GeForce GTX 460 black screen freeze

[LoneWolf616]

Hi there. I've had my GeForce GTX 460 card for almost a year now and have been experiencing a specific problem with it when running games. Everything works fine when playing older games or games that use relatively older game engines. For example, games like Portal 2, Team Fortress 2, and Counter-Strike: Source all work perfectly with optimum settings. The first time I experienced a problem was with Call of Duty: Black Ops. After playing for any random amount of time (usually doesn't take long) the screen freezes and stays that way for about three seconds. The audio continues uninterrupted. The screen then goes black for an additional two to three seconds. After that, everything goes back to normal and the game resumes running normally. It didn't happen all that often when playing Black Ops, so I ignored it. Then the same problem started happening with the recent game Dead Island, only a bit worse. It seems to happen more frequently with this game, and on some occasions it never unfreezes. Alt+tab and ctrl+alt+del have no affect as the system is completely frozen. I have no choice but to turn the power off. I continued to try to ignore it, as it didn't happen so often that I couldn't stand it. Just today, Battlefield 3 was released, and this same problem is occurring, still worse yet. When playing Battlefield 3, the game will randomly freeze, the screen will go black, and then I will either be forced to alt+tab and close the program, or the entire system will freeze and I will have no choice but to turn the power off. This problem happens regardless what the graphics settings are for the games. I've tried playing all three games with their individual graphics settings at their lowest, highest, and around the middle, and it makes no difference. The problem occurs with the same amount of frequency. Anyone know what the problem might be? Here are my system specs:

Processor:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 870 @ 2.93GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.9GHz
Memory:
6144MB RAM
Hard Drive:
I have two, the one with the operating system on it is 8.26 GB of 74.5 GB free; the other is 20.4 GB of 279 GB free
Operating System:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.110622-1506)

 

[LoneWolf616]

I have the latest drivers as of just a few days ago. The GPU temp at rest is about 35C and while playing Battlefield 3 it was about 59C at it's hottest. The reason I'm not so sure it's an overheating problem is because I've had overheating problems with other computers and usually just about any game would cause them to overheat, not just a specific few. Also, if it was an overheating problem I would think that the system would freeze every time I played those games with some consistency. But actually, the first time the screen froze I had only been playing for maybe five minutes, and just now I played Battlefield 3 for over an hour and to my surprise it didn't freeze once. And then, just before writing this reply, the screen went black for a few seconds while the computer was completely at rest. First time it ever happened when not playing a game. It eventually came back to desktop and Windows displayed a message that said something along the lines of "The display driver stopped working and has recovered."

lets start with the basics

1. updated to latest drivers from Nvidia's website?
2. Check the GPU temperature ?

 

[LoneWolf616]

Okay, I uninstalled my driver, got rid of all the old drivers, then reinstalled the latest driver. So far, there have been no crashes while on desktop or while playing Battlefield 3 or Black Ops. I did still get a crash when playing Dead Island, though it was a different sort of crash. The screen froze but didn't turn black, and then the audio screwed up and got sort of staticy. I had to turn the power off. I'm gonna do some more playtesting before I declare the problem fixed or not. Thanks for the help so far everyone, I'll be back if I still have problems.

 

[LoneWolf616]

Looks like reinstalling the driver didn't do too much after all. Black Ops still runs okay but both Dead Island and Battlefield 3 still crash, just differently. The game will freeze and the audio will end and be replaced by a low-pitched hum that goes on and off and changes slightly in frequency. I downloaded dxwebsetup.exe but it didn't seem to make any difference. Anything else I can try? I appreciate any help.

 

[Sequisha]

Looks like reinstalling the driver didn't do too much after all. Black Ops still runs okay but both Dead Island and Battlefield 3 still crash, just differently. The game will freeze and the audio will end and be replaced by a low-pitched hum that goes on and off and changes slightly in frequency. I downloaded dxwebsetup.exe but it didn't seem to make any difference. Anything else I can try? I appreciate any help.

I'm also having the IDENTICAL problems with my relatively new GTX 460, particularly in BF3. It's not consistent, seems to have little correlation to card temps or activity. I was previously using the beta Nvidia drivers for bf3 beta and updated to the most recent nvid drivers(285.62)....still the same problem.

I'm convinced this is more of an overall solid compatibility issue on Battlefield's part....BFBC2 was a nightmare on launch so this doesn't surprise me. I must say, as great as this runs on my system it certainly is a shame I get random bologna crashes :/ I'll keep posted with any new solution's I've seen.

