Just updating as I said I would to say that the problem has disappeared for me altogether after switching out motherboards. I was using an MSI GD80, and I'm now using an Asus P7P55 WS. Both motherboards use the P55 chipset, but the Asus uses the NF200 chipset for extra PCI-E lanes. The rest of the hardware is identical.
 
So again, the "fix" messing around with audio drivers is a meaningless waste of time. The problem must be elsewhere.

matrices

This posted "fix" should be relegated to the trashcan and anyone with this problem should go here for real solutions:

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=187401&st=0

Just took a quick peek at that post.  Interesting stuff.  So far, I only see one EVGA X58 board under the list of mainboards/gfx cards that dont have this issue.  A few days ago, I upped my PCI-E frequency to 103 (this is actually listed under one of the possible fixes in that post).  So far, my system is stable.  Unfortunately, I wont know if this solved my issue for another few weeks (the black screen problem does not occur frequently on my rig).  I would suggest everyone experiencing this issue take a look at that post over @ nvidia and post your system specs if possible.  Hopefully, if we get enough people together on this, the problem can be resolved...

Well, I have a bit of an update. I came home today after a few hours and noticed my screen saver seemed to have failed to come on. When I tried to wiggle the mouse, I found my system to be completely frozen (the system appeared to be idling at the desktop). None of the keyboard buttons worked either (i.e. Caps Lock, num lock all failed to come on). I did a hard reboot and sure enough after trying to enter my password, my system black screened. The monitors turned off (indicated by the LED status light turning to orange on my monitors). This time however, something was different. After a few seconds, the monitors turned back on. In addition, Windows emitted an audible beep (the one that indicates a USB drive/device was removed and then plugged back in). I went into my event viewer and found the following error message: "Event 4101, Display: Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered" This is the first time the system has recovered from a black screen and generated an event viewer message. The only thing I did different between now and the last blackscreen was changing the PCI-E Frequency from 100 to 103. I am not sure if that is what caused the display drivers to recover (probably not) but at least I now have something more to go on. In addition to checking the event viewer I also checked the minidump folder on my system, but nothing was there.
For those that are having the same problems, does your event viewer show any display related errors? I found this one under the system log. I guess one good this about this is I am now 100% confident the root cause of this problem is either the cards themselves or the NVIDIA drivers.  I think I will try giving EVGA a call tomorrow to see if they can offer any additional  information/possible solutions. 
 
 
Hmm, just found this link.  It applies to Vista and Server 2008, but maybe its the same issue we are having.  There is also another link within this artice, but I have not yet reviewed it:
 
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd349439(WS.10).aspx

this is user list of the boards which have compatibily issues and boards which works with 400 series without issues...seems like gigabyte and asus have more issues...
 
I have EVGA 780 sli with EVGA GTX 465 and 9600GT..i have no issues

 
I will highlight EVGA boards 
Club members or List of boards with known issues, username/board/card:
Current number of users listed reporting issues: 75

3sheets: MSI X58 Pro-E Intel X58/EVDA GTX460's in SLI

Awdm: MSI K9A2VM-FD/Gainward GTX 460 1GB GS

Bayzombie: ASUS P6X58D Premium/Evga GeForce GTX480 Superclocked

bensimon: Asus P7P55D-E/EVGA GTX 460 768Mb

bk6: Gigabyte X58A-UDR3/Gigabyte 460 1GB
bk6: Gigabyte X58A-UDR3/MSI 460 1GB

bloefield: Asus P6T Deluxe/MSI Talon Attack 460

BrendanCysewski: Asus P6T Deluxe V2GTX/EVGA 470 and 480 and a GTX 580 (all locked up)

Buster_Dee: EVGA 790i Ultra SLI/PNY 480 GTX

c0d3ster: ASUS P7P55D-E Pro/EVGA GeForce GTX460 768MB DDR5

carlo_0000: M2N SLI-DELUXE/club3d gtx 460

cB.Fireball: ASUS P6T Deluxe (V1) w/ Intel X58 Chipset/Gainward GTX 460 1 GB

CowboyTony: Gigabyte GA-MA790x-UD3P/Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 Super Overclock 1GB DDR5(GV-N460SO-1GI)

