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Do I have a bitcoin farmer eating my GPU?

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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June 17, 2013 12:02:50 AM

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/396658-33-driver-cras...

Hi. I have a GTX 680, and it crashes at random on highly-taxing games.
I read on toms, at the above link that a bit ago a nasty bitcoin farmer (malware) was going around.

I wanted to know if this was why I get crashes, and was the only time I wanted malware lol.

Under task manager, no iehighutil.exe.

Not under msconfig startup.

Not in regedit.

No suspicious high mem. processes I don't recognize.

Why else would my card crash? Only high quality/taxing games.
I have a 800w gold psu. Good brand.
Latest drivers, driver sweeped.

More about : bitcoin farmer eating gpu

June 17, 2013 12:04:33 AM

are you overclocked ?

edit:
or lets say do you own a factory overclocked version?
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June 17, 2013 12:06:59 AM

n1ghtr4v3n said:
are you overclocked ?

edit:
or lets say do you own a factory overclocked version?


Crap. I will check, I think I might.. EVGA GTX 680 w/ backplate (MIGHT be superclocked. Will see..)
Edit: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/ite...
Don't judge me for tigerdirect ^^
But yes, thats SC+. Should I underclock?
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June 17, 2013 12:11:50 AM

If you are using 320.18 FALL BACK to 314.22. The 320.xx drivers are bad. I had to get modified 314.22 ones for my GTX 780 so I can actually use the damn thing.
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Best solution

June 17, 2013 12:49:36 AM

ttg_Avenged said:
n1ghtr4v3n said:
are you overclocked ?

edit:
or lets say do you own a factory overclocked version?


Crap. I will check, I think I might.. EVGA GTX 680 w/ backplate (MIGHT be superclocked. Will see..)
Edit: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/ite...
Don't judge me for tigerdirect ^^
But yes, thats SC+. Should I underclock?


well it could be a driver problem as the following post offers. but i may suggest 2 options as you may thought about it already;
1. increase the voltage like +5% or +10%
2. if voltage doesnt work, downclock it like -5% or -10%
3. try different drivers, my advise would be not to fall back to a older version but instead upgrade to a beta newer beta version

I hope it helps...
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June 17, 2013 1:28:30 AM

Thanks for replying guys. I've tried 314.14, 310.xx, and many others. I am going to sadly try 301.10 (the shipped driver). EDIT: I'll try this as a last resort.

I will slightly increase the voltage, then downclock. Will report back tomorrow sometime :) 

How do I increase the voltage? Under EVGA Precision, I changed the power target to max (132%)

I played Crysis 2 on full ultra 1080p but DX10 on accident for two hours, no crash. So far so good, I guess.
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June 17, 2013 1:55:46 AM

ttg_Avenged said:
Thanks for replying guys. I've tried 314.14, 310.xx, and many others. I am going to sadly try 301.10 (the shipped driver).

I will slightly increase the voltage, then downclock. Will report back tomorrow sometime :) 


good luck :) 
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June 17, 2013 7:46:18 PM

n1ghtr4v3n said:
ttg_Avenged said:
Thanks for replying guys. I've tried 314.14, 310.xx, and many others. I am going to sadly try 301.10 (the shipped driver).

I will slightly increase the voltage, then downclock. Will report back tomorrow sometime :) 


good luck :) 


I went from 987mv to 1012mV, I am still crashing. Increase the voltage? What is and isn't safe?

The power target is 132% now also, and I underclocked. GPU clock -45mhz, mem clock -70mhz.

Will report back.

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June 17, 2013 7:51:51 PM

ttg_Avenged said:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/396658-33-driver-cras...

Hi. I have a GTX 680, and it crashes at random on highly-taxing games.
I read on toms, at the above link that a bit ago a nasty bitcoin farmer (malware) was going around.

I wanted to know if this was why I get crashes, and was the only time I wanted malware lol.

Under task manager, no iehighutil.exe.

Not under msconfig startup.

Not in regedit.

No suspicious high mem. processes I don't recognize.

Why else would my card crash? Only high quality/taxing games.
I have a 800w gold psu. Good brand.
Latest drivers, driver sweeped.


Have you been monitoring the GPU temperature? A malfunctioning cooling unit can cause over heating and subsequent crashes.
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June 17, 2013 7:54:08 PM

You wouldn't be targetted for that because your GPU doesn't support it, it's only AMD thats profitable.
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June 17, 2013 7:56:42 PM

cookybiscuit said:
You wouldn't be targetted for that because your GPU doesn't support it, it's only AMD thats profitable.


You sure? 3 GTX guys had this farmer. Including my friend, why would they lie?
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June 17, 2013 7:58:42 PM

anthony8989 said:
ttg_Avenged said:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/396658-33-driver-cras...

Hi. I have a GTX 680, and it crashes at random on highly-taxing games.
I read on toms, at the above link that a bit ago a nasty bitcoin farmer (malware) was going around.

I wanted to know if this was why I get crashes, and was the only time I wanted malware lol.

Under task manager, no iehighutil.exe.

Not under msconfig startup.

Not in regedit.

No suspicious high mem. processes I don't recognize.

Why else would my card crash? Only high quality/taxing games.
I have a 800w gold psu. Good brand.
Latest drivers, driver sweeped.


Have you been monitoring the GPU temperature? A malfunctioning cooling unit can cause over heating and subsequent crashes.


No. I will start.
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June 17, 2013 8:07:40 PM

ttg_Avenged said:
cookybiscuit said:
You wouldn't be targetted for that because your GPU doesn't support it, it's only AMD thats profitable.


You sure? 3 GTX guys had this farmer. Including my friend, why would they lie?

With Nvidia GPU's, no matter how fast, the cost of electricity massively outweighs the profit from mining, obviously someone doing this wouldn't really care about your electric bills but it would be in their best interests to target someone with a system that is actually useful for it.
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June 17, 2013 8:35:35 PM

cookybiscuit said:
ttg_Avenged said:
cookybiscuit said:
You wouldn't be targetted for that because your GPU doesn't support it, it's only AMD thats profitable.


You sure? 3 GTX guys had this farmer. Including my friend, why would they lie?

With Nvidia GPU's, no matter how fast, the cost of electricity massively outweighs the profit from mining, obviously someone doing this wouldn't really care about your electric bills but it would be in their best interests to target someone with a system that is actually useful for it.


Oh I see.


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June 18, 2013 2:35:40 AM

Heironious said:
If you are using 320.18 FALL BACK to 314.22. The 320.xx drivers are bad. I had to get modified 314.22 ones for my GTX 780 so I can actually use the damn thing.


That would explain the recent artifacting.
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June 18, 2013 2:36:45 AM

Okay, I haven't had a crash recently. This may be a fix. But usually I get a crash 3 times for a total of 8 hours gaming.
If I don't get a crash tomorrow, solved.
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June 20, 2013 1:37:10 AM

Epic. Haven't crashed in 2 days mostly BF3 and Crysis 3, ~ 12 hours total ;) 

So i'm calling this solved.
Solution: I had to overvolt by 3%, this was because the card was overclocked from the factory.
I also lightly underclocked it. :)  Fixed!!
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