NOTICE: Do not reply after reading only this post, see the replies below as a few things have changed since the original inquiry.
 
Before I begin let me make the following known, my thread keeps sinking as I forget about it for months and I want to solve this problem for good this time, no matter what it takes. The first half of this post will be more technical information, I will explain better a bit later. This may end up to be quite a TL;DR so thank you to anyone who actually takes the time to help me solve this.
 
Notes:
1. This computer was built by a company that no longer has a website, Realmcomputers.com if you've heard of them.
2. This PC has had issues since we first started it up... in fact we had to reset Cmos just to make it start up. They even screwed up a basic overclock of the i7 920. To this day, even a slight overclock will cause my system to auto-restart upon reaching the desktop.
3. I am an intermediate user at best, I know next to nothing about "memory timings", "voltage", or the intricate workings of BIOS.
4. I have followed driver uninstall and reinstall guides to the letter with next to no improvement at all, if any.
5. I finally broke down to the point of reformatting Windows to try and solve this problem and one now plaguing my Sound Card. This did not solve anything at all which leads me to suspect hardware issues now.
6. RMAing anything is out of the question. Like an idiot when I first went inside of the system to reset Cmos, I saw stickers on my Graphics cards and peeled them off. The company who made this system is not returning phone calls or emails so I have little to no luck in getting anything else checked, repaired, or replaced via RMA.
 
Problems:
1. Large amounts of clipping and micro-stuttering. Occasionally there are artifacts or bad textures.
2. At random intervals while playing games, the screen will either freeze or go black. The last sound made will either loop or sound will continue normally. (People continue conversing over voice chat or I can still hear dynamic fighting in battlefield.) Some games can go for hours or days with out it, Battlefield, etc. While some others such as Team Fortress 2 ALWAYS encounter this issue multiple times throughout the day.
 
Hardware Information:
Motherboard: Evga 3x Sli (X58)
Processor: Intel i7 920 (stock at 2.66ghz)
Memory: 12gb Corsair XMS3 DDR3
Soundcard: Creative Soundblaster X-fi Titanium professional
Graphics: Dual GTX 285 2GB in sli (Running 197.45 drivers)
Hard-drive: Dual 300gb Western Digital Velociraptor in Raid 0
PSU: Corsair 1000w
OS: Windows 7 64bit (It is the upgrade edition mailed to me for purchasing this system with Windows Vista 64bit after a certain date.)
 
Before I explain let me ask you a question if you will. Does anyone else upon uninstalling drivers have Microsoft suddenly install something like "Microsoft Driver WDDM 1.1?" Before you ask, yes I am unplugged from the internet and yes I turned off ALL auto-updates in the device manager and windows update. This happens every time I ever try messing with my graphics driver. On that note, 197.45 is suggested to be the best driver for the 200 series cards, should I be using those?
 
As mentioned these issues have been going on for the last 2-3 years or so and nothing I've tried has fixed them. I've tried Reformatting, updating, reinstalling all sorts of drivers, updates, and software. I've even reseated hardware which did more harm than good. For instance, the first time I was in BIOS (being walked through by a technician on the phone,) I noticed my RAID controller. Long story short, eventually I was told to reseat my RAM. I did so and went back into the BIOS, my Raid controller was gone for no reason, totally vanished.
 
On another occasion I tried reseating my sound card to clear up an issue I was getting before. Upon putting it back in and starting the computer back up again, it was no longer recognized. After uninstalling and reinstalling it the disk for it no longer works and some drivers fail to install for it. On occassion it's own software won't recognize it and when it does, and I can use my mic, the sound of my voice will play back to me (even with playback / feedback off) and loop until it becomes a high pitched squeeling / pinging noise.
 
I don't know what more I can say as I am rather scatterbrained at the moment concerning all this and I better explain things when answering direct questions. If you can think of anything else to shed light on all this it would be appreciated. For the time being I'll leave you with last minute information concerning the cards.
 
