This has just started happening and I am looking for clues. I do not think it is a SolidWorks problem, but it happens while using it, so I hope it is alright to post about it here in the forum.

SW2009-64, sp4.1 on Vista business-64. nVidia xgl1700 with the latest approved drivers for SW ; 7.15.11.8246.

I have seen this twice now-once while editing a sketch and another time while editing a mate. In both cases, I was sneaking up on something and was editing incrementally until I got what I wanted. All of a sudden my screen(s) went black-then flickered back on. The first time (while editing a sketch) I got what appeared to be a Windows error message that said: video driver xxxxxx (I didn't recognize the name or write it down) had stopped functioning but has repaired itself. I went back to SW, but it had locked up. I had no mouse whatsoever and could not even get to the task manager to end the process. All I could do was turn off the power. (I hate doing that, but that was all I could figure out because my keyboard seemed to be dead as well.)

Second time was a couple days later while editing a mate. screens went black and when they came back on, the message said that the nVidia openGL driver had experienced an error and the application I had been using had been shut down. SW had not actually shut down but was not responding. This time I was able to get to the task manager and shut it down that way.

After re-starting SW, I checked my options and I had software open GL turned off as I had expected and did not change that. I have not done anything else and was able to work for another hour or so with no problems.

My first impulse is to merely re-install the driver. Do I need to uninstall anything first? How would I determine if there is any sort of problem with the card itself? This entire machine is still under warranty from xi, so I can always go back to them. I would appreciate any other advice. Thank you.