Display drivers keep crashing. Fresh install. GTX670 + 3770K

[alfa147x]

• GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UP5 TH LGA 1155 Intel Z77 Thunderbolt Motherboard
• Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) HD 4000 Graphics
• Asus GTX670 Top (GTX670-DC2T-2GD5)
• Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler
• CORSAIR Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600
• 120 GB OWC Mercury Electra 3G SSD MacSales
• Seasonic SeaSonic X760 -760W 80Plus Gold Certified ATX12V PSU
• SilverStone RAVEN Series RV03

It been a while since I've had time to game and wanted to play Grid 2. The game will start up and get into the first race but after a few seconds of racing it'll freeze. Sometimes it'll freeze just after launching the game during the openeing sequence then I can Alt-F4 to the desktop. When that happens I will Atl-F4 out and I get a little pop-up in my taskbar saying the NVidia drivers have crashed and sucessfully recovered.
I've installed BF 3, and Metro Last Night. Metro will play the opening sequence and then freeze.
I installed GRID 2 on my old machine and it works fine. (My gf uses it)

• Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3 Motherboard
• Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 HD3000
• Dual MSI GTX 460 Hawk (N460GTX)
• Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler
• CORSAIR Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600
• 120 GB OWC Mercury Electra 3G SSD
• Seasonic SeaSonic X760 -760W 80Plus Gold Certified ATX12V PSU
• Fractal Design Define R3 Arctic White w/ USB 3.0

I just installed Windows 8 with all the latest drivers and updates. I'm really stumpted on this one. Any ideas?
Thanks for the help!
Alfa


Edit:
My desktop has 3x Dell u2412m monitors while her machine has only 2. I tried only plugging one in and launching a game on mine. No luck.
Edit: Ran GeFroce Experience and it tweaked some of the game settings for Metro. I was able to play possibly 30 seconds of actual game play before it locked up. GPU temps peaked at 53°c. I'm going to run it again. This time logging the CPU temps.
Resintalling GFX drivers before doing that.
Edit 2: I wouldn't know when that was. It's been while since I've had Windows on this machine and even longer since I attempted to game. * just reinstalled drivers. About to start logging temps and play a game.

Edit 3: Just reinstalled drivers. CPU temps don't go above 40°c while GPU temps hover around 55°c. So it's not a temp problem. Going to install older drivers now.

Version 314.07 - WHQL
Release Date Mon Feb 18, 2013

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Since the forum has been down I posted this on Reddit. Didn't really get very much help there so I'm posting it here.


Latest development:
Installed Windows 7. Now installing drivers. Hopefully this helps.

 

[toyota]

there is a known issue with Windows 8 and Nvidia drivers so google it

 

[stahlhart]

I get TDR if I'm pushing my 670s too hard with core overclocking; I've seen it with multiple driver versions, always during Valley and Heaven runs.

Didn't the Asus DC2T 670s have an issue early on with being clocked a little too aggressively at the factory? If you have a GPU overclocking utility installed, you might want to try backing off the core clock one 13MHz increment to see if it stabilizes things a little more.

 

[alfa147x]

I get the same error in windows 7.

No Overclocking. Everything is at stock. I might reset the bios and see what happens
Going to test the memory then I'll reset the BIOS.

It's really odd. I run OS X 24/7 and many hours during the week the GPU is handling OpenCL intensive apps but I haven't had an issue. I wonder if this might be a DirectX thing? Idk. Running out of ideas here.

 

[stahlhart]

At what point does the crash to desktop occur?

 

[alfa147x]

For GRID 2 it's been a few seconds of actual racing after the intro / cut sceen. For Metro at first it wouldn't get past the menu animation and then after I downgraded drivers it was about 15 seconds of user controlled game play.


*Edit:
Thanks for the help guys. I'm really frustrated with this. Really wanted to spend my weekend at home playing a damn video game for once.

I've never run memtest. Is it good enough to just let it run the test it starts with at boot?

*Currently at Passed 28%

 

[stahlhart]

Not sure if you want to do this, but -- have you tried swapping the Hawk into the IB build to see if you still get the TDR, and/or swapping the 670 into the SB build to see if you end up moving it there?

 

[alfa147x]

Not sure if you want to do this, but -- have you tried swapping the Hawk into the IB build to see if you still get the TDR, and/or swapping the 670 into the SB build to see if you end up moving it there?

Gf just went to bed. Going to do it after memtest finishes. Should I do a fresh install of 7? Or Win8?

Memtest status: 44%

Just ripped a GTX460 out. It's in the batter's box just waiting on memtest

 

[stahlhart]

You shouldn't have to -- maybe a clean installation of drivers at the most, but even that seems a little pedantic.

 

[stahlhart]

I just recall back when those DC2T cards first came out, there were some customers having stability problems with them, because Asus clocked them at the factory a little higher than they should have:

http://www.overclockers.com/asus-gtx670-directcu-ii-top-gpu-review

Have you tried bumping your power target a little higher, say 105-110%?

 

[alfa147x]

I just recall back when those DC2T cards first came out, there were some customers having stability problems with them, because Asus clocked them at the factory a little higher than they should have:

http://www.overclockers.com/asus-gtx670-directcu-ii-top-gpu-review

Have you tried bumping your power target a little higher, say 105-110%?