Graphics Card final notes:
Idle temps: 40-50c depending on room temperature and/or dust build up
Load temps: 50-77c depending on above as well as the game. Ex: Crysis at max can bring me into the 70s.
Fan speed: ALWAYS running at between 80-100% while gaming and between 60-80% when just idling.
 
OCCT testing software: Once came back with over 20,000 errors on my GPUs when testing in SLI, then again when testing one individually. More recently in the last few months there have been no errors either way.
 
One of my cards definitely has a hardware issue of some sort but I cannot remember which one. If it acts as my primary card (top slot) any game I enter will play, but will be artifacted and blue flickering all over the screen. Removing this card and using the other card that supposedly "works" has never solved or helped the issues at the very top of this post in any way.
 
Again, sorry for the TL;DR but thank you very much if you can help. Also, if you can think of any other information to add to this post or have any questions please ask. Hopefully I can determine what has been causing these problems and sort it out.
 
 

 hello, i would first check the configuration of your sli . i noticed you have a 3 way sli mobo and are only running 2 way  it sometimes depends on what pci e slot combo you use to get the cards to run right  for example slots 1-2 or 2-3 or 1-3
 and as for your sound card is it pci or pcie.  have you tried running with out it  to see if it is causing  your game issues 

Sorry for the long time with no reply, I've been a bit busy. I am unsure what slots (number wise they are in so I made a picture using a screenshot of the Mainboard I found on google to describe the set-up. I've tried using only one GPU and removing the sound card only caused more instability.
 

Alright, before I attempt this I have two questions.
1. Wouldn't the SLI'd cards directly above eachother be bad for air-flow?
 
2. Should I uninstall the soundcard before removing it? I intend to keep it in thye system so I'd likely move it to another slot if anything.

I've updated my drivers and I've encountered a new anomaly. Upon switching to the 260.99 drivers my screen flashed black while idle and Windows Aero turned off. I quickly opened Evga precision to check on things to find my temperatures at a stable 45 degrees celsius, but my GPU usage was going insane. It was constantly fluctuating around between 20 - 80% usage for no reason before suddenly stopping and resting at a normal 1-2%.
 
I have no idea what caused this or if it's the new drivers, one thing is certain though. I will not go back to the 197.45 drivers as they have only given me trouble with my GTX 285s.
 
EDIT: UPDATE: I have moved the cards around as you asked, both GTX 285s are now both on top of eachother in PCIe x16 slots and I moved my sound card down to the PCIe x8 slot. I'll let you know how it goes.

UPDATE: Due to some issues with the 260.99 drivers, I caved and returned to what worked "decently." I went back to the 197.45 drivers and here is an update after a 2-3 hour session in "World in Conflict."
 
Due to the cards being right above each other, you can expect the airflow to be somewhat poor for the top card. Even in the HAF 932 case, the top card reaches between 60-80c under 60-100% gpu load. The bottom card is now doing the same.
 
Which these higher temperature comes a few anomalies however. Once I get into the 60s or or even 50s, I begin to experience a very large amount of texture flickering, micro-stuttering, clipping, or whatever you prefer to call it. There are also occasional lag spikes as well as units flickering in and out of view as well as some text flashing.
 
Beyond that (which I equate to the high temperatures) I've not yet experienced a BSOD, crash, freeze, or failure of any kind. I won't know for sure if my problems are solved until I try Team Fortress 2 both with these drivers and another that I would welcome anyone to suggest. Stability is paramount as I'm trying to determine if TF2 caused the freezes because of a driver issue or if this is indeed faulty hardware or just corrupted game files.
 
Thank you for your help so far, I think after 2-3 years of this mess a solution may be within reach!
 
