Nvidia Windows 8.1 Artifacts?

[victorzhao]

Hi. I've recently been having checkerboard artifacts all over my screen at random times. I haven't been able to manually reproduce it, but it seems to occur more often when I'm watching full screen movies using any media player (I normally use VLC, but it occurs in WMP too). The artifacts look like small rainbow colored boxes arranged in a checkerboard like pattern and appears all over my screen, with the occasional exception where it occurs in a small area. When the artifacts do occur, I lose total control of my computer as nothing seems to respond until the screen turns black and then reloads itself. I have not overclocked my GPU or CPU, so it's not an issue of overheating but I will attach images of my temperatures below. Windows Action Center also reports that the graphics driver has stopped working. When simply in desktop or playing games, the issue doesn't occur at all or a very minimal amount compared to when I'm watching a movie.

 

I've tried to totally uninstall all the Nvidia drivers through the control panel, then booting into safe mode and running Driver Sweeper. I reinstalled the essential Nvidia drivers in safe mode, but the issue still persists. I have a feeling that Windows 8.1 is to blame for these issues however they only recently started happening (within the last 2 weeks), and I've been using 8.1 since release.

 

My Specs: Rig was built last summer.
Windows 8.1 Pro x64 Media Center

i5 3570k @ stock

GTX 560Ti @ stock

Gigabyte Z77-D3H

120GB Vertex 3

1TB WD Blue

Corsair TX 650V2

 

The images for temperatures attached are after I get the artifacts and the issue that Windows detects. I will try to attach an image with the artifacts occurring but it recovers too quickly for me to take a picture.

 

Any suggestions? Thanks.

[LiquidAir]

What kind of temperatures does your GPU reach when under heavy load from intensive games or benchmarks?

 

PS. Do the artifacts that you are getting look anything like this?, you described a checkerboard pattern (http://i.imgur.com/a7iydmc.jpg)

[victorzhao]

I recently cleaned out my computer completely, so dust isn't an issue. Here's a picture of my temps while running Furmark.

Here's an image of what the artifacts kind of look like, however replace the yellow colour with rainbow artifacts:http://i.stack.imgur.com/rBTN5.png

[victorzhao]

Sadly, the issue still persists after I tried using Nvidia's Geforce 331.93 BETA drivers. Windows has detected it as a hardware error which i'll attach an image to this. The solution Windows suggests is to simply update my drivers, but I have tried it many times with no positive results. Any suggestions? Thanks.