Almost every time I play TASpring, after a while, screen fades to black for a while and this pops up: "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered". I cant continue the game after that.

This happens only when i play TASpring. No other games or benchmarks causes this problem (i tried to test about 10 games).

my config:
quad 6600
gf8800GT
Vista ultimate 64 + SP1 + all available updates

also i tried different graphic drivers and "play" with TASpring graphic settings, but it doesn't take effect.

This is the TDR timeout when the graphics drivers crash and Vista reloads them ( under XP you would get a BSOD )

You need to make sure youve got the latest and greatest nvidia drivers, and you also need to make sure youve not borked them by installing drivers and then goign back to older drivers.

I would reccomend cleaning out the drivers and then installing the latest. I would also turn down the graphics options in spring. More pretty graphics == greater chance of crash in driver.

And if you've overclocked, just don't, go back to factory speeds. Also make sure you've got the latest BIOS firmware.

Also do not rely on nvidia website for latest and greatest. The latest nvidia driver is usually one that arrived on guru3d.com months before.

http://downloads.guru3d.com/

Check the latest downloads regularly for beta drivers.

=\ yes. under XP i have BSOD

also i have latest (right from guru3d.com) drivers.
and i always clean \system32 (and Repository if in Vista) before installing new version of nvidia driver.

as i said before: setting graphics to lower doesn't help.

20 bucks says that the stock fan on that card blows chunks and it's overheating.

If you really think it's likely.

Forboding Angel
now give me my 20 bucks ))))
i use high-end liquid cooling system

it seems i have found in what was a problem. But it necessary more time to convince it.

But I do not understand why the system maintains hours in Prime97 or OCCT, but not TASpring. =\\\\

This si not a hardware issue ti is a software issue.

I know this ebcause I had these issues and they crippled spring udner Vista when I first had the 8800GTS and vista running. Every newer nvidia driver reduced the crashes and improved performance however, to the point that a few months ago it just never happened full stop.

Install the latest and greatest drivers and never downgrade and keep trying.

The idea of turning down graphics is that more graphics means more using the drivers, so less graphics uses the graphics card less so less chance of crashes. Dont turn down shadows, turn off shadows, etc. Try and use basic or lower detail water too, that in particular had a noticeable effect on my card in the early days.

It's just Spring, by the way. I know how amazingly helpful that is to your problem.

now im looking to change my 8800GT to HD4870.

by the way: in XP i can play much longer before driver crash, than in Vista

ATI doesn't work so well with OpenGL.

apart from no shadows, 4850 works fine. just remember about AtiHacks (in 0.77.)

i always disable shadows in RTS )). so this is not a problem