Asus GTX 560 Crashing on Login

sounds like it may be switching the output port when you log in if the computer its self keeps running normally and nothing else happens. after you log in, unhook your monitor and plug it into the other dvi port on your graphics card... I'd assume you'll see your desktop then. Nvidia cards do weird stuff like that sometimes

if it's not that simple... then you may want to boot into safe-mode and clean out the graphics drivers, re-download and re-install, otherwise you may need to format again

I've done a number of clean installs of the graphics drivers of many different versions. (I had heard that Ver. 280.26 was the most stable at this point in time, but it still didn't work). If for instance it was switching the DVI port that it was displaying from, would it cause it to reset infinitely as it is doing now? I would imagine it would just keep running.

I've been trying to look up some more information about similar occurrences, and often times people say it is either, 1) bad drivers that need to be cleaned out, 2) the GPU is overheating or 3) Bad Hardware

as far as each issue goes,

1) I've tried a number of different driver versions, all installed from safemode, and all done with clean installs, to no avail. (despite all of this I still feel like it might be a driver issue)

2) I have a hard time believing that my GPU is overheating. My case is a veritable wind tunnel, and I make sure enough cold air is flowing over the GPU and near the GPU for the twin cooling fans to suck in. I've also been testing this at night with a cold room.

3) I was extremely careful installing the hardware, and it functions with windows basic VGA drivers in safe mode, so would it be a bad connection? I'm not that well versed with GPU functionality to know if thats true or not.

With all of this out on the board, is there any way to test whether or not its a hardware, or software issue?

Thanks!

-Daniel

Edit: I forgot to mention that every once and while, the computer would somehow pull through the whole driver failure phase. It would call a BCCode error of 116. When it didn't manage to get through and went right to the BSOD, it was giving a stop error of : 0x00000116 (which i assume is the same as the BCCode). From what little i know of BSOD codes, that is a failure of the OS to recover a graphical driver, right?

If thats the case, could it still be a hardware issue?

Yeah, I suggested the display output switch without reading thoroughly enough to see it was restarting, which wouldn't happen if that were the case in most situations. The only way to really see if it's the GPU would be to toss in another card and see if it runs correctly, or completely re-install windows.

I'd rule out heat completely as well, since theres nothing that would get a properly assembled card that hot that quick about loading windows, so unless its second hand, Its no worry.

the only other thing to try maybe would be the other 6-pin connnectors on the PSU. The card only looks to require 30A rails, so no reasonable PSU would have anything less than that... But it sounds like its probably bad hardware at this point.