Hello everyone!
 
I have had the GTX 980 SC ACX 2.0 since it was released and have had nothing but problems with them. They have caused plenty of games to randomly display a constant grey/black screen and at times have cause my PC to freeze resulting in a manual restart. I have tried everything I can possibly think of to try an resolve the issue. It seems to mostly happen when running SLI, have had it occur once or twice running with a single card. Here is a list of troubleshooting I have done:
 
- Have tested each card on its own (results show that I do not get the grey/black screen while only running with once card)
- Have tested both cards together 
- Have swapped slots on the MOBO
- Have tried new SLI bridge
- Have run a full system diag/checked hardware (CPU, RAM, and HDD are fine)
- Have tried installing new drivers
- Have tried installing older drivers
- Have used DDU to uninstall drivers to ensure a clean install each time
- Have reformatted PC
- Have tested other GPU in PC (results show other GPU runs fine)
 
I know some people have had luck down clocking their cards, but in my eyes this is not a "fix" it is only a work around. If the cards are not able to run stable with the OC settings that the manufacturer releases them with then explain to me what I paid the extra money for. Currently I am RMAing my cards and will report back with the results from the new cards, but if they are still having the same issue i will be very disappointed and at that point will have no idea where to turn. Please let me know if anyone has tried other methods that may have help or resolved the issue, im open to suggestions.
 
System Specs:
860watt Corsair PSU
EVGA X99 Classified
Intel Core i7 5930k 
1TB WD Black Edition HDD
Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB
GTX 980 SC ACX 2.0 (x2)

Sajin
EVGA tech support are currently working on a fix for this issue. Best thing to do would be to contact evga tech support and talk to them about it.

So just to be clear EVGA has recognized an issue for this specific card and are working on a fix? Can you link me a source please. 
 
By the way I have spoken to EVGA tech support plenty of times now and this is how I was able to get the approval for the RMA on both my cards.

I was reading into that thread a little earlier. Only time I am experiencing this issue is while playing games though. Does this still fall under the same issue?

Sajin

kookookachoo8
I was reading into that thread a little earlier. Only time I am experiencing this issue is while playing games though. Does this still fall under the same issue?

In that thread the OP says it happens to him randomly when he is playing a game.

Okay, Thank you. I will continue with my RMA's still but I will also keep a close eye on that thread. Thanks again!

kookookachoo8
Just got my RMA'd card and am running it SLI with the other card that I have still not RMA'd and I am still experiencing the same issue, any suggestions?

I recall that when I had certain overclocks, that I received a couple instances where I got the black screen/ grey screen, and then it would refresh. Sometimes it would crash right to deskstop, without the drivers crashing. So I lowered my clocks down....Just out of curiousity (since you have not tested this yet.) Would you mind going in and lowering your clocks, at least 150mhz on core clock and about 200 on memory clock. I just want to know what happens and if you experience the problem. It's worth a try...
 
I understand that you are not overclocking, but that's not to say that the EVGA overclocks may have a stability issue. Even if it's not crashing the drivers, it can be enough to give you crazy hiccups like you're experiencing.
 
I understand that underclocking your GPU is not a fix. we're only troubleshooting. If this doesn't do anything...
 
Could you take out the RMA'd card, run the card that you have not RMA'd...individually, taking out the new one that you have received, run that card for a couple hours to see what kind of patterns you get...write down if anything happens. If not...
 
then swap out with the new one, run the new card individually and see what you get. Write down anything that happens.
 
Let us know what results you get, and we'll go from there.

I know it's quite a process...We got to trouble shoot to find the problem.

kookookachoo8
I have been running on the single card that was not RMA'd the entire time while I was waiting for the other to come back to me. While running single card I experience no issues and can play any game for hours. While running SLI I experience the issue. I'm getting ready to blow my brains out at this point this issue has been going on for a veryyyy long time now and am fed up.

Can you do me a small favor... Can you copy the BIOS version on each card? You should be able to get this from GPU Z. or through Control Panel (I think). Sorry, I never had issues like this before or had the need to trouble shoot my GPUs, so my direction on this process are a little limited.
If you can post your BIOS version.. That might be the possible link causing the situation.

Sajin
Running two different vbios shouldn't affect sli performance. If you want to update both cards to the latest vbios contact evga and request they send you the latest vbios to your e-mail. The vbios will come with instructions on how to update both cards.

Thanks for that. I wasn't really quite sure.

Do you have anything overclocked? Are you running the latest motherboard BIOs?
 

Not having the supplemental power connected may be the issue. When the lights go on and off the nvidia driver is resetting the cards.

What that mean with single EVGA GTX980Ti SC ACX 2.0 no problems in games? 
Only with two or more?
That's very interesting model because waterblock is compatible and with TITAN X.
I would really like to waterblocks stay same at least for two generation of cards. 
Than more people will decide to go on watercooling.

sounds strange, because an PSU can not cause problems like this.
 
greyscreens are caused by voltage drop on overclocked Maxwell cards.
EVGA/board partners have trying to fix this with lower boost state in the BIOS.
 
Proof:
http://fs1.directupload.net/images/150712/woacajew.png
left side fixed BIOS, right side default BIOS
 
however this problem can still happen on cards with high ASIC ( 80+ )
 
 

Bad news, It's back. Grey/Black screen issue is continuing to happen after i reformatted my PC. I am upgrading to windows 10 not sure it will have any effect but figured it worth a shot considering I don't have many other options. 

Since I've upgraded to windows 10 I haven't encountered the grey/black screen issue (yet). Although twice now my entire pc has frozen while playing a game, not allowing me to alt tab, or ctrl alt del out of it, the only option is to hard reset the pc. Does this still mean hardware is causing the issue? 
 
By the way i'm limited to what i can test with, I do not have access to addition hardware to test anymore.

I hope so too, I've been stuck with this issue for a long ass time now and am honestly considering just selling this this to someone who's more willing to troubleshoot and fix it. Then just buy new parts and build a new PC lol. 

I can't rule out if its hardware or software though. Like I said though it seems that the grey/black screens are gone, but pc freezing is a lot less tolerable. I did look at my event viewer and did see that just before or around the last time my pc froze it was the event ID 4101 (Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.) 
 
Only thing i've changed since that last crash was my power options to high performance. (which i dont think would fix the issue, but at this point I'll take anything).