New GTX SLI setup hanging to black screen under load - help!

Discussion in 'Videocards - NVIDIA GeForce' started by Item!, Sep 18, 2011.

  1. Item!

    Item! Guest

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    New GTX 570 SLI setup hanging to black screen under load - help!

    Hi Forum,

    Hope you can give me some ideas on this one. Bear with me and I will try to get all the details in without boring you!

    1) Attempting SLI for the first time in my system...a system which until this point, has been rock-solid stable!

    2) System is Asus P8P67 Deluxe MoBo, Intel i5 2500k CPU, Corsair TX850 PSU, ThermalTake Frio CPU Cooler, Patriot RAM. Running Win764.

    3) Graphics cards are Palit GTX570s - but very slightly different models. One is their standard GTX570 one is a GTX570 "Sonic". Having investigated this, even though they have different part numbers and a different BIOS number in GPU-ID, I am fairly confident the only real difference is the very small factory OC on the "Sonic" edition. Power architecture, coolers and the GPU chips should be identical.

    4) With both cards installed and the SLi bridge in place, the system boots fine and will allow me to use the desktop, review and change the SLi settings etc.

    5) If I try to run any benchmarks or recent 3D games, I get between 0 and 30 seconds worth of play before the screen goes black or displays some other random solid colour and then the monitor goes into power save mode and the system hangs - powered on but completely unresponsive.

    6) I can use the desktop, MS Office and seemingly play 2d stuff like Terraria without any problems.

    7) Card temps are around 44-46 at idle (or in 2D apps)

    8) Card temps start to climb and the fans kick in as one would expect in 3D gaming, though they only seem to get to 60 or so before the system hangs anyway.

    9) I have tested both cards individually in both PCIe slots with nothing in the other slot - everything works fine under both benchmarking and gaming.

    10) With both cards slotted in with power connected, I get the same hanging issue even with SLi disabled and using the second card as PhysX only.

    11) Although my rig originally had a 30% CPU OC, I have subsequently disabled this as part of my troubleshooting and everything is running at stock.

    12) I have tried using MSI Afterburner to reduce the small factory OC of the "Sonic" edition card so it matches the stock one exactly - no joy.

    13)I have boosted the clock and the voltage of the "standard" 570 to the same as the "Sonic" one and...interestingly this seemed to make things stable for a short while...then back to the old problems again, :(

    13) I have used the 280.23 WHQL drivers and the latest 285 betas - no joy.


    Now according to my calculations from here, my 850W PSU with 72A on the 12v should be plenty sufficient for this setup - even with the CPU OC...but the symptoms seem to indicate power problems? Any other ideas? Could it just be drivers?

    I am going to try a clean install of the 275.33s as some have suggested these are better drivers for my setup...other than that, I am lost!

    Hope you can help guys!

    Cheers
     
    Last edited: Sep 18, 2011
  2. Mufflore

    Mufflore Ancient Guru

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    Looks like a power or heat problem somewhere.
    Change both cards 3D and memory clocks down say 100MHz and see if it improves.
    We can work from there.
     
  3. Item!

    Item! Guest

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    I will definately give that a go in the next round of troubleshooting tonight!

    Should I drop the voltage as well or leave that at stock?
     
  4. orion24

    orion24 Guest

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    Power issue seems the most probable cause to me, though yes, the PSU is definetely up to the task. Are there any power inputs on the motherboard that you did not plug? Do you power both GPUs directly from the PSU with 6-pin power inputs and not with 2x4-pin -->6 pin convertors? Did you try updating the motherboard BIOS?

    While setting up a SLI configuration, the motherboard needs to supply both PCI-Ex16 slots with 75W of power. And the 570 cards will surely need all of it. For this reason all power inputs onboard need to be plugged. If the CPU is highly overclocked it might be eating power resources that could otherwise be offered to the video cards. I would try "undervolting" the video cards a little bit (a little, so that they don't become unstable) and test if it helps. If it does, the problem has will be power-related.
     

  5. Item!

    Item! Guest

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    Thanks for the suggestions;

    All the PCIe connectors on the PSU are 6-pin with optional 8-pin adaptors and the two cards are dual 6-pin ports, so I don't think there is anything wrong here - though I will definately recheck when I get home!

    The CPU was originally clocked to 4300 (in turbo) with voltage offset used to keep max voltage at no more than 1.3. Since I had the problems though, I have reset everything to stock.

    I will definately try dropping the clock and the voltage on the GPUs after I give the 275.33s a go.

    Glad everyone seems to agree that, in theory, the PSU should be enough - though that does make the problem more perplexing!
     
  6. Mufflore

    Mufflore Ancient Guru

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    If dropping the clocks doesnt work, try lower voltage as well.
    Careful though, too low voltage will crash as well.

    Failing that:
    At stock clocks, raise the GPU voltage by 0.05V.
    A GPU may be voltage starved, even at stock clocks.
     
  7. Item!

    Item! Guest

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    Well I am really struggling to pin this down guys!

    1) As suggested by someone else, I tried the 275.33 drivers - with these 3D Mark Vantage locked up about 5 seconds as before.

    2) Sticking with these same drivers, I went to the next suggestion and lowered all the clock speeds by 100Mhz across the board on each card and dropped the voltage of the factory OC card from 1.013 to 0.988 in order to match the standard card. 3DMark Vantage was the test and this time it made it through the tests twice in a row, with the temperatures of both cards topping out at about 60C!

    3) I then tried running Unigine Heaven with the same GPU settings - and it crashed about 20 seconds into attract mode.

