GTX295 sli mode = driver crashes

Forum Graphics & Displays : Nvidia GTX295 sli mode = driver crashes

Hi there, My first post in the forums - and a cry for help.

I built this system last month -
Antec P183 case
Antec CP-850w PSU
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping 2.66GHz - overclocked to 4.0Ghz
Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU Cooler
Gigabyte EX58-UD5 Intel X58 DDR3 Motherboard
OCZ Reaper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-15000C9 Tri-Channel
Gainward GeForce GTX 295 1792MB GDDR3
2x Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB - Raid 0
Windows 7 64 bit, all latest drivers, GPU drivers 190.38

And until this week it had performed superbly, I made no changes to the system before the crashes started - But now If it run any 3d application in multi-gpu mode they all crash. 3d Mark gives me the message: 'IDirect3DDevice9:resent failed: Device lost (D3DERR_DEVICELOST)' which I have looked up and most people have suggested that overclocking is the cause - but I have not clocked this card, and the maximum temp I have reached is 75c.

All the games I have run also will crash, sometimes immediately after the game loads, but last night I was able to play Arma 2 for several hours without issue - the usual error codes are 'Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered' or (something like 'driver kernel...something, I cant remember) but Il2 also gives me an OpenGl error. Most of these crashes when trying to return to desktop will lock the system up - 3d mark seems to recover from the error and will crash when closing the program (at the point when it tries to re-enable aero?) And All of these programs worked flawlessly before the this started.

I have tried everything I can think of to fix the issue and nothing works - aside from only running in slngle GPU mode. I have: rebuilt the whole system, reinstalled all drivers, used unclocked mobo settings, Reinstalled windows, used alternative Pci-e rails... and probably more I have forgotten. After the rebuild and reinstall of windows I installed just the drivers and 3d mark, and same problem exactly - so after all this I can only assume the problem is hardware, and the graphics card seems to be the likely culprit?

I have contacted Overclcokers UK where I bought all the components and they have given me an RMA code, but I'm really hoping someone might be able to suggest some fixes I have missed. And I am concerned that as the problem, although persistant, can at times be intermittant - and given what will probably be a half-assed test they would miss it and charge me for the effort and send it back to me with no benefit at all...

Sorry for the long post, but it seems sensible to include all the details I possibly can. The only last thing I can think of, but haven't tried is upping the Pci-e voltage from the default v1.500. I haven't found anywhere a suggested voltage so I have left that alone. Many Thanks for your time. Joe

Message edited by Piratey on 08-21-2009 at 06:22:57 PM

Reply to Piratey

Please, anyone able to shed some light on this one?

Reply to Piratey

Hello and welcome to the forums

Can u test with another OS like XP/VISTA too ? I've had the "'Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered" (with VISTA) before and a friend suggested me to install XP and test with it,so if u can try with XP/VISTA and see if its the same or not

Reply to Maziar

Buy a ATI card. I see way to many GTX 295 help posts lately.

Reply to daship

Thanks for the input guys, I would try going back to xp however as it worked perfectly well with all the programs before that I am now having problems with - even after a OS reinstall it seems to me that windows 7 probably isn't the problem.

Buy an ATI card? well, I have no problems with ati at all - my last card was a 4850 which I was more than happy with. My problem with this advice is simple though - I just spent £300 on a graphics card, just buying a replacement while I can either fix the issue, or get it replaced would be a ridiculous waste of money.

Reply to Piratey

Right^^ if u get it fixed(Which u hopefully will) then there is no reason to get a new card

Reply to Maziar

GPU fan controller fixed that issue for me ( video card fan would stay at 40% RPM no matter the temp and it would lock up in the low 70C area at stock clocking ). I also notice that my games get choppy at 68C. I have a EVGA card and the EVGA Precision graphics tuning program has a fan controller in it I use. I have my fan kick up to 85% at 65C stepping down from there. I runs without load at 52C 40% fan. No issues since. Your results will vary since each card behaves differently.

Edit: My current speeds are set at:

Core 625
Shader 1347
Memory 1083

Have not tried higher settings for fear of breaking it :non:

Also using ( NVIDIA System Tools with ESA Support 6.08 ) which made a huge difference in performance/temps.