Major compatibility issue with NVidia 400/500-series GPUs & mainboards?

Elledan

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - April 2010
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The thread in question at NVidia Forums: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=187401

A good friend and colleague of mine built a new system a few months ago, with an Asus mainboard and Zotac GTX580. Shortly after setting up Windows 7 he began to experience major graphical glitches with the GPU, then it started locking up the system until eventually the system wouldn't POST any more. He then got an Asus GTX580 replacement, which worked fine, until yesterday.

He now gets constant driver crashes (driver recovery kicks in), without any clear cause, as messing with drivers versions, system RAM timings and everything seems to have nearly random effects, with the system appearing stable until the driver starts crashing again without apparent cause.

The above thread is what he found while researching his issue. My question is whether anyone else is experiencing something like this, and whether anything more is known about solving it? The main question probably is whether it's a software, hardware or combined issue. If it's related to the power states of the GPUs (as apparently confirmed by Gigabyte), then it could be a messy thing to fix...
 
Yah I saw this thread yesterday. It really surprised me as I have not had any problems with my 2 460 cards. Of course most of them having problems was with Windows 7, but not all, then they were running motherboards like I7,s and such and I am running a 775 board, MIS P7n sli. So I am not sure what to think. Course if it is some sort of power state, my system runs folding and loads the GPU to 100% MOST of the time. So maybe those intermediate power states are what is causing it. Don't know from what I read.

However I am concerned as I just ordered another 460 card to fold in my new I7 machine, with an Asrock X58 Extreme board. Saw it listed as a problem board by one person. So I am a bit worried. But guess I will just have to wait till it gets here and see what happens.
 
wow this is some news....

Lets hope Nvidia fixes this issue for people, cause there evidence is pretty stacked that this isn't some easy fix.

Good luck to all 400/500 series owners.
 
Yah I saw this thread yesterday. It really surprised me as I have not had any problems with my 2 460 cards. Of course most of them having problems was with Windows 7, but not all, then they were running motherboards like I7,s and such and I am running a 775 board, MIS P7n sli. So I am not sure what to think. Course if it is some sort of power state, my system runs folding and loads the GPU to 100% MOST of the time. So maybe those intermediate power states are what is causing it. Don't know from what I read.

However I am concerned as I just ordered another 460 card to fold in my new I7 machine, with an Asrock X58 Extreme board. Saw it listed as a problem board by one person. So I am a bit worried. But guess I will just have to wait till it gets here and see what happens.
My friend gets the driver crashes when he is playing a game or otherwise loading the GPU, but not every time. He changed the system RAM speeds (1066 from 1600: stable, returned to 1600: still stable) with totally random results. Took a month to start doing this. He has an i7 980X system, BTW.

What seems most apparent about this issue is that it has various symptoms, suggesting that it's a pretty low-level (like power states) issue. I'd love to see it explored in-depth, though.

Where's Kyle and the crew when you need them? :)
 
Sure enough once I cleaned nvidia drivers out and re-installed without antivirus running fixxed problem. No more tearing. Had EVGA X58 4 way sli and evga gtx 580 OC in sli. Seems problems are fixxed but I was seating bullets thinking video card packed it in. I knew before nvidia driver change worked flawlessly. Now I will disable antivirus while installing the drivers. Good luck. Seems clean install doesn't always work.
 
I am currently trying to resolve a gtx 460 problem.. I hope the next RMA will do it.

I think it could be very possible there is just alot of cards coming defective right out of the factory. The testing they run on these cards could be below standards with today's economy.

The problem with this last card was like NINJA Assasin shit. Because i rarely ever restart my PC i didn't realize the card had a serious problem. It might of had something to do with the powerstate of the card when rebooting the system or coming out of hibernation. For some reason the card would work from a COLD boot... but any warm reboot would cause critical system failure. Since i run a SLI rig i was able to single out the card as just plain defective.

I can see how that would slip past the testers in the RMA department.. unless they do multiple boot tests, which i doubt.
 
