Read: Nvidia 500 Series Video Drivers are corrupt

I have been using the 285 drivers and did have this happen, although it was very rare. I recently installed the 290 Beta drivers and saw a little improvement with GU 1.1, but am noticing that sometimes I get screen flashes. It is hard to explain, but it almost seems like something is going on in the background in Windows and it almost seems like it is trying to switch over.

This might be the exact issue you are talking about, though I do not get the driver failed message and I have had no BSOD or game crash. This problem only started for me after GU 1.1 was out.

I am running an Asus GTX 550 Ti @ 1920x1080 res.

...am noticing that sometimes I get screen flashes. It is hard to explain, but it almost seems like something is going on in the background in Windows and it almost seems like it is trying to switch over.

What’s NVidia PowerMizer?

NVidia PowerMizer is the name of the technology included in most modern nvidia graphic cards, for both desktops and noteboks. PowerMizer makes your graphics card auto throttle on demand based on the applications you are running. If PowerMizer detects a 3D application running, it will raise the graphics card clock speed to provide higher performance, while it will lower it while rendering only 2D content comsuming less engery and thus disipating less heat. It will even adapt your graphics card clock speed depending on how hot your GPU gets to prevent overheating. That sounds good, isn’t it?

Yeah, it is good, if it weren’t one of the most buggy features implemented in a graphics card. Known problems are:

Some graphic cards suffer screen flickering (horizontal lines for a fraction of a second) each time the GPU clock speed changes. And…
The algorithms for adaptive clock speed cause the GPU constantly change clock speed even without any 3D running.
The overheat protection makes some cards to throttle down while playing games causing horrible performance even in the first minutes of playing when the card temps are safe.

I have a GT430, with the latest Nvidia drivers (downloaded last Thursday, not sure what version).

I have been experiencing screen flicker and the odd PC restart.

Would this driver roll-back help me do you think?

I have been experiencing screen flicker and the odd PC restart.

Would this driver roll-back help me do you think?

I would try it. This all happened to me as well. Flickering, then random PC restarts then it progressed into the error above with random freeze ups and blue screen 1033.

The driver I used off the cd fixed it completely. I don't have these problems anymore.