Help: GTX 580 SC DS operation problem

[shakes222]

Hi everyone. This is my first post so I apologize if it's not in the right area but I believe I've narrowed the problem to the GPU so it's the best I can do lol. Well so here it goes. I've recently built my first computer finally getting away from pre fabbed comps (finally) and I'm running into some issues. Here is my rig

Case: Antec DF-85
PSU: Corsair AX850W
CPU: Intel i7 2600k 3.4Ghz
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master 212+
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z68-V
GPU: EVGA GTX580 SC DS (core:796Mhz shader:1602Mhz mem:2002Mhz)
RAM: 2x(4GB) Corsair Vengence 1600Mhz
SSD: OCZ Vertex 2 60G (boot drive)
HD: (1) 1T Seagate SATA6.0
OS: Windows 7 64-bit SP1


Whenever I attempt to play a game or my GPU gets close to full load (ie benchmark or stress test) The screen goes black appearing as if my monitor has gone into sleep mode. The computer itself is still running but there is no way to wake up the monitor. Occasionally, if i hit esc a couple times after this happens I'm taken to the launch in safe mode prompt. The other times I'm left with only one option and thats to cut power to the computer to get it to restart. When I restart into safe mode and log in right after this problem happens I receive a prompt asking if windows would like help finding a solution (has that ever actually worked lol, silly Microsoft) and when I click for more details this is what is displayed:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
Locale ID: 1033

Additional Information about the problem:
BCCode: 116
BCP1: FFFFFA8006AA30D0
BCP2: FFFFF8800F223354
BCP3: FFFFFFFFC00000B5
BCP$: 000000000000000A
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\071111-5194-01.dmp
C:\Users\Name\Appdata\Local\Temp\WER-11793-0.sysdata.xml


The problem seems to be concentrated to only when the GPU begins to work. It seems that it's not isolated to when it's working very hard either as I'll have random blank screen occurances on startup as well. I've formatted the drives twice now and put on fresh installs of Win7 changing configs along the way to narrow it down to either a graphics card problem, driver issue/incompatibile BIOS, crap luck. I've been able to run the computer perfectly fine without the GTX 580 drivers installed, no issues whatsoever.

Does anyone know of any compatibility issues with my hardware? Is there a specific Nvidia driver I should be using? I've tried both the 266.58 and 275.53.
To be honest I don't know what questions to ask anymore, it seems like I've asked myself them all already.

If anyone has come across this problem before or might have any ANY insight into it please help me. Thanks for sticking with this post =)


Extra info: with the 266.58 drivers I just installed the PhysX System Software and the Graphics Driver. With the other versions I've tried I installed everything. No LED's are lit on my motherboard indicating a problem and yes they do work, lightning up during POST. I'm also using a DVI -> VGA adapter for my monitor.

Thoughts: Is there something I should be disabling in BIOS? I have the Jmicron disabled but I don't think that was ever really an issue other than the double ASUS logo displaying on bootup. Also When I first start up the rig for the day it goes through post then shuts down a couple times then starts up fine. What could be causing it or is that normal?

Thanks for your help! Hope to hear from all of you soon.

 

[jmdixon85]

When I started reading your post I thought.......Cheap PSU. But the Corsair unit is a solid choice and a great PSU

It is not normal for the PC to shut down and restart when it is turned on. Motherboards usually do this when they sence a failed overclock.

Is the system overclocked at all?

 

[shakes222]

thanks for the response so quickly

Ya I had an overclock on the i7 and just a bit ago I set it back to the defaults, it solved the startup issue but the gpu is still experiencing problems. Any idea what's going on there? Is it possible I have a bad PCI-E x16 port?

 

[jmdixon85]

Its very rare to have a PCIe port thats bad. Chances are it wouldnt work at all if that was the case.

Pressing ESC would not bring you into the safe mode boot option unless the PC has already been reset.

As your PSU is more than enough to power the system, can you monitor your GPU temps when the GPU is under load? For this I recommend MSI Afterburner.

 

[shakes222]

Downloading msi afterburner now. Let's hope i dont immediately get a black screen on startup so I can run this thing haha

 

[Pvt.Dancer]

are you using the latest Nvidia drivers? it kinda sounds like a driver crash and is it on all games or just one? and have you checked your event viewer for details on whats going on?

 

[jmdixon85]

Downloading msi afterburner now. Let's hope i dont immediately get a black screen on startup so I can run this thing haha

Afterburner will let you monitor your GPU...Temps, GPU load etc

Use MSI Kombuster to stress the GPU

 

[shakes222]

Alrighty, well here some good news and bad news. The bad news is the problem didn't spontaneously go away.

The good news is that I was able to complete a quick test monitoring with HWMonitor and MSI Afterburner using MSI Kombustor. I ran a burn test with Kombustor for 5 minutes the picture of MSI Afterburner and HWMonitor was taken when everything stabilized. When 6 minutes had passed (how long should i normally run a burn test anyhow?) I chose to exit MSI Kombustor and my screen immediately went black and i hit esc a couple times and ta da:

start in safe mode
start in safe mode with networking...
blah
blah

I hope these help get to the root of the problem.

 

[shakes222]

as a quick side not in case you were wondering looking at HWMonitor I do have 7 case fans going as well as the cooler Master 212+

 

[jmdixon85]

Well first the good news: Your temps seem to be fine.

The bad news: I've no idea why your GPU is failing after the test.

Everytime I run MSI kombuster it fails to exit. I have to force it to end via task manger.

But it never results in a system reset.

 

[shakes222]

With your best guess what do you think could be the cause? Hardware malfunction, driver issue, power management? If I can avoid RMA'ing only to run into the problem again because it's either a BIOS setup issue or a driver compatibility problem it would make this process at least a little bit better.

 

[shakes222]

Ya i don't have a clue what's up with it BSOD'ing on me after closing the program. It's almost like a sprinter going full tilt and then you tell them they can stop so they trip over their own feet and fall on their face to do it.

 

[shakes222]

tried running the test again and this time it BSOD right after I started the burn test....

 

[Pvt.Dancer]

well start out by getting a different driver from www.nvidia.com for first test this would be the easiest. also did you check your windows logs yet to see if it will tell you if a file is crashing or give us a hint?