GTX 295 crashing computer?

[czGLoRy]

Hey, not sure this is the root of the problem but I suspect it is, wondering if anyone has any insight on the issue.

 

I have been getting pretty frequent computer crashes, and I suspect it has to do with nvidia gtx 295 graphics card, and/or it's drivers. If I am playing a game like starcraft 2, it will frequently "glitch" and I will here a short grinding noise, then the screen will go black and shut down. Diablo 3 was the same. I have tried older drivers as this was an issue with the card for some people, but I was still getting the issue. I have not played games lately, but yesterday I updated to the latest drivers, and while playing some videos/light games (not even full screen), my computer "snap" shut down five times over the course of the night. The screen just goes black, the case lights remain on, and I have to force shut down. Upon rebooting, it says computer did not shut down properly, but I get no other error messages.

 

I suspect this is my graphics card-- but I live in Thailand, and the power here is shoddy. How could I tell if it is one thing or the other? FWIW the electricity is not grounded, and if I touch the case, or any USB adapter plugged into the case, it gives a mild shock. I don't think there is anything I can do about this.

 

If it is my card, I don't mind buying a new one.

 

Thanks for helping with my frustrating situation.

[EuroFight]

I had the exact same issue with an AMD HD5450/5570, and found underclocking the card worked as a temporary fix, else you're looking at a new card

The thread I created is here forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=192914&view=&hl=&fromsearch=1

You may want to try some of the other suggestions

 

FWIW the electricity is not grounded, and if I touch the case, or any USB adapter plugged into the case, it gives a mild shock.

Edited September 3, 2012 by EuroFight

[IVIYTH0S]

Do you have enough money to buy a UPS?? That should help stabilize the power for you

 

I'd try the card in another computer to see if it works fine there, maybe your PSU is borderline not strong enough anymore (from degradation). How long have you had the PSU?

[czGLoRy]

I have had the computer for a couple of years, I don't have a clue whether it would degrade over time, would that be due to the ungrounded electricity?

I could buy a UPS but the ones i have bought here were never enough to support my setup, and I think I would have to drop some serious cash to get one that would (I think at least $600).

 

I don't have another computer to try the card out in unfortunately, but I think that is a good idea.

 

I read that thread and downloaded/ran the OCCT 4.3.1 program and did a graphics error test, and it found about 500 million errors in an hour or so. I assume that is bad?

 

going to try what you did, unhooking everything from the motherboard, underclcoking the card, and cleaning it out, and see if that helps. If not, and I can confirm the card is broken, I will just purchase a new card.

Edited September 3, 2012 by czGLoRy

[EuroFight]

I have had the computer for a couple of years, I don't have a clue whether it would degrade over time, would that be due to the ungrounded electricity?

I could buy a UPS but the ones i have bought here were never enough to support my setup, and I think I would have to drop some serious cash to get one that would (I think at least $600).

 

I don't have another computer to try the card out in unfortunately, but I think that is a good idea.

 

I read that thread and downloaded/ran the OCCT 4.3.1 program and did a graphics error test, and it found about 500 million errors in an hour or so. I assume that is bad?

 

going to try what you did, unhooking everything from the motherboard, underclcoking the card, and cleaning it out, and see if that helps. If not, and I can confirm the card is broken, I will just purchase a new card.

 

I have recently contacted my motherboard vendor (Gigabyte) regarding my bad luck with video cards, and they recommended I updated the BIOS yet again due to a fix rolled out a couple of weeks ago. The issues do not seem to be occuring as regularly anymore. You might want to try this too.

[IVIYTH0S]

It could just be the dirty power causing your problems and/or causing your PSU to fail prematurely. Hard to say without another machine to test your 295 in...I wonder if the UPS being too small to be used as a battery backup would still cause it to not be adequate at power stabilization....I hope a PSU guru hops in here with better knowledge on the subject (DIALING "P" FOR PAUL, DIALING "P" FOR PAUL!!!)

Edited September 3, 2012 by IVIYTH0S

[paulktreg]

It's very difficult to fault find power supplies without a least a decent DVM. How do your power voltages look in the bios?

 

Try installing something like PC Wizard 2012 and keep an eye on your voltages and temperatures whilst loading the graphics card. Report back if something looks wrong.

