Question Dual Nvidia GTX-970s no longer working after 6 years, no display when both installed.

[Kropotkin]

Hello,

I have been running dual 970s since about 2016. I had my motherboard and CPU burn out and replaced it in 2021. Relevant specs are as follows:
Motherboard: P8Z68-V Pro Gen 3
CPU: Intel i7-3770 @ 3.40 Ghz
Graphics Cards: Nvidia GTX 970 x2

Since the motherboard replacement I have had no problems. things were working fine. I recently moved and have had trouble since then. I moved it in my car and was careful with it the whole time, I don't think it was damaged. Installing it in my new place I had difficulty getting it to display, I eventually got it to turn on after just trying unplugging hdmi over and over, this had happened before so I was not worried. The PC sat unused for about a month.

*However, on launch, graphics cards were not properly detected and had an "!" in device manager. I updated the drivers, which worked for a while, but then started getting blue screens of death. On relaunch I would get similar messages in device manager but on restarts it would mostly work. The error code I was getting was code 43, and my graphics card software would not launch. I was playing total war: warhammer 3 which is pretty taxing for this system, and the game was throttling graphics, but mostly working when the cards were properly showing in device manager.

*After the last blue screen of death, the computer would spin up but I have no display with both cards installed. I tried one card in each slot, and they both work independently in both slots. I also disassembled and dusted both cards. I am noticing running the cards in the second slot seems to not work very well, firefox got corrupted for some reason but that seems unrelated.

*I ordered a DVI cable, which did not solve the issue. I also ordered a new SLI cable which does not solve the issue either. I clean installed the driver, but had to do so with only one card installed. I can run games and have no blue screens running on one card.

Is there fix to this? Most forums I see on dual cards is how to get them to work, but mine were working for years, then stopped. Could I have overheated the cards to the point where only SLI stopped working? That seems unlikely because they both run at the exact same temps and voltages solo and neither seems damaged. My power supply is from 2012, the only original part left on this computer, but the cards have the white light red light, and they both appear to be getting proper power.

 

[punkncat]

I think I would start with a power supply that isn't 11 years old...but even more to the point would probably consider eliminating the SLI setup as it simply isn't worth it any more. Most games don't support it or even gain anything from it in the face of budget priced cards that would curb stomp performance out of the box at lower power requirements.

Unless it is simply for 'reasons' it is best to put this behind you and move on, IMO

 

[Kropotkin]

I think I would start with a power supply that isn't 11 years old...but even more to the point would probably consider eliminating the SLI setup as it simply isn't worth it any more. Most games don't support it or even gain anything from it in the face of budget priced cards that would curb stomp performance out of the box at lower power requirements.

Unless it is simply for 'reasons' it is best to put this behind you and move on, IMO

All very good points, but something I didn't mention in the original post is that I'm currently very low on funds (recent law school grad). So swapping PCU and cards will not be an option for me until next year. Also, getting a new card would require a new motherboard, as it is an old model, which then requires a new CPU and ram. None of which I can afford. I want to stretch these until they totally die, which could be this moment, but hopefully not.

 

[Kropotkin]

Hello,

I have been running dual 970s since about 2016. I had my motherboard and CPU burn out and replaced it in 2021. Relevant specs are as follows:
Motherboard: P8Z68-V Pro Gen 3
CPU: Intel i7-3770 @ 3.40 Ghz
Graphics Cards: Nvidia GTX 970 x2

Since the motherboard replacement I have had no problems. things were working fine. I recently moved and have had trouble since then. I moved it in my car and was careful with it the whole time, I don't think it was damaged. Installing it in my new place I had difficulty getting it to display, I eventually got it to turn on after just trying unplugging hdmi over and over, this had happened before so I was not worried. The PC sat unused for about a month.

*However, on launch, graphics cards were not properly detected and had an "!" in device manager. I updated the drivers, which worked for a while, but then started getting blue screens of death. On relaunch I would get similar messages in device manager but on restarts it would mostly work. The error code I was getting was code 43, and my graphics card software would not launch. I was playing total war: warhammer 3 which is pretty taxing for this system, and the game was throttling graphics, but mostly working when the cards were properly showing in device manager.

*After the last blue screen of death, the computer would spin up but I have no display with both cards installed. I tried one card in each slot, and they both work independently in both slots. I also disassembled and dusted both cards. I am noticing running the cards in the second slot seems to not work very well, firefox got corrupted for some reason but that seems unrelated.

*I ordered a DVI cable, which did not solve the issue. I also ordered a new SLI cable which does not solve the issue either. I clean installed the driver, but had to do so with only one card installed. I can run games and have no blue screens running on one card.

Is there fix to this? Most forums I see on dual cards is how to get them to work, but mine were working for years, then stopped. Could I have overheated the cards to the point where only SLI stopped working? That seems unlikely because they both run at the exact same temps and voltages solo and neither seems damaged. My power supply is from 2012, the only original part left on this computer, but the cards have the white light red light, and they both appear to be getting proper power.

Update: Optional windows update fixed the issue but broke my wifi card lol. Ofc it did.