    4) Next, with Unigine as my new marker, I left the clock speeds of both cards at their new -100Mhz settings, but raised the voltages of both cards to match the stock voltage of the OC card - 1.013. This time it made it through the Unigine bench and the temps topped out at 70C for both cards.

    5) After this success, I upped the game and added some AA into the Unigine bench...this time, it hung again after about 20 seconds.

    I am baffled! I can't really seem to produce a consistent result to show anything other than a vague "well it could be the PSU or it could be the MoBo" sort of result. I am fairly sure it isn't the temperatures at least.

    ...Oh - I also tried 2 different SLI bridges, just to eliminate those from the equation.

    :bang:

    I am now going back to perform exhaustive tests on the two cards individually in both PCIe slots to see if I missed anything last time and to try and discount the fact that it could be a GPU or PCIe slot problem.

    Any other suggestions O 3D Gurus?
     
  8. Mufflore

    Mufflore Ancient Guru

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    Heat issues are not ruled out, your findings point in that direction.
    Also it looks like you need slightly more volts which will increase heat problems.
    I notice that your case (Thermaltake Element S) doesnt have any side fans, pretty handy for SLI.

    So, blow a good fan at the gfx cards (120mm or bigger).
    There are a few things that can overheat, not just the GPU.
    If that helps, it looks like better cooling might be needed, you can just stick with the fan if it fully stabilises.
    This should allow you to raise the voltage without too much heat penalty, you may find that you dont even need to raise the voltage if its cool enough.

    Explanation:
    The hotter the temperature, the more voltage is needed to maintain stability which also makes it even hotter, so can end up with runaway temps.
    The cooler the temperature, the less voltage is needed to maintain stability.


    If you can turn your case fans up, that might help too.
     
  9. Item!

    Item! Guest

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    Ah-ha!

    Maybe a result.

    I have just replicated the issue with the new card (the non-OC) in the system on its own - in both slots.

    It just seems slightly more random, or I have to stress it harder to show its true colours when it is running as a single card rather than as one of a pair.

    Now to thrash the nuts of my original card for a bit and make sure...then hopefully back to the shop with the new card.
     
    Last edited: Sep 18, 2011
  10. Item!

    Item! Guest

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    Thanks for all this mate - your advice is much appreciated. :cool:

    Indeed I have no side-fan...though I think it was an option - I may be able to get hold of the alternate side-panel if needed, though generally it seems that the airflow through my case is decent - I have good front and rear fans and decent cable management etc.

    I will certainly head back to your suggestions above if needed...but for now, it is looking very much like the new card is the culprit!

    Just running a few more tests, then back to the shop it goes.
     

  11. nfigot

    nfigot Active Member

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    Sounds like you have a handle on the cause, but if new card does it too might want to try swapping out the order you put the cards in - I have a pair of 480s SLI'd and if I put card 1 into 1st slot and card 2 into 2nd slot - I get a mess - swap that and go with card 2 into 1st slot and card 1 into 2nd slot and everything is all good. I know it shouldn't matter, but the proof is there so I just go with it.

    G'luck

    Neil
     
  12. Item!

    Item! Guest

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    Gah!

    Well so far the shop haven't been able to reproduce the issue on their test-bed...though frankly I would doubt their abilities and understanding of the issue until proven otherwise, such is the norm here in Dubai.

    Still - there is now the worry of having to drag my PC down there as a demonstration and to argue my case for a replacement...and of course the worry that in fact it is only my PC which doesn't like that particular card!

    Argh!
     
  13. Mufflore

    Mufflore Ancient Guru

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    If it can be demonstrated to them in the end you should be ok, as long as they arent scammers.
    Let us know what happens.
     
  14. Item!

    Item! Guest

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    They are not scammers (so far!), but it takes a long run up to get stuff like this done in this town!

    There is very little in the way of legal consumer protection here and you are reliant on the good will and integrity of the store you deal with.

    These guys have been Ok to me in the past, but I will need to conclusively prove there is a problem, else they won't replace from their stock, but will send my card back to the manufacturer, which always seems to take an inordinate amount of time!

    Problem is now they have me questioning my own methods and sanity...
     
  15. Mufflore

    Mufflore Ancient Guru

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    It 'should' be as simple as this.
    If the card is used by itself at stock clocks and isnt stable and you can demonstrate that the other card doesnt suffer the same problems, you can ask for it to be replaced.
    If the problems are caused by overclocking, or heat issues when used in SLI, they can refuse the warranty.

    I understand how much you are reliant on goodwill.
    If they let you down, you may be able to go direct to the manufacturer of the gfx card for warranty repair/replacement.
     

  16. Item!

    Item! Guest

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    Indeed!

    Thanks for the input - I will let you know how it goes.

    :)
     
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    GPU Guest

  18. Brendruis

    Brendruis Maha Guru

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    They say it is fine because probably using different software to test. If you can get them to run 3DMark11 I bet it shows artifacts. It sound like faulty memory on the card. Let us know what happens..but I recommend 3DMark over Heaven for finding artifacts... and playing a variety of game is best if you have the time
     
  19. Agent-A01

    Agent-A01 Ancient Guru

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    Test each card seperately with 3Dmark11 and see which has artifacts.
     
  20. Item!

    Item! Guest

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    Thanks all so much for your continued interest and assistance - I have been well impressed with the people here; so much more helpful and willing to engage with a newbie than any of the tech/GPU sites I visited!

    :cool:

    Anyway - good news; the shop have replicated the fault and accept that the card is bad. I will be collecting a replacement from their stock today and - hopefully - putting my SLI rig through its paces tonight!

    Hopefully the next post you will see from me will be a happy one proclaiming the new card a keeper!

    Cheers.
     

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