Monitor freezing

Hi All,
The past few weeks i have had random times maybe once a day or once every couple days where my monitor would just freeze although the computer would seem to be running fine. No keys on the keyboard will respond and mouse pointer is froze on screen. I have the latest nvidia drivers and MS updates.
Below is my setup;
Asus rog strix Z590-a gaming 1200
Asus tuf gaming VG34V0L1B monitor running at 3440x1440 resolution
Gigabyte GTX 1060 6gb video card ---> I know this is a older video card but it's all I have right now. Games run smooth with it at 3440x1440
Samsung SSD 980 Pro 1TB OS
I am wondering if the AROUS Engine software should be removed and just just leave the Geforce experience software installed or if I should uninstall the video drivers and install older ones from a month ago. Maybe there is something in the updated drivers I have installed over the past several weeks or so. I also took the card out and back in to be sure it was connecting properly. But 2 days later this morning the screen just froze again.
I would greatly appreciate any suggestions on this issue.

cheers

Definitely try installing anything pre 531.18, as that one has had numerous issues all around, and the hotfix 531.26 doesn't seem to fix all issues.

As for the AORUS software - I don't even use GeForce Experience, so if it were me, unless I had a need for that AORUS software I'd remove it. But that is me, I like things to be simple. An actual user of your card / hardware might have a better idea as to its necessity on your system.

thanks for the reply johnlgalt.
I will remove the drivers and software and watch it for a couple days and then post here.

Yes, proprietary software like AROUS - is rarely useful (maybe for RBG light - but even then should be disabled from auto-start). Just a bloatware app for most part - so unless you have a specific use for it (something you can't do without) - it's for the best to remove it.

Use DDU to clean the driver from Safe Mode (Win + R type msconfig - click on Bot - select safe boot and restart). Before starting DDU - set bot back to normal by running msconfig again - but this time select to not restart right away. Run DDU - select nVidia -> Clean and restart.

You could also use NVCleanstall for installing the driver. Personally, just to be sure - i prefer to download it manually. And since you're having stability issue - you could go for "Studio Drivers (this set of drivers are usually tested longer for stability - rather than focusing on launching it asap - to support the latest game releases like Game Ready drivers / you do have an older card anyway - while the benefits are more noticeable on latest hardware 3xxx & 4xxx series)" - instead of Game Ready. This one for example - which is not even the latest:


The thing is - this days even the nVidia "package" is filled quite heavily with bloatware. Which you can chose not to install with NCLeanstall. Well, you get all the options there (in case you want some feature) - tho a minimal install where you select only the drivers (nVidia control panel is also automatically included with the Driver - so you're not missing out on any core feature) - is obviously the cleanest choice. You can even download older drivers with the app itself - but as mentioned above - i prefer to do that manually and select it from the drive. Here's a simple guide covering the install steps:

Agreed on NVCleanstall - I use it religiously, but I didn't want to introduce any extra parameters yet, as a rollback to an earlier driver may be a fix, and you really need to do a lot of reading on the different options if you really want to slim it down like I do lol.

thanks for the replies. I shall check out NVCleansall also. I booted into safe mode and removed all nvidia drivers. I installed the version from Dec2022 to start with for a few days to see if that helps. I will post back.

And ... new driver released today.


Of particular note:

Stability issues may be observed on certain laptops with GeForce GTX 10/MX250/350
series GPUs [4008527]

Click to expand...

Although they list laptops with 10-series cards, I've seen many a time where they list laptop / desktop but very similar issues happen on both types of devices.

If the old driver works, consider sticking to it, but if it doesn't, then maybe give the new one a shot.

Thanks for the reply. So far no freeze up. So going to stick to the driver from Dec2022 for now But will download that one and hold to test later. Thanks

Just an update.
So far I have not had one freeze up since I installed the Dec2022 drivers. Now I am afraid to install any new ones later
cheers

Keep a copy of the old working drivers. Install the new drivers, if anything goes wrong you can install the old drivers again. If they are not installed automatically because they are older, go to Device Manager, right-click on the device and select Update drivers. Go for the second option (manual) and then the second again (select drivers). Click "I have disk" and browse to the folder where you have extracted the old working drivers. If it is an executable file, you can try extracting its contents if you open it with WinRAR or similar utility.

Thanks spapakons I may try that today considering it's been a while since i had a freeze up.
cheers