Random Restarts from EVGA GTX 780

[Raman4434]

Hello Everyone, I have recently purchased a 3GB EVGA GTX 780 SC w/ACX Cooler to replace my 3 GB EVGA GTX 580. After installing the GTX 780 I have noticed that most of my games have been restarting randomly during gameplay and the occurence varies greatly between games. For example, Max Payne won't get past the loading screen while Crysis 3 could range from 2 minutes to 2 hours before a reset. I haven't been gettting the BSOD or any error messages other than the Event ID 41 for Kernel-Power Error in the Event Logs.

My Rig:
Windows 7 Home Edition 64-bit
Ivy Bridge i7 3770K 3.5GHz
16GB Patriot 1600Mhz RAM
3GB EVGA GTX 780 SC w/ ACX Cooler
OCZ FATAL1TY 1000W PSU
P8Z77-V Deluxe MOBO w/ Latest BIOS updates

I have contacted tech support at EVGA and they were very helpful suggesting a few fixes. First they had me rollback from the newest drivers to the drivers that were installed on the disk so that I would have a clean install and thay didn't fix the problem. They also had me remove the 780 and re-install the GTX 580 to see if the problems persisted and the random resets stopped with the GTX 580. I then tested the 780 in another system and everything worked fine without the random resets.

Since the GTX 580 and GTX 780 both have the same power consumption (according to EVGA) and the 580 is running perfectly on the machine I wouldn't think it is an issue with the power supply. I just don't have anymore ideas what could be causing the issues and since EVGA knows it isn't their card then they have left it up to me to figure it out. Since the card works in another system then I guess I can't blame them.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated and any ideas are welcome. Thanks!!!

 

[azanimefan]

sounds like you might be overheating something. that would be my first guess.

my second guess is you might need a clean install of windows...

 

[Mpegger]

Did you uninstall and reinstall the drivers? Normally, since you are just upgrading from one nvidia series to another, you shouldn't need to uninstall and reinstall drivers. But its usually drivers that cause issues.

And speaking of drivers, supposedly alot of people are having problems with the latest drivers from nvidia (320.xx). Try an older driver like 310.xx instead and see if that helps.

 

[azanimefan]

Did you uninstall and reinstall the drivers? Normally, since you are just upgrading from one nvidia series to another, you shouldn't need to uninstall and reinstall drivers. But its usually drivers that cause issues.

And speaking of drivers, supposedly alot of people are having problems with the latest drivers from nvidia (320.xx). Try an older driver like 310.xx instead and see if that helps.

I have contacted tech support at EVGA and they were very helpful suggesting a few fixes. First they had me rollback from the newest drivers to the drivers that were installed on the disk so that I would have a clean install and thay didn't fix the problem.

he has tried the newest 320.18 WHQL, and fresh installed the older beta 320.11 (?) that came with the gpu. his big problem right now is he's stuck with the 320.xx series drivers because older Nvidia drivers don't work with the 7xx series. The 320.xx release was for the 7xx series for the most part. So rolling back to the 314.22 WHQL driver won't work. It's a good idea, my mind went to the same place... as it seems the 320.xx drivers are hopelessly buggy... particularly with people using Windows 8. AH right, i forgot.

OP, if you're using windows 8, i have a suggestion for installing your drivers which you might not have tried. The theory goes that if you fresh install your gpu drivers (the newest ones) in SAFE MODE, without networking, the install of the drivers will work. Apparently this fix has helped people with driver issues. Which (likely) is your issue. I especially believe the driver issues are the problem because this card works in another machine.

That said, it still could be a temp problem. Just because nothing overheats on the other machine doesn't mean something isn't overheating on this machine.

 

[Raman4434]

When I reinstalled the GTX 580 I made sure to run 3DMark and Prime95 to try and stress test both the 580 and my CPU for temperature stability and everything performed flawlessly with the GTX 580. The GTX 780 will cause a reset before 3DMark can transition from the loading screen to the actual graphics test. Prime95 ran just fine with the GTX 780 and the system was unaffected other then the rising temps in the CPU.

Azanimefan is correct in that I have tried clean installs for both the 320.18 and 320.11 drivers for Nvidia and it hasn't made a difference. The GTX 580 was stable with both drivers. I'm just not sure what else it could be...

 

[azanimefan]

When I reinstalled the GTX 580 I made sure to run 3DMark and Prime95 to try and stress test both the 580 and my CPU for temperature stability and everything performed flawlessly with the GTX 580. The GTX 780 will cause a reset before 3DMark can transition from the loading screen to the actual graphics test. Prime95 ran just fine with the GTX 780 and the system was unaffected other then the rising temps in the CPU.

Azanimefan is correct in that I have tried clean installs for both the 320.18 and 320.11 drivers for Nvidia and it hasn't made a difference. The GTX 580 was stable with both drivers. I'm just not sure what else it could be...

you can try a return. it might be a faulty gpu. at least this will take up some time and nvidia might release non-buggy drivers in the inbetween time.

 

[Raman4434]

That's a good point. I guess I could try that but it works when it's installed in my other PC. I may try swapping out my PSUs and see if it works with another PSU just to rule that out before I go with a return.

 

[wingman99]

Did you try a new install of your OS?

 

[Culbrelai]

I had a random restarting issue a while back that I scoured the internet to fix. They'd happen at the weirdest times, including during gaming.

I did not think it could be overheating and I did check the temps... on my CPU. Not GPU, because I had set a custom fan curve on Precision X to keep my 670 cool at all costs.

As it turns out, my problem WAS overheating. Not on the fault of the hardware, nor software, but user error. Somehow, somewhere, Precision X did not start up on Windows boot, therefore my custom agressive fan curve was not implemented and my card was overheating, causing the random restarts.

Do you have EVGA Precision X or somesuch installed? If you don't, you really should set a custom fan curve as the default card's settings to ramp up the fan speeds seem woefully inadequate even on custom-cooler cards like yours.

 

[Raman4434]

I will give that a shot with Precision X and let you know. It is installed but I haven't really tampered with it aside from the installation. I am willing to perform a clean install of Windows but only as a last resort if at all possible. Thanks again for all the replies thus far.

 

[False Christian]

I prefer MSI Afterburner. It's got more features and is easy to learn and use.