The VideoLAN Forums

This post is placed on the following support sites for troubleshooting in order to find the root cause:
http://forums.geforce.com (NVidia GeForce support forum for NVidia GPUs)
http://support.mozilla.org (Mozilla FireFox support forum)
http://forum.videolan.org (VideoLan support forum for VLC)
If an issue doesn't apply on your support site, please skip over that letter. Thanks
Screenshots are not included, but can be supplied by external camera upon request.

1. Issues tested with the following two cards
Graphics Card (Primary) - PNY GeForce GT610 (2GB)
Graphics Card (Test Card) - Galaxy GeForce GT610 (1GB)
2. NVidia Driver regression? - No. This happens with all drivers for this card that are available for windows 8
3. Operating System - Windows 8.1 (64-bits)
4. Graphics overclocked? No

5.
A. The windows store app "My Country"
B. Desktop app "Virtual City"
C. Desktop use in general.
D. Desktop app Firefox 36.0.
E. Desktop app VLC Player 2.2.0 (64-bits)

6. NOTE: A, B, and C happen ONLY when desktop is duplicated on both screens, after resizing monitor 2. D, and E happen in all scenarios (single display, mirrored, or extended).
A. Screen corruption on second monitor, when it is mirrored, similar to screen tearing.
B. Same symptoms as A.
C. Occasional display corruption on second monitor when using normal apps on the desktop (not full screen or gaming). The corruption is only a momentary flicker when it happens.
D. Hardware acceleration feature causing some images to display as black, or corrupted in Firefox 36.0. This happens with, or without mirroring, no matter which display is used.
E. Entire system locks up at a random point during the video. Sound stutters, then video freezes. It's random whether the screen goes black after, or not. Only way out is pull the plug. This does not produce an error of any kind, nor does it force any kind of reboot.

Steps to reproduce:

For A, B, and C. In order for the second monitor to display correctly, I had to extend the desktop, enable resizing, resize monitor two, then duplicate it again. It doesn't happen, if I don't resize first.
A. Load the game (must not be snapped) then go into any screen that causes part of the game to dim.
B. Load game, and play as normal. Corruption happens randomly, but frequently.
C. Use desktop apps normally. Corruption happens randomly, but fairly rarely.
D. Load Firefox 36.0 with hardware acceleration turned on, and use normally. Symptoms should appear within 1-60 minutes.
E. Open VLC player 64-bits. Click on Tools -> Preferences. Set prefs to advanced, and under video-> Output module select Direct3D, or automatic. Save, close VLC then play a video with it.

7. System specs are in my signature. Here is what's not listed there...

Monitor 1 - Samsung model code: UN32EH4003 (HDMI)
Monitor 2 - Polaroid model TDAC-02212 (DVI using DVI-to-HDMI adapter) Sound driver shows this as DTV-C7V-4

For A, B, and C, the issue resembles screen tearing. All windows 8 drivers for this card show the above symptoms. Normal 3D full screen games (such as World of Warcraft) do not seem to have any issues.

Look at the memory usage. If a process fills the whole system, then that might explain the crash. Otherwise, a full lock-up can pretty much only be caused by a problem with the hardware, the OS or OS drivers- not VLC.

Thanks for the quick reply. Your info eliminates VLC player as being the cause.