GTS 250 w/ Win 7 x64 Issues (please help!)

[wutangben]

Hey guys, I'm new here. Just built my second PC ever, and the first one I did was 7 years ago, so bare with me.

My graphics card or something is crashing, and I can't figure out what's wrong. Basically, what's happening is my computer will freeze for a second, the monitor goes black for a few seconds, then everything returns to normal and I get this message in the bottom right corner:

"Display driver stopped responding and has recovered.
Display drive NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version XXX.XX stopped responding and has succesfully recovered."
(the x's are whatever driver I'm running at the time)

I started with 190.38, but have tried 190.56, 186.16 185.15, and maybe another, and am currently running 186.16.

Earlier today it was crashing about every 30-45 seconds. I figured out if I ran a non-custom or non aero-theme, specifically the high contrast white theme, it prevents the video card from crashing. But as soon as I switch back to more complex theme, it starts crashing again.

Throughout the day I was trying to install different drivers without removing the old ones by just running the .exe driver file. (guess that's not the right way to do it i've come to learn) Then new problems came up, I was getting a RunDLL error:

"Error in NVCPL.DLL
Missing entry: NvStartupFirstRunAfterInstUserAccount"

and my color would become extra vibrant in a bad way. sometimes it would be fine until i rebooted, and then it would be bad again. anyway, one of my buddies came by and stripped all the video drivers from everything, and reloaded 186.16, and all seemed well. now it's crashing again. this time, not so often, but it's still happening.

I am not doing anything crazy or anything either. Just moving around files, browsing the internet, learning the new windows, etc. No gaming or anything like that.

I'm running Windows 7 x64 7600 RTM
EVGA/Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 Superclocked Edition
Asus P6T Deluxe V2
Intel Core i7 920
6gb DDR3 Corsair RAM

Also, maybe once every 5 boots, the mouse/cursor freezes for a good 5 seconds at a time about every 20 seconds...

So I'm not sure what to do. Everytime I feel like it's finally fixed, like maybe it'll run fine for 30 mins, it starts crashing out of nowhere... I guess I won't really ask a specific question, basically just asking for help, I'll take whatever I can get!

thanks in advance guys, really appreciate it.

 

[wutangben]

no one? anyone?

or anyone even heard of this happening?

 

[ken9122]

Sounds like a power problem. Make sure you have all the video power connections in place and check that your PSU can handle the load.

Ken

 

[wutangben]

cpu is 650w, i'm running one dvd burner, 3 hard drives, vid card, motherboard, cpufan, optional northbridge fan, 4 fans on the case, and that's all i can think of...

i have the pci-e cable plugged into the vid card, and i think that's all that plugs in?

would the error still refer to my display driver if it was a power thing?

thanks for the help so far...

 

[wutangben]

still having this problem, but now it's combined with the mouse freezing every 2-3 seconds for a duration of 2-3 seconds, and then it works again...

i hate my life right now

 

[ken9122]

Well if your sure you have all the latest drivers for the GPU & the MB. And you have a valid version of Win 7. Then you may have a bad graphics board or motherboard. Can you swap the out GPU to element that? Have you had a stable configuration? Finding a flaky component can drive the best of us nuts.

Hang in there.

Ken

 

[wutangben]

thanks ken, i've been searching and reading and finding a million different theories probably because everyone's problems are different.

one thing i did last night, that seemed to have somewhat of an effect was turned down/off some of the texture stuff. after doing that, i could run the aero theme, and watch movies and tried whatever i could to get it to crash and it wouldn't. it then crashed once, so i went to put the texture settings back when i realized i forgot to turn one off. so i turned that off, and it hasn't crashed since. won't be able to know for sure till i get back home after work and mess with it.

i hate dealing with intermittent problems. knowing my luck, it'll crash only after i've decided that it's fixed. (and not a minute sooner) thanks again.

 

[ken9122]

Glad to try & help. By the way welcome to 7 Forums!
And don't forget to push the rep scale tor those who try to help.
Ken

 

[wutangben]

will do. i have a game plan setup for when i get home.

-try to get system to crash now that all texturing is turned off
-check to be sure mobo drivers are up to date
-install vista on another drive and see if it continues to crash
if doesn't crash in vista: ???
if vista crashes:
try different ram, one at a time
buy new gc and try
if new gc does not work, could be a motherboard problem?

any additions to list would be helpful.

 

[chev65]

will do. i have a game plan setup for when i get home.

-try to get system to crash now that all texturing is turned off
-check to be sure mobo drivers are up to date
-install vista on another drive and see if it continues to crash
if doesn't crash in vista: ???
if vista crashes:
try different ram, one at a time
buy new gc and try
if new gc does not work, could be a motherboard problem?

any additions to list would be helpful.

Have you attempted to adjust any of the memory configuration adjustments in bios, like the memory voltage or timings? Sometimes the Auto settings don't get it right so doing it manually usually works better.

 

[TGSoldier]

^

Agreed. Change your PCI-E frequency setting to 100 and please unisntall your old drivers, use driver sweeper in safe mode and clear out the old nvidia files.

Upgrade to 190.38.

You can also run 3DMark and ensure that your Video Card is not faulty.

 

[wutangben]

no i did not, although i heard something about ram voltages being half of cpu voltages or something? where do i go to check/adjust these? what should they be?

thanks

 

[wutangben]

my friend came over and helped me set the voltages manually & pci-e frequency to 100, and it didn't fix the problem.

i also just ran 3dmark, granted with only 1 strip (2gb) of ram installed, and my score was 14,280 if i remember correctly. i am not familiar with the program, is there a certain thing i need to run/do?

i took some ram out, i have 3 chips 2gb each. i took two out, left one in. problem didn't change. then i switched that with another one, problem didn't change. that's the extent that i did that for...

just to refresh the problems i am experiencing:

1. if i run an aero theme, my display drivers?/video card? (not quite sure what it is) crashes about once every 30-45 seconds.

