Stability Issues

[Vicarian]

Lately I've been having some stability issues.  I'm not sure if it's the latest Nvidia driver, or something else with the machine.  On Saturday evening, I went and took a nap after feeling suddenly overwhelmed by fatigue.  I'd left my desk with my machine running.  When I returned, I'd found all my displays to be dark, but they each were still getting DisplayPort signals from the GPU.  My keyboard's backlight was dark. NumLock and CapsLock would still switch on and off.  When I moved the mouse cursor, I saw that I was in Windows (10 Enterprise).  I was shown the "busy" cursor.  Ctrl+Alt+Delete wouldn't get me a lock screen.  I had to force power off the machine.  When it rebooted, same issue.  I saw my power on splash screen, was able to get to my boot loader (Manjaro dual boot).  Same thing again.  I hit the three failed boots, got to recovery tools.  Started safe mode.  Got a display. Restarted the machine, checked temperatures and voltages in BIOS, all were fine.  Ended up starting a clean install of the driver (572.83) from the driver executable, not the Nvidia app, while in Safe Mode.  Didn't use DDU.  I was directed to restart.  Did, and got a display in full Windows.

 

Fast forward to yesterday, I lost power.  Tried turning the machine back on.  Most peculiarly, my UPS completely shut off without providing battery power.  When the machine attempted to get into Windows, same issue with the black screens.  I did the same process, failing boots three times, hit the recovery tools, go into Safe Mode, uninstall the driver.  This time, I leave the driver uninstalled, then start DDU when I get back into Windows.  Let it do its thing, reinstall the driver again.  When the driver takes, my displays flicker as expected, but then I get another black screen.  However, this time I'm able to get a lock screen, so I log out.  Actually met with a login screen.  Log back in, stuff is back to normal, but my displays are in the wrong order left to right. Open up Display Properties to fix.  I identify the displays, put them in the correct order, apply.  Order is still incorrect.  Open up Nvidia Control Panel, try rearranging displays again.  Order actually takes.

 

Explorer frequently hangs.  When I start the machine, I click anywhere on my desktop, get a busy cursor, and explorer restarts itself.  I have three physical volumes, and two networked volumes for work.  File Explorer windows often don't render and also hang.  Explorer also was hanging while in safe mode with networking.

 

Anyone else dealing with stuff like this?  Is 572.83 just a broken driver?

 

3x ASUS VG27AQ 27" 1440p displays running at 144 Hz

AMD Ryzen 9 5950X

Evga GeForce RTX 3080 Ti FTW3

Evga Supernova 850W PSU (80+ Platinum)

MSI Tomahawk Wifi? X570 Motherboard (not at home to check the box)

2x 2TB Samsung 980 Pro Nvme (Windows on one, Manjaro on the other)

1x 8TB Samsung EVO SATA SSD (For mass storage)

32 GB G.Skill Ripjaw V (2x16GB) memory

 

Windows and GPU driver are up to date.  Drives all pass SMART check via Samsung Magician.  Did an sfc /scannow, chkdsk, dism, the whole nine.  SFC did fix some things, but DISM didn't make any changes.  Disk check repaired some things.  Do those processes sometimes leave corrupted files in their wake?  Do I just need to bite the bullet and reinstall Windows at this point?

Edited March 25, 2025 by Vicarian
Additional detail about explorer

[OddOod]

27 minutes ago, Vicarian said:

Most peculiarly, my UPS completely shut off without providing battery power. 

Oooooh, how old is this UPS? I had a very similar problem and I finally traced it to the UPS needing new batteries. 

29 minutes ago, Vicarian said:

Evga GeForce RTX 3080 Ti FTW3

Noice! TBH, you have ~ my computer from last year. Very fun lil machine

[Vicarian]

8 minutes ago, OddOod said:

Oooooh, how old is this UPS?

I got it maybe 3 years ago?  I had to upgrade when I bought the 3080.  Still have the box, but I'm not currently home to check the manufacture date.

[Vicarian]

Quick update: having gone the DDU route seems to have kept things stable, but I don't really ever shut my machine down.  So, I may have issues when the machine goes down for Windows updates, or the inevitable next power loss.  The local grid where I am is pretty shoddy.  Hopefully the next driver Nvidia releases won't require using DDU to get things to be useable.