GTX 260 problem

A few months ago I bought a BFG GTX 260 Maxcore 55. I installed it and everything seemed ok, I ran crysis for a bit and it was fine, and it suddenly blue screened on me, and everytime i started it up once getting to the desktop.

Now, I did install it with a 300Watt power supply in my computer at the time, so i purchased a Corsair 550watt one and tried again, the same thing happened. I presumed the card was faulty and sent it back to BFG.

Today i received the replacement card, installed it, exactly the same thing happened again.

I could really do with some help, my PC specs are as follows:

Intel core 2 duo E8200 2.66GHZ

2GB RAM

550 Power supply

Windows Vista 32bit

A few months ago I bought a BFG GTX 260 Maxcore 55. I installed it and everything seemed ok, I ran crysis for a bit and it was fine, and it suddenly blue screened on me, and everytime i started it up once getting to the desktop.

Now, I did install it with a 300Watt power supply in my computer at the time, so i purchased a Corsair 550watt one and tried again, the same thing happened. I presumed the card was faulty and sent it back to BFG.

Today i received the replacement card, installed it, exactly the same thing happened again.

I could really do with some help, my PC specs are as follows:

Intel core 2 duo E8200 2.66GHZ

2GB RAM

550 Power supply

Windows Vista 32bit

lucfonzy

I already have SP2 installed.

I am currently running the stress test though so we'll see what they say.

Also just to note, I'm upgrading from an 8800GT of which i have encountered no problems whatsoever for the whole time that I've owned it.

Reset your motherboard BIOS settings to default and if that doesnt help then reinstall windows :)

550W PSU is BARE minimum for a GTX260, you want at LEAST 600W or more, which I recommend. Could also be temperatures, check the Nvidia Monitor tool. Blind0bj3ct

I think that point is debatable tbh. I've seen on other forums and other sources that 500w is really the minimum, but people have run them on 450w or so. Also 285gtx and 280 run perfect on 520w PSUs.

I don't think that the temperature is an issue because i checked it out with the first 260 i had, although my brother seems to think it could be a problem with Rivatuner trying to overclock the card, even though i don't actively have it running.

I'm baffled tbh.

[QUOTE="Blind0bj3ct"]550W PSU is BARE minimum for a GTX260, you want at LEAST 600W or more, which I recommend. Could also be temperatures, check the Nvidia Monitor tool. lucfonzy

I think that point is debatable tbh. I've seen on other forums and other sources that 500w is really the minimum, but people have run them on 450w or so. Also 285gtx and 280 run perfect on 520w PSUs.

I don't think that the temperature is an issue because i checked it out with the first 260 i had, although my brother seems to think it could be a problem with Rivatuner trying to overclock the card, even though i don't actively have it running.

I'm baffled tbh.

We may have tried running the old card on another computer and it did the same thing, i can't remember. If that was the case it's also possible that the invertor of our house generator (we live out in the country off the national grid) is causing the problem, but that's a wild guess.

I don't know anything about the amps or volts .. so i'm just going by whats on the box, the max load at +12v is 41A.

Also i can't test the temperature at max load because my computer crashes at the desktop with the GTX260 in it.

The air flow is fairly good, i mean it's just a bog standard dell case. Also this room is freezing cold all the time.

Hard drive is a 320gb stock, with about 10gb's of space left on it :/ stock RAM and dvd/rw.

I literally cannot do anything once the card is installed. I managed to install the drivers, which i downloaded from the Nvidia website, restarted the computer and it crashed. This happened twice, the first time i got the BSOD and the second time it just hung on the desktop which is when i put my 8800gt back on and started posting my problems.

How would i know if my motherboard was PCI-E 2.0 compatible?

My PC is less that 2 years old.

I ran the RAM test for 3 hours and 32 minutes and it found no errors. I know i didn't let it run its course but i don't have time for a full scan right now.

I have system restored fairly recently. As said before I've had zero problems until i put this card in.

sounds like a bad brand psu, I got a diamond hd 4890 XOC running on an antec bp550 plus 550watts on my second pc and it works ok

the thing is that even though some psu vendors say a particular psu is 600watts the output is way lower than that, you got to buy a good brand psu like antec or corsair (just to name a few), also a good psu is hevy, bottom line is Never go cheap on a PSU.

Your Corsair 550w PSU is MORE than enough for that rig. Unless it is just a lemon (possible even with the best) the PSU is not your issues. Will the PC boot into safe mode fine, or does it crash there as well?opamando

The first time it BSOD today i restarted in safe mode. It seemed to run ok, i installed the drivers and it said that it could not install the nvidia control panel. I restarted in normal mode, installed the drivers successfully and it completely froze on the desktop. No BSOD, it just hung.

