GTX 580 SLI - BSOD/Code 43 - bottom card dead?

[Milkym0o]

So basically, I've had my system now for a good 2 years or so, give or take.

Specs:

Silverstone FT02B-W
i7 2600k @4.3ghz
Asus P8Z68-V PRO
16gb Corsair Vengeance
SLI GTX EVGA 580 SC
Xonar Xense
OCZ Vertex 3 120GB
3x 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3
WD 500GB Blue
Corsair AX1200

Recently, I had to turn OFF SLI because I would get a BSOD - nvlddmkm.sys when it was on. My SLI setup hasn't been tampered/altered in anyway since I put it together, it has worked for the past 2 years! Done the usual dust removal on my filters, hardly any dust gets in the case itself.

I've used Driver Sweeper in safe mode, have tried drivers: 320.49, 326.19b, 326.41b but to no avail...

The current "top/master" 580 is recognized and works just fine, I can perform my usual tasks.

When I swap the top and bottom card around - ran them both solo as well, the "bottom" card (in the top lane) is not recognized - not found in DxDiag, in device manager it has code 43.

Any thoughts or help!?

 

[Eximo]

If you haven't tried running a single card in your second slot, give that a try. You might have a bad slot.

Hmm, though you do mention the bottom card doesn't work in the top slot. Fairly definitive.

 

[vikilaba]

Are you solved this?
I have this code 43 issue with my SLI GTX470. You have many devices as I (6 HDDs) and high temperature caused the malfunction for second card. Or may be new driver installation take out life of card for some unknown reason, for us mortals!

 

[vikilaba]

Finally, I checked in with an old driver version 258.96 (with old installation wizard) and does not display CODE 43 in Device Manager with low-res desktop. But now its does artifacting on desktop! I try with the thermal compound (the recommendation to take the heatsink of the card, remove any remains of old thermal paste and clean the GPU and heatsink contacts properly and apply a fresh layer of thermal paste). I conclude from this that the new versions of drivers are with the built-in diagnostics for health of card and any type of error happens it reports CODE 43 to stop the operation of the device. I think this is generally in response to all of the same problem-HARDWARE MALFUNCTION

 

[vikilaba]

Cracked solder joints cause that fail:
http://youtu.be/Yi43AmDsyNU