Kernel Driver failure on PNY GTX 560

[ErmenegillE]

Hey there

I was refered to this forum by a friend. I am currently experiencing a weird bug since I built this system.
I've been doing a bunch of research but I couldn't find anything that would fix it.
So here we go ; Whenever I'm staring at my desktop, being afk without anything running beside firefox, I'm getting a 10-15 seconds Kernel Driver Failure. Eventually, it always come back from the black screen, but it's quite annoying to experience an hardware failure. It never happened when I was in a game.

My system is :

Gigabyte Z68A-D3H-B3
i5 2500k
2x4 GB Corsair Vengeance 1600 mhz
PNY Geforce GTX 560
Antec Earthwatts 750w 80+
500 GB Caviar Green
Antec Three Hundred case

I was told it could be a memory issue. My ram is in Dual channel.
I was also told it could be a power issue. My 24 pin connector is plugged into my mobo, a 4pin one too. I got 2x6 pin connectors to my graphic card.
My graphic card never heats over 65 degrees although I think that's already high.
And I'm running on Windows 7 64 bits.

I think it's about that. If there's anything I could add that would help, please tell me.

 

[ErmenegillE]

Bump.

 

[gmcizzle]

Kernel driver failure isn't good to see. If your GPU running at 65 on load or idle? Have you tried a full uninstall and reinstall of the latest drivers?

 

[ErmenegillE]

65 on full load, also I tried two times to delete the whole nvidia drivers, reboot and then reinstall them.

 

[gmcizzle]

65 on full load is perfectly fine, probably even cooler than most. This only happens when your system is idle for a bit? Never while gaming?

 

[ErmenegillE]

Exactly. Whenever I close a game, and I let my desktop idle on firefox or my desktop itself, it happens suddenly. Sometimes, twice in a row, but as soon as I start gaming, it won't ever do it again.

 

[nonnac7]

So it isn't a BSOD you're getting? What you are getting sounds like what happens to me when I'm overclocking my card. You may need to contact PNY, most likely they will have you update the firmware/bios for your card to see if that fixes it.

 

[ErmenegillE]

I'm not getting any BSOD, the screen only becomes black, and then my monitor says it doesn't detect any HDMI input, then it goes into sleep mode. A few seconds later everything is back to normal, and I get the notice that the kernel driver failed but windows was able to fix it.

 

[gmcizzle]

Yeah it is most likely an issue with your GPU not throttling down when idling correctly or something like that. It could also be a hard drive issue.

EDIT: Try disabling sleep/hibernate mode in windows.

 

[ErmenegillE]

An hard drive issue? How comes?
And what is a Firmware? As in the GPU bios?

 

[nonnac7]

Well since you said you have already uninstalled and re-installed drivers, the next course of action would be to contact/call PNY or fiddle around with some overclocking software(MSI Afterburner). This issue you are having sounds to be a GPU only issue.

For what its worth, when i'm overclocking, and I don't have enough voltage going to my card during testing my card, my screen will go black for like 5-8 secs in which it will come back and at the bottom right will say that the driver has failed and succesfully restarted(or something like that).

 

[nonnac7]

An hard drive issue? How comes?
And what is a Firmware? As in the GPU bios?

Yeah, I edited original post. So tired right now.

I have a feeling it has to do with the voltages when the card goes into the inactive state, or possibly the 2D state.

 

[ErmenegillE]

So you're telling me that they would've overclocked my graphic card too much for what it can handle? I'm not used at all to the overclocking.

I'll try to find the sleep/hibernate mode but the path would be appreciated

 

[gmcizzle]

It's possible that the stock voltage on your card is too low to be stable, but you said it works fine in games and only happens when it's idle, strange.

 

[gmcizzle]

Enable/disable hibernation:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/920730

 

[ErmenegillE]

I'm aware it's strange, hence why I'm requesting help on a forum x.x

Edit : Thanks for the link

 

[nonnac7]

So you're telling me that they would've overclocked my graphic card too much for what it can handle? I'm not used at all to the overclocking.

I'll try to find the sleep/hibernate mode but the path would be appreciated

It wouldn't be the first time that a company has factory overclocked a card without testing it out. Mostly when this happens the company will give instructions on updating gpu bios(this generally fixes the error).

By chance did you try re-seating the Graphics card on the motherboard?

 

[ErmenegillE]

I disabled sleep/hibernate mode.
So the only way to get the update for my gpu bios is to contact PNY? I've looked on their website and there's not any gpu bios updates available for download. Unless I'm too tired to find em.

 

[gmcizzle]

Try this:

Download Nvidia Inspector: http://downloads.guru3d.com/NVIDIA-Inspector-1.94-download-2612.html
Click on "Show Overclock" and see what it says for clocks and voltage.
Bump the voltage 2 notches up, and see if it that fixes it.

 

[nonnac7]

The bios isn't something they will have available for the masses to download, it will require you contacting them.

Did you try re-seating the graphics card on the motherboard since the problem has come up?

 

[ErmenegillE]

I'm downloading it, gmcizzle. What do you mean by "Bump the voltage 2 notches up, and see if it that fixes it. "?

And, nonnac7, what do you mean by "Did you try re-seating the graphics card on the motherboard since the problem has come up?"? replugging my graphic card?

 

[nonnac7]

Pulling the graphics card from where it sits on the motherboard and then putting it back in.

 

[gmcizzle]

I'm downloading it, gmcizzle. What do you mean by "Bump the voltage 2 notches up, and see if it that fixes it. "?

And, nonnac7, what do you mean by "Did you try re-seating the graphics card on the motherboard since the problem has come up?"? replugging my graphic card?

Under Voltage (bottom) in the Show Overclock section, you can change the voltage in small increments, so move the slider 2 places to the right (higher voltage).

And then hit Apply at the bottom right afterwards.

 

[ErmenegillE]

I didn't try that, but I will, if you believe it might help.
Also ;

 

[nonnac7]

By pulling I mean carefully removing.