2. if i switch to a non-aero (high contrast) theme, the system is relatively stable, and can be up for hours until i try to abuse it by whatever means, lately i've been able to get it to crash just by playing an hd rip movie in windows media player. however, it didn't crash running through all of the 3dmark tests.

3. another problem, could be unrelated, but doubt it, is that my mouse cursors will randomly decide to freeze for 2 seconds then work for 2 seconds, then freeze for 2 seconds then work for 2 seconds. this continues on until i reboot. i believe this only happens on session where the display drivers crashed, and i switched back to a non-aero theme.

i am about to install vista on another hard drive to see if the problem carries over to a different OS.


thanks for the help guys, really can't wait to get past this so I can enjoy my new system and get on with my life already!

Ben

 

[wutangben]

slowly but surely, making some progress.

I installed Vista on a different hard drive, booted up, installed all the updates, and upon reboot the mouse cursor started acting up again just like it did in windows 7. Now here's EXACTLY what the mouse is doing.

The cursor itself stops on the screen for 3 seconds, after those 3 seconds it wakes up and appears wherever it was moved to while it was frozen. Then works for 3 seconds, then freezes for 3 seconds, and so on. Also, the computer doesn't freeze, I can still type without any problems, ALSO the scrolling wheel on the mouse works while the cursor itself is frozen.

Does this sound like a video problem? I mean the mouse is doing it's job, even when it appears to be frozen, I just don't visually see the cursor itself moving.

I haven't had a chance to reboot since the boot up to mouse problem. I also wanted to keep that session going to see if I can diagnose it further. When I was running windows 7, the mouse problem was very sporadic, so it's hard to replicate.

What do you guys think? Sound like a bad video card? Should I just go buy a new one from best buy and try it, see what happens?

thanks

 

[wutangben]

thinking about trying this one:

PNY - NVIDIA GeForce XLR8 GTS 250 1GB DDR3 PCI Express Graphics Card - VCGGTS2501X

 

[skunksmash]

at first glance it seems power related to me also......

what model PSU do you have..??, if the 12v rail is not up to much it could be causing the crash, but the driver failing to respond does point to it being S/W related..???

don't suppose you have access to another GPU..??, you could rule out the GTS250 if it continued to flicker...

do you have any warranty on the parts.??, if so i'd ring the vendor & explain the problem, they may offer to switch the GPU or PSU, or offer alternative solutions we may not think of.

im guessing your not OCed, but you could run this app..... ORTHOS, set it to ''blend & stress'' on priority 8 for 10 mins, this will check your RAM is good at stock settings....

alternatively run ''MEMTEST'' this will check all RAM sectors for errors, if its good after these two tests you can rule the sticks out.

 

[wutangben]

PSU is an Antec EA650
Newegg.com - Antec Nine Hundred + EA650 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 650W Power Supply - Computer Cases

Just purchased the parts a week or so ago through newegg, so warranty shouldn't be a problem. Since I was running Win7, I wasn't going to try calling the vendor because I think they'd tell me to go screw myself (from what I heard from other people on forums).

I am going to try a different GPU tonight, gonna buy one from best buy to try. I will also try testing my RAM as you mentioned.

Thanks

 

[wutangben]

update:

bought a PNY branded GTS 250 w/ 1GB of ram.

installed.

Win7 still crashing with the same display driver error.

Vista running OK so far...

I imagine this means it wasn't my graphics card.

I ran the Ortho test on 8 for 10 minutes:
Torture Test ran 10 minutes 25 seconds - 0 errors, 0 warnings.
Execution halted.

This was in vista, not sure if it matters.

After the test, I started surfing and the display driver crash happened.

conclusions so far, correct me if i'm wrong,

-graphics card is OK because I swapped with a different one
-it's not a windows 7 issue since it happens with vista as well
-it's not a ram issue because i ran the ortho test and it was fine
-not a hdd issue because vista/win7 were installed on two different hdds

questionable:
-psu is ok because it's 650w? is there a way to test this?

what can i try next?

I apologize for responding to my own thread repeatedly, hopefully that doesn't bother you guys. I'm not being impatient, just adding to the tale.

After reading reviews on my power supply, I think that's the culprit. I'm going to pick up a multimeter right now since I can't seem to find either of mine.

If anyone cares to read/comment:

Customer Reviews Of Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Continuous Power ATX12V Ver.2.2 / EPS12V version 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC "compatible with Core i7" Power Supply - Retail

Updates soon to come. Thanks guys.

EDIT: UPDATE:

running asus pc probe II.

voltages show:

Vcore
.94

+3.3V
3.26V

+5V
5.09V

+12V
12.08V

I also used a multi meter and got a 12.04v reading from the regular plugs. I don't know how to check the PCI-E plug, but I assume the 5.09 from pc probe is legit? does this mean psu is ok?

uggggggggggggggh!

sick of me yet?

resolution:

removed bottom mount psu to make room to try one of the other pcie slots. moved graphics card to a different slot and all is well, can't get it to crash in win7 or vista. it appears to be a bad pcie slot on the asus board.

hope that's it. thanks for letting me rant.

 

[chev65]

You should only be using the top pci-e slot for that GPU.

 

[XGUNTHERC]

put everything back to stock speeds, and voltages. and leave it all stock.

Check each piece of ram one at a time.

Also, get eVGA Precision and see how hot that GPU is getting, and if needed, turn up the fan speed.