I have a graphics card. (no really?!) It's a few month old. My system meets the req's to run it. It is installed properly as far as I am aware. I have updated the drivers. It's wigging out.


It's a Nvidia GeForce GTS 450. It only happens while playing WoW. My computer will freeze for about 20 seconds, the I'll get squares n such. It will freeze again after a few minutes and I'll have squares and patchy graphics. It will freeze again after a few minutes and be even worse. Logging otu does not fix it. The log in screen will be al patchy squares. If I reset my videos settings in game to the lowest possible, that will fix it for a while. However...the lowest graphics suck. My computer and my old video card, a Geforece 8600 had no problem running good to high gaphics.


Is there something I can check? Fix? Suggestions? Do I need to take my card back as a bum card?


Can it be getting overheated and how do I check that? The capacitators on my old card actually exploded, like popcorn.

 

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what is the rating of your power supply?

This is usually the # 1 problem with upgrading gfix cards and not having them function properly.

you can usually just look an the back of your machine and see what it is, if not, there is a label on the psu itself inside the case.

also, have you visibly verified that your card fans are running? If they arent, unplug your fan connectors and plug them back in, making sure they have a good seat.

 

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Min req power is 400w I have a 600w power power supply. I made sure the fan on the card itself is working. I have 3 other fans in my case that are working. There is one fan on the side of the computer that isn't working but since I don't eve have that side attached atm, not sure that would make much difference. I think ti's dead altogheer sicne I unplugged and plugged bcak in, will have ot dig through my boxes to find a fan that fits.


Any other ides?

 

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This is what happened to me a year or so back, was the psu for me aswell. However, you deff need to keep an eye on your temp as it still could be some fan troubles. Or maybe just a bad card.. it happens.

 

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If you want to find out whether it's a thermal problem, go get some freeze spray from Fry's or another electronics store. If you can't find freeze spray, get some compressed air "duster." Turn the duster can upside down and spray the cold spray onto the graphics heat sink (might take several seconds of spraying). If it starts working, it's a heat problem. If it doesn't do anything, it's probably software or something else.

 

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cupple things..

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=187401

check this thread..seems there are alot of compatibility problems with some mainboards...


here are some things that might work, although i do not reccommend flashing to another boards bios...check and see if your mainboard is on this list with a 450...

2. Trying a different VGA BIOS.
http://forums.nvidia...dpost&p=1157175
^ gasparmx fixed his issues by flashing his EliteGroup brand card to a Gigabyte card BIOS. It would make sense that another card brand BIOS would considering different brands of cards are known to work fine on some boards. Please note, this comes with some risks. You may possibly void your card's warranty if they see you've changed the BIOS. The other thing is, if your card or system locks up while flashing the BIOS then you could make something that was already bad worse, you could turn your card into full time brick. So be careful if you try this. I'll be testing this out myself later on and report my own success.

3. Buying a motherboard that is KNOWN to run these cards. You're going to have to look around online and in this thread. See what other people are running with their cards. Be aware though, this can be hit or miss. My board apparently runs an EVGA 460 fine, yet, my MSI 480 locks up.

4. BIOS settings. There are a few settings people keep reporting success with. They are:

* Setting PCI-E Frequency either to 100, 103, 105, or 110
* Setting PCI-E Slot wattage to 50, 75 or the highest you can go. If you're blessed enough to have this setting, you're in luck! A lot of people say this solves their issue!
* Setting your PCI-E slot to run at 8x, 4x or 2x instead of 16x. There's usually not BIOS setting for this, it's all automatic.
* Up your IOH Vcore voltage
* NB Voltage: Upping it or sometimes lowering it. You'll have to play around with it.
* HT Link Frequency: Setting this lower can help.
* Zooze seems to have success enabling the USB Keyboard and Mouse Option in the BIOS, so it's worth a shot.