I must also note that I disabled origin from "In Game", as it was stated that would help from some problems within the game...but this also hasn't made a difference. Best of luck mate, hopefully us 460 users get a fair shake from DICE sometime soon!

 

[LoneWolf616]

I'm also having the IDENTICAL problems with my relatively new GTX 460, particularly in BF3. It's not consistent, seems to have little correlation to card temps or activity. I was previously using the beta Nvidia drivers for bf3 beta and updated to the most recent nvid drivers(285.62)....still the same problem.

I'm convinced this is more of an overall solid compatibility issue on Battlefield's part....BFBC2 was a nightmare on launch so this doesn't surprise me. I must say, as great as this runs on my system it certainly is a shame I get random bologna crashes :/ I'll keep posted with any new solution's I've seen.

I must also note that I disabled origin from "In Game", as it was stated that would help from some problems within the game...but this also hasn't made a difference. Best of luck mate, hopefully us 460 users get a fair shake from DICE sometime soon!

I agree that card temp and activity don't seem to have anything to do with the problem. And in my case, the crashes are incredibly inconsistent. The other night I was playing for two hours and didn't get a single crash. The next day I played for almost an hour and got three crashes. Unfortunately in my case anyway, the problem is not just a BF3 problem, because I experience the exact same type of crash with Dead Island, and sometimes a similar crash with Black Ops. I'll have to see today if Modern Warfare 3 crashes also. Well thanks to everyone for the advice, and if I find out anything I will also post it here. Good luck.

 

[andrewGW]

Had same problem with my gigbyte gtx 460. Literary tried everything. Had a older build so decided to upgrade everything besides hard drive and gpu. Swept drivers and tried current drivers as well as old ones. Nothing worked. Problem first started with black ops and BFBC2. Screen turn black then would have to hit power switch on psu to restart. Problem eventually turned into having black screen 2 min after logging into windows. All new hardware besides hard drive (tested no bad sectors) leads me to think it's the card. Have spent upwards of 18 hours trying to fix this problem and tried every reasonable strategy provided by the interwebs.
Uninstalled drivers for card and currently running fine at low res. Gaming is not possible and watching movies only works at real small res. Currently saving for gtx 560 or two. I recommend saving yourself some time and energy and buying a new gpu.
By the way what manufacturer is your 460?


AMD Phenom II X6 3.2GHz
G. SKILL 8GB DDR3 1600
Seagate 500g Harddrive
Silencer MK II 750w psu
Windows 7 64 SP1
(Current Case Dead Weight) gigabyte gtx 460 gpu

 

[LoneWolf616]

Had same problem with my gigbyte gtx 460. Literary tried everything. Had a older build so decided to upgrade everything besides hard drive and gpu. Swept drivers and tried current drivers as well as old ones. Nothing worked. Problem first started with black ops and BFBC2. Screen turn black then would have to hit power switch on psu to restart. Problem eventually turned into having black screen 2 min after logging into windows. All new hardware besides hard drive (tested no bad sectors) leads me to think it's the card. Have spent upwards of 18 hours trying to fix this problem and tried every reasonable strategy provided by the interwebs.
Uninstalled drivers for card and currently running fine at low res. Gaming is not possible and watching movies only works at real small res. Currently saving for gtx 560 or two. I recommend saving yourself some time and energy and buying a new gpu.
By the way what manufacturer is your 460?


AMD Phenom II X6 3.2GHz
G. SKILL 8GB DDR3 1600
Seagate 500g Harddrive
Silencer MK II 750w psu
Windows 7 64 SP1
(Current Case Dead Weight) gigabyte gtx 460 gpu

My card manufacturer is also Gigabyte. I've heard that some people have had luck with downgrading their core clock speed. I might try that. But at this point I might also just buy a 560. Thanks for your input.

 

[nikoasd]

I have also the exactly same problem + before I get black screen, my screen is full of different coloured pixels and then freeze and black screen, really annoying. Hopefully we get a solution.

 

[DOHCtor]

Had exactly the same problem for a long time.

The solution is to downgrade to 275.33 drivers, which are easily findable from a google search.

 

[Pretty Funked Up]

I had problems alomost identical to these. A driver roll back didnt work for me.
Found problem to be with a faulty stick of ram in mobo, wierd how only certain games showed it up.

Problem was pin pointed by using memtest x86 on each stick of ram individually.