Mshep01

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

 

Hey Kids!  Real life is better!

___________________________________
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Intel P45/P43; ICH10
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Win XP Pro 32 SP3 w/ DirectX 9.0c

 
Hi Dave,
 
I have suffered almost the same frustrations as you two months ago.  After even trying to follow the instructions of EVGA techies nothing fruitful materialized for weeks on end. So I finally RMA'd my EVGA card 460 with 1GB mem.  When I rec'd the new (replacement) card, I noticed that its BIOS number is different from the original card.  I have been running this new card for a few days now, but it seems all my headaches have gone now.  It is too early perhaps to conclude that, but I am keeping my fingers crossed. So if I were you, I would once again RMA the card and see what happens.  If that does not succeed, and if you can get money back, then go for ASUS's card. I belong to ASUS club also, and to date, I have not come across any grumbling with their 460 card.  I had also communicated with nVidia regarding the driver interfering with sound drivers, a point which dunkink22w tried to sort out as a software bug. His resolution did not work for me, and I found out that nVidia is not convinced about that also as a driver issue. I guess it is a hardware problem.  So good luck to you.

Just one reminder: this issue is not related to just EVGA cards/mobos.  I recommend taking a look at the 400 series lockup club on the NVIDIA forums.  These issues are affecting cards/mobos from all manufacturers.  They have a list going of boards/cards that are known to have this problem.  If you go with another vendor for your mobo and/or GFX card, there is a chance you may run into the same issue as before.  It seems to be hit or miss and so far no one at NVIDIA has acknowledged a problem exists (although the number of people reporting problems seems to indicate otherwise). 
 
Also, regarding the x16 to x8 switch:  This is not the first time I have heard someone solving their issues by switching from x16 to x8.  Unfortunately, I don't seem to have that option in my BIOS (X58 SLI LE board).  Does anyone know if there is a way to switch this via some type of app in Windows?  I would assume you can only do this via the BIOS itself  :( 

@sankar
i never said it was a software issue. in fact i said it was a hardware conflict.. i might be posting a video soon to demonstrate  this proceedure properly, as i feel some people

Been having this problem ever since Got fermi (black Screen) 116 BSOD... 13 weeks ago. Ive had6600 sli 8800 sli 280 sli 480 sli  And now  i hate Fermi Worse card from nvidia... NothingBut hassle Im going RMA.. Not enjoyed Gaming now for long time... £1100 and 100+ hours working this problem out..

Its a nightmare m8, Ive gave up after 13 weeks of this s....t,  Hopeing for driver to fix this problem, and no look..... 100 hours easy working on this problem.... So sad, Fermi = crap to be honest.

Thanks for this post, it really helped my mind to know I didn't buy a broken product, just a dysfunctional one that doesn't play well with others. My system is now working properly. :) lol

Well I got a nice strange thing this weekend, I was watching some youtube and the video started flickering, then it got a checkerboard pattern. then my whole screen went checkerboard and I had to reboot to get it to stop. Nothing since, but was wonfering if it had to do with this issue. I was hoping the workaround had fixed the issue.

Ive got a GTX 470 which started having this issue.
 
The card worked perfectly for about 8 months and then i started getting random freeze while watching video, being on youtube or gaming.
 
At first a reboot or two were enought to get it back working. At this time i thought it was probably my damn Windows 7 that got corrupted or got a crappy update so i thought id format it next weekend. However a few days later it got worse and it started having this damn freeze at the Welcome screen.
 
I tried the following:
- Uninstalling Windows updates.
- Different drivers versions.
- The procedure from this thread.
 
Nothing worked. The only time it works is when i boot in safe mode and that nvidia drivers aren't used.
 
However i have a second computer which run Windows XP and a GTX 280 (My main is Windows 7 + this buggy GTX 470) so i tried switching both card.
 
The result:
- My Windows XP which was working perfectly with the same drivers and the GTX 280 got the same freeze after entering my windows session.
- My Windows 7 which was freezing with the same drivers and the GTX 470 was working perfectly with the GTX 280.
 