5. Trying another PCI-E slot on your board. People report mixed success with this.

What doesn't work
1. Drivers, software, or reformatting. Anything that's on your hard drive does not matter. Why? Because these cards will lockup before Windows even loads. These cards are known to lockup while in the BIOS. Like I said before, drivers can help bandage the symptoms but they won't actually fix anything that's a compatibility issue between motherboards and these nvidia cards. You can take the hard drive and hammer nails through it and it won't effect the lockups. Like I said, leave your BIOS settings open for an hour or so, it will eventually lockup. While I still believe drivers don't fix this issue, the 258.96 driver set to "Prefer maximum performance" seemed to bandage it the best out of all of them I tried. It is surely not Operating System related either. I've seen everything, from Linux distros, to Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 reporting lockups.

2. Manually setting the card's voltage and clock profiles in a modded vga BIOS. I tried this, a multiple times. I have had no personal success messing around with my card's BIOS whatsoever.

Collection of threads that discuss the same problem
GTX480: PC hangs after login
Gtx 460 freezing crashing
Here goes a little help to the people having GTX 400 freezing problems, even at POST (NOT SOUND RELATED)
nvidia silence

Club members or List of boards with known issues, username/board/card:
Current number of users listed reporting issues: 112
Last updated: Months ago. I know, I need to add a whole bunch of you. I've just been busy.
(Ctrl F to search)

3sheets: MSI X58 Pro-E Intel X58/EVDA GTX460's SLI'd

ajs-cfg: EVGA X58 SLI LE/2x EVGA GTX470 SLI'd

Andy_123: Gigabyte X58A-UD3R/Gigabyte GTS-450 1MB

Awdm: MSI K9A2VM-FD/Gainward GTX 460 1GB GS

Barnstormer: Asus P6T/EVGA GeForce 470 GX

Bayzombie: ASUS P6X58D Premium/Evga GeForce GTX480 Superclocked

BestPCInfo.pl: MSI P55-GD85/TwinTech Geforce GTX465

bensimon: Asus P7P55D-E/EVGA GTX 460 768Mb

bk6: Gigabyte X58A-UDR3/Gigabyte 460 1GB
bk6: Gigabyte X58A-UDR3/MSI 460 1GB

Blobasaurus: ASUS M4A785-M/EVGA Geforce GTX 460 SE 1GB

bloefield: Asus P6T Deluxe/MSI Talon Attack 460

BrendanCysewski: Asus P6T Deluxe V2GTX/EVGA 470 and 480 and a GTX 580 (all locked up)

Buster_Dee: EVGA 790i Ultra SLI/PNY 480 GTX

Bydyn: ECS Black A790GXM-A/EVGA GTX 470

c0d3ster: ASUS P7P55D-E Pro/EVGA GeForce GTX460 768MB DDR5

carlo_0000: M2N SLI-DELUXE/club3d gtx 460

cB.Fireball: ASUS P6T Deluxe (V1) w/ Intel X58 Chipset/Gainward GTX 460 1 GB

colets: MSI Eclipse SLI/Gigabyte GTX 470 SOC (GV-N470SO-13I) (modified video cards BIOS with NIBITOR and was stable afterward)

Copyright: EVGA 780i/Video Card: Zotac gtx 480 (ZT-40101-10P) BIOS Version: 70.0.21.0.2

CowboyTony: Gigabyte GA-MA790x-UD3P/Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 Super Overclock 1GB DDR5(GV-N460SO-1GI)

CRS_2: Asus P7P55D/Asus ENGTX470

D4rKr0W: Asus P5Q/Gainward GTX 460 768mb
D4rKr0W: Asrock X58 Extreme3/Gainward GTX 460 768mb

dark_heaven: Asus P7H57D-V EVO/KFA GTX460 SOC

DaVillen: Asus P5N-D SLI/ASUS GTX 480

dayrinni: Gigabyte X58A-UD3R/EVGA 470 GTX

DeathSlasher: Asus M4A78-EM/1394/Galaxy GTX 460 1GB GC

Dervious: Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD3P/Gigabyte GTX460 OC 1GB

deserttears: MSI P55-GD55/Gigabyte Geforce GTX460 768MB

digbee: Asus P6t/EVGA GTX 470

dr_AllCOM3: Gigabyte MA770-UD3/Gainward GTX470

DrDrake: Asus P6T Deluxe v2/Gainward GTX480

Dr Nick: ASUS P6T/EVGA GTX 480 SC

dwayner: Abit Aw9D-MAX/ZOTAC GTX470

Eruldan: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7/Asus ENGTX480

Emir_S: Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3/Gigabyte GTX-460 768 MB