12/18/11 edit: After about a 1 hour session in World in Conflict tonight I saw both GPU's hit just over 90% usage with temperatures ranging from the high 70s celsius to the mid 80s Celsius. This is brining even more micro stuttering and occasional FPS lag as even during a cutscene it will skip a bit and go slowly at some points. I never noticed this before moving the cards to another slot and changing the drivers.  I am also encountering another issue, though more of a minor annoyance. Occasionally the screen will go black for only a moment or two and return with darker colors. I'm not sure why this is happening but it didn't occur until after trying the 260.99 drivers.
 
Addendum: As an update to explain more (reference to the motherboard picture above) The Pci slots are as follows as well as the the hardware now using them.:
 
Blue: PCIe x16 - GTX 285
White (small): PCIe x1 - Nothing
Blue: PCIe x16/x8 - GTX 285
White: PCI - Nothing
Blue: PCIe x8 - Creative X-fi Sound Blaster Fatal1ty Professional Edition sound card
White: PCI - Nothing
 
 
 

sound to me like your are getting closer to a solution if indeed you are not having bsod,freezes or crashing now.
 now for the temps, 70c-80 not really too bad for those cards but would really like to see them cooler so what i would like to know is do you have a fan on the side panel of your case if so is it blowing on your video cards if not then you mite want to think about doing some modifications. 
   as for as the drivers go i believe Maniacvvv is the driver go to guy so i think i'll drop him a p.m. and see if he has any ideas for you
 
please keep us up to date on your progress i really want to see this issues solved and good luck.

The HAF 932 Has a 230mm fan on it's side panel as well as a 200mm fan on the front, both are intake. There is a 120mm exhaust on the back and a 200mm exhaust on the top so air flow is decent.
 
I will invest in 4 120mm fans for the side panel instead, some OEM dust filters for the case, and perhaps fresh thermal paste (thinking Arctic Silver 2?) for the GTX 285s as they have not had a change in about 3 years.
 
I have recently solved one of my longer lasting driver issues and after a bit of testing it turns out the issue I'm having with my sound card is either hardware related or due to my headset screwing up. Either way, I've narrowed that issue down enough to solve it.
 
All that remains is ensure complete stability and neutralizing the freezes I've been having completely. Hopefully if I can find the best, most stable driver for these cards this issue will finally be solved. As always, thank you for the tremendous amount of help with all of this. Even if I fail to fix the problem, you've helped me learn quite a bit more about my system, especially hardware placement and installation.

Please check your PM's
 

Reply sent, thank you.

i'm glade that so far so good and yes the next step would be replace the thermal paste . if you have never done so before i was told that sleepeee has a guide to do so
     http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=669088&mpage=1
 i hope this works for you good luck and as always please report back on how it goes.
 
 artic silver #5 is 1 of the most recommanded thermal paste (F.Y.I)

Alright, before I attempt to finish "fixing" these issues, I actually managed to find a thread on these forums with a link to a video that shows the exact same crash I've been having. Although -all- of his problems are not the same as mine, the way it crashes certainly is. On that note, please try to help him as well if you can.
 
Thread : http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=1369214
Video of his crash (same crash I get) : http://www.youtube.com/wa.h?v=OfsUmsUBmqI&hd=1
 
Again this is not my video, but another from the OP of the thread mentioned. I experience (usually) the same black screen with a loud buzzing noise or for me... occasionally looping audio. Very rarely the screen will just freeze rather than go black and rarely the sound will stay normal while the screen does either of the two former things. "Dave851" suggested bad BIOS setups and I thank him for that heads up. For reference once more, this computer did not function out of the box. Whatever Realm Computers did to it, I was not able to boot up the machine until I reset Cmos and I have been having these issues since day 1.
 
With help from maniacvvv I hope to have all of this sorted out by wednesday.
 