 

A poor quality mains supply would certainly produce the symptoms you described, your power supply will only hold up for 17mS if the mains dips low.

 

A good quality 500VA UPS/Power conditioner would certainly help but don't forget they are only there to give you time to safely shut down the PC should the mains supply fail.

Edited September 3, 2012 by paulktreg

[IVIYTH0S]

It's very difficult to fault find power supplies without a least a decent DVM. How do your power voltages look in the bios?

 

Try installing something like PC Wizard 2012 and keep an eye on your voltages and temperatures whilst loading the graphics card. Report back if something looks wrong.

 

A poor quality mains supply would certainly produce the symptoms you described, your power supply will only hold up for 17mS if the mains dips low.

 

A good quality 500VA UPS/Power conditioner would certainly help but don't forget they are only there to give you time to safely shut down the PC should the mains supply fail.

A UPS would smooth out the dirty power provided by his grid though right?? Would he need a UPS proportional to his systems typical load or would a smaller one still work (not as a battery backup so much as power cleaner upper)

Edited September 4, 2012 by IVIYTH0S

[czGLoRy]

It's very difficult to fault find power supplies without a least a decent DVM. How do your power voltages look in the bios?

 

Try installing something like PC Wizard 2012 and keep an eye on your voltages and temperatures whilst loading the graphics card. Report back if something looks wrong.

 

A poor quality mains supply would certainly produce the symptoms you described, your power supply will only hold up for 17mS if the mains dips low.

 

A good quality 500VA UPS/Power conditioner would certainly help but don't forget they are only there to give you time to safely shut down the PC should the mains supply fail.

 

I have a gigabyte motherboard as well so I will try this updating the bios. I had no idea a UPS could also "stabilize" the electricity, if so that might be worth investing in for me.

 

What type of voltages should I be looking at in the bios?

 

on PCWIzard the "power supply monitoring" tab doesn't bring anything up but I will see if th at is something to do with the program.

 

Here is what pcwizard / occt show while running the video stress test. 128 degrees on the SSD looks concerning...

 

 

running OCCT power supply test I get the error "Core #0 over maximum value! Value reached: 89 max 85

 

thanks for all the helpful replies!

Edited September 4, 2012 by czGLoRy

[EuroFight]

The error you received was your CPU overheating...try cleaning the CPU heatsink aswell...if not you will need to reapply thermal paste

[IlijaPlayerP]

I had those same issues with my GIGABYTE GTX 560 Ti, but they were driver related. I installed the latest drivers and I haven't had any problems since then.

 

I'm not the expert on UPSes but I think that even a low capacity UPS will surely smooth out the power for the power supply.

The UPS draws AC power from the wall outlet, then it stores it in a battery (DC power) and then it converts it again to AC power for the PSU and thus smoothing out the power along the way.

 

You're getting a mild shock when you touch the case? Hahahaha now that is crazy!

You can actually ground the power yourself, but you need to know what you are doing, also it probably won't be cheap and it will be a big project, and it would only make sense if you live in a house, not a building.

I'm really sorry you don't have any grounding, it sucks .

 

Your best bet would be an UPS. Even if your problem is not power-related, protect your PSU with an UPS, otherwise you are shortening it's lifespan.

 

And by the way, your PSU degrades just as any other PSU degrades - from usage over the years. But your PSU also gets degraded by the power fluctuations, so it will just die faster.

 

Hope I helped.

[czGLoRy]

thanks for the replies. I think I am going to have to pick up a UPS now.

Going to spend today cleaning the PC/heatsink/processor/running tests. I ran the furmark graphics test for 3 hours, computer didn't crash, and the temperatures looked OKAY, so I am actually thinking its not the graphics card now, but more likely something to do with the processor or power supply.

I was really expecting my computer to crash while running the testing, walked away for a few hours, came back and it was going strong. Turned off FURMARK and walked away for a few hours letting it idle, and it was black screened ><

 

This is really surprising to me, because by far the crashing happened most consistently while I was playing a graphic-intense game.

 

I can't really ground the electricity, I don't own the house I am in and would be on my own, don't think it is worth it. If I did own my own house, I would find an electrician who would ground it (pretty hard to find here), or do it myself, although I know just about nothing about electricity.