exale: Asus P5Q-E/Zotac GTX 470

feridek: ASUS P7P55D Pro/Gigabyte GTX 470

firehot: Asus Striker Extreme/Asus 470

FPK: Asus P5N-E SLI/Gainward GTX 460 2 GB
FPK: Asus P5QD Turbo/Gainward GTX 460 2 GB

gasparmx: MSI AMD 890GX/ECS NVIDIA 470 GTX

gecko1001: ECS GF8100VM-M5/Palit GTX 460 768mb

Genetic_Drifter: Asus M3a-h HDMI/MSI Cyclone 460gtx 768D5

germaj: ASUS P6TD Deluxe/Galaxy GTX 460 1024MB

ghling: ASRock 870 Extreme3/gtx 460

handbanana: ASUS M4A89 GTD/MSI GTX 470

Hadesg: Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3/Gigabyte GTX470

Happy25: Asus 7p55d/Gainward GTX 460
Happy25: MSI Platinum P965/Gainward GTX 460

HarryMason: Intel (Love Valley P) P965 Viiv Motherboard R0/Palit GeForce GTX 460 Sonic 2GB

howardt: Gigabyte X58A-UD3R/2 EVGA 460's SLI'd

Hyakitaki: ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe/EVGA GTX 470

lmaonade80: Gigabyte P55 USB3/Nvidia 465

jandrin: Gigabyte ud5-x58a/2 Gigabyte GTX 460oc 1gb SLI'd

JASHINHUNTER: Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe/EVGA GeForce GTX 460 1024MB 01G-P3-1370

Kackarot00: ASUS P7P55D-E/460gtx (need model)

Kanta: ASRock A785GXH128M/Nvidia Geforce GTX 460 OC Ultra series,1GB GDDR5 (GV-N460OC-1GI) (need model)

Knut_Stanley: Asus M4A88TD-M/Gainward geforce GTX 460 768 MB

Krisiun: ASUS P6X58D-E/PoV GTX 480

KRISS: ASUS P7P55D-E Pro/EVGA GTX 470

Kumite23: ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/Gigabyte GV-N460DS-768I-B

m84: ASUS P5B/Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB OC

maraiel: ASUS P6T/Evga gtx 460

_Mas_: Asus Rampage III Extreme/Asus GTX 480

Masiril85: GA-MA790X-UD4P/MSI N470GTX Twin Frozr II

Master_of_Desaster: GA-870A-UD3/Inno3D GTX 470

Megalopsy: Asus Rampage 2 extreme/Galaxy Nvidia480

mikeyzeeee: Asus M3A32-MVP DELUXE/EVGA GTX 460 SC 1gb

mitnite2011: ASUS 780G/EVGA GTX460 1GB SC
mitnite2011: ASUS 785-M/EVGA GTX460 1GB SC
mitnite2011: P35 Shuttle Board/EVGA GTX460 1GB SC

Mix-Master: Gigabyte X58a UD3R/Gigabyte GTX 470 SLI (GV-N470UD-13I)

MMilad: Gigabyte GA X58 UD3R/evga GTX 460 1GB

mopeypilgrim: EVGA X58/EVGA 470 Fermi

MyusernameisME: MSI NF980-G65/Gigabyte GTX 480

nimanouri: Gigabyte X58-UD5/2 x GTX480 SLI'd
nimanouri: Gigabyte X58-UD5/2 x GTX480 SLI'd (need card models)

noobubu: Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4 Socket AM3/Palit XpertVision GeForce GTX 460 Sonic Platinum 1GB
noobubu: Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4 Socket AM3/Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 Super Overclock 1GB DDR5

Nwik: Asus P5W DH Deluxe/EVGA GTX 460 (with default BIOS settings)

