I updated my firmware to BIOS #4 - let's see if this solves my Witcher 3 issue.

Hello there. Got a really wierd problem, havn't seen someone feedback'd it yet.
 
Tried all bios versions from thread, made everything exactly following instructions, even tried different versions of nvflash software. Primary VGA is PCIE in bios setup.
 
BUT:
After last step, when i have to activate gpu and restart system, after reboot i have black screen, no beeps from m/b, 15-20 second later my devices (keyboard, mouse) get power (led activates on all devices), and 5-10 seconds after i see the "signal not found" alert on the display.
 
So after that i rolled back to original bios, and i'm literally forced to use it atm.
 
Any suggestions? Maybe anyone had this problem?
 
Edit: seems like CMOS clearing and/or this bios manipulating helped me with the primary problem - i dont have black screens+game crashes anymore, tested on gta 5 and witcher 3, + ~5h tests via heavy benchmarks.
 
But i'm still not able to apply these custom bioses, and that's kinda sad. :(

flexy123
DISCLAIMER: This is not an official, EVGA approved fix/BIOS. Please use at your own risk! Flashing your card's BIOS always has a small risk that something might go wrong. Be sure you know what you're doing, especially how you would "unbrick" your card should something go wrong. I can not be held responsible should anything go wrong.

 
After lots of investigation and sharing experiences with others I/we concluded that the "Black Screen, needs PC reset" problem is because of that some cards, among them GTX 970 SC ACX2.0 cannot handle the overall load/power draw. (It's not so much a matter of that an overclock is not stable since those crashes are different, in those cases the driver crashes and the system can recover).
 
I found that the black screen issue can be solved by limiting the maximum voltage the card is using at it's maximum speed.
(In fact, my SC ACX2.0 does 1506 stable, tested, at 1.187V. Since my-2974 GTX ACX 2.0 is a very average card with ASIC quality 70% I have reason to believe that the fix should work for MOST -2974 cards)
 
The 1.187V - as compared to 1.212V or 1.200V (as would be the max voltage with the original bios) draws less power, prevents black screens, reduces temps and throttling.
 
If you have the black screen problem and want to save yourself a RMA, I can help you if you are comfortable flashing BIOS and know how to do this. Of course you would flash your cards bios at your own risk. Don't flash if you would not know how to unbrick your card again should a flash go wrong! And obviously this is only for EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX2.0 -2974 cards!
 
The BIOS here have more advantages:
 
* 1506 overclock without throttling
* Power Target increased to default 196W (from the stock 170W)
* The problem with instability at lower clocks is gone. (NEVER overclock those card's (-2974 models) core clock with Afterburner. Since you cannot add voltage with Afterburner, overclocking the core with Afterburner means that the entire voltage table won't be correct which results in instability at lower clocks). With my BIOS, this problem is solved, the clocks and voltages scale properly.
* No throttling due to "Voltage Limit" since the max. 1.212V which are specified in the BIOS are never used
 
Those BIOS also work great as general BIOS for your card, whether you have the black screen problem or not. As compared to some other modded BIOS out there, boost is not disabled and the card's voltages scale properly.
 
BIOS 1) (Try this first)
1506 clock at 1.200V

 
BIOS 2)
1506 clock at 1.187V (this might only work with cards with very high ASIC, 75%+)

 
If your card has troubles with 1506, here the same with somewhat lower clocks:
 
BIOS 3)
1443 at 1.200V

 
BIOS 4)
1443 at 1.187V

 
I recommend you try BIOS 1 first and if you still have black screens under stress (Heaven Benchmark, Games etc.) try BIOS 2 which uses even less voltage at max clock.
 
Should your card be unstable (driver crashes, artifacts etc.) try the 1443 BIOSes with somewhat lower clock. Here too try the 1.200V first, if it black screens use the 1.187V BIOS. (I found the best test for black screens is Heaven Benchmark at Ultra/Extreme and have it run for at least an hour or longer).
 
Please share whether your black screen problems are solved with those BIOS!
 
 
** UPDATE May, 21 **
 
Updated BIOS with "proper" down-clocking voltage table. Ie. should the card ever need to throttle in the upper clock ranges it does now correctly decrease voltages.
 
** UPDATE May, 27 **
 
While the above and my workaround with those BIOS still works, I am at a point that I am rather certain that the black screens are from overheating components (voltage regulators) on those cards. There is an undeniable relationship between fan speed, temperatures, load on the card and the likelihood for black screens.
 
My BIOS help since less voltage means less power draw/load and lower temps, therefore they can help to prevent the black screens crashes. HOWEVER it is important that you keep your fan running as high as you can tolerate it. I found the default fan settings in the original bios NOT sufficient. You need to get Afterburner or PrecisionX and create a custom fan profile where your fans are running 45% or faster at 75C depending how loud you can tolerate. This together with my BIOS is the best way to prevent black screens. Proper cooling of the card is important!!
 
