Crashing for months - EVGA GTX 280 to blame?

R

Raxxath

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 29, 2007
Messages
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I made a thread about this months back here, but the problem is a bit different now.

Basically, my screen goes black and the video card turns off (the normally green light on the card turns red), while the rest of the computer seems to stay on. Fans keep running, lights stay on, etc, but there's no sound anymore so it's not just a display issue.

What actually triggers this crash is very strange. Over the past few months, I've gone weeks without any crashes while doing light gaming, while other times it will crash every time I start up WoW. I find that I can usually make it crash by playing Crysis 2 or running Furmark for a couple minutes, exiting the program, and then just waiting 10-20 seconds on the desktop.

The first thing I did was RMA the original GTX 280 and get my current one in return. I have tried two different Corsair HX620 PSUs and a PCP&C Silencer 750. I ran memtest for a few hours a while back with no errors. Nothing is overclocked in my system.

Even though I already replaced the video card, evidence seems to point in its direction since it's the only thing I see acting abnormally. Anyone have any other ideas? I've been dealing with this for months, and a solution would be really, really nice.
 
do you have another video card or onboard video you can test the system with to make sure that there isnt anything else in the system making it unstable?

from the sounds of it either your power supply isnt giving enough power (but you tested that, so probably not) or your video card is having issues.

your video card could be getting too hot or may just be faulty.

I would try getting the card cooler and installing newest drivers.
 
It's definitely not a heat issue. The card runs plenty cool enough, just like the last one.

I kind of have another video card to try, but it's going to be a pain in the ass.

I was kinda hoping someone might have had a similar experience and would know exactly what the issue is.
 
Maybe some combination of memory addresses gets accessed that the 280 doesn't like?
 
Try updating your motherboard BIOS to see if it makes a difference.

If that does not solve the issue, then I'm inclined to believe that the video card is definitely to blame. Unfortunately, it's not unheard of where a replacement card performs the same or worse than the card it replaced. :(
 
covertash said:
Try updating your motherboard BIOS to see if it makes a difference.

If that does not solve the issue, then I'm inclined to believe that the video card is definitely to blame. Unfortunately, it's not unheard of where a replacement card performs the same or worse than the card it replaced. :(
Click to expand...

not unheard of but if the third one acts the same it shall be a fault on your end for the lord of hardware demands it!
 
Could be any number of things, bad card port, another bad card that is fine when just sitting in windows that rears it's head when true 3D is required such as sound card, nic, could be bad vid card, iffy PSU. What troubleshooting steps have you done ?
 
I've discovered something really strange, and it's going to be a little hard to explain.

The Corsair HX620 normally comes with two PCIe cables, one being a 6 pin and the other a 6+2 pin. In order to reduce cable clutter, I got the extra Y-cables that have both the 6 and 6+2 on one cable.

I'm finding that if I use the original two PCIe cables, I can't make it crash. If I use one of the PCIe Y-cables, I can't make it crash. If I use the other PCIe Y-cable, I can make it crash every time. Also, when using the Silencer 750 PSU, it crashes every time. I should note that to get the 6 pin and 8 pin PCIe connectors required for the GTX 280 from the Silencer, I have to use the adapters that come with the video card for some ghetto wiring.

Even stranger, I'm pretty sure that I had been switching between the two Y-cables in the previous months and it was crashing on both. But I keep trying and I can't get it to crash now on one them. This shit just makes no sense. WHY DO THESE THINGS HAPPEN TO ME.
 
I bet it probably is a power issue. I have a VERY similar issue that seems to happen randomly but (thankfully) rarely.

As you can see from my sig, I'm powering a GTX280 too and an OCed C2D on a 550W Antec which I understand is dangerously near the minimum requirements.

When your screen goes black, does it come back on after several seconds or does it stay off? Mine does the former.
 
It stays off. Prior to these past few months, I had been running the GTX 280 + HX620 just fine for over a year.
 
Just crashed playing Crysis 2 using the cable that wasn't crashing before, so that's not it. Still don't know what the fuck is going on here.
 
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