CRS_2: Asus P7P55D/Asus ENGTX470

D4rKr0W: Asus P5Q/Gainward GTX 460 768mb
D4rKr0W: Asrock X58 Extreme3/Gainward GTX 460 768mb

DaVillen: Asus P5N-D SLI/ASUS GTX 480

DeathSlasher: Asus M4A78-EM/1394/Galaxy GTX 460 1GB GC

Dervious: Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD3P/Gigabyte GTX460 OC 1GB

Dr Nick: ASUS P6T/EVGA GTX 480 SC

Eruldan: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7/Asus ENGTX480

deserttears: MSI P55-GD55/Gigabyte Geforce GTX460 768MB

Emir_S: Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3/Gigabyte GTX-460 768 MB

firehot: Asus Striker Extreme/Asus 470

FPK: Asus P5N-E SLI/Gainward GTX 460 2 GB
FPK: Asus P5QD Turbo/Gainward GTX 460 2 GB

gasparmx: MSI AMD 890GX/ECS NVIDIA 470 GTX

gecko1001: ECS GF8100VM-M5/Palit GTX 460 768mb

Genetic_Drifter: Asus M3a-h HDMI/MSI Cyclone 460gtx 768D5

germaj: ASUS P6TD Deluxe/Galaxy GTX 460 1024MB

ghling: ASRock 870 Extreme3/gtx 460

handbanana: ASUS M4A89 GTD/MSI GTX 470

Hadesg: Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3/Gigabyte GTX470

Happy25: Asus 7p55d/Gainward GTX 460
Happy25: MSI Platinum P965/Gainward GTX 460

HarryMason: Intel (Love Valley P) P965 Viiv Motherboard R0/Palit GeForce GTX 460 Sonic 2GB

jandrin: Gigabyte ud5-x58a/2 Gigabyte GTX 460oc 1gb SLI'd

Kackarot00: ASUS P7P55D-E/460gtx (need model)

Kanta: ASRock A785GXH128M/Nvidia Geforce GTX 460 OC Ultra series,1GB GDDR5 (GV-N460OC-1GI) (need model)

Knut_Stanley: Asus M4A88TD-M/Gainward geforce GTX 460 768 MB

Krisiun: ASUS P6X58D-E/PoV GTX 480

Kumite23: ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/Gigabyte GV-N460DS-768I-B

m84: ASUS P5B/Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB OC

_Mas_: Asus Rampage III Extreme/Asus GTX 480

Master_of_Desaster: GA-870A-UD3/Inno3D GTX 470

Megalopsy: Asus Rampage 2 extreme/Galaxy Nvidia480

mikeyzeeee: Asus M3A32-MVP DELUXE/EVGA GTX 460 SC 1gb

mitnite2011: ASUS 780G/EVGA GTX460 1GB SC
mitnite2011: ASUS 785-M/EVGA GTX460 1GB SC
mitnite2011: P35 Shuttle Board/EVGA GTX460 1GB SC

Mix-Master: Gigabyte X58a UD3R/Gigabyte GTX 470 SLI (GV-N470UD-13I)

MyusernameisME: MSI NF980-G65/Gigabyte GTX 480

nimanouri: Gigabyte X58-UD5/2 x GTX480 SLI'd
nimanouri: Gigabyte X58-UD5/2 x GTX480 SLI'd (need card models)

noobubu: Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4 Socket AM3/Palit XpertVision GeForce GTX 460 Sonic Platinum 1GB
noobubu: Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4 Socket AM3/Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 Super Overclock 1GB DDR5

Nwik: Asus P5W DH Deluxe/EVGA GTX 460 (with default BIOS settings)

