The problem is something completely different (According to Nvidia forums). Somebody there said they are aware of it and trying to fix.
 
I tried everything suggested here and more, nothing really helps. I run a clean Windows 7 installation now with the minimum required software installed, not even flash or java. So far everything works for 3 days now but i'm sure the black screen will come back eventually.
 
People can try to set their cards power mode from Adaptive to Prefer Maximum Performance as the random black screen is definately triggered by gpu clock frequency changes, it mostly happens when the cards go into the lowest power mode, for a stock gtx470 thats at 51Mhz. This could also explain the black screen at login since power modes are loaded then. Its no solution however cards will run hot in idle mode and consume more power.
 
I'll have to wait a few more days to make sure this workaround did the trick until they fixed it.

@MilenaM did you set the montior to single display performance mode?

Yes i have only one screen, connected with dvi cable, and always set it to single display performance mode. I also set my ram timings manually now instead of auto maybe that helped. System is pretty stable so far and no black screens after several reboots but i will wait till sunday before i say its fixed for me. Also hoping for a new beta or whql driver coming soon.

Well it's day 4 now without any artifacts at the win7 login screen or any random black screen crashes using this fix.  It happened at least twice a day before and especially from a cold boot.
 
Like MilenaM I noticed it would only happen with 1 screen enabled by DVI when the card would clock itself down to power save. If I booted with my HDTV enabled it would never happen because the card stays at higher clocks and 1v.
 
I followed the instructions boot for boot and I believe something in there must be the trick.  Also note that when its time to install the nvidia drivers again with 260.63 you can choose what parts to install, so do not install the Nvidia HD audio drivers or the 3d vision drivers unless you use them.
 
Also have my card set to max perf globally in the settings. Just this alone before would not work.

Well my problem is similar to all of yours except mine is triggered whenever 3D app is enabled.  It has to be the driver or problem with both cards in SLI.

Yeah this fix didnt fix anything for me. Ive had my GTX 460 768 for about a month now, no issues till 2 days ago. I left my PC on in the day while I was gone, came home and screen was frozen! rebooted and started having the hag on login like crazy......
Like one out of every 10x can I actually log into windows now no problem. Ive tried 258.96 , 260.53 beta and the 52's? leaked before that and no go.
I made sure I had no background running programs for video card such as msi afterburner starting up or anything.
 
This issue is so annoying. Ive followed instructions on OP each driver...still same issues. 
This is total BS, gonna RMA my card soon if keeps up. If my new card still has this issue...must be some sort of driver issue then.
 

What I would be interested to find out, if when logging into windows do the drivers do some odd video card polling like of voltage tables and frequencies available? maybe its doing this incorrectly and forcing some odd frequency at a voltage it doesnt like...thus causing the login freeze....

Worked for me... once. I was able to get past the welcome screen and be logged in for just a few short moments before locking up and needing to reboot. Upon rebooting it was back to square one, freezing at the welcome screen.

So, I still have the problem, but I have gotten to minimize itself, I tried setting PCIe to 99mhz in BIOS and Ive noticed that because of doing that ... the card runs at PCIe 1.0 speeds.
I am able to successfully log into windows about 1 out of 2 times now with no login freeze, but sometimes will freeze shortly after that then after another reset it works...But that pattern has happened for me 3x now.
So, I ono...guess still gonna do an RMA on the card though cuz this is crazy.

So, Im running  a little experiment .. this whole time I was wondering if this in any way had to do with the different clock / voltage tables this card has, I know there are like 4 different operating modes .. which I have no idea why there are that many but whatever...
 
So, I downloaded latest nibitor, opened up my 460's bios and looked at its voltage table...
 
I noticed something odd in the 4 power modes, there is a min and max voltage for all 4, 2D was set to the same for both but 3D had a min of about .985v and then there was its default. 
The other 2 operating modes had min and max's as well, so I was thinking what if...for some reason the card is hitting the min voltage at a given clock and destabalizing...
 
Or, I have noticed it starting to get unstable and freeze even before it gets into windows now too...so I upped the 2D voltage from .875 to .883(or whatever it was next step up)
and for the "ranges" of voltage in the next 3 tables I specified the same min as their max.
 
Flashed the bios and its stable so far....Its been 4 hours since then and no freezes...I hope this stays working.
 
So, its quite odd to me that this starts happening all the sudden and if it does indeed fix the freezing issues....then that has me wondering, do these 40nm cores suffer from electron migration if too much voltage is supplied to them?(which usually causes the need for more voltage to maintain stability at a given clock) or is there somehow an inherent flaw that makes them degrade faster than they should?

I tried disabling the HD audio device immediately after a fresh install of W7 and before I installed the 260.63 drivers. After I disabled the HD audio device under system devices FOUR HD audio devices disappeared from sound devices. During the driver installation the HD audio driver was not an option when I was prompted to choose the drivers I wanted to install. We'll see if this holds.
 
EDIT: Did not work. I get locks at the welcome screen with the HD audio device disabled. Safe mode works fine. Time to RMA.  

NM, my above experiment didnt fix crap...Im mad now =(, guess gonna have to RMA ugh...wonder whats going on with these cards.