Edit: I took a moment tonight to record a small example of the texture flickering I experience in almost every game. While this is only a minor case, it is MUCH worse in games like Crysis, Battlefield 2, or Empire: Total War.
Texture Flickering Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSSeil32wQA

i sorry but that little clip does not provide enough flickering on my end for me to make a judgement call.  are you still having crashes and freezes? or is it just the flickering now
 
 bios setting , do you have your memory timings set to default or manually put in .i know on mine i had to manually set all my memory timing. (thats a hole nother ball of wax )
if you would like to set your memory timing to see if it helps you will need to know the latency and the recommended voltage . the manufactures web site of your memory should provide all that info. if you do not have it
 your hand book for your motherboard will tell you how to navigate through your bios to find where to set memory timings at. if you do not have your hand book you should be able to down load a copy of it from EVGA
 

That video was just an example, in games such as battlefield 2 after a while of running, the sleeves of my soldier's outfit will be clipping and flickering all over, as will his rifle. But to answer your question, so far I've not experienced a single crash.
 
As for memory timings, I've never altered that myself, they remain at whatever their default values might be. As for the information itself:
 
RAM Model: Corsair CM3x2g1600c9dhx (Corsair XMS3 @1600mhz)
Latency: 9-9-9-24
Voltage: 1.80v
 
The timings, Voltage, and model number were printed on the side of the stick itself. I originally checked the corsair website but it seems this is a discontinued model. I couldn't find that model number anywhere on the site.
 
UPDATE: We've made progress. I've been playing Team Fortress 2 this morning and (so far) it seems that my freezes I was experiencing have been replaced by application crashes. While I've not yet fixed things I consider this a step up from having to hard boot my system because it keeps freezing every few minutes during gameplay. All I have to do is restart the game and it works for a few minutes. I'd also like to report that I've not had a single crash to desktop in BF2 either! I believe that once maniacvvv helps me get a few things set up correctly, I adjust my bios to the correct settings, and I find a stable driver for the GTX 285 other than the 197.45 I may finally see this issue eradicated once and for all.
 
On an off note, I have noticed that at this point, regardless of the resolution or quality I set it to (1080p, for example) all youtube videos I watch in fullscreen are kind of block or pixelated. Some MUCH worse than others. I never consciously noticed this until tampering with my drivers or switching PCIe slots. I'm wondering if I should have uninstalled the cards first before moving them around... I also doubt it's flash player as I have already tried reinstalling it with no change. Then again, maybe it's just the videos themselves and I'm only anxious that we're so close to solving this.

I think those of you who have helped me deserve a pat on the back. In the span of a week you've helped me make more progress in fixing this system than the original builders have over the course of 3 years... which is no progress at all! Once again, thank you!

i may have another idea for you if you have not already done so
 
   boot into safe mode remove any thing that says nvidia from your programe files go into devisemanager uninstall your gpu's power down remove and replace your gpu's( in the same pci-e slots from where you removed them from 1&2) power back up and reinstall all your nvidia software

I'll give that a try once I figure out how to correct my memory timings and voltage. I have my motherboard manual but it doesn't exactly say it in idiot speak so I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out which numbers to change in Bios. I am also unsure if anything else is already wrong in there.
 
I'm not entirely sure but before I go punching in numbers I need to clarify a few things... I did peek into BIOS and I saw some suspect number lines which seem to be what I'm looking for. it went something like this:
 
Note, this is not -MY- Bios but an accurate example of the screen I found on google. The numbers in mine are slightly different I think.

 
Now... I assume I change these to the following based on the information I gave earlier:
tCL Setting: [Manual] 9
tRCD [Manual] 9
tRP [Manual] 9
tRAS  [Manual] 24
 
However, what else should I alter if anthing? Finally, what exactly is the memory voltage? I know I need to change it to 1.80v but my manual doesn't specify what it's called.

the only thing i can see that mite be missing is the 1T or 2T  i believe you will want it on 2T
 the voltage change mite be with the O.C.ing area

Understood, as far as the name of the voltage I've been checking around the net. I think I'm looking for "DRAM Voltage" or "DIMM Voltage" ... something like that?
 
