New Build - Geforce 560Ti Crashing Even in Non-3D Applications

chazdraves

Golden Member
May 10, 2002
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Greetings, all! A bit of a problem. I just assembled a new rig which included the MSI Twin Frozr 560Ti. Everything is brand new and seems wonderfully stable except for the video card. I've tried the latest drivers and I've tried older drivers, I've tried overclocking and I've tried underclocking, I've even tried disabling PCI Spread Spectrum in the BIOS to no real avail. Last night, as an example, I was working in Painter 11 for 4 hours and experienced 24 or more such "lock ups" where the screen freezes in place while my audio continues playing unabated. Sometimes, I can leave it and it comes back on it's own, some times I have to Ctrl+Alt+Delete and click "Start Task Manager" and that seems to magically revitalize it, sometimes the whole thing simply hard resets and I lose everything.

The problem seems to be widely spread enough with this card that I considered trading this in for a 6950 until I found several 6950 owners having the exact same problem. Also, it's not isolated to any specific occasion - that I can determine. I've had it happen watching a YouTube video, working in Painter, or especially gaming. Rarely happens in Borderlands, happens shortly and permanently in Starcraft II. Max temps in a game are usually 55 with 72 being the hottest I've seen after 10 minutes of Furmark.

I did find one post here suggesting an increase in voltage via Afterburner but no one replied to say it worked for them:

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=197597

I've also seen a dozen other such posts claiming fixes that are usually contradicted in the first reply.

Anyhow, thanks for reading all of that. My PSU is a Corsair 650, processor is a AM3 965, everything is stock (gave up on overclocking some years ago). I had thought maybe a Radeon would be a better fit with my processor/mobo? I figured I'd turn to the experts before I ship it back (works a real charm when it works).

EDIT: I've seen this mentioned elsewhere as well. It may be relevant to note I'm using dual monitors (or it may not be).

Thanks for your time!
- Chaz
 
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tnt3k

Member
May 2, 2011
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somewhere i heard that its hiccuping due to the hdmi audio output. I dunno if you're using dual dvi or dvi and hdmi.

why don't you try one monitor and see if it hiccups. try with hdmi then with dvi and try to isolate the problem? if it works on one monitor, then try the other monitor by itself. if it has problems with just one monitor, check your cables for bent pins? I assume the monitor isn't the problem.
 

chazdraves

Golden Member
May 10, 2002
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Yes, I've also seen the HDMI cable mentioned as a culprit, but I'm only using dual DVI. I would take it down to one, but I really need the other monitor for what I do. I was considering upping the voltage as suggested (the reasoning makes sense to me), but I wanted to see if this was a known problem with a known solution.

- Chaz
 

tnt3k

Member
May 2, 2011
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i just found in another thread that the 560ti like mine likes to drop its clocks and so its not always performing at maximum ( i guess to save power. everything downclocks nowadays and i wish my car could downclock from using so much gas)

Precision_3D_forced_on.jpg


http://www.overclock.net/nvidia/1018710-solved-stuttering-games-asus-gtx-560-a.html#post13541574
 

notty22

Diamond Member
Jan 1, 2010
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Did you set your ram voltages for your particular ram in the bios.
A XFX representative has mentioned in the past, many stability issues attributed to the video card, (when there is no video card hardware problems) is ram /system instability. What happens , ram errors, trip the gpu driver. Which is hooked to the windows gui.
You could try running memtest by making a free bootcd from memtest.org.
 

chazdraves

Golden Member
May 10, 2002
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Well, in all honesty, I know I need to look at my RAM settings. I believe I have DDR3 1600 but it's running at 1333. I suppose there's a possibility that other RAM settings may also be incorrect.

Even still, disabling PCI-e Spread Spectrum seems to have helped some...?

I did know about the automatic underclocking. Frankly, I do enough things that aren't games that I would prefer it underclock itself when not needed so long as it doesn't cause problems in doing so.

- Chaz
 

chazdraves

Golden Member
May 10, 2002
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I just went into the BIOS and configured my RAM timings. My RAM came as 8-8-8-24 but was set at 9-9-9-24. I set the voltage at 1.5 per the spec, though I don't know what it was at before. I also increased it from 1333 to 1600 as it should be. I guess we'll see if there's any change from that alone. I may have to re-download Starcraft II as that seemed to crash faster than anything else.

Other thoughts?

Thanks,
- Chaz

Edit: Woot! 1,000 posts after a mere 9 years.
 
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Vesku

Diamond Member
Aug 25, 2005
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Both your monitors set at the same resolution, not sure about AMD but nVidia power management has a really hard time with different screen resolutions?
 

chazdraves

Golden Member
May 10, 2002
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Okay. Well, I've tried most everything. I tried the latest nVidia drivers again, I tried upping the voltage to 1.050 and finally 1.062, I tried disabling PCI-e Spread Spectrum, I tried disabling the power saving mode in the nVidia menu, and I also tried completely removing the 270 drivers and Afterburner and reverting to 266 via Windows Update with no monitor only to find that nothing fixed my problem. As noted above, I also went into my BIOS and configured the RAM settings to the appropriate 1.5V, 1600MHz, 8-8-8-24 with no luck.

Finally, on a whim, I went into the Control Panel and looked under "Power". I then checked the advanced settings for my power profile and found a category for PCI-Express with the option "Link State Power Management". Not knowing what it was, I turned it "Off"... and haven't had a single problem since despite many hours of gaming (including Starcraft II which was NEVER stable for more than 10 minutes).

Thoughts? Is that really the problem?

- Chaz
 

SolMiester

Diamond Member
Dec 19, 2004
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OP, in my experience, system locks up usually memory issues and as this is a new build, im betting your RAM isnt configured correctly...
What is your motherboard and RAM?
Edit - AFAIK, most 1600 DDR3 runs @ 1.65v
 
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chazdraves

Golden Member
May 10, 2002
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Like I said in my last post, disabling that Power setting has drastically improved system stability. I have had a couple of lockups since, but it's nothing like it was.

I configured my RAM already based on the manufacturer's specs here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004E0ZKOI

It says 1.5, anyhow. I know you're right that most 1600 is 1.65 but...

EDIT: From Corsair: http://www.corsair.com/vengeance-8gb-dual-channel-ddr3-memory-kit-cmz8gx3m2a1600c8.html And that's how I have mine set: 8-8-8-24, 1.5V, 1600MHz

- Chaz
 
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