Random BSOD's, Issues Booting. New Graphics Card

[Dmdordan]

Hey all,

So I just replaced my two GTX 760's with one GTX 980 ti last week, and that's when I started having issues. I've had probably 15 BSOD's in the past week and I can't figure out why. It happens mostly when gaming, but not at any predictable time while gaming. Sometimes it's right when I start a game, and sometimes it happens after a couple of hours. It's also not necessarily while my computer is under load; many of the crashes have been while nothing graphically intense was happening.

The other symptom I'm having is that the computer takes a couple of tries to boot. I usually put it to sleep rather than fully shutting down, but it won't come out of hibernation when I try. It might start for a second and get to the mobo boot screen but that's it. Other times it won't start at all. I press the power button and nothing happens. The only way I can get it to boot then is to pull the power cable from the PSU and wait a couple of seconds -- it boots when I plug it back in.

When I installed the new graphics card I used a driver uninstaller and did a clean install of the latest drivers. I have also run memtest overnight, and it got through 5 passes no problem. I have also removed and reseated my RAM and the graphics card. The only other thing I did was switch from a balanced power plan to a high performance one in Windows' Power Options. That seemed to help a bit with the crashes during games, but it didn't solve anything. I have a feeling it's a power issue, but I don't know how to be sure. The PSU is an 850w Seasonic, so I would think it would be fine.

Thanks in advance for any help.

I guess I'll post system specs too, just in case:

CPU: i5-4670k
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD4H
Memory: 2x4 Corsair Vengeance
Storage: 1TB WD HDD, 3TB Seagate HDD
Graphics Card: GTX 980 ti
PSU: SeaSonic 850w

 

[Boozad]

All of your dumps are pointing to your GPU.

BugCheck 50, {fffffb2409c6f300, 0, fffff880049803ec, 7}

[COLOR=Red]*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for nvlddmkm.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for nvlddmkm.sys[/COLOR]

Could not read faulting driver name
Probably caused by : nvlddmkm.sys ( nvlddmkm+ef3ec )

Followup: MachineOwner

2: kd> lmvm nvlddmkm
start             end                 module name
fffff880`04891000 fffff880`0535a000   nvlddmkm T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: nvlddmkm.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\nvlddmkm.sys
    Image name: nvlddmkm.sys
    Timestamp:        [COLOR=Red]Wed Jun 17 06:36:26 2015[/COLOR] (5581075A)
    CheckSum:         00A850BE
    ImageSize:        00AC9000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

Download the latest driver for your card from here and save it to your desktop or other convenient location. Then uninstall the card via Device Manager, power down and physically remove the card from the machine. Reseat the card ensuring it's fully seated and the power cables are fully connected.

Reboot and unstall the driver you downloaded, only install the graphics driver and the PhysX driver.

 

[Dmdordan]

Hey, thanks for your reply Boozad. I did all of the steps listed and played pretty much all night with no blue screen, so that may have fixed it. However, I'm still having the issue with booting up. When I tried to wake the computer this morning, nothing happened. Usually I use the space bar to power on, but nothing happened with that or the power button. I ended up having to unplug the cable from the power supply and leave it sitting unplugged for several seconds before trying to power on, and even that took several tries. Sometimes it just gets to the BIOS screen and just shuts off. I've attached another crash dump, but I don't know that it'll help with this issue.

 

[Boozad]

Could you let me know what PSU you have please, also can you boot into BIOS and check the values for the 3.3V, 5V and 12V.

 

[Dmdordan]

Absolutely

The PSU is a Seasonic M12II-850 BRONZE ATX 850w

BIOS values are as follows:
3.3V = 3.344
5V = 5.040
12V = 12.168

Could it be a graphics card issue since this just started on installation? It certainly seems like a power issue but the timing is just too convenient.

 

[Boozad]

It does sound like a power issue doesn't it? But that PSU should be more than man enough and your voltages look fine. Do you have integrated graphics you can use temporarily? If so, uninstall the GPU and remove it from the machine, boot up a few times and check that it boots fine. If it does do you have a friend or relative who can loan you their GPU for a short while? Try booting with a different card installed and see if the problem persists.

 

[Dmdordan]

Well I upgraded to Windows 10 and installed the newest driver and for whatever reason that seemed to fix the booting from sleep, so I thought it was good to go but I left this thread open. Good thing too. The other day I went with a full shut down just to test it and left it sitting over night. Same thing in the morning; no boot, had to leave it sitting unplugged for a couple of moments and it booted up. Luckily I still have the graphics cards that I upgraded from and was able to test with those, and lo and behold the same thing happened. Left it sitting over night, no boot in the morning until I left it unplugged for a bit.

So I guess I'm thinking it's a PSU issue. I just find it so weird that once it does boot it has normal voltages and absolutely no issues even under heavy loads. Would you agree it's probably a PSU issue? And is there a way to be sure? Is there anything else it could be? I don't know what the symptoms of motherboard failure are -- is that a possibility at all? I guess that's the only other thing it could be if it's not the graphics cards, memtest ran fine, and all my storage says it's good...

Maybe it's the power button itself? How lame would that be... Not sure how to test that either

 

[Boozad]

Have you tried booting the PC with the GPU uninstalled?