1. #1

    Nvidia drivers / Windows 7 freezing problems...

    Hi, I currently have sent in my GTX 570 in to EVGA for RMA, in the mean time I am using my old 260.
    When I boot up my PC and log into windows, either right away while it still says welcome, when I hit the actual desktop, or when I boot up google chrome my PC freezes up, no control of the mouse (frozen cursor) or keyboard, have to cold reboot / force restart to break it out.

    I can load into safe mode and leave it on all day and it doesn't crash. I have tried multiple startup repairs, the last of which brought me right before I installed my graphics drivers.

    I have tried restoring manually to an early point, I manually uninstalled my graphics drivers and reinstalled with the latest, no luck. It was working for about 2 hours after a repair install but then it froze again while playing a game, this is when the startup repair kicked in and put me back right before I installed my drivers.


    Any advice? Don't have access to a blank disk or flash drive for memtest86, going to run a chkdisk in a moment to see if it catches anything on the hard drive (which is less than a year old).

    It seems strange that two of my video cards go to shit within a month of each other, if this does turn out to be a video card problem. Not sure if thats relevant.

    Currently dont have access to another working card, nor do I have access to extra ram to test the sticks of ram. I really dont have the resources to do a lot of hardware debugging sadly. Just wondering if anyone has any advice, suggestions or if they have seen this before.

    Just uninstalled the drivers in safe mode and I am able to run netflix without the drivers installed. It will crash if they are installed :/ am I really just that unlucky with another card going bad on the same mobo within a month or is there some compatibility issue with this card and my build that didnt show up for the first week and a half that I was using it.

    Windows 7 Home Edition
    i7-2600k 3.4GHz
    8192MB Ram
    Current card Nvidia GTX 260 (my GTX 570 was working until it died)
    Mobo: Asus P8P67 Pro

  2. #2
    Could be a number of reasons.

    1- You didn't swipe all the drivers and they are conflicting with your replacement card. Use a driver sweeper if you aren't comfortable with doing it manually.
    2- Your RAM is faulty and causes your system to crash. Normally this gives a BS though. Check with removing RAM modules and using one and one.
    3- Your voltage on the 3.3v or 5.5v could be off causing system instability. Check this in BIOS.
    4- Your PSU could be failing. Also check in BIOS if all the rails are delivering what they should.
    5- You have damaged a PCI-e slot and should try an alternate one.
    6- Your MB isn't revision B3 and needs a BIOS update. Download at asus.com and use a USB to flash BIOS.

    + about 35 other reasons. If you could start with the first and work yourself down to 5 it will be alot easier to diagnose your PC. Get back to us if you figure something out.
    Last edited by Lemmiwink; 2013-01-08 at 12:55 AM. Reason: Forgot something

  3. #3
    Thanks for some info, not sure if I am confident enough to handle all of that but, as for step one, is there software I can use to do this? Do you have a suggestion if so?

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by masterprtzl View Post
    Thanks for some info, not sure if I am confident enough to handle all of that but, as for step one, is there software I can use to do this? Do you have a suggestion if so?
    Driver Sweeper

    Download, install, use in safe-mode.

    Basically just tick Nvidia (all 3 options) and then analyse and then clean.
    Computer: Intel I7-3770k @ 4.5GHz | 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM | AMD 7970 GHz @ 1200/1600 | ASUS Z77-V PRO Mobo|

  5. #5
    Ran the driver sweep, windows automatically installed drivers to the video card on next restart. I am back with drivers running, lets see if it lasts. Will respond with more info when I have it.

    ---------- Post added 2013-01-08 at 02:47 AM ----------

    Okay, more info. It crashed when I ran a youtube video, other times with a netflix video. This time on restart the login screen took abnormally long to show up as did my desktop when signing in...

    ---------- Post added 2013-01-08 at 03:48 AM ----------

    Well, still crashing, going to take the card out and try it in my old PC and maybe a different slot in this PC.

    ---------- Post added 2013-01-08 at 04:55 AM ----------

    Tried the card in my old PC, which has its own trouble (friend was using it for a long while) but it didnt crash on videos... gonna try a fresh windows install :/

  6. #6
    Did you check your voltage? having a card die and then a new one being troublesome could indicate something wrong with the PSU. Don't jump to conclusions, diagnose first.

  7. #7
    @Lemmiwink a GPU is on the 12V rail not on the 3.3V or 5V.

    @OP download gpu-z to monitor your 12V rail http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads...PU-Z.0.6.6.exe

    Just keep an eye for awhile on the 12V @ idle and later push furmark + Prime95 (with 7/6 threads)

    This issue rather sounds like a bad OS or just a motherboard/ram problem. You can test the ram with prime95 blend mode (set to 90% of total available ram).

    Just let us know if a fresh windows install fixed it or not.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Faithh View Post
    @Lemmiwink a GPU is on the 12V rail not on the 3.3V or 5V.

    @OP download gpu-z to monitor your 12V rail http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads...PU-Z.0.6.6.exe

    Just keep an eye for awhile on the 12V @ idle and later push furmark + Prime95 (with 7/6 threads)

    This issue rather sounds like a bad OS or just a motherboard/ram problem. You can test the ram with prime95 blend mode (set to 90% of total available ram).

    Just let us know if a fresh windows install fixed it or not.
    I know that, but in my experience low voltage on those particular rails is often the reason for system instability. As you will see from my post I instructed him to check all the rails if those were not causing it.

