2010/04/14 13:00:25
donta1979
Updated 28 March 2012
Will add pictures for this soon
5/6/7/8/9/200/400/500/600 Series Trouble Shooting/Updating/Install Guide for Drivers
This works with XP/Vista/Win 7 32/64bit operating systems
Ok first thing is go to Phyxion and get Driver Sweeper
Driver Sweeper from Phyxion.net


Vista and Windows 7
1. Of course download the Latest Drivers for your gpu & get Driver Sweeper
http://www.evga.com/support/download/ or http://www.geforce.com/Drivers

2. You next have three options going into Device Manager->Display Adapters RMB on your video card
and uninstalling Drivers click the box to remove software, or going into Add and Remove Programs / Programs and Features
and uninstalling the driver from there. Or you can run the new installer run a custom setup and make sure you have
Clean Install checked but doing this method can leave things behind in the registry, that may or may not cause issues.

3. In Add and Remove Programs / Programs and Features make sure you uninstall NVIDIA PhyX System Software,
NVIDIA Update, NVIDIA 3D VISION Driver & Software pretty much everything releated to your gpu.

4. Restart your computer after the post screen press F8 and boot into safemode, then run driver sweeper
as admin. Only selection options for nvidia display drivers, physx.

5. Reboot

6. Run the installer for the Drivers for your gpu, I would suggest running a custom installer, checking clean install
Only select drivers your going to use, if you your not using the gpu's audio, its 3d vision, I would not letting those
drivers install and disabling them in the custom install.

7. I would suggest rebooting after this Happy Gaming.

Suggestion, during the driver install going into the device manager and disabling the High Definition Audio
device. This is the cards audio for HDMI, if your not using HDMI for sound disable it. I know on EVGA motherboards with realtek
the two can not get along. Also you may want to reinstall your audio drivers on an evga board after installing/updating/fixing your
drivers.

Never Let Microsoft Windows Update/install drivers on your pc


600 Series Overclocking
Read this Guide from Guru3d GeForce GTX 680 Overclock Guide
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Heat: If your video card is running way too hot you may want to get one of the Utilities below to setup
a custom fan profile or just control your gpus fan manually.

EVGA Precision Get it now
"600 Series Owners"
EVGA Precision X Get it now
EVGA OC Scanner X Get it now
To rev up your fans. Also for Overclocking. For EVGA Customers here is Precision, Great app for those of you who have not used it.

Not an EVGA Customer get RivaTuner or MSI Afterburner

Use fan profiles with Precision This will help keep your cards cool as long as you have good airflow and decent ambient temps.

I suggest trying to keep your gpu under or around 70c at full load. It should give it a longer lifespan.
-------------------------------------GPU STILL HOT? ----------------------------------------------
Make sure you have good airflow/a good airflow case, make sure your hardware is clean and free of dust bunnies, there is an example
below on how a gpu can get clogged
Check out this post
Also See attached image in this post.


TIM aka Thermal Interface Material/Thermal Paste
I have found the folling tims to work at least for me on particular gpus and their heatsinks. Most TIM degrades over time with heat, seen it happen most with factory tim it can wear down in 6-8 months to years depending on temps/factory application of the TIM.
200 series and below Artic Silver 5, MX 2, MX 4,
400 Series: IC Diamond esp on the 480's or MX 2, MX 4,
500 Series: MX 2, MX 4, CM Thermalfusion 400" on the vaporchambers works great." only on smooth surfaces
600 Series: Have not played with yet


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Say No to Ntune knowing is half the battle
If your using an older socket 775 motherboard just dont use it I am sure most are on newer hardware now.

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Something else to try: Check all the connections inside your rig, power cables, hard drive cables you name it, also check to make sure your hardware cpu, ram, video card are seated in correctly. Make sure your NB is not blowing hot air directly into your video card if so find a way to move that hot air out of their fast.
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Helpful Hint on Gaming Slow Downs if Running 2 or more Monitors: If your running any video card that you can plug two monitors into and actually have 2 monitors plugged into one video card. And your games are running slow, or have some lag in them, unplug a monitor! Trust me this will save you a lot of time and effort.


------------------------Cheap Effective GPU Cooler For Any Series of GPU's--------------------------

This is very simple to make it takes a good pci slot fan cooler, some quick steel "at Target Walmart, a hardware store or you can use any type of epoxy putty", a good High powered 120mm fan 90CFM+. The picture is pretty much Self Explanatory on how to construct. I was able to get my 8800 Ultra up to 700 Core clock linked with this. Great little cheap thing to make for someone When you cannot afford a heavy duty aftermarket cooler for their gpus.
This is old and outdated but have used it on 400/500 series cards still works great.


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The Cooler in use, does not look snug due to camera angle of my notebooks built in webcam




This is from my old old setup and is a bit messy but you get the idea

Those of you with a bit more cash on hand want to have something that looks better in their computer but takes up two slots
Lian Li BS-08B PCI Slot Case Cooler or search for stores on a search engine to get it cheaper.

You will need to open it up and flip the fans around you can also change them out fully with some 120mm 90 CFM fans. Also if your doing sli have a big enough case to have two make sure your second card has a backplate so the metal of this does not make contact of the pcb of your second card.

Attached Image(s)

2010/04/14 13:38:35
sormaz
I'm a bit confused about that LianLi PCI cooler. So, if I am correct, when you get it the fans are oriented such that they suck air into the device and out the back of your computer, right? why would you want to turn them around? If you do that, then you are just going to suck hot, hot air from the behind your computer and eject it right onto the GPU's.
2010/04/14 13:51:01
donta1979
actually its far enough away since heat rises and the air flow is slow enough it blows cool air onto your gpus, I checked it myself and it blows a nice light cool breeze on the 480 GTX=) How else would i keep my 480 GTX idling at 40c and load at 65c in the case im using with ambient temps of 72F-80F
2010/04/14 14:00:13
ryu4000
donta1979

actually its far enough away since heat rises and the air flow is slow enough it blows cool air onto your gpus, I checked it myself and it blows a nice light cool breeze on the 480 GTX=) How else would i keep my 480 GTX idling at 40c and load at 65c in the case im using with ambient temps of 72F-80F


What fan speed are you using on the 480 i can get mine to stay down  to 66c at 80% fanspeed.
2010/04/14 14:01:53
donta1979
80-100% but I have taken alot of time to get the airflow just right in my case.
2010/04/14 14:06:22
firerx
excellent post Donta.


BR for the man, please
2010/04/14 14:23:19
Celeras
Aren't those first 8 steps a bit redundant, since thats exactly what Driver Sweeper does? I usually just go straight to safe mode->sweep.
2010/04/14 14:35:32
donta1979
No they are not each step is needed not always but when something goes wrong yeah, when skipping steps you can still run into issues I did when going from my 280's to 480, I skipped just steps 1 though 5 because I was in a hurry.... and low and behold some of my games would no longer start. Does not always happen but it does, and when it does your scratching your head of what is wrong with a big **** you have to be kidding me.... It does not always happen, its rare when it does, but these steps are the sure, failsafe way to make sure you do not run into any issues when upgrading gpu's or thier drivers. This post has been going for about three years and has helped 100's if not 1000's of registered users in the EVGA community alone.
2010/04/14 15:13:32
Celeras
Fair enough, but either way... is anything 1-8 NOT handled by Sweeper if it functions correctly? Just curious~
2010/04/14 16:04:04
Halo_003
Nice write up. I do have one thing to add though, when baking a card:

Make sure the GPU IHS(Part that touches the heatsink) is facing UP!! If you don't the core can fall off. I've seen it before.

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