470, Driver problem or hardware issue in disguise?

[Davidh373]

Hello, I recently got a great deal on a Gigabyte GTX 470 on newegg ($250). Ever since I've installed it, I tried to install the gigabyte tool for OCing and fan speed and the like and I rebooted only to find blue and white dollar signs populating both of my monitors after Windows did its "windows is starting" splash page. I went into safe mode and removed the program (after 2 attempts to start up). It then ran fine. Here comes the strange part. Whenever windows has an update, it seems to again populate the screen with weird symbols, BUT a single hard restart with the normal windows start up boots fine. My first guess would be that this is a driver issue (maybe NVidia launched a bad version. It's not beyond them, or ATI for that matter). My second guess is there is something off with how the card runs the drivers, and I should contact Gigabyte and get it replaced. What do you guys think? Have any of you had this problem with Gigabyte, The 470, NVidia, or a combination of these factors?

 

[Genx87]

Any way to get a screenie of the issue? Are these symbols in windows or a dos like looking background?

 

[Davidh373]

Black Background and it's like a picture (not a very detailed one lol). It's not text anyway. It's before it actually boots into windows. Sometimes it's like blue and white squares instead of dollar signs. I unfortunately don't have a camera handy, so I can't take a picture...

 

[RussianSensation]

I would try uninstalling NV drivers, running a driver cleaner or driver sweeper on the system. Then perhaps try flashing the BIOS of your mobo to the latest version if you are not there already. Download the latest NV drivers. You could also try Windows Restore. Sometimes that helps.

Also did you monitor the voltage or temperatures on the card? Is it using 0.987-1.1V at load? Are the temps reasonable given 40% auto fan speed? Get MSI afterburner - forget Gigabyte software for fermi cards.

 

[4ghz]

I had a similar issue with a galaxy gtx 470. Right after the windows starting screen the colors would bug out for a second or two and then go back to normal. While in Windows I would sometimes get a hard lock. After 2 driver sweep/driver reinstall attempts I just trying a different driver version and that seem to solve it. Go figure.

 

[Davidh373]

Sorry I haven't been very active lately. I will try flashing my Mobo's latest Bios once I get a flash drive. The problem hasn't presented itself in the last few updates though.

I have reinstalled the drivers also, so maybe that cleaned it up.