GTX 580 - Driver Restarting

[EXCellR8]

I have a EVGA GTX 580 in one of my machines and I can't figure out why I keep getting a black screen, followed by the "video driver has stopped working" or along those lines. The picture comes back after a second or two but it's quite annoying.

Installed the latest driver and software from NVIDIA through the GeForce app but the problem persists. Card is displaying video through the mini hdmi to a 55" LCD TV screen, and temperatures are fine. Not sure why this is happening, looking for some advice. OS in Win7 64-bit. Thanks!

 

[VirtualLarry]

How long has it been since you have cleaned the dust out? Do you monitor GPU temps with GPU-Z or PrecisionX while in-game? What do your temps look like?

 

[bystander36]

That error happens often due to overheating.

 

[AntonioHG]

Are the card's clocks on default? I had one card that didn't like the factory overclock and I had to downclock it to avoid that particular crash.

 

[EXCellR8]

card is definitely not overheating... and is very clean. I have a non-reference Zalman VF3000F cooler installed and running at max speed. from what i can tell the clocks are correct and the system is being powered up by a 700w PSU. shouldn't be having any issues I wonder if I should try underclocking a bit? maybe i can grab a BIOS update...

 

[Hauk]

Where temps, psu, and everything else seem fine, I've found certain IQ settings to cause driver crash. With every Crysis game, certain settings would cause a crash. With Crysis 3 for example, shader based AA (TXAA, FXAA, SMAA) would cause a crash. I had to dial down my OC or up voltage to use them. Same with AC4. Try messing with IQ settings, if you find stability by lowering something, keep it lowered, or boost voltage/lower OC. PWMs cooled?

 

[WT]

I had the same issue on my GTX580 about a year and a half back. I ended up editing the registry to set a timeout value from 2 seconds to 8. Looks like MS even offers a 'Fixit' for you now to do just that:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2665946

This fixed my issue, so I'd give it a try and see if it resolves it. Easiest fix to try as well.

 

[EXCellR8]

I'll probably give that a shot... because it seems like the card is absolutely fine. If it were faulty I would think I would see some artifacts but there's nothing. And I'd say it doesn't have anything to do with GPU usage or gaming either because this happens even when the machine is just sitting idle on the desktop, doing nothing.

Thanks for the input, will update with my results.

 

[EXCellR8]

So I think I have this sorted out now, everything seems fine. Added the registry entry and brought the clocks down a touch. So far, so good. Hopefully it stays that way, because this system may be sold soon.

Thanks again for the assistance.

 

[WT]

Thanks for the update, EX ! Always good to hear that a hardware issue gets sorted out with minimal muss and fuss. I was in panic mode when I had it happen to me, as it was occurring maybe 5x a day on my card, only a year after I had plopped down $400 to buy it.

Fingers crossed for both of us that this issue goes and stays away.