MilenaM

Today the login freeze recovered after a few seconds and brought up this message immediately after the windows desktop was loaded: 
So this is a driver problem then ? That would explain why both of my cards do it sometimes.

What exactly is that error message saying?  It looks like something regarding the Kernel Mode Driver, but I dont understand the rest. 

Try re-downloading the drivers.
 
For the past week it stopped giving me that error.
 
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-us

There is no option for anything hdmi sound related in the nvidia control panel, not with 258.96, 260.63 and 260.89. Where do you see that ?
 
Nvidia's ManuelG answered to my post on their forum saying they will look into the login and black screen freeze issue now. (For my specific configuration at least, i hope it will help others here too)
 
http://forums.nvidia.com/...findpost&p=1129638
 

No HDMI sound option here as well. Also sad to announce that my computer is currently experiencing problems again :(

Yes I have Realtrek HD audio.
 

So I do that by just uninstalling Realtrek right in device manager right?
 

That makes sense. Will do and report back.

ok, what if you disable the onboard audio from the bios and test that?
 
it would show whether its a device conflict.

I had the same issue as described here. I followed the process outlined, but I still get a black screen from time to time. It does seem to go in spurts as I will have them one after another for 20 minutes then run smooth for 40 hours. It does, for some reason, seem to happen more on power up when the machine is 'cold'.
But, today I got an error. A bonified error. I looked at it and it is probably the same as the German post above. But, here is the details.
In the System Events Log there are 4 errors that are back to back.
Oldest to newest:
 
Event 14 : source: nvlddmkm
Details: Blah text on how the event id 14 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found...
Device Video5
CMDre 00000002 000000fc ff1fe124 00000007 00000000
 
Event 14: same source
Device Video5
CMDre 00000002 00000094 ff1fe138 00000007 00000000
 notice different data
 
 Event 14: same source 
  Device Video5
CMDre 00000002 000000a4 ff1fe131 00000007 00000000
 
Event 14: same source
Device Video5
CMDre 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000001 00000001
 
Then I get the info event to say it recorded the event and then a warning that the display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.
Then 8 seconds later I get the same warning: The driver has AGAIN recovered and the video returned to 'normal'
 
This is the FIRST time the video blacked out, then came back. So, I dont know if this error is a new issue, or it is just the first time that the system could recover. But, that is what I got.

I don't think realtek drivers are causing the problem. I get welcome screen freezes with a fresh install of W7 with only the display drivers installed.  

Disabled the onboard audio, still got welcomed by a freeze on the Windows logo.
 
I'm getting really pissed off now. I'm thinking of just replacing the card.

Thinking about getting the 5850 and sending in the 470 under RMA

@Eaglewing
have you  updated your drivers or have you done a windows update recently?

Thanks for the tip :-)

this is very frustrating.  My new 470 GTX is back in its box sitting on the shelf.  $300 paper wieght.