I recently built a new computer myself and everything was running smoothly until recently. I've been using a few Adobe programs recently, Photoshop CS4 and Premiere Pro CS4, and now when I open the programs the display will digitize, pixelate, and then my computer will crash. I've also had the same problem with a few video games, Bioshock and Mass Effect 2 to name a couple.

I have a NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT 2gb
my processor is an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83 GHz
and I'm running Windows Vista.

Any ideas, tips, trick, or suggestions would really be appreciated.

Make sure the card is not getting too hot. Is the cooling fan working on the card?

I actually have a fanless card, there is a MASSIVE heatsink on the bottom of the card which protrudes out of the back of the case, I also have a fan blowing onto the card from the side of the case, but it's not specifically for the video card.

I'll have to run the monitoring software while running the video games as the will crash after 5 min to 2 hours. The Adobe programs, however, will cause my computer to crash as soon as they are started.

Well I just finished playing Mass Effect 2 for about an hour or so and I never saw the CPU or the GPU temp climb above 60C even with the CPU close to max load. So I don't think over heating is the issue.

I did just clean a bunch of dust from the air intake fans (there is a bit of styrofoam in front of my 2 intake fans which act as filters for the incoming air, keeps a lot of the dust out). I noticed after I did that the idle temp (when running windows and no other programs) for my CPU and GPU dropped about 4-5C so I'm sure that helped a bit, but the temperatures never came close to the max temps as specified by the manufacturers (71C for the CPU and 105C for the GPU). The ambient temperature for the room is about 75-77F.

I haven't attempted to try any adobe programs yet, I'm currently playing with GPUTOOL.

Okay so I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling my video card driver which made no change, the specific problem I seem to be having is that the driver NVLDDMKM stops responding and is restarted. The same program has cause BSOD a few times, specifically while running Photoshop.

After you uninstall the drivers, boot into safe mode and run driver sweeper. Delete all files related to the graphics drivers and then reboot into safe mode again and repeat the removal of graphics drivers leftovers.
Keep rebooting to safe mode until no other graphics driver remnants show up.
Install the latest drivers for the card.

Wow, no I didn't delete them that hardcore, I'll try that as well.

I just uninstalled and ran driver sweeper, not in safe mode.

I also suspect that your motherboard may be incompatible with your video card. As far as I am concerned, you have done the right things to try and fix the problem but still you can't. I guess if its not the power supply, its gotta be a hardware conflict.

When I built the system I made sure all the hardware I purchased was compatible. I'm having trouble tracking down any information to back this up but I have an:
Asus ROG Rampage Formula Mobo
and
NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT 2gb

My main monitor is connected with an HDMI cable, could this be causing an issue somewhere?

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