OCY: ASUS P7P55 LX/Galaxy GTX460 1GB DDR5

Overij: ASUS P5QL/ASUS Geforce GTX 460 768MB

overrandom: ASUS p6x58d-Premium/MSI NVidia GTX 480

pirAa: Asrock AM3 890GX/Gigabyte Geforce GTX 460 1GB

pensuke89: ASUS P5N-D SLI/MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX460 Cyclone 1GB/OC

rdkill: ASUS PT6/PNY 480

Rdouglas_1: GA-MA770T-UD3P/PnY 470

Sagaballa: ASUS Crosshair IV Formula/Gainward GeForce GTX 470

Shinjari: EVGA 680i SE 122-CK-NF63-TR/EVGA 768mb SC Model:768-P3-1362-AR

Snoopy782: Gigabyte x58 ud5/Gigabyte gtx460 1gb oc edition in Sli

source_91: Asus IPIBL-LB/Gigabyte 460 1GB

tayyeb555: ASUS M2N-VM DVI/Zotac Geforce 460 1GB

TDoyon: ASUS P6X58D-E/EVGA GTX 460

Teiresias: Gigabyte P55A-UD4P/Gigabyte GTX 460

thebizkid: MSI BIG BANG XPOWER X58/MSI N470GTX Twin Frozr II

the_prefect: MSI 785GTM-E45/Inno3d GTX460 OC (768MB variant)

thewoozle: Gygabyte MA790x/Gigabyte GTX470

tinhv: EVGA 131-GT-E767-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 SLI3/EVGA 012-P3-1472-AR GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) SuperClocked 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5

Tithelix: ASUS P7P55D/Gigabyte GTX 460 1Go OC Edition

trev1976: Asus P5Q-EM/MSI GTX460 Hawk

vector-1: DFI P55 MI-T36/gtx480
vector-1: Asus p7p55d/gtx480
vector-1: Asus M4A79 Deluxe/gtx480
vector-1: crosshair iv formula/gtx460 (need model)

Veeshush: ASUS M4A77D/MSI N480GTX Twin Frozr II
Veeshush: ASUS M2N32 SLI-DELUXE/MSI N480GTX Twin Frozr II
Veeshush: ASUS M2N SLI-DELUXE/EVGA 768-P3-1362-TR GeForce GTX 460 (yet I get DCP spikes with this combination)


vumeister: ASUS P5Q Deluxe/ASUS ENGTX470

Xen81: Asus P5N-D Nforce 750i/Zotac 460GTX Synergy

YCH: Asus Rampage III Extreme/GTX480
YCH: Asus P5K Deluxe/GTX480 (need model)

ZenS: Asus P7P55D-E Premium / Gigabyte GTS450 OC 1G

List of boards that do not lockup with Fermi based cards, username/board/card:

Bayzombie: ASUS P6X58D Premium/(2) PNY GTX470 SLI (This means same BIOS, Voltage Settings, OS, Drivers that the original GTX480 was using and would freeze with)

bLuDrGn: eVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 680i SLI/eVGA 1GB GTX 460 SC EE Exhaust

BrendanCysewski: EVGA X58 FTW/EVGA 470 and 480 and a GTX 580 (all working!)
BrendanCysewski: ASUS Sabertooth/EVGA 470 and 480 and a GTX 580 (all working!)
BrendanCysewski: EVGA 750i FTW (LGA 775)/EVGA GTX 470 and 480 (Works!)

bsh: gigabyte ga-m720-us3, rev 1.0, BIOS: F6/gigabyte gv-n460oc-1gi, rev 1.0, BIOS: 70.04.1B.00.02

cyronn: xfx780i/palitgtx480

DcSys: Asus P7P55D-E PRO/Asus ENGTX465

ghling: MSI P35-Neo/gtx 460

Hodgy1971: Asus RE3/Asus GTX 480, WC EK-FC480, Asus GTX 480, WC EK-FC480, EVGA GTX 480, WC EK-FC480 SLI

Ital: MSI P55-CD53/MSI GTX 460 Cyclone 1GB

jaafaman: ASUS P7P55 Workstation Supercomputer/PNY GTX 470, nVidia GTX 460 and nVidia GTS 450