I am currently having this exact issue with my Galaxy GTX460 (1G OC). Under Windows 7, the nvidia driver will crash, and reload. This happens in most games, turning the screen black for a moment while the driver is reloaded. Performance after this is choppy at best.
 
The current WHQL driver did this to my system. As soon as I installed it, I fired up BFBC2...crashed within the first couple minutes about 10 times in a row. So I'm like huh.....fired up Crysis, another game I could play for hours without issue before, and sure enough, crash crash crash.

Uninstalled and reinstalled 260.99 WHQL driver, everything went back to normal. That's all I did.....

I am on Win 7 x64

I don't think there are a bunch of defective 460's going out, I think their drivers are f-ed right now, I know it actually.
 
Uninstalled and reinstalled 260.99 WHQL driver, everything went back to normal. That's all I did.....

Sounds like you are a lucky one then. I tried the same thing (again) with no success. Loaded up TF2, and after joining a server, I got the same old video driver crash.

Update: Forced the PCIe slot into 8x mode, and it appears to be working!
 
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Had the same issue with a Gigabyte 790XTA-UD4 and EVGA GTX 470. Bios flashing somehow managed to resolve the issue until the one time it froze while in the middle of bios flashing. Now I have a dead 470, trying to see if EVGA will RMA it. There seemed to be nothing wrong hardware-wise, once I got it up and running, it would run perfectly, even with SMP and GPU folding for 10+ hours.

Edit: The weird thing is it worked perfectly fine with a GTX 460.
 
but i thought Nvidia drivers where so wonderful, less issues on AMD rigs it seems so my gtx 460 sli rig keeps on ticking with x6.
 
Had the same issue with a Gigabyte 790XTA-UD4 and EVGA GTX 470. Bios flashing somehow managed to resolve the issue until the one time it froze while in the middle of bios flashing. Now I have a dead 470, trying to see if EVGA will RMA it. There seemed to be nothing wrong hardware-wise, once I got it up and running, it would run perfectly, even with SMP and GPU folding for 10+ hours.

Edit: The weird thing is it worked perfectly fine with a GTX 460.

Tsumi i dont think your 470 issue has anything to do with the issues described here

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1581418

what you had was bizzare and a busted 470 before you even started
 
but i thought Nvidia drivers where so wonderful, less issues on AMD rigs it seems so my gtx 460 sli rig keeps on ticking with x6.

they typically are good, this is the first major driver issue ive had in a very long time

they recently changed the way their drivers are packaged and are going through some growing pains....
 
My friend hasn't had any issues after changing the RAM speed on his system. Apparently resetting the power states this way will stave off the issue for another month or so. A real fix would be nice, though...
 
ive have similar issues but figured it was do to my o/c . i have been having the driver crash alot. only happens when i game when my card is o/c a little i just assumed my 580gtx cant o/c. so i leave it at stock speeds now.

also have a 980x and 580gtx. i will need to read over this thread tomorrow.
 
Installed my Zotac GTX 580 today on my Asus commando mainboard. I didn´t reinstall the old drivers since they are the same. Hope that is the issue. However in Seven if I try to load it normally it just stays in the loading screen forever. If I instead go to safe mode I get bluescreen.

My XP installation let me initially anyway boot to windows. It didn´t detect my video card however. I have tried to download the xp drivers again but as soon as I get to the nVidia homepage I get a bluescreen. Despite being on the desktop for 5 minutes before. Hopefully I will manage to get there anyway. Trying to boot XP in safe mode same issue as 7 in normal mode. It hangs somewhere along the way sometimes followed by bluescreen.
 
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XP won´t boot everything bluescreens. Also the 7 and XP installation discs when loading the op system for the first time. I have never experienced such behaviour before to be honest.

Looks like if I am going to go the GTX 580 route I will have to get a new computer. Mine is three years old but I hadn´t plan to get rid of it just yet since it has been doing superbly until the 580 :(

IS there more with the Asus commando and GTX 580 that has had issues. Is there any where it just works perfectly?
 
