Display driver NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 266.58 stopped responding and has successfully recovered.   
I uninstalled all my drivers in safe mode and then reinstalled the latest from nvidia.... What happens is I sporadically get a black screen... then it comes back after 3 seconds. Any ideas? Thanks.
 

HotRodPolk

Why are you running drivers that old? What are your system specs?

sorry.. was actually 266.58... just copied pasted that.
 
8mb ram... gtx 460... 780i mobo... q9550
 
Lots of people have the issue.... fixes ranging from RMA... to reinstalling drivers... http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd349439(WS.10).aspx#ctl00_WikiContent_ctl00_History

this has happened to me twice now on my systems, I also have the 266.58 drivers with GTX 460's and every once in a while I get driver has stopped responding and recovered, its not a heat issue I stay between 60 - 70c wether gaming or folding, nothing is overclocked.

You may have to reinstall the drivers using the option to do fresh install. I'd say don't install the audio as well.

put your fan at 70%, and see if that helps. I don't think you should be running that hot,  low 60's at most.

I had this same exact problem with my 260. I'm afraid the only advice I can give you is to RMA. I could try and dig up the old thread, but I tried everything to no avail. New 260 cleared it right up. I can't say definitively, but from my personal experience this is the advice I can give. Sorry.

can I cry? haha.     I've only had this card  4 months!!! I can't even register the product to submit an rma either!
 
It's crashing at 30 degrees Celsius... so definitely not overheating!

definitely not the only with this prob... these threads are recent too:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/312206-33-upgrading
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1622899040
 
http://forums.developer.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=5845&st=0&gopid=18958&#entry18958
 
http://forums.evga.com/tm.aspx?m=874284&mpage=1

damn man.  i'm still waiting on the evga admins.... to help me register my product because it won't let me on the page. HuMmm.  Any idea where I can try previous drivers? I haven't tried that yet.

dyno0919

Oh you haven't? There may be hope yet. Go to nvidia's driver download page here and put in your system information if it didn't autodetect it. I would recommend trying the last couple WHQLs before trying betas, but there are a few betas I have known to be the best drivers I ever used. 260.99 worked well for me.

I don't mean to be Debbie Downer here, but unless something has changed, there really isn't much that could cause this. Windows doesn't just "be retarded" every once in a while like it used to. While it could be any number of driver and hardware conflicts, there's a point where you have to draw the line and believe that it might be quicker, even with turnaround, to just have EVGA take the wheel. If anyone else has any ideas I would love to hear them, but as of last when I had this problem there are very few fixes to realize before having to try your card.

 
So you don't recommend any beta drivers? 
 
http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7-winvista-64bit-270.51-beta-driver.html
 
wbu these?  these were put out march 30, 2011.  Anyone else got any suggestions on drivers? thanks.

Well if you are testing drivers to see if they will work with your system, you probably don't want to use a set of drivers that were still in development lol. I haven't used the newest beta drivers, I've heard a lot of bad and not enough good about them. I recommend 260.99 and 258.69. I know the latter is beta, but they worked well for me. Those are the wtwo that I would recommend, but you can try any of them, it really doesn't matter. It's just better to stick WHQL at first because they are officially released drivers.

priopen

yeah.. within 2 seconds of playing a game it did it again with the 260.99 drivers.... the thing is... this just started happened randomly so i think it's a hardware error. I was on those drivers since january with no flaws till this week. 

 
But it is random. Those who have been getting this have seen it from anytime between 2 days after they bought the card, to a year after they bought the card. Mine happened 33 days in, and multiple times daily at that. I gave my card to a developer who works directly for NVidia so they can use it to research, and have gone back to my 8800GT in the meantime. No problems at all with it from 169.07 all the way up to the latest WHQL. The GTX460 I had had this problem from 258.96 all the way up.
 
As I mentioned in the other threads here, I've reinstalled the OS, flashed the BIOS to current on both the motherboard and GPU to the latest recommended by the manufacturer (EVGA for the GPU and Gigabyte for the motherboard), and swapped out the PSU and CPU. Memory I have not touched, because it is the exact voltage required by the board. I do not overclock anything, though the GTX460 came factory overclocked.
 
I'm at my end on this and am thinking about making the switch as well. That Radeon HD 6950 is looking really good right now.
 
BL.
 

1 month later with my new rmad'd card and  just now any video i start playing does it :[  It's happened about 10 times in the last 15min
 

except clicking that made my computer crash and had to restart my computer 3 times before i could load windows

It could be a problem with the HD audio driver interfering with your onboard audio. When you upload the drivers just deselect the HD audio. Also check to see what temps you are getting with the fan at 40%. Also see if you can make it through the Windows Experience Index test. If you can't try overclocking slightly and raising your fan speed slightly. If that still doesn't work you will probably have to rma it.