Should I apply this fix before or after I install the display drivers with a fresh install of W7?

i would install the drivers before any windows update and then right after disable the HD audio device.. cause when you install the drivers it might undo the disable that you did in the first place.. now once you disable the device under "system devices" in device manager you will see all 4 disappear under "sound, video and game controllers" in device manager
 
 
 
 

I haven't had an issue with mine (other than trying to get the fans speed below 100% all the time.) I use a HDMI to DVI cable & the sound comes through loud & clear. 
 
 
JD

Hey, I guess it fixed only for couple of days. 1 out of 5 times i try to login or restart my computer i get the screwed up screen and it either freezes or stops the driver.
 
Any help?

jackvancouver


There's a higher level of disabling where you can automatically disable all 4 HD audio devices at once.

Switch your Devices Manager view to "Devices by Connection". Go into "ACPI (x86 or x64) based PC" then "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System". Go into "PCI bus" and locate the PCI-E port that shows a "High Definition Audio Controller" and the card you're using. Disable the "High Definition Audio Controller" and it will disable the 4 HD audio devices as well.

ok i followed thse steps and it did disabled the nvidia highdefinition audi devices. asll of them.
after this i had the 4 nvidia high definition sound devices (4) on the sound devices. i followed ur steps and now they're disabled and don't show anymore in the audio devices. now i only have the realtek high definition (my audio drivers) showing under the audio devices.
thanks for the solution and i hope it works until nvidia releases new drivers to prevent installation of this.
thank you!!

Zillerz
only for couple of days

 
Thats my experience. I had no login freeze or random black screens since last tuesday! Today's wednesday one week later and Windows freeze again at login, then after reset freeze randomly after a few mins on the desktop and now after another reset its working again.
 
Try to RMA your card just for fun and maybe you get another one that works for a few days,weeks,months lol...
I bought 2 470's now and both have the same problem. Mindfactory.de is the shop where i bought them and they refused to give me a new card after i send mine in for RMA because "the card is working as intended" aka they didn't trigger the freeze after 20 minutes testing in their PCs or whatever. Also tried both cards in my friends PC now and they freeze the same way.
My old 285's are rock solid and have no problems at all.
 
I'm just upset now the 400 series has turned out to be the most unreliable nvidia product i have ever bought and unless this is really a driver issue that can be fixed i will get rid of both cards asap and never fermi again for me.
 
P.S.: People on Nvidia forums say its a Windows 7 problem and the cards don't freeze on Vista so maybe one of you wanna try that. I have no Vista nor will i buy or pirate it just to check if my cards would work then. Will maybe install Linux again and see what happens.
 
Thanks for all your help and suggestions and best regards.
 

Well this fixed only worked for so long. I installed the video drivers, booted into safe mode, disabled the HD audi0, and booted back into windows without any problems.
 
I installed my sound drivers, no problem.
I installed my wireless card no problem.
I try to update, freezes every time now. Safe mode works fine. HD audio is still disabled.

what's weird for me is after disabling the hd audio controllers that follow my cards..I reboot and still black screen, I reseated the mini hdmi and it came up immediately...but it's working again.

@billyfromthehill
What are you trying to update?
 

Yeah, Ive confirmed my card is bad...I took my system to work and installed a MSI 460GTX brand new in my PC and worked on it for hours and not a single issue crept up.
 
I installed my EVGA 460 card into a test PC that has similar hardware and after a good hour or so .. it started freezing at windows 7 login and even before going into windows, took about 8 reboots and it started working right.
 
Meanwhile the MSI card in my machine ... was running flawlessly the entire time.
 
Something is going out on these GTX 460's and either nvidia or the board makers need to figure this crap out ASAP. I bought a 2 year warranty card, if this still happens after 2 years...I will be pissed...EXTREMELY, Im wondering if there is some sort of lemon policy for these cards.
 
I would recommend to anyone w/ these issues... just RMA the card its your only hope. I have a feeling these runs of stability are just coincidence...no matter what is done.
 
My system has Vista 32 installed on it and its happening in vista as well obviously.
 
-----
On  another note, Its kinda ironic, I just got a notice in the mail there is a class action lawsuit against nvidia for faulty graphics cards in DELL/ HP and MAC notebooks. My notebook (e1705) w/ 7900GS is on the list and it just so happens I have the problems the class action lawsuit is for...
On december 20'th will find out if I get a new GPU for free based on their final decision in court...
DAMN YOU NVIDIA! I thought ATi products were bad...ugh...

I'm trying to run windows update.
 
It's not my wireless card either. I pulled it out and there's no difference.

Ill report withing a few days.
 
What I did just now is completely cleaned my computer from the NVIDIA Drivers then installed clean fresh ones from NVIDIA.com
 
Ill check up in a few days

on a clean install i would load the nvidia drivers from a usb before you use windows update

That's what I've been doing the whole time.
 
It's doesn't matter now. I've submitted an RMA. That's the only option that's left at this point.

+1 good stuff

Today the login freeze recovered after a few seconds and brought up this message immediately after the windows desktop was loaded:
So this is a driver problem then ? That would explain why both of my cards do it sometimes.

Yes it's a driver problem. In my case as soon as I uninstall them or boot into safe mode my computer works perfectly fine. The only thing to do is wait for the 260.63 WHQLs and hope that fixes the problem.

I don't want to give anyone here false hopes, but after following Dunkinkid's thread, my computer has run for the longest time since experiencing problems. I want to give it a little more time before declaring anything fixed or not; but for the moment, things have improved.