I just stopped by [H] to ask if my GTX 460 was defective or not. Any game gives me this result before the driver crashes and then restarts:

http://img29.imageshack.us/i/glitchof.jpg

Could this be a symptom of an underpowered system or bad drivers?

Running a three year old Corsair VX550 with a +12V 42A. It should be plenty.
 
Try increasing the voltage to the PCIe bus, if your MB allows you to.
 
Try increasing the voltage to the PCIe bus, if your MB allows you to.
Unfortunately it's an older Abit IP35-E which only has options to change the PCI-E frequency. Given your suggestion, would a glitch such as the one above be caused by a flaky or old PSU?
 
XP won´t boot everything bluescreens. Also the 7 and XP installation discs when loading the op system for the first time. I have never experienced such behaviour before to be honest.

Looks like if I am going to go the GTX 580 route I will have to get a new computer. Mine is three years old but I hadn´t plan to get rid of it just yet since it has been doing superbly until the 580 :(

IS there more with the Asus commando and GTX 580 that has had issues. Is there any where it just works perfectly?

The NVidia forum topic linked in the first post has a list of working and non-working configurations. There's no guarantee, though.
 
Unfortunately it's an older Abit IP35-E which only has options to change the PCI-E frequency. Given your suggestion, would a glitch such as the one above be caused by a flaky or old PSU?

Well, I'd say it's entirely possible. If you have a 4-5 year old power supply that was near the edge of your power needs, then I'd say it would be a good thing to replace it. In your case, since you can't change the voltage in the BIOS, you may be a candidate for that EVGA power boost thing. Just throwing some ideas out here.
 
Thanks for the suggestions Ruoh :)

I'm going to move this 460 into a friend's rig with a larger power supply and see if it still glitches. If that rules out a defective card, then hopefully the power boost you mentioned or a whole new PSU might do the trick.
 
The NVidia forum topic linked in the first post has a list of working and non-working configurations. There's no guarantee, though.

Noticed that. All the setups including the GTX 580 being tested is extremely expensive though all above 200$???
 
Still going strong. Played Borderlands last night, with PhysX enabled, and ALL settings maxed out (1080p) ran the GPU @ ~85% load. Once you get it running, it's pretty damn nice!
 
I am having some success by only running one stick of RAM. Will add more later on see if I can get back to 3 gig at least. 4x1GB was hard even on the 8800 GTX.

Not an issue since then. Installed XP and 7. Tried the GTX 500 demos but they seem absolutely impossible to run at 1900x1200 with only 1 GB of RAM. Apart from RAM issue what system would run endless city smoothly at 1900x1200?

Also tried Far Cry 2 and I am able to max it out at 1900x1200x32 with acceptable performance. Physx is really pushing it but I suppose that is still more CPU then GPU limited? Hope to be able to get my overclock back even though I will probably have to go easy on the memory it appears.
 
I am currently having this exact issue with my Galaxy GTX460 (1G OC). Under Windows 7, the nvidia driver will crash, and reload. This happens in most games, turning the screen black for a moment while the driver is reloaded. Performance after this is choppy at best.

newest driver fixed this issue for me. I had the problem on dawn of war II
 
I'm having the issue with the GTX 570 I just bought. For reference, the XFX X58i is not compatible either.

I got this from the XFX tech support:
[ERIK_A 2/10/2011 2:59:37 AM] Hi Bill, The reason this is happening is because of the Nvidia HDMI audio device in the GTX570 cards, unfortunately we dont have any workarounds or fixes on the motherboards end for this. The only fix we have seen has been video card BIOS updates that disable the the HDMI audio chip, some of the EVGA 4 series cards had an alternate BIOS that did that, but havnt heard anything about the 5 series cards. - Erik

I'm contacting EVGA now to see if they have anything to fix it.
 