It is also likely that an aftermarket cooler like the Arctic Twin Turbo II with the included heat-sinks for VRMs should prevent the black screens. Here however you would need to find a way to attach the heat sinks of the Twin Turbo II in a way as that you can remove them again (the included thermal glue is permanent!) otherwise you would void your card's warranty.
 
 
***
Guide: How to flash your card's BIOS:
 
Please see Easy NVFlash Guide with Pictures for GTX 970/980"
at
 
***
 
Always Backup Your Original BIOS

 
You need your original, unaltered BIOS flashed back on the card in case you would ever need to send it in for RMA or something would go wrong and you want to flash your card with the original BIOS.
 
This is how you backup your card's BIOS: Get yourself . Disable your card in Windows device manager. In GPUZ, below the Nvidia symbol is an arrow symbol. Click on the arrow. It will ask you to save your card's BIOS to a file. Save this to your computer.
 
There is also a good collection of VGA Bios for various cards and vendors on .
 
 
DISCLAIMER: This is not an official, EVGA approved fix/BIOS. Please use at your own risk! Flashing your card's BIOS always has a small risk that something might go wrong. Be sure you know what you're doing, especially how you would "unbrick" your card should something go wrong. I can not be held responsible should anything go wrong.
 

Hi, can you create a bios with:
core clock 1479
memory standard
voltage 1.212V
Power Target 196W ?
 
PS. sorry for my bad english ;p

I'm wondering if what I'm encountering may be related to this thread?
 
I recently upgraded to the EVGA GTX 970 SC 04G-P4-2974-KR (was using the EVGA GTX 760 SC 02G-P4-2765-KR before that--worked perfectly; just wanted something faster).
 
But now on cold boots, my system gets stuck on the Dell XPS 8700 splash screen (just sits there; nothing loads). I manually power it off, wait a few seconds, then power it on, and it boots up perfectly. Warm reboots also work just fine--no issues. I've tried both the A10 and A11 BIOSes from Dell--problem persists.
 
EVGA's tech was wondering if the power supply might be at fault, but just days ago, my Seasonic 650W M12II-650 was powering my 760 (arguably used more power than the 970 does, seeing as the 760 required an 8-pin and a 6-pin power connector vs. the 970's two 6-pin power connectors) just fine.
 
So although this issue isn't exactly a "black screen" one per se, it sounds like this card might be problematic?
 
My specs:
 
Dell XPS 8700 | Core i7 4770 3.4GHz | BIOS A10 | Windows 7 Pro 64-bit SP1 | 16GB G.SKILL DDR3 Sniper 1600MHz | EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SC | Dell S2340M 23" IPS LED | Seasonic 650W M12II-650 | Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1TB | Toshiba DT01ACA100 1TB | ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 | ASUS DRW-24B1ST | Logitech G100S | Dell SK-8135 keyboard | Logitech Cordless Rumblepad 2

Try 1 bios get artifact, try 2 bios get black sreen after 2hours of playing, try 3 bios get black srceen after 1 hour playing... set original bios back problem not solved. When using native graphics card BIOS above 75 degrees is not heated when pierced BIOS from the topic it was heated to 80.
Recently I started playing in the Tree of savior, and started to get a black screen after 2-3 hours of play in this case graphics card does not heat even up to 60 degrees. Are there any ideas how can I solve this problem?

ASIK I have 72.2%
I reinstall the drivers graphics card with a clean installation. After 3 hours of play caught the black screen but got a message that nvlddmkm driver stopped responding but then he recovered and I do not have to restart the computer.
I try to remove the driver with the aid of DDU

DeathAngel74
There are many factors that cause black screens and drivers crashing / recovering. Bad/corrupt Windows and driver installs, corrupt oc profiles from AB and PX16. You also have to consider that fact that the graphics card and /or power supply is / are dying. I would run sfc /scannow and chkdsk /f(on all drives). Update your A/V definitions and do a full scan for viruses. Also, make sure you have a min of 2gb(2048) pagefile for 8gb ram, 4gb(4096) for 16gb of ram and 8gb(8192) for 32gb ram. Set the min/max values to the same amount, so the SSD will not receive excessive write operations. Same goes for HDD so I doesn't become fragmented. A lot of people say that you don't need a pagefile for 16gb of ram or higher, but Windows and some apps still try to use it. Just my $.02

thanks for the advice, I launched the sfc /scannow and testing found that opencl.dll file is corrupted, I restored it and a whole week is not observed a black screen :)

i used bios number 2 i did this for overclocking reason not because i had issues i purchased a second hand card did some bits to improve cooling. my card is 78.9% asic i run at 1502mhz no problems but i have not pushed the card beyond 1502 as i think it runs great atm, i will update if any issues or i decide to overclock more. i get around 60 degrees when doing firestrike and gta ,  i set my own fan profile and i have a artic twin turbo beside me if i wish to change the cooler to get those numbers up :) please bare with me i only got this card second hand today. 

Did someone do this with a 980ti SC + ???
Will someone have any BIOS?
 
Thx!