Video hardware error help needed

So, over the last couple of weeks, this weird thing has happened to me about three or four times now. Right in the middle of a session, my screen just freezes up, the game collapses back to the desktop, and then after maybe ten seconds or so, I can jump right back into the game and everything seems totally fine.

Here are some screenshots showing exactly what’s going on.

View on imgur

The way I see it, it looks like my graphics driver is crashing and then successfully recovering itself, and that's basically it. So, what could be causing this?

Look, it could be anything from a glitchy GPU to messed up drivers or even a failing power supply.
Have you tried overclocking anything? What kind of temps are we looking at for your components?

If you haven't touched the overclock settings and your temperatures aren't hitting the red zone, try this: wipe those GPU drivers completely using DDU, install a fresh set, and then give the game another shot.
If it keeps crashing after that... well, you might have to borrow a different graphics card from a buddy just to see if the issue follows the hardware.
And if it still goes down? Honestly, if I were in your shoes, I'd just go ahead and buy a new power supply.

Haha, I’m not even overclocking here. My temps are looking great, and I’m running the latest drivers for my GPU—plus, I had this exact same issue happen a few times on the previous driver version too. Honestly, I don't have a spare graphics card lying around to swap in just to test a game, only to sit there for a week waiting to see if the game crashes ten seconds after launch. The GPU itself is fine; I don't see how the power supply could possibly be related to this.

Here are my specs and components:

CPU - Intel Core i5-4590 @ 3.70GHz
GPU - ASUS GeForce GTX 970 Strix
MEMORY - Kingston HyperX Fury Black DDR3 1866MHz, kit 2x4GB
MOTHERBOARD - ASROCK Z97 Pro4
COOLER - SCYTHE Katana 3 SCKTN-3000I
POWER SUPPLY - Antec VPF550 550W '80 Plus Bronze'
SOUND CARD - Asus Xonar DS 7.1 PCI gaming sound card hard DISC 1
HARD DISC 1 - Seagate ST1000DM003 1000.0 GB
HARD DISC 2 - WDC WD1003FZEX 1000.0 GB
SSD 1 - KINGSTON HyperX Fury 120.0 GB
SSD 2 - Samsung 860 EVO 250.0 GB
CASE - CHIEFTEC Dragon II DX-02B-OP

Then you just pray to God that you actually get your computer back from the repair shop in one piece...

Zachary Lopez3 said:The GPU seems fine

How'd you land on that conclusion? Any solid facts you can throw my way to back it up?

John Palmer4 said:How did you arrive at that conclusion, and can you back it up with some solid facts?

Man, come on, lol. This is actually the third PC I've owned in my life, and honestly, with both of my previous builds, I dealt with the exact same thing where the GPU just gave up on me, so I know what a total failure looks like. Right now, I'm running an ASUS GeForce GTX 970 Strix, which is a top-tier card. Because of its cooling design, the fans kick in once the card hits 67 degrees and it refuses to let the temp climb past 67 or 68, even if I'm grinding Battlefield 5 for 24 hours straight. I really don't see why the card would be dying; if it were, the symptoms would be way different than what I'm seeing. What's happening is that CS:GO will just freeze for about 10 seconds, kick me straight to the desktop, and then after 10 seconds, I can jump right back into the game. When I check the problem history in the Control Panel, it explicitly lists a "video hardware error." The most recent one was November 16th, before that it was November 13th, and before that, it happened twice on September 28th. So, it's only occurred four times total. I even installed fresh drivers for the card, but the issue happened again on the same day I made this post. I honestly have no idea what the deal is—it’s bizarre. It seems like the driver just crashes and resets itself automatically. I'm stumped on what else it could be, because if the card were actually fried, there's no way I'd be able to pull 14-hour gaming sessions like I am now without any other issues...

Your PC keeps throwing "video hardware error," your 3D apps are crashing left and right, and you’re still insisting it can't be the GPU.
😵

Just because it doesn't show up in the logs every single time doesn't mean the cause isn't the same, or that Windows didn't just log it differently.

The fact that it crashes for 10 seconds and then recovers is basically the same crap I dealt with when I was messing with my GPU's BIOS and overclocking the VRAM—which is, by definition, a hardware issue. The very fact that your whole system isn't hitting a BSOD, but just the image itself is failing, points directly at a graphics problem.

If you want to rule out other variables, do a clean install of Windows and try a different power supply.

A graphics card doesn't have to be completely dead to be broken; we're talking about instabilities that lead to crashes.

There's no such thing as a "super high-quality" card. There are just models that are total garbage and then everything else that might develop a flaw after years of use.
A GPU has the chip itself, a dozen voltage regulators, and memory components that can all fail.

Same goes for your power supply; obviously, it could be related.
What you're asking is like asking if the quality of your gas could be why your car is misfiring.

Unstable voltage can cause these kinds of crashes. It's less likely to be the motherboard itself, but maybe the power delivery through the PCIe slot.

Man, seriously? LOL. I mean, don't get me wrong, a clean install of Windows isn't exactly a death sentence, but it would be devastating considering everything I have stored on this machine. And that other suggestion? That’s anything but simple, haha. How am I even supposed to test a different power supply? I’d have to go out, buy a whole new PSU, then deal with the nightmare of unplugging all 950 wires and tearing the entire PC apart just to try it. Like, how is that even feasible? xDDD Plus, that’s going to run me at least $500-$200, right? So it’s definitely not $6.75. It's not like I can just buy parts and hope for nothing. Even if I actually went through the trouble of reinstalling Windows AND swapping the power supply like you suggested, what then? Am I supposed to just sit there and wait a month or so to see if the game freezes for 10 seconds again? Because that's how much time passes between these glitches. The first time was September 28th, then November 13th, and the most recent one was November 16th. It’s not like this happens every single day... it's only happened three times in two months.