Random freezes - most likely gpu problem

[tohico]

Hello everyone,

I've been having some problems with random freezing recently. Sometimes it starts to freeze just for a few seconds and the cursor looks messed up, it usually ends up in a final freeze that forces me to restart the computer. Sometimes I get this fatal freeze immediately, and sometimes I even end up with BSOD 0x00000101. It always does randomly when I'm working in desktop, it has never happened under load - playing games, testing in Kombustor, etc. Also, when I get the small freeze, I can get rid of by changing anything in the afterburner (underclocking, changing the fan speed) - the changes don't work, but the gpu starts working again for some time.

It all started a few days ago, when I decided to overclock my gpu. It's a GTX460 Hawk Talon Attack, base clock 811Mhz and memory clock 1950Mhz. I looked for safe overclocks of this gpu, so I went with +100mV on core and overclocked it to 900 Mhz. It worked great, but it ran too hot. When it hit 90°C in the Kombustor (still safe for a gpu, right?), I canceled it and went back to the stock clocks. I let it cool down first, and then I cleaned the card from dust - I did everything properly, I took care of the grounding (I always stick my hands in the power outlets) and done the cleaning by a brush and a balloon air pump. Then I put it back and I got BSOD 0x00000116 on the first boot - problem with nvlddmkm.sys. So I rebooted and reinstalled the gpu driver. That's all I did, and since then, I've been having these problems.

I have tried to underclock the gpu, overvolt it, undervolt it + underclock it, running without afterburner or using older driver. None of them worked.

Is there any way I could still fix this? Have I damaged the gpu by the overclocking?

OS: Windows 7 x64. All updated ofc. My specs in the signature below.

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Edit: I've seen I'm not the only one having these problems, it seems to be a problem of the driver. The previous driver didn't work for me, so I'm going to try even older driver :3

[craig92]

hi there i had this problem last week i had ssd for windows and a hdd for storage found out is was the hdd failing it only happed sometimes then it just completed went bust might not be same for u but if it was ur gpu failing u would get a message like (nvidia graphics desplay driver stopped working )

[tohico]

hi there i had this problem last week i had ssd for windows and a hdd for storage found out is was the hdd failing it only happed sometimes then it just completed went bust might not be same for u but if it was ur gpu failing u would get a message like (nvidia graphics desplay driver stopped working )

I was actually getting this error quite a lot before, but I haven't got one since I reinstalled the driver last time. (from 320.49 beta to 320.49 whql - no idea why the nvidia picked the beta itself before)

[Electronics Wizardy]

try switching to anouther gpu if you can get your hands on one. anouther good test would be to put that gpu in a friends pc and test it for a day. that would should show you the exact problem. if the problem is the gpu try using your warranty if it is over or they woun't accept it well buy a new one. not much you can do

[YoYo155]

It's 320!

Try uninstalling them then when reinstalling older drivers, I recommend 314.22, choose custom install and check "clean install"

also uncheck nvidia update & geforce experience.

[tohico]

try switching to anouther gpu if you can get your hands on one. anouther good test would be to put that gpu in a friends pc and test it for a day. that would should show you the exact problem. if the problem is the gpu try using your warranty if it is over or they woun't accept it well buy a new one. not much you can do

 

I have some older gpus around here, but none of them supports two monitors, which I need pretty badly for work this month. But it's been doing these problems since messing with the gpu, so it's very likely the gpu.

 

It's 320!

Try uninstalling them then when reinstalling older drivers, I recommend 314.22, choose custom install and check "clean install"

also uncheck nvidia update & geforce experience.

 

Thanks for the tip! That's exactly what I'm trying out right now. It looks promising so far, so we will see in the next 48 hours :)

[colonel_mortis]

If it BSODs again, stick the contents of C:\Windows\Minidump in a zip archive and attach it to the forum so that we can take a look at the crash dumps.

[tohico]

If it BSODs again, stick the contents of C:\Windows\Minidump in a zip archive and attach it to the forum so that we can take a look at the crash dumps.

 

Okay, I'll sure do so if that happens again :3

 

Btw, it's been over 30 hours now and I haven't got any freeze so far, yay! Let's see if it works that well tomorrow too. I'll keep you posted.

[YoYo155]

Please do B) !

[tohico]

Please do B) !

 

Huh, it's been almost a week now. I almost forgot about it, hehe. But yes! It was the driver 320. I'm running the 314.22 for almost a week and I haven't got any freeze nor an indication of the problem. Yay!

 

Thank you very much YoYo155, you've saved my graphic card! I thought it was dying :)

 

As a big thanks, I'm making a game giveaway on this forum. Anyone can enter. It's right over here: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/36532-le-giveaway-time-mafia-ii-steam/

[YoYo155]

Awesome great to hear! ;)