Solved BSOD playing SWTOR after upgrading to SLI

[xenoslush]

Greetings,

Last night I installed a second Gigabyte GV-N460OC-1GI (Nvidia GTX 460) in SLI. The following is a sequence of events leading up to the BSOD, which may shed some light on the issue.

- Immediately after booting the PC, I received a "Chassis intruded, Fatal error, System halted" error. I rebooted and everything was fine.

- I installed the latest Nvidia display drivers (285.62) and enabled SLI.

- Launched SWTOR (Star Wars: The Old Republic), and after about 5 minutes, I hear a brief buzzing sound, screen turns black, and the mouse and keyboard power off. The PC reboots itself and informs me that windows was improperly shut down.

- I proceeded to start Windows (normal mode), log back into SWTOR, and the same thing happens again - BSOD after about 5 minutes. Changing the graphics setting from High to Low didn't help.

- I pulled out the second video card, tried SWTOR, and the problem was no more.

So before I return the second gfx card, I'm hoping to confirm that it is in fact a hardware issue with the card, and not the new Nvidia drivers.

Attached is the zip file with BSOD dump and performance.html (all made while in SLI).

Here are my Windows 7 details:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM (installed myself)
Age of system/hardware: 1.5 years.
Age of OS installation: 1.5 years. (have not re-installed OS)

Crash message:
=======================
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 116
BCP1: FFFFFA80054BE4E0
BCP2: FFFFF8800FCE1AE4
BCP3: FFFFFFFFC000009A
BCP4: 0000000000000004
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 768_1
=======================

Any insight will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[Lemur]

What if you pull out the original card and place the new card in the old card's slot? Still problems? If yes, then hardware.

 

[xenoslush]

I'll give that a try. Thanks.

 

[FMcLeod]

What's your PSU rated for? You may not have enough power for both cards. Depending on the rest of your build, you may need a 1000w+ PSU.

 

[xenoslush]

Hmm.. I suspected that that might be the case, but all I have are the two gfx cards and 5 fans (including the CPU fans). My PSU is a Seasonic X750 GOLD 750W PSU. Figured that 750W should be sufficient.. although you could be right.

 

[FMcLeod]

Below is a link to a psu calculator...Newegg has one too. It listed my Core 2 Quad with 2 4870s at 750 Watts and I bet your 460s use more than those.

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Recommended Power Supply Wattage Calculator

 

[xenoslush]

Alas, it lists my core i7 950 with 2 GTX 460s and my 5 fans at 800W minimum. And in reality, it's probably more than that since the GTX 460s are overclocked w/ 2 fans each. Darn. So, the problem is most likely the under-powered PSU (face palm!).

Thanks, FMcLeod.

 

[RougeR]

unlucky, best unplug your second card so as not to fry it, also when buying a new PSU dont skimp out! this is what is keeping your several hundred pound system alive! Secondly remember to look at efficiency rating i.e 80 plus bronze. Finally I would recommend getting 100W more than your estimated required wattage so as to leave room for inefficiency, OC's and additional HDD'/SSD' and other peripherals.
Best of luck and enjoy your 460s XD

source: mate fried his 460 by under powering it 0.o, also my friend who runs SLI 460s is okay with 850W so a 850-1000W would be your best bet, saying that his cards are both stock.

 

[xenoslush]

Thanks for the PSU advice, RougeR. I'll keep that in mind for my next build. In the meantime though I think I'll skip out on the PSU upgrade and instead exchange the 2nd 460 for something with a bit more muscle to replace my original 460.

 

[FMcLeod]

Happy to help.

 

[RougeR]

best of luck glad to help.