Lordred: Asus M4N98TD EVO AM3/eVGA GTX460 1GB or Galaxy GTX460 1GB

lv_marv: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5/Asus GTX480

Nwik: Asus P5W DH Deluxe/EVGA GTX 460 (BIOS settings adjusted, Thread)

-{RaptoR}-: Asus R3E/EVGA GTX580SC

-=Ryme=-: EVGA 780i/SLI EVGA GTX480's

SHARKMEAT: ASUS P5N-T Deluxe/EVGA GTX460 SC 1024 EE

Qazax p6t deluxe/gtx 460's in sli (KFA2 OC)

Veeshush: ASUS M4A77D/EVGA 768-P3-1362-TR GeForce GTX 460
Veeshush: MSI K9N6PGM2-V2/MSI N480GTX Twin Frozr II (when it does work I found it only runs when the PCI-E16x slot is set at 2x.)

Zooze: MSI 975X Platinum PowerUp/Palit GTX465 1Gb Dual Fan
 
 
Source: NVIDIA Forums

just FYI, the list on the NVIDIA forums has been updated (the number of reported issues is up to 113).  Some people have been talking about testing their systems with the new powerboost device to see if it helps (myself included).  As mentioned above, it does seem to be an issue of incompatibility between certain mobos/graphics cards.  I see another person on that list with a similar setup as mine.  I know its difficult to determine a trend based on a small number of systems, but it does seem to add some value to the compatibility statement. 

ajs-cfg

Man, this is getting stranger by the day. So a little background, I have been upping my PCI-E frequency (fist to 103 and now to 105). Initially, changing it to 103 resulted in my PC recovering from the blackscreen; something it was never able to do before. So, I decided to change it to 105 and see what happened. I have been running it @ 105 for a few days now. I have noticed something weird: I believe changing the PCI-E to 105 has affected the temps of my graphics cards, but surprisingly, in a good way. Usually, my top card idles at 60C and the bottom around 48-50C. I hopped on my PC last night and noticed the Precision application was showing my top card idling at 45C and the bottom around 35-38C. I have NEVER seen the cards idle this low. Initially, I thought it could be a fluke or that I may have damaged my cards by modifying the PCI-E frequency. Fortunately, this does not appear to be the case as I also noticed a significant decrease in the amount of power my system pulls at idle. Before the change to 105, my system would pull about 260 watts @ idle. Now, its only pulling about 210 watts @ idle. Honestly, I have no clue what is going on here. I plan on changing the PCI-E back to 100 to see if my temps climb back to their previous values. Has anyone see something like this before when changing the PCI-E frequency?

Has this stopped the black screen from happening?

The PCI-E frequency change did not seem to completely resolve my issue although I did notice a difference when changing it. I would normally get a black screen after login which would require a hard reboot. Changing the frequency to 103 resulted in a blacksreen, however, my system was able to recover (I did notice an error in event viewer which stated the gfx driver had stopped working but was recovered). At 105Mhz I got a blue screen after login (not the BSOD with an error message; just a plain blue screen). This also required a hard reboot. It seems every time I modify the PCI-E frequency I get a different result which tells me we could be on the right track. Unfortunately, I dont want to go above 105Mhz as I dont know what that could affect in terms of my system components. I have changed the frequency back to 100 to see if the blackscreen/forced reboot problem comes back.
Nvidia released some new beta drivers today so I will try these once I get home. I am not too optimistic as I have had the blackscreen problem across multiple versions of their drivers.

I wasn't sure if this post is still active, but I'll post my question anyway. I have an EVGA X58 mobo.
 
My NVIDIA GTX470 shows PCI Bus 2, device 0, function 0.  I have 5 High Definition Audio Device.  Each one shows Location 0, Location 1, Location 2, Location 2, Location 3. I don't know why Location 2 shows up twice.  I just wanted to know which one I had to disable according to your instructions.
 
Thanks.

