shutdown to login with error NVRM: Xid (0002:00): 6, PE0001
 

I have searched, installed, re-installed, checked and unchecked boxes, and read some more. In short, I've tried everything I can find and I still get the crash. Posting this is my last resort. If I run a 3-d application, be it a game like Planeshift, Boson, or TORCS, or just for fun, like Second Life, I will get the crash. Sometimes it takes several minutes, sometimes it is instant. It seems to have something to do with the mouse cursor. So I installed new cursors. If I have the program windowed and adjust the volume and the volume slider covers the 3-d window, it will crash. If I have Firefox running and scroll the page, it will crash. If I have the program running and I try to run glxgears, it will crash. The message is the same in dmesg: NVRM: Xid (0002:00): 6, PE0001. The screen will go black and my desktop will appear as if I clicked logout. I go to login window and start fresh. I am running the newest proprietary Nvidia driver and it crashes. I've tried the older ones, and the non proprietary drivers and they crash also. Compiz is turned off. I've ran metacity --replace. I've turned off the powermizer and thermal monitor. I've had them all on. It makes no difference. I think all of this next information and more will be in the logs, but for those not opening them, here's a brief synopsis:

Tyan Tiger MPX dual processor motherboard with newest bios
2x amd 2600+ MP processors
2gb ram
Nvidia Geforce 8400 GS PCI video card
Linux Mint 8 Helena
2.6.31-14-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 16 14:04:26 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

To anyone that has a new suggestion, I can try it. Thank you in advance for your time.