When a display adapter is having problems it can have all kinds of symptoms: crashes, hangs, freezes, graphics artifacts (display corruption), and more. If your video card is displaying some things incorrectly then you may be able to identify the problem by comparing your screen errors with examples screenshots. This page contains some screenshots of video cards which are showing different kinds of visual problems. But if your video card is crashing or hanging then it's often difficult to find the cause because so many different problems can result in the same symptoms. There's a standard set of fixes which you can try out to see if the problem goes away. If none of the standard fixes work then things get more complicated. If you're not sure what to do then you should just run through all of them. If none of them solve the problem or point out which hardware is malfunctioning then you can start making support calls or go out onto the Internet and ask for help in the support forums.

Before trying these fixes it's a good idea to create a system restore point as described here. A restore point allows you to undo software changes you make while trying to solve your video card problem.

Fix #1: install the latest motherboard chipset drivers

Your motherboard contains a CPU, some RAM, expansion slots, and various devices. But it also contains some chips which make all those parts work together. The most important of these chips are called the chipset. You need to install the chipset drivers to make sure that everything on your motherboard is working reliably and running at full speed. The chipset maker