On my configuration:
 
- Asus P8P67-EVO
- Intel I5-2400 SandyBridge
- 2x2 gb Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600
- GeForce GTX580
 
i have the same black screen issue, they occurs in idle. The same video card work fine and without problems on my previus system...Crosshair IV Formula and AMD Phenom II 945.
 
For now I think I solved the black screen issue   installing the Forceware 266.35 beta drivers.

jackvancouver

There's a higher level of disabling where you can automatically disable all 4 HD audio devices at once.

Switch your Devices Manager view to "Devices by Connection". Go into "ACPI (x86 or x64) based PC" then "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System". Go into "PCI bus" and locate the PCI-E port that shows a "High Definition Audio Controller" and the card you're using. Disable the "High Definition Audio Controller" and it will disable the 4 HD audio devices as well.

Thank you Jack, much appreciated. Although I had no vid/BSOD errors, I was goin nuckin futz with Windoze asking me to install the drivers. I finally disabled them, but the 4 HD Audio devices were still there. Your fix worked, they're gone now.
 
I just like everything neat and tidy, that did the trick, props dude.

I been having this issue for a month now after upgrading my system. I had the login freezing issue in my i7 system and tried to RMA but evga said most likely they can't do anything since it seems like a motherboard issue. I decided to RMA my motherboard for a new one and still the same issue but I was able to find a work around to the problem. I changed my PCI slot to 8x instead of 16x. I just built another new system with a P67 motherboard and now the card won't work in the new system. Same issue as before, I'm going to send in a RMA now and hopefully EVGA will fix the problem. I'm pretty piss off because I own 4 GTX 465 and this is the only one that doesn't work.

I still get the black screen problem occasionally. It's completely random but less frequent since i uninstalled nvidia's stereoscopic 3d driver. If this is a hardware and compatibility issue, then shame on them. I have been having nothing but issues since i got this card and my first EVGA mobo.  I just recently rma'ed the board but i still have this problem along with some other issues that were present on my original board.

About a month ago I raised my PCI-e frequency to 103 and I also disabled the HD Audio CONTROLLER not the actual High Definition Audio drivers and it has so far stopped for me. The black screen I was getting was when I launched a game and not at Windows start up so it might not work for that but it looks like it has fixed the one I have. I have marked the controller I have disabled on the image, notice how it took all of the High Definition Audio drivers out of the Sound, Video and Game Controllers section. Also if you disable the wrong one you will disable the on board audio, you want to disable the one that has the location to PCI bus then what ever slot your GPU is in.

Well, I tried DunkinKid22's Nvidia HD Audio procedures to the letter and got it done.   Alas, it's a NO GO! It's still crashing after 30 seconds or so in a game. 
 
Man, am I disgusted.  I haven't had this much trouble with hardware since the early '90s running DOS 6.22 and Win 3.1. Back then you had to sort out IRQs, DMAs and rewrite your autoexec.bat and config.sys files to get the TSR driver loading order just right for everything to work together. We expected the hassle and liked the challenge then.  But I've been a stability junkie for a long time, now. It's also the first EVGA product I've ever purchased and I am NOT impressed or happy.
 
I've been fighting with this damned card for a week and have spent at least 15-20 hours trying to make it work.   I don't know whether to make CompUSA refund me or go for an RMA. 
 
What's the verdict on RMA replacements?  Do they seem to fix the problems?
 
NOTE: The following is for Win XP Pro 32 SP3:
BTW, I did add two extra steps to Dunkinkid22's procedures to reduce the install of and completely physically eliminate the Nvidia HD Audio drivers from the HD that reinstall from the 266.58 routine no matter what you do.  These will be an addition to STEP 8 and a new #10.   The original #10 will become #11:
 
STEP 8 Addendum: After running the Nvidia 266.58 self-extracting file that creates it's setup folders, AND BEFORE RUNNING THE INSTALL, go to those folders and delete the HD audio sub-folder. The install routine will still run OK but 99% of the HD Audio portion will not install. However, two drivers still installed that I eliminated:
 
NEW STEP 10: After rebooting into regular Windows, re-run Driver Cleaner (the pay version, $9.99, is much more current and detailed than Driver Sweeper) using the Nvidia Audio, Chipset (if appropriate) and Stereo filters.  Then go to c:\windows\system32\drivers\nvhda32.sys and eliminate both copies if they're still present. For some reason they do get installed and Driver Cleaner found them but couldn't delete them.
 