Is your motherboard compatible with PCI Express 2.0? Have you tried System Restore?Blind0bj3ct

[QUOTE="Blind0bj3ct"]Is your motherboard compatible with PCI Express 2.0? Have you tried System Restore?rronqe

With the first GTX 260 i had it would usually only crash when games were running, but then started crashing on the desktop.

My replacement i received today has crashed both times just on the desktop, about 2 minutes in on startup.

Your Corsair 550w PSU is MORE than enough for that rig. Unless it is just a lemon (possible even with the best) the PSU is not your issues. Will the PC boot into safe mode fine, or does it crash there as well?opamando

sorry there, I missed the fact that he posted the brand of his psu, I need glasses :P

then yeah the problem is not the psu, souns like a driver related error

The problem is RAM!!! I had the same problem too a while ago with my hd3850. It ran good for a while, then it started to crash on game. Then it starting crashing more often and often, until i ran memtest and found the faulty ram. Get Memtest, test each ram stick at the time. You will eventually find the faulty ram. Please run this program and tell us the results!rronqe

Hmm I'm still pesimistic about RAM being the problem, surely if it was RAM it would mess up no matter what card was in?

How long roughly does memtest take to scan?

According to CPUID - Intel p35/g33/g31?

It's a dell computer

Don't know if the information is correct.

I also did do a RAM test for 3 hours using Prime96 or whatever it's called and showed no errors.

I did wonder about the installation. It slots in fine and both the 6 pin power sockets go in, but theres a little 2 pin slot next to the 6pin slots. I thought it was nothing i should be concerned about, i thought it was probably for SLI use, maybe i am wrong.

Thats the chipset version. What dell pc is it?rronqe

Inspiron 530

I ran the memtest for about half an hour, until it reached just over 100%. Nothing, no errors.

I can't see how there would be a problem with my RAM, if there was surely i would notice it with my 8800GT installed aswell.

OK, few things you can try. Clear the CMOS, probably won't help, but it can't hurt. Just figure out how to clear yours, or unplug it from the wall and remove the watch battery for a minute or two. Try your sticks of RAM one at a time to rule out an individual bad stick. Memtest is nice, but will not always find an error. Do you have multiple PCIe slots? If so you could try the card in another slot. Do you know anybody with a PC you can try the video card or PSU in? Those are some simple things to try, not sure what the chance of success is, but it is always good to eliminate as many possibilities as possible.opamando

What's the CMOS and how do you clear it generally?

Unfortunately i only have 1 pci-e slot, i will try both stick individually when i have more time during tomorrow.

I did try it in another pc once.. i think, but i can't remember what happened, but i am deffinately going to try it in another PC very very soon.

Thanks for all the help people, it's incredibly frustrating ¬.¬

i know this doesnt help much , but using windows 7 helped a lot with crashes !

Still haven't found the problem.

I'm currently running my mum's computer with my GTX260 and PSU installed. It seems to be running fine so far.

Don't really have any games on here to test so I am downloading 3D mark as we speak.

It's an older computer... an AMD 3800+ so it wont handle anything like mine but it hasnt crashed so i guess that means there is most certainly a problems with my computer.

My brother highly doubts its a RAM problem and instead conflict between the hardware and the motherboard.

Some of you have already said about resseting the BIOS to default etc.

I have just been on the DELL website and there is 1 BIOS update available for my computer, could this possibly fix it?

New Problem!

I say new... it's still crashing, but at least it's doing it in a differnt way.

I downloaded and installed new BIOS, chipset and video drivers from Dell. They all installed apart from the video drivers which said my system did not meet the minimum requirements ... hmm.

So anyway, i put my GTX 260 back in. Got to the user page, clicked my user and it hung on the welcome screen. It did this twice, so i started in safe mode and installed the graphics drivers, where again it said it could no install the Nvidia Control Panel.

I restarted my system, it booted up fine, I installed the drivers without a problem, restarted my system.

Hung on the welcome screen.

When it hangs there is still hard drive activity.

I've put my 8800gt back in again.

Ok, I doubt it will help, but it's worth a shot. Did you by an chance run a driver cleaner program after uninstalling the 8800GT. It should not be necessary, but once again it an easy thing to test.

Install driver cleaner pro, boot into safe mode and run it, clean all Nvidia graphics drivers. Then see if it helps.

Did you at least check the RAM one stick at a time, I agree it is unlikely, but one thing I have learned from PC's expect the unexpected. Also this is easy to test and helps rule out bad RAM, unless all sticks are bad.

