Brand new PC and new install, it works absolutely fine for hours if i am in game BattleField Bad Company 2, but do any internet browsing, photo editing, or doing file copies and the monitor displays its going into power saving mode, PC seems fine and its up but no video output mobo = ASRocks K10N7SLI CPU = AMD Athlon2 x4 630 2.81 gpu = 2x NVIDIA Geforce9600 1.5GB (each) in SLI ram = 8GB (4x2GB) Corsair OS = Windows 7 Pro 64bit HD = OCZ Solid State SATA2 (sys vol) Maxtor SATA2 (data vol) video connection is DVI only , i have no VGA output, refresh rate is set to 59hz (and will not be changed) I have removed all windows based power saving settings for all and any component, have also set bios to not power save, have latest drivers for all components Have set IE, Chrome, MS Side bar to use single GPUi'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy

Hi Cheapy, Please check if the settings in the SLI control panel are set properly. You can contact NVIDIA Support directly to check this. Also, check if the issue occurs with one display card installed. If the issue persists, uninstall the display card driver and then run Windows Update to install the driver to see if the issue can be resolved.

thanks for the assistance, i have removed one of the cards, and have deleted the exisiting driver, letting windows install the following NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GSO (MS VDDM v1.1) 14/5/2009 version 8.15.11.8503, and its still dropping out the video to the monitor its been happily running XP all morning, so must be windows7/driver related as you are thinking, i think i will raise a support calli'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy

Your problem most likely is the nVidia driver and there is nothing Microsoft can do to fix nVidia'[s driver - nVidia will have to do that. If you check the ATI forums you will find that ATI had a similar problem in Windows 7 but seems to finally gotten ironed out in that latest drivers. Contact nVidia and tell them what your problem is so they can look at their drivers for a solution.

Thanks Rick, have done, i have also raised a call with MS as i see the main provider as the drivers where approved.i'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy

After hours of investigation, graphics driver trials and hardware substitution whilst working this through with Microsoft and XFX, i discovered if i run windows desktop without the Aero theme it works fine, stable for hours. I am happy to run it in "Basic Theme" mode, i may try some new nvidia drivers when they next come out, but to be honest i probably wont bother with the pretty windows.i'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy

Thanks Rick, have done, i have also raised a call with MS as i see the main provider as the drivers where approved. i'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy Microsoft is not the main provider of any third party drivers. They are provided by the respective manufacturer of the hardware. So, you are a bit confused on that point. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHQL_Testing But the process is just like any other mass run "testing & certification" because it is absolutely impossible for each and every driver to be rigorously tested. So, the "certification" is never 100% because this is the real world - not fantasy!

I admit my previous comment doesn't read very well, but i personally feel that MS are the major component supplier of my system as their operating system joins together all the hardware elements. I am very happy for you not to agree with this belief. I understand the commercial work of computers i work in everyday and have been a fan of Uncle Bill for far too many year, so this isnt some anti-MS rant but an industry observation, so stand easy. We are not talking a rare or random gpu chipset here, but large market suppliers i.e. Nvidia. The forums are full of issues with Aero and ATi and Nvidia cards, and I am fully aware of the old game of passing the buck to avoid the perceived cost of resolving issues, i see it constantly. In reality more time and resource is spent avoiding work, than it would take to resolve the problem. I just feel that the approach we use in my area of business (Comms) should be also adopted across the industry including the home user market, all suppliers work together to resolve the issue, with the largest supplier taking the lead. and why does every forum thread have to turn into a heated discussion, no wonder people have stopped sharing PC problems and resolutions, and started using Apples and Linux. We just need to share the information and try and avoid personal opinions, ME INCLUDED lol! Just please bear in-mind that forum users are generally more technical and logically minded than they are literal, and for a lot English isn't even their first language.i'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy