What the heck is causing all of this?

For a couple of weeks now, I've had nothing but random restarts, artifacts, the screen going completely blank on me out of the blue as if it's shut off, lock-ups, cursor freezes (to where I had to use Alt+tab to get around, the keyboard worked), the computer loading Windows and once it's finished, automatically reboot itself and many other problems. This has been driving me INSANE .

I first thought this was a driver issue, so I used Driver Cleaner to clean up all drivers, didn't fix it, then I reformatted and installed a fresh copy of the latest Omega drivers, didn't fix it. I used Driver Cleaner once more and switched to the ATI Catalyst drivers, didn't fix it. When I've been crashing, Windows has been giving me the "Windows recovered from a serious error" saying it's a driver issue, but I somehow doubt that now. I'm assuming one of my parts is going bad on me now. Perhaps the videocard?

I read somewhere that people were having sort of the same issue as me (blank screens, mouse freezing, etc.) and what they did to fix it was put in a new CMOS battery because it was dying. Could this cause all of this? I somehow doubt the CMOS battery would affect this, though.

Here is an example of some of the artifacts I've seen.

do you have vpu recover on? i had a similar problem with my 9800pro but with vpu recover on the screen would flash like it was trying to reset then the computer would restart. i ended up buying a 7800gt and that solved the problem. but i think it was the videocards it self

95% of the time it's the video card that causes artifacts, either from overheating or being about to die, so I'd say it's most likely the video card. Try reseating the heatsink and reapplying TIM, and try lowering your overclock to stock speeds.

I already have them lowered to stock speeds. I've had them lowered to stock speeds ever since this started. The temps didn't seem that bad, not bad at all. The highest I ever saw from this card was 68c. Normally under load it never went over 52c in games.

The clocks used to be 520/560.

Its very possible that the video card is crapping out on you. If thats the case lowering back to stock is too little, too late. Do you have a spare card around to check with?

ouch. looks like you might have gotten a bad card. ive been doing all sorts of things to my 9800pro and it still runs relatively well. i guess the old ati cards are built like tanks

I vote for the video card. If you can borrow one, try it. If not, you can buy a cheapie to try and then sell it on Ebay.

maybe the video card is just experimenting? its a natural part of a vidoe cards life, just allow it to experiment but make sure that it doesnt go overboard and get in trouble