GTX 560 ti issue

[masht]

Hello everyone,

I´m having a problem with my GTX 560 ti. When I start up the screen often freezes or is just black after booting into Windows. It got better since I typed in the DRAM Timing and frequency manually in BIOS setup. And with the newest driver it happens only once and a while. With my older graphiccard i never had any problems. I noticed that if the pcie works with x16 the graphiccard can´t be stressed, a graphic error occurs. After that I have to reset, but not only that. I have to disconnect power, otherwise the PC wouldn´t even show BIOS post screen. If the card runs just on pcie x8 everything is fine.

I don´t really find a solution for my problem and don´t know what this could be. I tried another PSU. Reset CMOS. Cleaned the PCIe slot with a brush. Tried a lot of different drivers from old to new (now i use the latest nvidia driver 306.02), load BIOS setup defaults, tried different Windows versions.

What I´ll try next is put the card into another PC if it works with PCIe x16, but I really want to fix this on my current PC.

Maybe anyone has a clue? I would be fine to fix the PCIe at x8, but unfortunately there is no option in the BIOS setup, because whenever the PC starts up and the PCIe runs with x16, I cannot be sure the graphic gets unstable (exspecially when I play games). I don´t even know why the PC often runs the PCIe with x8. But I think its some protective circuit.

Here is my PC setup: (PC is a bit old, but I don´t have the money to get a better one right now)

Mainboard: ASUS P5QC (just one PCIe x16 slot)
CPU: Q8400 2,66 Ghz
RAM: Corsair Cm2x2048-8500C5 (2x2 GB DDR2 1066 dual-channel)
PSU: Corsair TX650

I also disabled DRAM read training, Load line calibration and typed in DRAM voltage manually(2.2V).
Memtest ok. prime stress test ok.
Temperatures are all fine. Maybe someone can help me with this.

Thanks for every answer.

greetings from Austria,
Martin

 

[Mousemonkey]

It could be motherboard or it could be the card but the thing about being OK @x8 but crashing @x16 makes me think that the motherboard is having an issue switching between power modes.

 

[masht]

Hello Mousemonkey,

Thanks for the quick response. The thing is: I already sent the mainboard with the graphiccard to ASUS and they gave me another mainboard. The Problem still exists. I hope they didn´t give me a broken board. But anyhow with the other board I had the same problems. I will try the card on another mainboard, but i also think it has to do with the board (or maybe DRAM) That Board in connection with the DRAM made troubles from the beginning.

Do you mean power mode that regulate PCIe Bandwidth?

cheers

 

[Mousemonkey]

Hello Mousemonkey,

Thanks for the quick response. The thing is: I already sent the mainboard with the graphiccard to ASUS and they gave me another mainboard. The Problem still exists. I hope they didn´t give me a broken board. But anyhow with the other board I had the same problems. I will try the card on another mainboard, but i also think it has to do with the board (or maybe DRAM) That Board in connection with the DRAM made troubles from the beginning.

Do you mean power mode that regulate PCIe Bandwidth?

cheers

Yes, in idle mode the PCIe slot should drop to x8 from x16.

 

[nforce4max]

I hope that it is not the board as it is rare and ddr3 775 boards that have decent overclocking abilities are expensive. It could be the card as it seams though it didn't have issues with the older card. Fermi cards like the 560 ti tend to draw more than the 75w that most boards are rated for from the slot. Beyond that have you tried a bios update? I had similar problems with a P55 Asrock board with my 460 until it killed the slot one day. The 460 is running without issue but it left that board with only the 4x and 8x slot running. All I can suggest if your board is doing the same as mine had done is to return/sell your 560ti and get a different card.

 

[masht]

@mousemonkey: the mainboard does not switch from x8 to x16, when i stress the card. But it runs stable with x8. And graphic performance is good. On the other hand if the board starts up with x16 bandwidth it does not switch to x8 in Idle. But I cannot open a 3d app otherwise the graphic crashes. In this case you might be right that the board has a problem to switch between these two modes.

@nforce4max: The board is not a very expensive, but its still a good one and I cannot afford a new one at the time. Especially with a new processor^^ It is maybe rare yes, because it runs with both DDR2 and DDR3. Anyway I like the easy overclocking options in the Bios. I had a few troubles at the beginnig running the DDR2 at 1066 MHz. But after changing and fixing a few settings the RAM runs without any problems. But now its the new graphiccard xD
Its a interesting point with the 75W that most boards are rated from the slot. Because that was also a thing I thought about. And that its maybe neither the motherboard nor the graphic card, just the combination.

It would be really strange to send the board to asus and get a board with the same issue (because they changed it to another one)
I really need to know if the card works fine in another board, i´ll try that. (when I have the time to build a test system

I read a lot about the same or similar issues with the GTX 560. A lot of people having problems with this card. Freezes, graphic crashes etc.

Thank you for your answers guys!

 

[nforce4max]

It might work in a different board but the odd thing about some of the cards is that they don't always work and when they do it sometimes works like a charm on an ancient board like a 680/780i while nothing but trouble on others. If you got a friend that will let you try the card out and see if it acts up but chances are that it will run without issue. If you could gain that 8x option from the start that would help.

 

[masht]

It might work in a different board but the odd thing about some of the cards is that they don't always work and when they do it sometimes works like a charm on an ancient board like a 680/780i while nothing but trouble on others. If you got a friend that will let you try the card out and see if it acts up but chances are that it will run without issue. If you could gain that 8x option from the start that would help.

Yes thats exactly the thing that can happen... If I try it in another board it runs perfect with x16 and I still can´t be sure its the card. But I´ll try it anyway. Because if its not working right I can be quiet sure its the graphic card.

 

[masht]

Ok, I changed the PSU and its still the same issue. Also tried the card in another board and it runs on x16 in the other board. But with PCIe 1.1, lol.
But another Graphic card runs with 1.1 too, so I guess it has to do with the other mainboard. I will leave it this way now as it makes no big difference in performance.

greetings from Austria,
Martin

 

[nforce4max]

Well there is not much you can do without rebuilding around a different board.

 

[masht]

Well there is not much you can do without rebuilding around a different board.

I rebuilt it around a ASUS M4N68T-M, also with a new PSU and the card runs with x16, but only with PCIe 1.1. But my old card runs with the same speed on this test system.
So I guess its not the card, it has something to do with the mainboard, in both cases (also my old P5QC)
As long as its not the graphic card, because it still has warranty, I don´t really care about 2 or 3% less performance.