Interesting video card problem

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LstBrunnenG

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So when I first got my GTX 280, I had one of the ones that would shoot up to over 100 C in FurMark instantly. The card would die in games, leaving a colored pattern on my screen, until eventually it refused to display video at all. The card was RMAed, and I got a new one that has been working for me well ever since.

At leat until about a month ago. It was doing the same colored pattern thing, sometimes just in Windows. It would die as soon as you logged in and Aero came on. I briefly considered temperature, but it would die after a cold boot, after simply logging into Windows. So I called BFG, got the RMA set up, but, just for the heck of it, I decided to move it to the top slot, see if the extra air would help. From then on it worked flawlessly.

Until around last week. The colored pattern crash came back, first intermittently in games, then just trying to log into Windows, just like before.

I knew it couldn't be temperature because it would do it from a cold boot. What else would switching the slots have done? All I did was disconnect the card, move it-

Then it hit me. I reached down, flipped the switch on my PSU. Waited five seconds, flipped it back on. The card has been working flawlessly since.

Essentially, I have a card that will work well for about a month, then start crashing, then work flawlessly again if you disconnect it from power. What would cause that? I know I could just RMA it, but that won't solve the mystery.
 
That's a weird one. Does your PSU have enough cables to try using another 8 and 6 pin?
 
Yes. However, it would probably be a month before it started showing symptoms, if you were wrong. Not to mention disconnecting the cables may reset the time as well.

If it happens again in a few weeks, I may try that. Would your recommend switching to another cable entirely, or using one cable's 8-pin connector, and another cable's 6-pin connector?
 
I would suggest another cable entirely. I'm guessing a possible intermittent short or open wire.
 
Makes sense. If it happens again, I'll try that!

Except, how would flipping the switch on the PSU clear this up?
 
I'm only guessing the connection for the other cable is using circuitry not effected by the problem.
It might be a combo of PSU components that are causing a drop in voltage just enough for the card to act as it does.

Or it could also be a drop in your supplied home voltage and not be the PSU at all. Resetting the PSU switch then would have you rebooting at normal voltage.
Sorry I didn't think of that possibility sooner. :eek:
A P3 Kill A Watt Electricity Load Meter and Monitor would show if the circuit your system is using fluctuates enough to be causing this.

A program that monitors supplied voltage while under load, could show if the PSU is outputting within tolerances.
 
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