OCY: ASUS P7P55 LX/Galaxy GTX460 1GB DDR5

opiwan: ASUS P6T/EVGA GeForce GTX 480

Overij: ASUS P5QL/ASUS Geforce GTX 460 768MB

overrandom: ASUS p6x58d-Premium/MSI NVidia GTX 480

Oxidation: Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3/Gigabyte GTS 450(GV-N450C-1G1)

pirAa: Asrock AM3 890GX/Gigabyte Geforce GTX 460 1GB

pisoY: Asus Rampage III Extreme/ 2 MSI N470GTX Twin Frozr II SLI'd

pensuke89: ASUS P5N-D SLI/MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX460 Cyclone 1GB/OC

rdkill: ASUS PT6/PNY 480

Rdouglas_1: GA-MA770T-UD3P/PnY 470

Sagaballa: ASUS Crosshair IV Formula/Gainward GeForce GTX 470

Shinjari: EVGA 680i SE 122-CK-NF63-TR/EVGA 768mb SC Model:768-P3-1362-AR

Snoopy782: Gigabyte x58 ud5/Gigabyte gtx460 1gb oc edition in Sli

Solar804: Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 (rev1.0)/Gigabyte GV-N460OC-1GI

source_91: Asus IPIBL-LB/Gigabyte 460 1GB

tayyeb555: ASUS M2N-VM DVI/Zotac Geforce 460 1GB

Tazim: ASUS M4A87TD/USB3 / Gainward GTX 460 768mb

TDoyon: ASUS P6X58D-E/EVGA GTX 460

Teiresias: Gigabyte P55A-UD4P/Gigabyte GTX 460

Tekadan: ASUS M4N82 Deluxe/ASUS 465 GTX 1GB

thebizkid: MSI BIG BANG XPOWER X58/MSI N470GTX Twin Frozr II

the_prefect: MSI 785GTM-E45/Inno3d GTX460 OC (768MB variant)

thewoozle: Gygabyte MA790x/Gigabyte GTX470

tinhv: EVGA 131-GT-E767-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 SLI3/EVGA 012-P3-1472-AR GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) SuperClocked 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5

Tithelix: ASUS P7P55D/Gigabyte GTX 460 1Go OC Edition

trev1976: Asus P5Q-EM/MSI GTX460 Hawk

unleashthepwnies: Asus P6T/Galaxy KFA2 GTX470

vahidpooyan: Asus Rampage II Extreme/3 EVGA GTX 480 SC SLI'd (3-way)

vector-1: DFI P55 MI-T36/gtx480
vector-1: Asus p7p55d/gtx480
vector-1: Asus M4A79 Deluxe/gtx480
vector-1: crosshair iv formula/gtx460 (need model)

Veeshush: ASUS M4A77D/MSI N480GTX Twin Frozr II
Veeshush: ASUS M2N32 SLI-DELUXE/MSI N480GTX Twin Frozr II
Veeshush: ASUS M2N SLI-DELUXE/EVGA 768-P3-1362-TR GeForce GTX 460 (yet I get DCP spikes with this combination)
Veeshush: MSI K9N6PGM2-V2/MSI N480GTX Twin Frozr II (when it does work I found it only runs when the PCI-E16x slot is set at 2x.)


vumeister: ASUS P5Q Deluxe/ASUS ENGTX470

werty316: Gigabyte MA790X-UD4P/Gigabyte GV-N460OC-768I

w00ps: Asus P7P55D-Deluxe (bios 1901)/Colorful 465 GTX 1GB

WolfSoul: (adding system soon)

Xen81: Asus P5N-D Nforce 750i/Zotac 460GTX Synergy

YCH: Asus Rampage III Extreme/GTX480
YCH: Asus P5K Deluxe/GTX480 (need model)

Yozo: MSI K9A2 CF/Palit GTX460 768mb

ZenS: Asus P7P55D-E Premium / Gigabyte GTS450 OC 1G

List of boards that do not lockup with Fermi based cards, username/board/card:

997luke: ASUS P6X58D Premium / 3 ASUS GTX 480 SLI'd (3-way)
997luke: ASUS P6X58D-E / 3 ASUS GTX 480 SLI'd (3-way)