Also, I had to go back and forth from Safe Mode to regular windows 3 or 4 times, rerunning Driver Sweeper and Driver Cleaner each time to completely get rid of everything. But I've been running this Win install for about 3 years and even recently successfully changed mobos without having to reinstall so there's lots of litter and clutter.  That's why I also used every Audio or other graphics cards filters listed in Driver Cleaner as well as the Realteck audio filter to get rid of any on-board audio drivers.  Bottom line is I used every single filter except for hardware I know is mission critical to my machine.   It even found and deleted other card maker's .cab files from the original XP install.   Each time one program would find stuff the other missed or both would find stuff Windows was hanging on to in regular mode.  Does a nice job of cleaning up the Registry, too.
 
Alas, all this torture didn't rectify my situation but it seems to help others. Good luck!!
 
Mark
1978 Suzuki RM400
FLVMX #268
 
 
Real life is better!
___________________________________
P5P43TD/USB3- Bios v. 0405 (latest- 6/28/10)
E8500 Wolfdale 3.16ghz/OC'd- 3.63ghz
Intel P45/P43; ICH10
4gb DC GSKILL PC1600 (OC) F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ- 1.5v, 9,9,9, 24
EVGA GTX 460 1gb 256bit- (Nvidia driver v. 266.58; 1-18-11)
Creative X-FI Xtreme Fatality Gamer Pro
XFX Pro750w Bronze power
Win XP Pro 32 SP3 w/ DirectX 9.0c

sneakydave

If you can return the card to the retailer, that would be my suggestion.  I have a 460 just sitting on my shelf as I cannot get it to work.  Every once in a while, I'll put it in and tinker with it, but I always end up putting my 260 back in.  I've RMA'd the card once, (and the motherboard, thinking that may be the issue) and may RMA the card again this week just to see if the next one works as I caught the bug to attempt to get it running again.

If I had the option at this point, I would return it and not worry about any of this... :)  Just my two cents.  Good luck!

 
Hey Dave,
 
Thanks for the reply.  That's my inclination as well.  I really don't want the frustration of a round of RMA exchanges that are just as likely, from what I've read, to disappoint and all the while the CompUSA return clock running out.  The only thing worse than a non-working $200 card is a non-working RMA replacement or three.  Talk about adding injury to injury! :)
 
As you can tell from my posts, I've been fooling with these infernal machines a long time.  Bought my first in '86, built my first in '89 and ever since.  We used to like these kinds of problems, well at least expected them, because it was all new and we fancied ourselves trailblazers.  The manufacturers had not yet been herded into the Windows standardization corral and so it would've been unreasonable to expect that all devices would work with each other.   Heck, before Windows many manufactuerers were openly and agressively pushing for their technology, usually proprietary,  to become the standard.  The ones that did accomplish it, say Creative, Nvidia, ATI, et al did so by making quality products that lived in peace with everything else under Windows.  But before that, and along the way, for us it was all trial and error.  We relished the sport of it.   But now? 
 
Since perhaps Win '95 or '98 and certainly since XP when I buy a supposedly mainline $200 card from a quality name brand I expect it to work right out of the box...everytime.  What's the word for it...Plug 'n Play?   I'm not talking about the one-off defective card or that I won't have to do a little tweaking to my tastes.   I'm talking about the product line itself running under Windows.
 
Besides, I paid my dues to the likes of EVGA, I haven't the patience for this any more.  I'd rather go dirtbiking. :)
 
Regards,
Mark
1978 Suzuki RM400
FLVMX #268