I've run into an issue similar to this when coming out of sleep, or standby. My GTX460 would artifact, lock up, and reboot my PC. I ran a few tests in furmark to see if my GPU was dying (I figured I would see heavy artifacting if it was) and all the tests passed with flying colors. I recently had updated to the newest Nvidia drivers and that seemed to have corrected the issue for me (crosses fingers).
 
there is no video signal coming from my new MSI GTX570 on my system in my sig. I've tested the same card on 2 different systems and it works fine. Also 8800GT PCI-E card from my HTPC works on my system as my previous GTX460 cards I was testing before buyign GTX570. There is some kind of compatibility issue between GTX5xx an my old 8200 based motherboard...

I have bad feeling even if Asus will RMA the card, the replacement won't work.....

My el cheapo mobo deosn't have any options like boost power on PCI-E or change multiplier on it.... I'm very upset...

So who's fault is it Nvidia's or mobo manifactures? All I know for the last week my new MSI GTX570 card has been collecting dust, and I've wasted hours of testing and trying to fix the problem..... #%&(#$&% *$%)#* !!!! :mad:

Asus is taking their sweet time to get back to me...:mad:

Should just go out and buy new mobo????
 
Try the replacement first just in case, but I don't expect much, as even if the second card works initially, it may stop working shortly after. Personally I'd either change motherboard or change graphics card.
 
Try the replacement first just in case, but I don't expect much, as even if the second card works initially, it may stop working shortly after. Personally I'd either change motherboard or change graphics card.

Like you said I would rather save $30 spend on RMAing to buy a new mobo... but what motherboard is guranteed to work 100% with GTX570? :confused:
 
There's no guarantees with any of them, nobody knows what the correlation is. Most work, but if you're in the unlucky case where they don't, sucks. Personally I'd ditch the board as it is pretty primitive anyway.
 
there is no video signal coming from my new MSI GTX570 on my system in my sig. I've tested the same card on 2 different systems and it works fine. Also 8800GT PCI-E card from my HTPC works on my system as my previous GTX460 cards I was testing before buyign GTX570. There is some kind of compatibility issue between GTX5xx an my old 8200 based motherboard...

I have bad feeling even if Asus will RMA the card, the replacement won't work.....

My el cheapo mobo deosn't have any options like boost power on PCI-E or change multiplier on it.... I'm very upset...

So who's fault is it Nvidia's or mobo manifactures? All I know for the last week my new MSI GTX570 card has been collecting dust, and I've wasted hours of testing and trying to fix the problem..... #%&(#$&% *$%)#* !!!! :mad:

Asus is taking their sweet time to get back to me...:mad:

Should just go out and buy new mobo????

I'm with you man...they make nice paperweights don't they?
 
a bit off topic but maybe now, ppl will stop complaining about drivers on both sides...

they both SUCK.
 
newest driver fixed this issue for me. I had the problem on dawn of war II

A friend of mine with a 450 had a sort of drop out issue (Screen would go black and other people in multiplayer would have to wait) in DOW2 until he updated the driver.
 
a bit off topic but maybe now, ppl will stop complaining about drivers on both sides...

they both SUCK.

Yep. So much for ''AMD drivers sucks you should switch to Nvidia''. :rolleyes:

I was hesitating between the upcoming AMD 6990 or Nvidia GTX 590, now I know I will stay with AMD. That's a really scary issue with Nvidia cards.
 
I just recently RMA'd my second eVGA g470. The first one worked fine for about a month and then all of sudden this showed up. Nothing overclocked, everything running at default, temps well below load.

evga_g470.jpg


After I got my second card, things worked fine for about a week, and then this starts happening in all my games.

evga_1.jpg

evga_2.jpg


I've done everything in terms of tweaks, upgrading to a better PSU, RAM adjustments, etc.. I'm starting to think that there's an issue between the Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 MB I'm using. It's the only part I haven't been able to replace.

Hat's off to eVGA customer support for helping me out, but this is very disappointing nevertheless. My previous HD4890 had no issues whatsoever with this MB.
 
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