After checking a guide, I found the Voltage under the name "DIMM Voltage" and adjusted to 1.80v as written on the side of the memory stick. I also adjusted the first 4 numbers to read the follow: 9-9-9-24 and set the Command Rate to 2T as instructed. Now, a bit of background information... before I changed all of this, this was what it previously read:
 
DIMM Voltage: 1.50v
tCL Setting: [Auto] 7
tRCD [Auto] 7
tRP [Auto] 7
tRAS  [Auto] 20
 
The memory frequency still remains at [Auto] (giving me a rating of 1067 or something like that) although they are 1600Mhz sticks. All of this together leads me to believe that due to Bios defaults, my RAM has been under-clocked and/or under-volted this whole time... we'll see how things go.

yes that does mean that it has been running underclocked but doesn't mean that it is a bad thing just propyl why you could not get a stable over clock and setting it to the proper specs means that you will be getting what you payed for if the mobo is capable of doing so if it errors out after setting your timings then you can if it will let you go back into bios and set it all back to default or pull the battery out of the mobo and rest cmos 

This may be one of my final replies as I have not experienced a freeze, BSOD, or computer crash of any kind lately. While there is still a noticable micro-stutter / flickering in my games, I'm sure that can be solved by Rozeyz's suggestion as well as fresh drivers. All and all my problems look to be solved finally as of tonight. Having been busy though I've not yet had a chance to finish things up with Maniacvvv so I'll update you once more if anything comes up.
 
Beyond that I have only a couple questions.
 
1. Should I take my memory frequency off of [Auto] and set it to 1600 as the sticks are built for?
2. At some point I was thinking of upgrading to either the 580 cards or the 600 series if they come out any time soon. Would they work fine on my current Motherboard? (EVGA X58 3x SLI)

yes i would set those timing to factory specs.
 yes new video cards will work with your set up.
 the 600 series is still about 6 months out.
i believe right now the best bang for the buck gpu is 560 ti 448 core but it's a limited edition cards so who knows how long the are going to be on the market

Update: Just experienced my first CTD in battlefield 2. Either this is a problem with the game itself or I'm still experiencing issues.
 
UPDATE 2: Upon adjusting memory frequency manually to 1600mhz the system became extremely unstable despite having what would be considered factory default / stock settings. I made it to the Windows 7 loading screen (The glowing lights moving around) twice before the computer just restarted itself. On the third time Windows failed to start on it's own and I had to press a key to get to the desktop where it proceeded to restart itself once again. Could all of this be a BIOS or RAM issue?

grrr bummer
 
 
                                                   pm sent

Memory Voltage returned to 1.625v and the timings adjusted to 11-11-11-39. It seems the RAM the company threw in were not designed to be compatible with my current Rig. THIS could be the root of everything.

i was thinking maybe, if you have not already done so. remove all but 1 stick of memory, set all the timings and volts to factor specs, see if it runs or crashes,repeat with all sticks 1 at a time, see if any of the will run at factor specs or maybe its just 1 or 2 that wont

I plan to give fewer sticks a try once I get Memtest working correctly. Can't seem to boot from my USB.
 
P.S. Merry (almost) Christmas Folks!

awaiting for some updates

Sorry folks, been very busy over Christmas weekend. Memtest came back with no errors at all and neither did Windows Memory Diagnostic. I have learned that my particular type of RAM is not compatible with some of my other hardware (CPU, Mainboard, something) and is in fact dual-channel.
 
The system is MUCH more stable after having set timings to 11-11-11-39 and setting the voltage to 1.625v. Battlefield 2 doesn't CTD as often and TF2 doesn't seem to be freezing anymore, though the application does crash every now and then.
 
While the problem isn't totally solved we've made very clear progress in solving the issue and have narrowed it down to RAM issues. I will be replacing my current RAM soon and running 3 sticks rather than six as I currently am now. I am also going to find another driver to use as 197.45 isn't all that great for me... unless I simply messed up in the reinstallation somewhere.