3D apps and GPU intensive operations locks up screen in Windows

Question

Every time I start a video game or anything GPU intensive my screen locks up like the picture below.

I have disabled and enabled SLI multiple times and I have tried plugging the monitor into different ports and different cards. I ran a diagnostic application with results below.

What should I do, or what else should I troubleshoot to correct this error?

Computer specs:

• Power Supply ( 600 Watt -- Power Supply SLI Ready )
• Motherboard ( [SLI] Asus P5N-E SLI nForce® 650i SLI Chipset w/6-channel CODEC, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB =2 0 )
• Memory ( 4096MB [1024MB X4] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module Corsair-Value or Major Brand )
• Video Card ( 2x NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT 1GB w/DVI + TV Out Video - running SLI mode )
• Video Card Brand ( === High Performance === eVGA Brand Video Cards [SLI enabled] Powered by NVIDIA ) =2 0
• Hard Drive ( 250 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 8M Cache
• 2nd Hard Drive HD 1.5T|WD 7K 64M WD1501FASS % - OEM
• CD/DVD Drive ( 20 [** Special !!! ***] 20X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive Green )

PC-Check - Results summary

                                1        2        3        4  
CACHE MEMORY
  Inversion Tree Test        PASSED   PASSED
  Stride Isolation Test      PASSED   PASSED
  Chaotic Addressing Test    PASSED   PASSED
  Block Rotation Test        PASSED   PASSED
  Microtopology Test         PASSED   PASSED

VIDEO MEMORY
  Inversion Tree Test        PASSED
  Stride Isolation Test      PASSED
  Chaotic Addressing Test    PASSED
  Block Rotation Test        PASSED
  Microtopology Test         PASSED

MOTHERBOARD
  DMA Controller Tests       PASSED
  System Timer Tests         PASSED
  Interrupt Test             PASSED
  Keyboard Controller Tests  PASSED
  PCI Bus Tests              PASSED
  CMOS RAM/Clock Tests       PASSED

HARD DISK 
  Read Test                  PASSED   PASSED
  Read Verify Test           PASSED   PASSED
  Mechanics Stress Test      PASSED   PASSED
  Internal Cache Test        PASSED   PASSED
  SMART Immediate Test       PASSED   PASSED
  SMART Short Self-Test      PASSED   PASSED

STRESS
  System                     PASSED   PASSED
  - CPU                      PASSED   PASSED   PASSED   PASSED
  - Hard Disk                PASSED   PASSED
  - CD/DVD                   PASSED
  - Memory                   PASSED
  - Video                    PASSED

PROCESSOR              
  Core Processor Tests       PASSED   PASSED   PASSED   PASSED
  AMD64/Intel64 Core Tests   PASSED   PASSED   PASSED   PASSED
  Maths Co-Processor Tests   PASSED   PASSED   PASSED   PASSED
  - Pentium Clas FDIV        PASSED   PASSED   PASSED   PASSED
  - Pentium Class FIST       PASSED   PASSED   PASSED   PASSED
  MMX Operation              PASSED   PASSED   PASSED   PASSED
  SSE Instruction Set        PASSED   PASSED   PASSED   PASSED
  SSE2 Instruction Set       PASSED   PASSED   PASSED   PASSED
  MP Symmetry                N/A      PASSED   PASSED   PASSED


MEMORY    
  Module Seating Test        PASSED   PASSED
  Inversion Tree Test        PASSED   PASSED
  Stride Isolation Test      PASSED   PASSED
  Chaotic Addressing Test    PASSED   PASSED
  Block Rotation Test        PASSED   PASSED
  Microtopology Test         PASSED   PASSED

CACHE MEMORY    
  Inversion Tree Test        PASSED   PASSED

Answer 1

What should i do?!

1. Updated Software, Check Config

Make sure all your software is up to date. Operating System, Drivers (especially video) and your games themselves. Then I'd try running your games, but change which monitor is set to Primary. When there are failures, check Event Viewer and game log files for any hints.

You may as well also check if there are any recent BIOS updates for that board that affect video performance. This is kind of a long shot, but it's easy to check.

2. Further Testing

Launch 'dxdiag' (Start > Run > dxdiag) and perform video tests. From your screenshots, it's clear you've already done some hardware tests, so that's helpful.

3. Isolate & Test

From your screenshots, my instinct is that some piece of hardware in your video gear has failed. It could be anything from a poorly seated video card to a failing circuit element (like a capacitor - you may as well inspect your capacitors).

Make sure all your connections are good, the hardware looks healthy and try to isolate and test everything. This isolate-and-test approach will almost certainly expose your problem, provided you can isolate and test to a sufficient degree.

Reduce your setup down to a single video card. Verify everything works on each video card individually, one at a time (remove the others from the machine). Then try your games again, but with two video cards. Then try them by enabling SLI. Work your way gradually back towards your desired configuration.