I have had this problem since I bought a new notebook with vista business 32bit pre-installed, in August 2008. My video card is radeon 3470. Have read through this thread and tried a number of solutions, none so far worked, until I tried this:
1. install driver sweeper (by guru3d.com)
2. install radeon 8.12 stand alone driver, without ccc, do not reboot yet
3. disable anti-virus, user account control, internet access
4. go to device manager, expand display adapters, right click "ATI Radeon HD 3400 series", click uninstall, and windows should automatically use its own video driver
5. run driver sweeper, and clean up radeon driver
6. check again, 2 files are still there and not removed by the program
7. go to the directory containing the 2 files, and rename them to *.bak
8. go to device manager and install radeon driver (right click the device, install driver, browse my computer for driver software, let me pick...., have disk, browse, select c:\ati\support\8-12_vista32_dd_72275\packages\drivers\ display\LH_INF\CL_72275.inf, select 3400 series, done
(can't remember step 8 clearly.... the device initially is not listed in device manager, I think I had to select scan for hardware changes or something so that it appears again. Also that I had reboot the computer somewhere in between these 8 steps, not sure if that is significant. And that it may not be necessary to disable anti-virus or internet.....but I did so)
Someone has posted a similar solution before, though it didn't worked previously. Perhaps it's because I didn't notice that the driver removal tool didn't remove all the files. So I renamed the remaining files myself.
I uses Aero, and dual screen. Previously it happens anytime, even when I am not doing anything. So far it's more than 2 weeks, and there is no blue screen, no recovery message. I guess the problem is solved.
= I love my machine :love:
