Odd GTX 460 Issue

[Cella]

I had changed out my vid card last weekend to an EVGA GTX 460 FTW while my main card is out for RMA. For a week, all was good with no issues. Yesterday, I sit down at the computer and it is frozen with the “display driver stopped working and recovered” error box still on the screen. I reboot, and all is not well….driver crashes on boot, whenever I try to do [i]anything[/] pretty much, artifacts all over, Windows Aero a total mess…..

To answer the questions….no driver changes or installs during the course of the week excepting a couple of Win update, but that was five days (and a lot of usage) prior.

I fire up Precision X and go through the process of getting it clocked down to stock speeds. I say “process” because the driver crashes several times while doing it. Once I have it clocked down the artifacts disappear, and for the most part all seems normal. So, just use Precision X to set the speed at boot, right? Wrong….since invoking Precision X at boot crashes the driver, and when the driver crashes Precision X loses all control. Vicious circle there.

So, I flashed the BIOS editing only the clock and memory speeds to stock. Goes through startup fine, but when it gets to the log in screen, I just get a black screen. I go into safe mode, uninstall the drivers, run Driver Fusion (the new version of Driver Sweeper), etc, and boot into Windows just fine with no nVidia drivers, just at low resolution. I install the latest drivers and I am back to the black screen at log on.

Right now I am back to the stock BIOS and dealing with a 10 minute boot up process to get the driver to stop crashing. I tried another Windows install that was working perfectly a couple of months ago with this rig (has been in a box, no updates at all) and it was the same, so I know the issue is the card, not the OS or updates.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I would be fine with just getting it to boot with the BIOS modded to stock speeds, and for the life of me can't figure out why it won't.

[slugbug]

Not getting enough power through the 6 pin power connectors maybe. Is it possible one connector or cable is bad?

[Cella]

Not getting enough power through the 6 pin power connectors maybe. Is it possible one connector or cable is bad?

I checked it at the back of the cable and all was good, but it's possible that a connector isn't sitting right. Would be kind of odd, though, considering the case hadn't been opened and it just happened out of nowhere. Could well be a voltage regulator on the board, though.

[Cella]

And as quickly and mysteriously as the problem came.......

I checked the cable, and voltage was dead on. Plugged it back in and all is back to normal. Must have been a connector not making good contact.

BUT, I still want to know why the modded BIOS wouldn't work correctly. I clocked it totally stock, one would assume it would be fine.

[t.luk]

Maybe it's another "Fermi issue"? I had this with Geforce GTX 465...

[Cella]

Maybe it's another "Fermi issue"? I had this with Geforce GTX 465...

Which issue did you have? The artifacts or the modded BIOS issue? I am chalking the artifacting and driver crashes up to a a bad connector seating. Its really the fact that it would not work with thenVidia drivers when the BIOS was changed to stock speeds that has me curious.

[t.luk]

I got freezing issues and problems with drivers during standard using of computer...

[BackDraft]

I didn't think anyone had a 465. We reviewed one but after the initial testing it had to be RMAed for the same issues. Then they were gone.

As for the BIOS Flash I would have to say that it is possible the files cannot be overwritten to the stock settings since it is a factory overclocked card. Or it could be because you were having connection problems that while you were flashing the BIOS it crashed due to the lack of power to the card. Luckily you didn't brick it.

[Cella]

As for the BIOS Flash I would have to say that it is possible the files cannot be overwritten to the stock settings since it is a factory overclocked card. Or it could be because you were having connection problems that while you were flashing the BIOS it crashed due to the lack of power to the card. Luckily you didn't brick it.

The BIOS was overwritten without a problem, worked fine using Widows drivers, just couldn't get the resolution up. Just hung on boot when the nVidia drivers tried to load. The connection issue did not play a part, did the same thing after power was connected.

[BackDraft]

Why would you want to flash it to stock after you figured out the problem?