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GTX260 questions/issues?

Etherton

Etherton

Will Bang for Poof
Joined
Aug 7, 2006
Messages
6,996
I am upgrading my nephews computer with a EVGA GTX260 Superclocked GPU. It is a HP with a AMD 2.2ghz, 4GB RAM and 500GB HDD. I'm not sure on the Mobo but it does have a PCI-e 16x and a 4x (I believe) as well as a PCI slot. I have already upgraded the massive 185W PSU to a modular Enermax 650W PSU. The card will boot and get to the desktop with generic VGA drivers but when I install the NVidia drivers it locks up/blue screens. It will attempt to startup but after entering the PCs password it locks up and has pixelation across the entire screen. It will sit there for a few mins and then it BSOD. I installed my XFX 5770 out of my HTPC and loaded up the drivers just fine. Any ideas? Thanks everyone!
 
Does sound like your gtx 260 bit the dust. If there is no warranty available try baking it.
 
What videocard did you have in that system before? Did you remove all drivers? Have you checked all the bios settings to make sure everything is set as it should be, e.g.

Primary video pcie etc..
Shared memory 0 or the lowest value
 
I'de download driver sweeper. Uninstall all drivers, boot in safe mode and run driver sweeper, then start normally and install new drivers. Hope this helps
 
If it is a superclocked model, you might want to tone down the OC a bit on it.

I've seen a lot of GTX260's with OCs start to flake out and BSOD with too heavy of an OC on air cooling.

I have the same issue on my GTX260 if I clock it too high, works for a bit then locks up.

Definitely downclock it and see if that helps your situation.
 
Will try out the suggestions. Downclocking has to be done on the EVGA/Nvidia desktop right? I'm not going to turn in my [H] badge for admitting this but I have never overclocked a GPU.
 
One thing I'm wondering is if your two pci-e 6 pin power connectors going to the card are from different rails? At least some of the Enermax PSUs have multiple 12V rails and each one is capped for how many amps it can put out. If you've used a splitter on the same wiring harness set or something like that, it may be that the card is getting starved for amps and crashing. I'd be sure and try to make sure each pci-e 6-pin connector is getting its juice from a totally different wire coming out of the PSU.

Just troubleshooting. You may have already done that. ;)
 
I don't think it's your PSU as I am running my GTX260 off of a 500watt PSU with two 12v rails, and it is almost constantly under load (folding@home) and the PSU barely gets warm and hasn't had a problem yet.

I really think you need to underclock that model as aged GTX260's can have problems, even with light OCs. Yes, you can do that with NVIDIA and Windows desktop.
 
I'm not saying it's his PSU really. A 650W PSU is plenty for that card, but there can still be some snafus depending on how it's hooked up. What I'm saying is, if both of his PCI-e 6-pin cables going to the graphics card are from the same rail, he may experience crash issues.

From looking up GTX 260 info online, they require ~22 amps to operate. Lots of multi-rail PSUs limit each rail to a max of 18 or 20 amps. So... if the video card is being fed all of its juice from the same rail (which would be the case if a splitter is being used on the same cable) then the card isn't going to get all of the amps it wants when under load. If a person has the video card plugged into 2 different rails, the problem is eliminated. Considering that the issues are happening right around the time the Nvidia drivers are kicking in, it may be that the card briefly ramps up to a higher energy state (kind of a diagnostic test thing) before settling down again. If it's starved for amps at that time, problems happen.

If the OP has the card plugged into 2 different rails already, then we can eliminate it as a potential issue.
 
Yup. The card is plugged into 2 separate rails/cables. I can not get to the desktop (unless I remove the Nvidia drivers) to underclock the thing. It always locks up right after I enter their password. If it can be done from the BIOS I might be able to get it done.
 
Just because there are two cables does not mean it is on two rails. Unless the PSU specs actually say this, it's probably on a single rail, just fyi.

I still don't think that's the problem. If the PSU gets overloaded, the system won't BSOD, it will just shutdown or lockup.

DesertCat, where does it say the GTX260 requires, 22amps? Just 12v rail amps? That's 264 watts of power. I'm sorry, but I doubt a single GTX260 eats 264 watts by itself.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-260-review/4
This site shows that under full 3D load, it eats 180 watts which sounds more realistic, and only takes 25 watts at idle.

The PSU is not the issue, it really sounds like the capacitors or VRMs are going bad on the card, hence the need for the underclock.
 
So it gets to the windows sign in screen then it locks when it tries to enter windows? Can you boot into safe mode with it? Maybe its a problem with aero. If you can boot into safe mode, right click on the desktop and personalize (if this is win 7). Change your theme to windows basic then restart your computer and log in regularly. See if that lets you use your video card at all and go from there.
 
I think it's time for a new graphics card if your current one is causing that many problems.
 
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