Those results makes me think that while the GTX 470 doesnt seems 100% dead as it does work when drivers arent loaded there must be some parts of it that are definitely broken in the hardware. 
 
Maybe something about hardware acceleration?
 
Hope this help you out guys.

Folks:
 
I have had the same issue as well. Went through 3 mobos EVGA SLI3, Asus Rampage Formula and now on EVGA FTW3. The best luck I had was with EVGA SLI3. It was working fine for a week before it locked up randomly. I am running 2 GTX460SE 1GBs. Googling I found this thread: http://forums.nvidia.com/..x.php?showtopic=187401. Long story-short, finally, got a FTW3. Even in FTW3, it works barely in SLI in 16x/8x slots are used (i.e. 1 and 3)  -- only crashes once a few weeks with black screens and lockups. The moment I seat the card in 16x/16x slot, BSOD, 116 Bugcheck, black screen, random lockups. etc. I am fed up with this and now running single card configuration without any issues. I verified that the slots/cards are fine by testing both the cards in different slots. They check out ok in single configuration mode.
 
Do you think I should RMA both of my cards with EVGA in the hope of them upping the BIOS of the card? Anyway, we could do this ourselves? This is frustrating to say the least...
 
Thanks.
 

I haven't been on in awhile, but I just checked the lockup thread over at the Nvidia forums and it looks like Nvidia is aware of the problem and are attempting to reproduce the issue in their lab. I didn't have time to read each post, but it sounds like so far they have not been able to reproduce it.  Hopefully they will at some point. I had my first login screen freeze in about a month last night.  Since then I have upgraded to the most recent WHQL drivers from Nvidia.  I doubt it will solve anything but I figured I would give it a shot. 

^
Of course, not. I have tried everything that was listed in that thread as a fix - increase PCI-E Bus Freq, increase IOH Voltage etc. etc. No go. Looks like a BIOS flash is needed - I read somewhere that it had to with some C-states in Nvidia hardware. Clearly, they need to identify the cause and issue a fix. In my case, with dual GPUs *when* the system boots fine into the desktop, when you enable SLI in the NVidia CP, is when the fun begins with random lock ups, freezes and Bugchecks (116 code).
 

AHowes

I cant believe they can reproduce the problem! Theres just way too many people out there with the same problem. I'd like to know what motherboard there using hehe.

I think they know something and just dont want to say.. Its prob related to the X58 chipset and some settings that will irritate it more often.


Added.. Oh, and no.. the newest 266.58 drivers will not fix the prob. :/

 
Damn...I was hoping by some miracle that the new drivers would help.  As far as them not being able to reproduce the problem, I can see how that could be the case, assuming they just started researching this issue.  My login freeze seems to occur about once every 3 weeks to 1 month.  It is always right after a reboot (simply logging off/logging on does not seem to cause any problems).  On the other hand, other users are reporting frequent lockups (daily,weekly) so it appears the frequency of occurance is different for each user.  Hopefully nvidia can get their hands on a system that freezes constantly.  If they were using my system to test, they would have to wait weeks before the problem appeared.  For now, I will most likely just wait it out and hope for a solution. I normally build a new rig every year, so I have another 6 months to go before upgrade time.  As long as my system sticks to the "one freeze per month" timeline, I should be okay.  That being said, for my next build I am definitely going to look into AMD's offerings as opposed to sticking with Nvidia (I use both AMD and Nvidia cards in our work rigs; for my personal systems I have been using Nvidia exclusively since the Riva TNT2 days).

morphaus

Bios Update for me did not work.... bios 77

A BIOS for your GPU or motherboard?

Well this is the first nvidia card I have purchased in years. And will probably be the last. My computer was running fine for about 15 minutes then got checkered board pattern and locked up. Restart comp and now will only allow me to boot up in safemode and when I turn off computer through safemode it will always restart saying computer was not turned off correctly and wanting me to go into safemode or start windows normally. I try to start windows normally will continue to just restart till I go into safemode. You see from cpu-z I had to put my ATI back in to even research problem. http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1656197 My card is the GTX 480