Hmm. If the 460 works I'll just RMA it. But I might try that for a weekend fix. I did buy it as soon as NewEgg had them in stock.

 

[alfa147x]

Memtest passed with no issues. Now trying the 460

 

[alfa147x]

Holy crap. I was able to finish the 1st race with the 460. Going to try bumping the power on 670

 

[stahlhart]

Do you have a GPU overclocking utility with an OSD that shows the core and memory clocks? Just curious what your 670 is running at. Good to hear that you're making some progress here, though.

 

[alfa147x]

I'm using Asus's GPU Tweak

That's the longest I've been able to play. I've set it back to default for now... Before I get too carried away

I bumped the power target and then ran the game. Got a tad bit more play time before it locked up. On the GPU Usage % you can see where the game locked up.

Any ideas?

 

[stahlhart]

Do you have an older game to try that won't push the GPU to 100%? Or, if you're running with vsync off, can you try temporarily enabling it, just to back off the load on the card?

Your specs all look good apart from that; you're not throttling back while you're running, and your temperatures are good.

I'm just curious to see if you get the TDR below 100% utilization.

 

[alfa147x]

I'll give that a shot tomorrow. Just filled out their RMA form. If I have time this week I'll just steal one of my GTX 460 and run it in my machine while the GTX 670 is out getting fixed.

Thanks a lot for all of your help. I'll update this post tomorrow with some sub 100% results.

 

[Muyoso]

I have almost an identical system as you. I had the same thing happen. Your GPU is clocked too aggressively. Either underclock it a bit, or bump up the voltage a bit. I did both. Haven't had an issue since.

 

[imaheadcase]

Everything with driver stopped responding is related to driver itself. What nvidia driver install instructions don't tell you is you have to do lots of resetting. For SLI setup I always had to reset pc each time after in enable or disable, install new driver, etc.

I used to think it was a voltage problem, but it was only because I never reset PC like lots of people i leave it on 24/7. I'm not sure what the deal is, supposedly nvidia got rid of the need to reset PC, but it still occurs on every system i've dealt with.

 

[kbp]

My 560ti had problems with the 320 drivers. I rolled back to 314.
Just got a Titan and am running the newer 320 and have had one crash. If it happens again I'll roll back to the 314's again. (In win8) Nvidia's got something going on here that needs attention.

 

[Termie]

Roll back drivers to 314.22. You said you were going to try 314.07 but didn't report back. You were clearly still using 320.18 when you installed Win7...

320.18 has lots of problems.

 

[alfa147x]

I have almost an identical system as you. I had the same thing happen. Your GPU is clocked too aggressively. Either underclock it a bit, or bump up the voltage a bit. I did both. Haven't had an issue since.

I'll play with it but either way it's going back. I've never OC it so it seems like the manufacturer's problem to fix.

My 560ti had problems with the 320 drivers. I rolled back to 314.
Just got a Titan and am running the newer 320 and have had one crash. If it happens again I'll roll back to the 314's again. (In win8) Nvidia's got something going on here that needs attention.

Meh I rarely game on the 670. I need a card with more OpenGL performance. I'm considering an AMD card for my next machine.

Everything with driver stopped responding is related to driver itself. What nvidia driver install instructions don't tell you is you have to do lots of resetting. For SLI setup I always had to reset pc each time after in enable or disable, install new driver, etc.

I used to think it was a voltage problem, but it was only because I never reset PC like lots of people i leave it on 24/7. I'm not sure what the deal is, supposedly nvidia got rid of the need to reset PC, but it still occurs on every system i've dealt with.

Process here:

• Install Windows
• Install only necessary mobo related drivers
• Install graphics driver
• Install game + play

After each step listed above I rebooted.

Roll back drivers to 314.22. You said you were going to try 314.07 but didn't report back. You were clearly still using 320.18 when you installed Win7...

320.18 has lots of problems.

When I had 314.07 installed it would let me play for just a few more seconds. Nothing fancy.

 

[alfa147x]

Played with the 670 a bit today:
Ran stable with this -

GRID 2 Benchmark with display options maxed out @ 1920 x 1200

 

[Red Squirrel]

I had the exact same issue with my GTX 560 in Windows 7. That was one of the things that prompted me to switch to Linux though I have different issues there (random square artifacts will start to pop up, among a dozen other random issues). My friend got the 560 and same thing happens to him too. This is not looking too good if it's also happening with the 670, means Nvidia aint bothering to fix the issue.

Wonder if upgrading to the Titan would fix the issue. Funny I saw this thread since I just finished trying an ATI card in Linux as a troubleshooting step, but I trashed my install by trying it so I'm back on the nvidia card.

That was a $200 troubleshooting step that went nowhere.

Oh and when the issues happen to me it's never when gaming. In fact I can push the card very far, furmark, whole nine yards, no issues. The issue usually happens in desktop programs like Firefox or Thunderbird. (though not those apps exclusively)

 

[stahlhart]

Played with the 670 a bit today:
Ran stable with this -

So just rolling back your core clock 91MHz solved it? Interesting.

You might want to see if you can recover some of the performance by clocking VRAM higher. I'm running 7160 effective here (MSI 670 PE SLI) with no issues. Actual results might be game-specific, though.