Multiple BSODs with new GTX 970

[Jakesp]

Hi all,

I installed an MSI GTX 970 Gaming Edition card on Fright night. I'd uninstalled the drivers I'd been using with my old GTX 570, and at first there were no problems at all - the card worked fine in various games. On Saturday, however, I started getting multiples BSODs - errors including:

System Service Exception
Bad Pool Data
Memory Management
Pagefault in Nonpaged Area

I've tried various things, including uninstalling all graphics drivers (using Display Driver Uninstaller), trying both 344.11 and 344.16 drivers, updating motherboard BIOS, and clearing CMOS and checking BIOS settings. After trying the latter the computer worked fine for another day, but then the BSODs returned.

I'm now at the stage where if I install an NVIDIA driver with the GTX 970, the computer throws a BSOD soon after; sometimes it will be on start-up; sometimes it will get to the desktop, then collapse soon after. When restarting, the computer also sometimes turns off/comes on two or three times before going any further.

If I leave the card in with drivers removed (so it's just listed in device manager as 'VGA Adapter'), I don't have any problems.

I'm going to try putting the 570 back in later, to see what happens, but does anyone have any thoughts on whether this is a hardware or driver issue? Any thoughts/suggestions appreciated!


System:

Gigabyte Z86XP-UD3
i5-2500k
8GB Corsair DDR 3 RAM
250GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD
Samsung 1TB HDD
650W PSU
Windows 7 Professional

 

[cowboydude99]

These sounds like RAM errors.

Reseat your RAM and if you OC it, stop the OC for testing.

Here is what I would try just to check other components:
1. Reseat GPU and RAM.
2. Remove drivers with DDU in Safe Mode.
3. Reboot to Safe Mode and reinstall drivers.
4. Run a memory diagnostic check.
5. Run a HDD diagnostic check.

If all is well, let us know.

 

[Jakesp]

Hi - many thanks for the quick response.

I've tried and had no luck reseating the card and removing drivers in safe mode with DDU/reinstalling them in safe mode, unfortunately, but I will try again later.

I haven't tried reseating the RAM sticks yet, so I'll definitely give that a go. I did run a Windows Memory Check which came back with a 'hardware error' message... however, because the system had been running perfectly till the new graphics card went in - and because all seems fine till the Nvidia drivers are installed - I was sceptical that memory was the problem. I will investigate further.

I should have said too - I have run an HDD and system file check and nothing came up.

Thanks again.

 

[Jakesp]

Oh - and I haven't overclocked anything, memory or CPU.

 

[williamcummins]

What is your PSU made and model? Did it failed you before (when 570 was installed)?

 

[Jakesp]

The PSU is: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-psu-xclio-modular-80-eff-80-plus-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-quiet-fan-atx

I haven't had any problems with it to date - it's around three years old.

 

[williamcummins]

Hmmm I am not a PSU expert, but I see that your PSU is not EuP nor ErP ready. This MIGHT be the problem, since GTX 970 will draw such less power than GTX 570 on idle. Maybe your PSU cannot deliver constant power when idling at a very low wattage. Do you have any extra PSU hanging around? Or a friend that could borrow his for a test?

 

[Jakesp]

I don't, unfortunately - I must admit I hadn't even considered that the card drawing too little power could be a problem. If I don't have any luck identifying problems with the RAM, I'll look into the possibility further - I'd probably have to bite the bullet and buy a new PSU to check it though.

 

[williamcummins]

Well like I said, I'm not a psu expert, so I might be wrong. You should investigate on the error messages you get when get a BSOD before buying a brand new PSU.

 

[Jakesp]

I will - I don't really want to pay for another PSU if I don't need it. But it's useful to have the suggestion, though, as I'm stuck at the moment. Hopefully pulling things out and putting them back will yield some results, but I'm not overly confident. Thanks for the help.