Random freezing with GTX 690

[themajesticfreak]

Lately my computer has been freezing randomly after upgrading my mobo, psu, cpu, and cpu cooler while keeping my GTX 690. I upgraded my computer to a 4690k (No OC), Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK, EVGA 850G2, and a NH-D15 cpu cooler. Before the upgrade I was also running Win 7 Home Premium but upgraded to Win 8.1 Pro. Ever since I upgraded playing games or even using the computer for normal browsing proves to be very frustrating due to the video hang ups and random freezes.

I've had no video issues with my computer until after the upgrade. A common response I'm getting when my computer freezes is that a nvidia driver is not responding and has recovered error. Also, the screen sometimes flickers for a few seconds and I can hear my video card fan whine up real high before the screen goes completely black. I've rolled back the drivers to 347.88 thinking it was simply a driver issue, but that hasn't resolved the issue. I'm running the latest driver 355.60 but am still having the same problem. I've even downgraded to Win 7 Home Premium thinking it may just be the OS but that too still hasn't resolved the problem.

I'm either thinking it may be a PSU issue or my GTX 690 is going bad. Any advice or suggestions?

 

[spagalicious]

I assume that after rolling back and forth between windows installations and graphics drivers, you were using a utility similar to DDU to wipe the drivers each time, correct. It's best to always wipe and preform clean, fresh installs whenever you make a change in OS or drivers. Do you have Geforce Experience installed? I've read a couple threads where GTX 6xx users were having troubles with G Experience causing instability.

You mentioned that you do indeed receive an error message stating Nvidia drivers are to blame, this most likely means it is either the card or the drivers. If you would like to troubleshoot further, try removing the card and use the integrated graphics to drive your display. Confirm that the board or other hardware is not causing the issue. Use another card if you have one. Try using the second PCI-E slot on your board to see if your primary slot has become faulty.

Noticed high temps, abnormal usage, clock throttling, artifacting? These are all possible symtoms of card failure

However, this sounds like it is either driver or GPU related. Confirm your board is flashed to the latest BIOS revision. Try using DDU and manually installing the latest driver, Geforce Experience un-selected. If no change, the card may be on its last leg.

 

[themajesticfreak]

Every time I would install a new or old driver I would select the "clean install" option in nvidia installation panel. As soon as I installed windows 7, I installed driver 355.60

I do have GeForce Experience installed so that may be one of the causes. My mobo does have the latest bios driver.

I did notice artifacts on the Windows logo and afterward when loading up on Win 8.1 right before I come into the log in screen. None so far when booting windows 7

Is there a way to force the issue to see if the drivers are faulty? I remember doing this with a faulty driver on a sound card. It had something to do with booting in safe mode and initiating a program.

My Win 7 OS is practically stock right now with only a few added programs. I haven't done any major installations of games of any sort and I'm still getting the random hard freeze. Even when I was installing the utility drivers for the mobo after the OS install the computer froze up midway through.

I'll try your suggestions and any other advice given and post my results.

 

[spagalicious]

Hmm, I would verify that your system runs flawlessly without the video card installed. It may be other hardware that is causing the issue. When you rolled back to Windows 7, this was a fresh install? As in all your programs, settings, and drivers we're wiped?

Use DDU to do the wiping of the graphics drivers.
http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html
To test the card for issues, use a GPU stress utility like EVGA OC Scanner to test for stability and artifacts.
https://www.evga.com/ocscanner/

 

[themajesticfreak]

Yes my Win 7 OS was a fresh install

 

[themajesticfreak]

I ran the EVGA OC scanner GPU stress test. I used the Furry B 3D test with a resolution of 1280x720, no AA and artifact scanner checked. Before I ran the test the computer was running smooth but afterwards the computer started to bog down in performance and my screen started to flicker rapidly until the video went out completely.

I also did another test at resolution of 1920x1080 and the system completely shut down to wear my mouse pointer moved every 5 seconds after I moved the mouse. Upon doing a hard reboot the resolution of the login screen was 800x600 and my video card fan was running loud and high.

 

[spagalicious]

Unfortunately, this sounds like the video card is on its way out. If you have high temps, throttling, flickering, and other problems leading to moderate/severe system instability, its probably the card. Especially if you've done all you can eliminating other hardware as probable causes. Sorry bud, looks like you'll need to start shopping/saving for a new GPU.

 

[themajesticfreak]

I figured so. I've been sitting on this problem for a few months hoping it wasn't the issue but I'm more certain it is now. Thanks for the feedback.