    I agree it sounds like a MB problem, my best guess atm is that his P67 is one of those famous instable ones that shipped early. All that were shipped after were branded B3 revision. Often you could remove the instability in the P67 boards that were shipped early by updating the BIOS. It did not work for all manufactorers though, but it could be worth a shot if it isn't the memory causing the problem.

    My main suspicion about his video card is that he has a bad PSU that f**ked it up and it will do the same thing to his replacement card. Which is why I want him to check if his rails are delivering the correct voltage. But I don't think we are looking at one problem here, but several.

  9. #9
    I honestly dont understand enough about the hardware to understand much of this. After reseating the card and dusting it off, it seemed to be working since last night, but about 24 hours later its now crashed again in a similar way.

    My P67 was one of the ones effected, but I had it RMA'd back in February of 2011, right after I received it. I have to assume the problems with the hardware had been solved with the one they sent me back.

    My PSU is strong enough for this build for sure, 750W, I will check out the software but I am not sure if I will know how to read it correctly.

    I have not done a fresh install yet as reseating it did seem to work though I have already experienced another crash.

    thanks for all the help, I really don't know enough about hardware sadly :/


    On this GPUz what should I be looking at?

    http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/13/01/08/30x.png

    Also, could you explain this bit in simpler terms? Not familiar with furmark or Prime95

    "Just keep an eye for awhile on the 12V @ idle and later push furmark + Prime95 (with 7/6 threads)"
    Last edited by masterprtzl; 2013-01-09 at 03:18 AM.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by masterprtzl View Post
    I honestly dont understand enough about the hardware to understand much of this. After reseating the card and dusting it off, it seemed to be working since last night, but about 24 hours later its now crashed again in a similar way.

    My P67 was one of the ones effected, but I had it RMA'd back in February of 2011, right after I received it. I have to assume the problems with the hardware had been solved with the one they sent me back.

    My PSU is strong enough for this build for sure, 750W, I will check out the software but I am not sure if I will know how to read it correctly.

    I have not done a fresh install yet as reseating it did seem to work though I have already experienced another crash.

    thanks for all the help, I really don't know enough about hardware sadly :/


    On this GPUz what should I be looking at?

    http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/13/01/08/30x.png

    Also, could you explain this bit in simpler terms? Not familiar with furmark or Prime95

    "Just keep an eye for awhile on the 12V @ idle and later push furmark + Prime95 (with 7/6 threads)"
    Because you have a 750W psu doesn't mean it's giving stable voltages on the rails.. Too low voltages shouldn't cause damage to your parts but over voltages does and both give instability.

    Try HWmonitor instead of gpu-z http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

    Seems like gpu-z doesn't want to show the 12V rail..

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Faithh View Post
    Because you have a 750W psu doesn't mean it's giving stable voltages on the rails.. Too low voltages shouldn't cause damage to your parts but over voltages does and both give instability.

    Try HWmonitor instead of gpu-z http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

    Seems like gpu-z doesn't want to show the 12V rail..
    I have HWMonitor but it doesn't show my video card, only my Mobo, CPU and both hard drives. Hmm

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by masterprtzl View Post
    I have HWMonitor but it doesn't show my video card, only my Mobo, CPU and both hard drives. Hmm
    Try the bios. It's in the monitor tab, easy to access.

  13. #13
    When you RMA'd your MB, did you get a B3 revision board back? If you didn't it might still need a BIOS upgrade. When looking for under or over voltage, use the BIOS to check it first. If the numbers look odd you can monitor it further with HWMonitor, note that HWMonitor doesn't neccesarily support all hardware.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Lemmiwink View Post
    When you RMA'd your MB, did you get a B3 revision board back? If you didn't it might still need a BIOS upgrade. When looking for under or over voltage, use the BIOS to check it first. If the numbers look odd you can monitor it further with HWMonitor, note that HWMonitor doesn't neccesarily support all hardware.
    I wouldn't even know what to look for :/ I think I need to take it to a guy who knows a lot more than I do.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by masterprtzl View Post
    I wouldn't even know what to look for :/ I think I need to take it to a guy who knows a lot more than I do.
    Just a screenshot telling you where to look at -> http://i.imgur.com/CZ5fF.png

    OR


    If you want to check it in the bios -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bM_OUNWNw8 @ 1:36

    1. 3.3V
    2. 5V
    3. 12V

  16. #16
    I got my GTX 570 back, and installed the new 310.90 drivers. Windows started up, made start up sound and then black screen. Attempting to go back to the version I had installed back in december.

    ---------- Post added 2013-01-11 at 07:41 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by masterprtzl View Post
    I got my GTX 570 back, and installed the new 310.90 drivers. Windows started up, made start up sound and then black screen. Attempting to go back to the version I had installed back in december.
    Well I feel stupid on that one, my primary monitor was on HDMI2 instead of HDMI1 and caused me to not be able to see the login screen, the secondary monitor was black due to the login screen being on the primary one.

    Anyways, will come back if I run into trouble again though in that case its definitely not the card. The 260 seemed to be working better when I dusted off the fan a bit and reseated it, no crash for the past day or two.

    ---------- Post added 2013-01-11 at 08:03 PM ----------

    On that 12v, I am seeing it on GPU-Z now, http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/13/01/11/f0a.png - what would I be looking for if I was looking to see if something is off.

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