mind you, and there may be something wrong with my vido card. While I'm playing F.E.A.R. it will freeze, the ambient sound will glitch and then resume active play, but the game will stay frozen (occasionally it will come back after a few seconds, but not often). Then I have not choice but to attempt to manually exit the program using the Task Manager. I either use CTRL+ALT, the Windows key, or CTRL+ALT+DEL to try and minimize the game. Well, that works, the game is minimized. But all of a sudden my monitor goes estatic. It won't shut on and off, but it will read my computer on and off (going from picture to "No Signal") repeatedly. And when the picture is visible, strange things like skipping images, artifacts, and such will appear. This leads me to believe that the computer's video card is having problems, as a monitor wouldn't affect the actual picture (would it?). Any help will be greatly appreciated. -lawl

Did you follow the driver installation hints doc on nvidia's website? Did you try downgrading back to the previous version of drivers? "Milk was a bad choice!"

I would try an exorcist... or maybe your video card or monitor cable are not seated properly.

Quote from voltage: or maybe your video card or monitor cable are not seated properly. I would go with that first.

I've heard of cheap PSUs causing these problems. The 7900 GTX is an incredibly power-intensive card (but better than the 7800) and if you are taxing a cheap PSU that was included with your case it could create those problems. I personally had a problem with a new card, the eVGA 7900 GT CO. I had the same problems you had (crazy artifacts, fractured gameplay, crashes) and their tech support said they had a large batch of 7900s with defective memory. I returned mine (their RMA service is incredible btw!) and a new one is on its way.