Hi all, long time lurker posting this out of pure frustration, as google usually meets my needs very well.
Specs are in sig, running the 260.99 driver set, stereoscopic 3d disabled at the moment.
 
I bought this card at the end of August and all was well until about a month ago. I began getting pauses and freezes in several games. About 2 weeks ago games crash almost every time I play, every game, L4D, Just Cause 2, Metro 2033, batman AA...
 
Nothing is over clocked. When I initially tried to oc this card I couldn't get more than 60mhz without freezes and distortions, so I backed off just thinking I got a card that doesn't like to be overclocked.
 
I've tried at least 5 different driver sets, my Kill a Watt shows 450 under load (tower only) and temps never exceed 67c with the AC Xtreme plus I have installed, and that's furmark. Games usually go no higher than 47-55c, max. I've cleaned, reseated the card, disconnected everything else from the pc (usb devices etc) until I'm blue in the face. I might play for 2 hours...or 5 minutes, but it almost always crashes.
 
I even installed my old HD 4870 for 2 days, it played through everything, no crashes.
 
Soooo ... please help?!
 
Thanks very much in advance for any insights I might have missed.
 
Grey

i would try another psu see if the problem remains ,pita i know
but it seams you have covered all the bases

5thduke


i would try another psu see if the problem remains ,pita i know
but it seams you have covered all the bases

Thanks for the reply ... I've been wondering about that. I just hate investing in another PSU as I don't have a spare.
 
On the bright side I can use it to feed my upgrade bug.
 
Thanks

Did you install the HD audio driver ,or is it even listed in your device manager?
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=586183
Are all the games mentioned being Run from STEAM ?
Are you by chance using a G19 Keyboard?

if you can get one some how borrow steal lol i would do no pulling of your old one just simply run the 480  off the new one outside the case  just to eliminate that as a problem.

BioHazardSperm


Did you install the HD audio driver ,or is it even listed in your device manager?
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=586183
Are all the games mentioned being Run from STEAM ?
Are you by chance using a G19 Keyboard?

I delete the HD audio folder prior to install. The card is on IRQ 18, the others are 16 and 19 respectively. Other HD audios listed are microsoft.
 
No G19, but I do run all of them through Steam...is that a known issue? I'll have to get searching on it.
 
Thanks for the help!
 
5thduke - Yep, I'll be trying to beg, borrow or steal a PSU before buying for sure.
 
Thanks!

is the HD still in the Device manager tho?
The Steam thing is just a theory nothing more ,i just wanted to know lol (i have also had lockup issues at stock with 480's completely random times too)

Yes it is - here's a shot.
 


All devices under sound say exactly the same thing which is "HD Audio device, manufacturer Microsoft".
 
The 2 under system devices say the same thing but for 'controller' being used in place of 'device'.
 
  EDIT: It is the Realtek ALC892 audio on my mobo btw.

Just to be clear :look with View by Device connection

Example of Disabled
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/2441/nhdw.jpg

Ah, my bad. Thanks for the correction.
 
Here it is.
 

no need for my bad,just wanted to be 100% sure

I downclocked the card from it's SC speed to stock speeds and just enjoyed a good 25 minutes or so with no freezes. Going to wait a day or 2 and see what it does.
 
Thanks for all the help!

grey_1


I downclocked the card from it's SC speed to stock speeds and just enjoyed a good 25 minutes or so with no freezes. Going to wait a day or 2 and see what it does.

Thanks for all the help!

 
Maybe your TIM is degrading? Even though you don't have high temps, I wonder about the "real" temps on these GPUs in sections of the die that are not reported.
 
I have a 480 that's WC'd and it will crash if pushed too far, even though the temps are below 60C. Something is overheating that is not reported as a GPU temp.
 
Not sure what about your PS could have changed in the last 6 mos, or that your other VGA card will draw that much less power...

please post back and update i would be interested to hear your results.

DHLEVGA

Maybe your TIM is degrading? Even though you don't have high temps, I wonder about the "real" temps on these GPUs in sections of the die that are not reported.

I have a 480 that's WC'd and it will crash if pushed too far, even though the temps are below 60C. Something is overheating that is not reported as a GPU temp.

Not sure what about your PS could have changed in the last 6 mos, or that your other VGA card will draw that much less power...

Well, the TIM is a 2 month old application of MX-4 that came pre-applied to my cooler. I hope it's not degrading already Lol. As to the temps, I think I would have gone towards that if it didn't start bsoding on me while browsing the web this afternoon.
 
What I've done so far -
-Updated bios
-installed several different drivers, now on the new beta 266.35s
-Whocrashed gives only generic hints about the video adapter and driver, same as the bsod errors.
-Updated DX and ensured all win7 reliability hot fixes are installed.
-Ran memtest86+ (4.10 I think) from early this morning to about an hour ago, zero errors
 
I can run furmark, OCCT, Prime95 for 2 hours with no crashes or glitches, fire up a game or browse the web and I'm almost certain I'll have a crash.
 
I am baffled by this one...so now I have one stick of ram removed, just for trouble shooting purposes. If I crash again I'll swap with the other one...if not I may have a bad stick of ram instead of a dying 480.
 
