Graphical freezing issue / driver failure

[Nightblade]

Specs :
Intel Centrino2 (dual core)
GeForce 9800GTS
Windows 7


I'm currently experiencing a frequent slowing of frame rate, command/action lag, and a serious loop of driver failures.

Steps I've taken to correct the issue :
I've tried limiting in-game FPS in a range of everywhere from 30-60, already slaved my dual core to work off of a single processor, updated drivers, installed WinEQ2 and EQPlaynice (built in) to limit graphical issues from outside of the box, but it still happens. I've tried completely killing all graphics, spell effects, clip plane, shadows, and actor-fed clip-planes to a minimum, but it hasn't had any sort of effect on my issue.

Right now, it's....bearable, but I wouldn't want it to happen at a critical time that causes the death of my character or that of my wife's, which has almost occurred a few times. The game will freeze, the screen will go black until the driver autocorrects itself and restarts, resulting in anywhere between 5-30 seconds of me either running off a cliff, into a tree, or into mobs_that_want_to_rape_me04.

I'm failure computer literate, but all the normal fixes that I've had the time to do or research have turned up dry.

Thoughts, advice, questions?