Hi all.
I have a question regarding the BIOS version of the GTX 690. Mine are indicating the latest versions BIOS: 80.04.1E.00.90 for gpu (0) and 80.04.1E.00.91 for gpu (1).
These are the same BIOS versions that are available from TechPowerUp, however TechPowerUp states they are not UFEI supported.
I contacted EVGA tech support and I was told there are no newer versions of the BIOS for this card, however in the forum there is a thread "UEFI BIOS for 600 Series".
I'm confused, the thread was created September 25, 2015 and my current BIOS build date is April 30, 2012. Is there a version of these drivers that is UFEI supported, or do the current ones I have  already include it?
 
I have been getting BSOS's listing DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION as the error on all drivers newer than 385.69 when playing common games. Dump files always point to the "nvlddmkm.sy" file as the offending culprit when Microsoft support techs looked at them. There are a plethora of possible solutions for this issue and I have run through them all and exhausted any more options. I see others in different forums having similar issues. I had a glimmer of hope when I came to these forums and saw the UEFI BIOS for 600 Series thread. The creator of the DDU (Wagnard) utility did post a file for a so called UEFI BIOS for the 690 that he received from EVGA support and it's dated July 14, 2013 and the BIOS values are 80.04.1E.00.F0 and 80.04.1E.00.F1. He had a 690 Signature card. Why the difference in the "F0/F1" vs my "90/91" at the end of the values? Will having a UEFI BIOS on my 690 even get rid of the BSOD's associated with newer drivers?
 
I have Windows 10 64bit Pro so for the time being Microsoft allows me to prevent Windows updates to individual hardware ID's but users of regular Windows 10 can not. It's an all or nothing deal with the updates. Removing the newer drivers and installing driver 385.69 only works until the next startup and Windows slaps in the newest WHQL and the problem returns. EVGA tech support recommended leaving the 385.69 driver installed and just sticking with it, but nVidia keeps releasing new drivers that include the 690 as compatible when it is not. Around and around...
 
Any help and clarification on this is welcome.
 
If anything, I hope that this thread will provide useful to GTX 690 users that are suffering from this issue and just going around in circles trying to solve it.
 
Cheers.

Thanks Sajin.
 
Would you recommend that I install the BIOS that was provided by the nVidia forum member based on the vbios changes?
I just don't want to screw up my card that's all.
Thanks.

Well there was some update to one of my games on the latest 391.01 driver, but it looks like it won't matter anyway.
 
I did flash the other BIOS's into the gpu's but the same games still BSOD when they load, so updating/changing the BIOS did not work.
It appears driver 385.69 will be the last for the GTX 690 that doesn't bin it. The latest driver is even worse for the BSOD than the previous releases so I don't believe this issue will be going away anytime soon if ever. I just hope Windows doesn't put some update out that requires the newer drivers and renders the card a paperweight. I guess I shouldn't complain, I got a solid 6 years out of a $1,000 graphics card.
 
Thanks for your responses Sajin, they were helpful and much appreciated.
 
Cheers.

Do the newer drivers turn the clock speeds up? I never looked at any of the settings because I just leave them default. I dabbled with overclocking it years ago but it just became too unstable rapidly, even with small incremental bumps to values. It is true that it never was a good card for boosting anything on it, so I just left it reference.
I do have nVidia Inspector so I can check it out. I never thought that nVidia would distribute drivers that are outside default stock reference values.
I reinstalled driver 385.69. I'll take a look at the reference values that It's using and try the 391.01 again and see if it has turned anything up.
If the newer drivers don't increase anything, I'm not sure what settings to reduce, base clock offsets, memory clock offsets, power and temperature targets or voltage offsets.
Great idea though!
 
Cheers.

I pulled the base clock offset down to its lowest value, -540 MHz and I still got a BSOD of the same DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION pointing at the usual nvlddmkm.sys file . At that point I didn't bother with the memory offsets because with the lowest base clock offset I had World of Tanks for example go from 114-118 FPS to about 74-78 FPS and the graphics were degraded. The BSOD occurred within 10 minutes of using WoT.
Temperatures naturally were down quite a bit with that low of an offset.
Interestingly with driver 391.01 installed nVidia Inspector shows a box "Est Max" with a value of "1032 MHz" which is higher than the value of "1020 MHz" in the "Boost" box.
With driver 385.69 installed the "Est Max" box is greyed out and there is no value in it. I would assume that using the much decreased base clock offset however would have still pulled that "1032 MHz" value down.
 
Cheers.

Hey, no worries it was a great idea and worth a try!
 
I really appreciate the help and suggestions you put forth, refreshing from the usual "is the card seated properly?" stuff that usually is encountered. You really did try to help.
I'll just continue happily with driver 385.69 as it works great with this card without issues. I suppose the "if it isn't broke don't try to fix it" rule applies here, but I did learn a lot of new things over the last couple of days due to trying and your suggestion. Perhaps nVidia will release a driver in the future that doesn't make a mess of the GTX 690 card, although I'm not hopeful, but hey one never knows...
 
A big thank you!
 
Cheers,
Thad

(Here I am!)
 
Doesn't DDU implement an option that prevents updating video card drivers?