Maddening it is....
 

grey_1

DHLEVGA

Maybe your TIM is degrading? Even though you don't have high temps, I wonder about the "real" temps on these GPUs in sections of the die that are not reported.

I have a 480 that's WC'd and it will crash if pushed too far, even though the temps are below 60C. Something is overheating that is not reported as a GPU temp.

Not sure what about your PS could have changed in the last 6 mos, or that your other VGA card will draw that much less power...

Well, the TIM is a 2 month old application of MX-4 that came pre-applied to my cooler. I hope it's not degrading already Lol. As to the temps, I think I would have gone towards that if it didn't start bsoding on me while browsing the web this afternoon.

What I've done so far -
-Updated bios
-installed several different drivers, now on the new beta 266.35s
-Whocrashed gives only generic hints about the video adapter and driver, same as the bsod errors.
-Updated DX and ensured all win7 reliability hot fixes are installed.
-Ran memtest86+ (4.10 I think) from early this morning to about an hour ago, zero errors

I can run furmark, OCCT, Prime95 for 2 hours with no crashes or glitches, fire up a game or browse the web and I'm almost certain I'll have a crash.

I am baffled by this one...so now I have one stick of ram removed, just for trouble shooting purposes. If I crash again I'll swap with the other one...if not I may have a bad stick of ram instead of a dying 480.

Maddening it is....

 
Have you tried running Kombustor? I have run this at max antialiasing settings with post FX checked (full screen, not windowed) and it is a lot more stress than any game. If you can run these settings for over an hour on this and yet still crash in a game, I am at a loss to explain that, except that it probably isn't GPU hardware related...
 
Also, a low cost fix for the PS is to get an X Booster aux power supply for the VGA. These have 350-400 W of 12 V power and they only power the video card, isolating any main PS problems. They have their own AC power cord and are turned on by the 12V bus on your main supply. I have one on my GTX 480 (OC'd to 900 MHz, and it drove my 295 before that) and it works great. I think they are under $100 as well.

You dont have a backplate installed on that card by chance do you? I had issues with a backplate that I installed on one of my cards and had to take it off to get it to quit crashing. The thermal pad oozed some kinda oily goop and it was shorting out the components on the PCB. Took it off an it quit crashing......go figure.

Issue solved guys - Bloody ram issue all along. It just acted like a gfx issue at first lol. Have the bad stick removed and my rig is smoother now on 2Gb than it was on 4. New ram ordered.
 
@DHLEVGA - I may look into that dedicated gfx PSU. That sounds awfully handy for a GTX480, Thanks.
 
 
daleorama78 - No back plate here, but I think I'll avoid them after reading your post. thanks.
 
Appreciate all the tips and replies everyone, thanks!

grey_1



@DHLEVGA - I may look into that dedicated gfx PSU. That sounds awfully handy for a GTX480, Thanks.



Appreciate all the tips and replies everyone, thanks!

 
NewEgg no longer carries these X Boosters but Performance PCs does:
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=22_301&products_id=24581
 

DHLEVGA

grey_1



@DHLEVGA - I may look into that dedicated gfx PSU. That sounds awfully handy for a GTX480, Thanks.



Appreciate all the tips and replies everyone, thanks!

NewEgg no longer carries these X Boosters but Performance PCs does:
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=22_301&products_id=24581

Thank you! Reviews give that unit some props...I may have to look into that if I go SLI.

grey_1

DHLEVGA

grey_1



@DHLEVGA - I may look into that dedicated gfx PSU. That sounds awfully handy for a GTX480, Thanks.



Appreciate all the tips and replies everyone, thanks!

NewEgg no longer carries these X Boosters but Performance PCs does:
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=22_301&products_id=24581

Thank you! Reviews give that unit some props...I may have to look into that if I go SLI.

 
I have a 650 W main supply and I am using one for a single 480, although mine is OC'd to 900 MHz (drawing nearly 300W).
 
I doubt if a single XBooster will run two 480s with any OC. Maybe stock, but just barely.

I was thinking more of the second 480 on the XBooster while the rest of my rig remains as is...or that config may not be optimal for stability? I'd have to read up on it a bit more to see what's acceptable.
 
Still a great item though.

I was thinking a single 480 on your system with a 750 W supply might be marginal, esp at full load with games like Crysis.
 
You can always go with 2 XBoosters if you have two drive bays open. I would try one with one 480 and see how your system runs. That will give you plenty of overhead for little cash. Then you can decide to upgrade the entire supply or add another XBooster if you SLI later.
 
Another thing that attracted me to the XBooster was that a year ago or so, the 1000+ W power supplies had very poor reviews for reliability. Just check out NewEgg reviews on these, and when 50% of the reviewers had RMAs, this is a concern. Perhaps they have gotten better over the last year or so, but there is no doubt a 750 W supply (from the same manufacturer, etc) will be more reliable than a 1200 W version. So if you can get away with multiple lower rated supplies, your system is going to be more reliable. This thinking goes against typical reliability theory (more is usually less reliable), but in this case the very high power units are distinctly less reliable than their lower power counterparts.