But if the GPU and PSU work fine in another PC, and the RAM does nothing different, then it would either be a motherboard issue, or a problem with the Windows install itself. You might want to try to reinstall windows before switching motherboards though.

I think i may have run a driver cleaner the first time round, when i had my GTX the first time.

I will do a RAM test on each stick individually just to rule them out.

I am also thinking of maybe buying Windows 7 in the not too distant future, but if i can't fix it any other way i will try a re install of vista.

Ok, I doubt it will help, but it's worth a shot. Did you by an chance run a driver cleaner program after uninstalling the 8800GT. It should not be necessary, but once again it an easy thing to test.

Install driver cleaner pro, boot into safe mode and run it, clean all Nvidia graphics drivers. Then see if it helps.

Did you at least check the RAM one stick at a time, I agree it is unlikely, but one thing I have learned from PC's expect the unexpected. Also this is easy to test and helps rule out bad RAM, unless all sticks are bad.

But if the GPU and PSU work fine in another PC, and the RAM does nothing different, then it would either be a motherboard issue, or a problem with the Windows install itself. You might want to try to reinstall windows before switching motherboards though.

opamando

I'm leaning towards a driver based issue at this point as well. Another way to check if that is the issue is to install the OS and bare minimum drivers on a spare HDD (assuming you have a second copy of Vista).

There is a slight chance that the PCIe slot is the issue, as I've heard from rumors that a PCIe v1.1 slot will have issues with some modern cards. I highly doubt it though, as I've seen g31 and p35 motherboard running a plethora of video cards with no issue.

[QUOTE="opamando"]

Ok, I doubt it will help, but it's worth a shot. Did you by an chance run a driver cleaner program after uninstalling the 8800GT. It should not be necessary, but once again it an easy thing to test.

Install driver cleaner pro, boot into safe mode and run it, clean all Nvidia graphics drivers. Then see if it helps.

Did you at least check the RAM one stick at a time, I agree it is unlikely, but one thing I have learned from PC's expect the unexpected. Also this is easy to test and helps rule out bad RAM, unless all sticks are bad.

But if the GPU and PSU work fine in another PC, and the RAM does nothing different, then it would either be a motherboard issue, or a problem with the Windows install itself. You might want to try to reinstall windows before switching motherboards though.

MaoTheChimp

I'm leaning towards a driver based issue at this point as well. Another way to check if that is the issue is to install the OS and bare minimum drivers on a spare HDD (assuming you have a second copy of Vista).

There is a slight chance that the PCIe slot is the issue, as I've heard from rumors that a PCIe v1.1 slot will have issues with some modern cards. I highly doubt it though, as I've seen g31 and p35 motherboard running a plethora of video cards with no issue.

It's deffinately not the slot.

I put the card into an older computer earlier today and it ran fine, no crashes or anything. :/ I guess its looking like a full re install of windows.

I forgot to mention that I ran the first GTX 260 perfectly using my 300w PSU at the time.

I ran Fallout 3 at max settings for a while, and then played crysis warhead maxed out. Crysis ran for a while but then the screen pixelated and this is where it started crashing.

Is it possible that the lack of power from the 300W PSU caused damage to the motherboard running the GTX 260?

If it has, i don't understand how my computer can still run with the 8800gt fine.

EDIT:

BSOD Error: nvlddkm

Also, have noticed that it only crashes when a game is started or if windows sidebar starts up. runs fine in safe mode and selective startup.

Ok well I have made some sort of progress.

Have managed to get it to run by underclocking the card by 100mhz on RAM, shader clock and memory clock.

I am currently running 3D mark and there seems to be no problems so far.

thats a driver error. nvl is a process for nvidias driver. try running in safe, clearing all drivers, and then installing form safe after a restart. clear with the 260, and install with the 260. i used to get the same thing with my 2600 xt when i forgot to clear drivers from my old 9600 pro. it would bsod anytime i gamed, even in gta sa.

hmm. any artifacts? did u revert to stock clocks. maybe "maxcore" wasnt so stable eh? my bfg 8800gt was an ocz version and was 725/2200. only worked at a max of 606/1850. try doing nvidias reccomended.

Had it running fine last night after underclocking for a bit, but then reset the clocks to default and still ran fine for about an hour. But haven't tried reducing the clocks again today.

Booted the pc up today and crashed when windows sidebar started up.

Today, made a new partition on the hard drive and installed XP and the relevant drivers where it crashed.

Installed Windows 7 and it BSOD saying it was the graphics drivers again.

Windows vista solutions has detected there is a problem with the driver and suggests updating.

Pc either crashes early on (on entering the dekstop) or running any 3D application.

PC runs perfectly with no graphics drivers installed.