"GPU driver stopped responding and has recovered" error

[blokewhoknowsnothingabouttech]

HI, I have a VERY annoying issue with my PC. It freezes, the screen goes blank, it comes back for a bit but then it happens again. This continues until I can manage to get the mouse over to the start menu to shut it down or if I hold down the power button and turn it off like that. This issue doesn't occur in safe mode, so I booted the PC into that and found that in the error log it said that the "GPU driver stopped responding and has recovered."

This would suggest a driver issue. So I tried uninstalling the drivers using DDU & reinstalling the latest drivers. This didn't work. I've tried using older drivers, which didn't work. I tried a virus scan with Malwarebytes, scanning for rootkits. I tried a blank HDD with a fresh windows install. I tried reseating the RAM and GPU. I even tried running the PC with no drivers at all and STILL the issue occurred.

To prove my GPU is not a fake - GPU specs (from GPU-Z) - http://imgur.com/3oidlWi

Specs:
CPU: i5 2400 (stock speed)
GPU: EVGA GTX 960 2GB (stock speed)
Mobo: Dell M5DCD
RAM: 8GB
PSU: EVGA 430W
OS: Windows 10 pro 64bit
HDD: 1TB

Any ideas?

 

[rolli59]

I have had the same issue two times and turned out being failing V-ram on GPU in both cases! If you can put your GPU in another system and the issue comes with it is that for sure.

 

[blokewhoknowsnothingabouttech]

I have had the same issue two times and turned out being failing V-ram on GPU in both cases! If you can put your GPU in another system and the issue comes with it is that for sure.

I've tried it with a blank HDD. will that not have the same affect?

 

[blokewhoknowsnothingabouttech]

I have had the same issue two times and turned out being failing V-ram on GPU in both cases! If you can put your GPU in another system and the issue comes with it is that for sure.

Also, possibly a stupid question but, if it is failing VRAM, could that be replaced?

 

[rolli59]

If it is the card then RMA under warranty is the only option. It has to be a different system.

 

[blokewhoknowsnothingabouttech]

If it is the card then RMA under warranty is the only option. It has to be a different system.

Unfortunately I bought it on eBay. The card had a 15 day warranty and worked fine for several months after said warranty ended. I can put it into a different system but it would create a massive bottleneck and I'd have to take the PSU out

 

[rolli59]

Bottleneck does not matter all you want to see if the issue comes with it. The only other thing it can be is system ram so running memtest would clear that. http://www.memtest.org/

 

[blokewhoknowsnothingabouttech]

Bottleneck does not matter all you want to see if the issue comes with it. The only other thing it can be is system ram so running memtest would clear that. http://www.memtest.org/

Ok, I'll be a while getting back to you but eventually you'll get a response