Odd problem with GTX460

[BoomerD]

I built this computer around Christmas 2010 and things worked very well until a couple of months ago...Here's a rundown of the problems I'm having:
(cut from a thread on the EVGA forums)

April 2012

I have an EVGA GTX 460 EE card, (01G-P3-1373-AR)
I've had occasional problems where, when first booting up, the screen is "pixelated" and appears that the drivers aren't loading...usually, a quick re-boot fixes the issue...but not today.
I encountered the same "pixelated screen" this morning, and when I rebooted, I get the usual bios loading screens, my boot loader gives me the choice of which hard drive and OS I want, Vista 64 gives me the option of which account I want to open, password screen opens, then, when Vista starts to load, the screen goes black and the monitor loses signal, and stays that way.

I can load Vista 64 in Safe Mode with no problem, and I can boot into XP32 (second hard drive) with no problem. (that's where I'm posting from now.)

I've tried uninstalling the Vista drivers (296.10) and tried the newest beta drivers from the EVGA driver page...still not working.

Any ideas? Obviously, the card hasn't died...this has to be a driver problem.

Followed by:

Further information:
After posting my first message, I continued to work on this. Since I was unable to get into the Vista 64 OS, I went into Safe Mode, used the Control Panel/Device Driver to remove the graphics adapter and ran Driver Cleaner 3.20.

OOPS! Now the red LED on the motherboard for Video Card stayed on.

Since I was overdue for my monthly "de-dusting," I took the PC outside, removed the card, cleaned the dust out of everything, reassembled the PC, and hooked it back up.
On re-boot, the card was identified and Vista loaded...without graphics drivers. So far, I've been able to get the 295.73 drivers to work.

This is getting to be a PITA, but I have functionality for now.

July 2012

Just to update this...the problem continues...intermittently.
When I boot up, I get the odd pixelated screen and EVGA Precision says "No compatible Hardware Found." (or words to that effect.)

When I re-boot, I get to the Windows loading screen...then the video card seems to turn off. The PC continues to run, but the screen goes black and the LED on the monitor turns from green to amber. (indicating shut-down mode)

I've gone through the uninstall/Driver Sweeper/reinstall process a few times now...it's getting to be a real PITA...Sometimes that will restore functionality for a few days...other times, I have to do it a couple of times. Also, it seems like physically removing the card from the system and reinstalling it helps when just uninstalling/reinstalling the drivers doesn't work. Also, per the suggestions in the sticky, I have the nVidia HD Audio disabled. (but not un-installed)

August 2012
For some reason, the card that normally idles at about 30 degrees has started intermittently "heating up" at idle. Temp will jump into the 40-45 degree range, and when that happens, frame rates die. My "newest" game, COD2 usually runs at 150 FPS or more...when this latest "glitch" happens...it drops to 5-10 FPS.

USUALLY, a reboot will fix the problem for a while, but it always returns after a while.

Plus, I'm back to the problem of Windows starting to load...then the monitor loses signal. (looks like it goes into sleep mode...which is disabled) I can't even get into Windows to uninstall/reinstall the drivers.


As I mentioned above, I'm running a dual-boot system with Vista64 on one drive, XP Pro on the other. The problem happens when I try to boot into the Vista drive. I'm able to use the XP drive without any noticeable problems. Also, I can get into safe mode on the Vista drive without problems.
(unfortunately, I can't uninstall/reinstall the nVidia drivers in safe mode)

Later, I'll try removing the card from the board and reinstalling it. MAYBE that will work again. (it did once before)


i5-760
ASUS P7P55D-E-Pro
4X2 GB Corsair RAM
EVGA GTX460 Superclocked
Dell 24' monitor @ 1920x1080 (HDMI)

Thanks.

 

[Arzachel]

My guess is that the card can't take the overclock anymore. While that wouldn't explain all the issues, it wouldn't hurt to drop the clocks back to stock.

 

[daveybrat]

Sounds like a bad card to me.

 

[notty22]

Sounds like a bad card to me.

I agree.
A component going out of spec or a solder point being flaky. You have lived with enough bad card symptoms to ask for a replacement.

 

[BoomerD]

I've contacted EVGA support. I'll be waiting to see what they say.

I've never "overclocked" the card...it's factory overclocked. You could indeed be right that it's failing. That's my suspicion as well.

 

[BoomerD]

Using "Last Known Good Configuration" in the Safe Mode menu, I was finally able to get into Windows with only the generic video driver. I had to install an old nVidia driver to get functionality...but it's operational...for now.

What a PITA...Hopefully EVGA will agree and I can RMI this thing. (we'll see since it still MIGHT just be driver related.)