Bayzombie: ASUS P6X58D Premium/(2) PNY GTX470 SLI (This means same BIOS, Voltage Settings, OS, Drivers that the original GTX480 was using and would freeze with)

bLuDrGn: eVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 680i SLI/eVGA 1GB GTX 460 SC EE Exhaust

BrendanCysewski: EVGA X58 FTW/EVGA 470 and 480 and a GTX 580 (all working!)
BrendanCysewski: ASUS Sabertooth/EVGA 470 and 480 and a GTX 580 (all working!)
BrendanCysewski: EVGA 750i FTW (LGA 775)/EVGA GTX 470 and 480 (Works!)

bsh: gigabyte ga-m720-us3, rev 1.0, BIOS: F6/gigabyte gv-n460oc-1gi, rev 1.0, BIOS: 70.04.1B.00.02

CowboyTony: Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H / Gigabyte GV-N460SO-1GI

cyronn: xfx780i/palitgtx480

DcSys: Asus P7P55D-E PRO/Asus ENGTX465

fmsam: Asus Rampage III Extreme/2 Asus GTX 570s SLI'd

GeForce GTX 580: Gigabyte MA785GPMT-UD2H/Point of View GTX 580

ghling: MSI P35-Neo/gtx 460

Hodgy1971: Asus RE3/Asus GTX 480, WC EK-FC480, Asus GTX 480, WC EK-FC480, EVGA GTX 480, WC EK-FC480 SLI

Ital: MSI P55-CD53/MSI GTX 460 Cyclone 1GB

jaafaman: ASUS P7P55 Workstation Supercomputer/PNY GTX 470, nVidia GTX 460 and nVidia GTS 450

Lordred: Asus M4N98TD EVO AM3/eVGA GTX460 1GB or Galaxy GTX460 1GB

lv_marv: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5/Asus GTX480

mattlach: Shuttle SX85H7/MSI GTX 470 (N470GTX-M2D12-B)
mattlach: Shuttle SX85H7/PNY GTX 580 (VCGGTX580XPB)

MiTz: ASRock A785GMH/Gigabyte GTX460 Super OC

Nwik: Asus P5W DH Deluxe/EVGA GTX 460 (BIOS settings adjusted, Thread)

-{RaptoR}-: Asus R3E/EVGA GTX580SC
-{RaptoR}-: Asus Rampage III Extreme + 2 EVGA GTX580SC SLI'd

-=Ryme=-: EVGA 780i/SLI EVGA GTX480's

SHARKMEAT: ASUS P5N-T Deluxe/EVGA GTX460 SC 1024 EE

sjobeck: Gigabyte X58A-UD3R Rev 2.0/Gigabyte GTX 460 (GV-N460OC-1GI) (only worked after BIOS was flashed to FD)

Qazax p6t deluxe/gtx 460's in sli (KFA2 OC)

Veeshush: ASUS M4A77D/EVGA 768-P3-1362-TR GeForce GTX 460

Xavier Zepherios: Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L/EVGA GTX570

Zooze: MSI 975X Platinum PowerUp/Palit GTX465 1Gb Dual Fan

 

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any luck Pally?

 

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No. While my mother board is on that list, my computer doesn't really lock up. It seems that mostly the list covers GTX cards and not GTS. I tried calling Best Buy and kept getting disconnected. No help from Nvidia. I did find someone else on the Nvidia forums who has the same specific problem with WoW but no one's answered his post yet. And I can't register because their dumb little code thing keeps saying I typed in the wrong one.


Soo...stuck atm. No issues today though. That's the problem, it's completely intermittent and I can't seem to find a way to make it screw up.


As far as doing the BIOS thing...I dont feel equal to messing with that stuff.

 

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Do you play other (possibly even more graphic intensive) games for long periods without any problems?

If it really only does it with WoW, try the following:
Edit your config.wtf file (in the wtf subfolder of your WoW installation) and add the line:
SET gxApi "D3D11"
This will put WoW in DX11 mode. Maybe it'll fix your problem.

 

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Didnt'have a problemin Rift beta or Civ IV. Either of those count as graphics intensive?


I'll give that a try this afternoon.

 

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