graphics card dying?

[Timmah!]

Hello there,

i am seeking advice or your opinion on what is happening...

today, out of blue, while watching some utube and browsing, i got some nvidia driver failure, which seemed to be unable to solve itself (usually when the driver stops working, it manages somehow to re-initialize itself and everything is fine, but this time, it seemed to be unable to regain the stability...), so i turned the machine off...and since then, i cant get into Windows, cause i get BSOD on startup - cant get past the glowing Windows logo...once it goes away, it fails to move further, display goes to sleep -> BSOD or blank screen.

The reason for BSOD is apparently the dreaded nvlddmkm.sys and error 0x116...

My system is Win 7 64bit and the GPU is nvidia gtx590 bought in May 2011.

Now i tried about everything - installed/reinstalled/uninstalled 3 latest different drivers sets, some mumbo jumbo with extracting nvlddmkm.sy_ into sys and replacing it in Win32/Drivers...even added some stuff into registry following some utube video...nothing helps. I can get into Safe Mode or if i uninstall GPU in it, then into normal mode as well - but if i install some nvidia driver back and let it reboot, BSOD it is again...

so what is going on? Any ideas please? Do you think its the first sign of the GPU dying? Or if that was the case, i would have issue within Safe Mode as well, not only when the nvidia drivers are installed?

One interesting thing, i can see graphic artifacts of sorts, little spots in patterns across the gigabyte/motherboard main screen, which shows up, when i reboot the computer...seems to be present now every single time, i guess i rebooted at least 20 times this evening and everytime i saw it, it was obvious my attempts to fix things were unsuccesful.

Thanks for any help you can provide...

 

[Deders]

Sounds like it may be on its way out, just out of curiosity, is the fan still working on the 590?

 

[laamanaator]

I had a similar problem with a Radeon HD 6870, with the difference that i could get in to windows with drivers installed, but only for a moment. Artifacts showed on the screen and it crashed(blue screen). I even had exactly the same bug check code (0x116) and ati driver as the reason. The fix for the problem was the oven trick. Took the cooler out and with (tin or aluminium, cant remember)foil protected the capacitors, heated the oven to 190°C, and "cooked" the card for 7-8 minutes. It's working perfectly fine now and is in use( the pc that i used to write this post). Although i would use this "trick" as a last resort.

 

[cholley]

some problem 2 weeks ago on a gtx560, i could get in with safe mode, or with no driver loaded, with any driver it would BSOD.

i sent the card back to ASUS, it was only a couple months out of warranty, see if they do anything for me

 

[mikeymikec]

I've seen it a fair few times that a graphics card could manage VGA mode but would crap out every time I attempted to install the correct driver for it. I binned the card and moved on.

One time recently was especially impressive, a GeForce 8400 GS would work in VGA mode fine, but when installing the appropriate driver and rebooting would result in garbled text before Windows even started

Another side possibility might be power related.

 

[Timmah!]

Thanks for your responses.

Interesting idea with the cooking, did not think about that. Might be worth a try, if everything else fails.

I am taking today gtx580 from computer at work and will try to replace it - should make it clear whether its hardware issue or not. If its not, then i guess windows reinstall might me my next move or even potentially format of entire C disk. Luckily its an SSD only with apps installed and all my data is on HDDs.

Either way, i should find out the culprit today. Unless its instability caused by some other component, mobo or CPU....i hope not, cause its x58 mobo and it would not be easy to replace that....and i would have to do that, cause the CPU is intel sixcore, i cant lose that one, that would be waste of money of epic proportions....

Wish me luck please.

EDIT: bit of an update, it does work indeed with the replacement GTX 580 just fine. Could get into Win no issue. And the Gigabyte logo screen at startup was without any visual corruption - was almost sure at that point its going to be ok.
I tried to dump the dust out of the 590 and will put it back again to see if it helps - if it does not, well i guess then the oven cooking is my last chance to fix it...otherwise i will have to buy a new card. Too bad you cant get dual card for 600 EUROs like those 4 years ago. Now such money is about 150 short of getting you the 980Ti, which is not even the most powerful single GPU. Oh well...Not to mention 750 EUROs is terribly lot, even i have some work related use for it and can recoup some money invested thanks to it....

 

[Timmah!]

one more thing... i put it back and while i was able to get to Win this time around even with it, it wont pass Unigine Benchmark nor OCCT - trying to run either will end in screen going black very quickly, in case of Unigine preceded by some fatal error and bit of a local flickering....

the replacement gtx580 passed unigine no issues...

so i guess this makes it almost certainity the card is faulty, yet one more question to you> could it be PSU as well? Its Seasonic S12-D 750W Silver, so i guess reliable kind, but still 5 years old...and the 590 is 2x 8pin while 580 is 8pin + 6 pin.... could it be that the PSU cant handle 590, but is still good enough for 580? Or very unlikely? Is there any way i can test PSU somehow for system stability?

thanks

 

[laamanaator]

I dont think its the psu. Although it has some age on it, it is still a quality psu and should not be failing. But if you want to be sure, either buy a psu tester(is it newegg you guys use? I know very few shops outside of Finland that sell pc components), or borrow from someone(or buy) a gtx 580 and put it to sli with your 580. They eat more power together than the gtx 590
Its midnight here so there might be some typing errors in the text.

 

[Timmah!]

I dont think its the psu. Although it has some age on it, it is still a quality psu and should not be failing. But if you want to be sure, either buy a psu tester(is it newegg you guys use? I know very few shops outside of Finland that sell pc components), or borrow from someone(or buy) a gtx 580 and put it to sli with your 580. They eat more power together than the gtx 590
Its midnight here so there might be some typing errors in the text.

Thank you. I am in Europe like you, so no newegg for me, but maybe i can find the tester in some local computer shop. Or find someone who owns the thing.

 

[laamanaator]

I did found some psu testers in newegg, but they only measured voltages, wich you can see and check from bios. You'd need a tester, that meaures Ampers, because the gtx 580 wouldn't work if the psu gave too litle voltage to 12v rail. And with a bit of searching, a load tester(measures wattage) cost around 1500$, so the easiest way to test the psu is to get another GTX 580 for sli and see if it works.
Apparently, memory doesn't work right in the midle of the night...

 

[Zarajohn]

Hello,
Just purchased another Sapphire Radeon 6870 GPU for my new pc. Without the card, everything works fine and dandy and I have no issues doing anything with the on board representation on the i5 2500k. When I introduced the card and began up my pc (everything appears to work consummately), the determination was confined to 800 by 600 (in light of the fact that I have not yet introduced the drivers yet). I went to Sapphire's site and download the drivers, introduced and restarted my pc. It gets up to where windows 7 demonstrates the stacking screen with "Microsoft Corporation" composed on the base and after that the screen goes totally dark and stays like that. I'm still ready to go into the bios and burden windows in protected mode utilizing the card, however I cant go into typical windows (in view of the dark screen after the stacking screen). When I expel the card from the motherboard and attachment my screen into the incorporated GPU port, everything keeps on living up to expectations fine. but i m surprising what happens.


Thanks
Zarajohn@