Bad Card or Board??

[Murker]

I've had an Nvidia GTX470 for a couple of years and the other day I got my first BOD. The initial error was that the driver stopped working. I rebooted a few times, and it would always get to the desktop fine, but lockup a few seconds later. Then I started getting some kind of "video card is stuck in an infinite loop" error.
It seems to work fine in Safe Mode, which I am typing this on right now. I tried various other drivers, and all did the same thing.
I moved it to the 3rd slot down on my Gigabyte MB and it worked for a few minutes, then ended up doing the same thing.

I've done some searching through various forums and I am leaning toward it being the card itself. I don't have anything else to test in the slots at the moment to confirm that, but from what I have read, it seems to me it may be the card.

Since it works fine in safe mode (granted, it has no audio), could it honestly be something with the board itself???

Ty for any and all responses. I appreciate your time.

 

[johnnyb105]

Ok have you tried to uninstall all drivers for it and reinstall them? maybe you had a software update it didn't you can always use system restore and go back to a better know time the pc function right as well.. Leads me to belive you can get into safe mode your card is ok and its a driver or software issue!

 

[Murker]

I did try uninstalling and reinstalling and it just did the same thing, every time. I forgot to mention that I did try a system restore to the week before the incident first occurred and it ended up doing the same thing.
I did think it was just the driver at first, but I can't get it to work with ANY drivers now, without safe mode.

 

[johnnyb105]

Ok hows the card is there a lot of dirt in it have you cleaned your system out and removed the card and installed it again have you tried it in another slot if you have one or another computer to test it? I remember hearing awhile back some NVidia drivers screwed up some cards Now I don't know how true this is but something to consider.

 

[Murker]

Ok hows the card is there a lot of dirt in it have you cleaned your system out and removed the card and installed it again have you tried it in another slot if you have one or another computer to test it? I remember hearing awhile back some NVidia drivers screwed up some cards Now I don't know how true this is but something to consider.

There was some dust in it but I blew it all out when I took it out the first time. I went and blew out the entire inside of my PC just to be safe.
I did try another slot, which I had read that the 3rd slot was the next natural slot for the card, and it ended up doing the same thing.
I don't have another PC to test it out in, but I have pieces laying around, I could probably throw one together just to try it....

 

[johnnyb105]

Ya I would try another card if you have it and see if you get the same results I am not a NVidia person but I don't really thing your card is bad and I would hate to suggest to you to buy another and you still have the same problems.

 

[Murker]

I will see what I can come up with and post results. Thank you for your help.

 

[johnnyb105]

Hey anytime and I hope I did help in some way good luck to you.

 

[Shaun o]

The very fact the card works ok in safe mode is sort of a mute point.
Simply because the Nvidia driver is never loaded when safe mode of windows is used.

Safe mode only uses the basic drivers provided by Microsoft.

When you start your pc in normal windows mode the Nvidia driver is loaded. The power requirements rise, and the full potential of the Gpu is used.

As said if you have had the card for three years.
Then it needs a good clean out.
What you will find is a thick matted layer of dust that is covering the Fins of the aluminum heat sink of the gpu cooler of the card.
So air is not flowing through from the fan.

I clean mine out every 8 months for example.
I can tell because I see my temps rise over a given time.

So it`s time to take the fan shroud or casing off the card and get dusting.

And overheat of the Gpu will cause slowdown, or a crash of the Nvidia display driver, and will become more frequent.

All should be fine once done.

 

[Murker]

Sorry for the delay, things are tight with the holidays. I took the card out, cleaned it all out. It did have some dust inside and it's clean as a whistle now. Cleaned out the tower as well.
Fired it up and it ended up doing the same thing after about 2 minutes.

I tried so many drivers before, I need to go in and see which driver I'm rockin right now and I'll post an update with my findings.

 

[Murker]

Latest driver that came out Nov 2013 and it still does the same thing.......Is this card officially toast?