GTX 460 problems

[leo]

Hi,

I recently upgraded my 8500GT card to the Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB,  when first installed with 260.99 drivers everything seemed ok,  Games ran fine. After the pc had been restarted and logged back into vista is when the problems start (on desktop).  The mouse pointer will move for a few seconds but won't allow me to click on  anything, it sort of hangs and the screen goes black, sometimes the screen comes back on, sometimes it doesn't.  If it does come on the mouse will move again then hang followed by black screen    When the screen goes black I notice the fan noises increase slightly and then decreases . The odd occasion the screen doesn't go black and I can click on icons games always run ok,  the problem only happens on desktop.
I've tried 258,56,258.96 and  260.99 drivers running driver sweeper after unstalling each one.  

System details

Quad Q6600   (2.4GHz)
MS-7358 motherboard
3 x SIS 1GB-667 DDRII  
Coolermaster 600w Silent Pro Gold
8500GT
LG 23inch lcd
OS Vista 32bit

Any help would be much appreciated,after much faffing about  its driving me mad!   I've checked cables, sockets etc.  Both voltage  plugs are connected in the back of the card from the psu,  temps are ok. If I install the old card and drivers everything is ok regarding desktop,  obviously games are poor though with this card

Cheers,
Leo

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

My first consideration would be the power supply. These cards are all more power hungry than most people realise and you would be suprised at the number of arguments we have had on here in the past regarding whether a certain PSU should be powerful enough or not. I would suggest trying a bigger power supply if you can just to check. I would recommend a single 12V rail and 700W if possible.

[leo]

Hi,

Thank you for the quick reply and welcome! 
 I brought the psu the same time as the graphics card  from ebuyer,  it has a single 12v rail rated at 48A ,  is this really underpowered for a GTX 460?   http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6657  the one supplied with the pc was something like 450w
I'll see if I can borrow one from somewhere

Regards,
Leo

[Dark Mantis]

It is a good quality PSU and hopefully it should be enough but it wouldn't be the first time that it has been the power supply that has caused the problem and as I already said often you would feel it should be powerful enough. If you still have the other PSU you could just jury rig it for now as a slave alongside the main one.

[breenemeister]

I hate to say it, but join the club.  This card was apparently not ready for prime time.  Mine is currently in the middle of RMA with Gigabyte.  Go to newegg.com and read the reviews.  Lots of people have already gone through 2 or more RMAs only to have the repaired/replacement cards fail.  Gigabyte should be ashamed.  Right now, I'm enjoying the 4870X2 I borrowed from a friend.

[leo]

Hi guys,

What a farse     I've managed to borrow a 750w psu for a few hours,  long story short its doing the same thing !  I went back to my 600w  and did some measurements with a DVM,  its 12.11v  , no fluctuations etc .
I tried doing a  fresh install of Vista,  for some reson it wouldn't allow me to install the drivers from the supplied Gigabyte disc and also wouldn't install 60.99 I downloaded from Nvidia ,  I  just had the message The graphics driver coulds not find compatible graphics hardware in the green and black Nvidia box. 
I tried doing a MS update and noticed one of the optional updates was GTX460 driver so I installed that. Things seemed  ok for a couple of hours so I thought I'd try a game , it seemed Physx was missing so I downloaded and installed   from Nividia. The game seemed ok ,  when I went back onto desktop the problem started again after about an hour     
Think I'll send it back and either get something else or just stick with the crappy old 8500 unless anybody has any other suggestions?   BTW sorry for being grumpy,  I do appreciate the help,  just p****d off .    I was thinking of trying a HD 6850 but it seems those are having problems too

[leo]

I tried running in safe mode,  no black screens at all on desktop although the res is much lower

[breenemeister]

I tried running in safe mode,  no black screens at all on desktop although the res is much lower

If you read my posts from a couple of weeks back, you'll see that I have had a similar experience to you.  Desktop and 2D stuff was fine.  However, anything 3D wrecked it.  I let it go a couple of days and then tried a game again and it ran flawlessly for about 2 days, then right back to the lockups, hangups, etc.  If you can still return it for a refund or exchange for something else, you should definitely do it.  Non Gigabyte 460 GTX cards seem to have fared a little better.

[Dark Mantis]

There does seem to be an issue with the 460 cards at the moment going by the number of problems people are facing with them. Maybe it is just driver related or even firmware but I think it does need looking into.

[leo]

Thanks again guys, I've tried several different drivers now, it seems odd that sometimes it works after installing say a new driver,  games will work but soon as the pc has been shut down and rebooted it goes faulty when into desktop , it then stays faulty unless rebooted in safe  mode
I'm thinking of sending it back and paying the difference for one of the  HD6950's if Ebuyer allow it

[Dark Mantis]

Two things left to do.

First is to see what BIOS versions you have installed in the Main BIOS and the Backup BIOS. If you go into the Main BIOS as normal and then press F9 it will tell you what they both are.

Secondly is to do a full CMOS clear.

Remove the power cable from the mains supply and then press the power switch on the case for a few seconds just to drain any residual energy in the PSU capacitors.

Once done remove the motherboard battery for at least ten minutes before replacing it.
 
Next plug back into the mains supply and boot.
 
You will now need to enter the BIOS by pressing DEL and load Opimised BIOS Defaults.

Make any other changes to the BIOS settings to suit your self and then press F10 to save and exit.

[leo]

I tried getting the details in bios by pressing F9  but it didn't seem to do anything with this board,  only version details I can see is at the bottom of the screen V02.61   ,  looking on system details it says bios V2.0B25 030308.   Do you think it would be worth downloading and trying MSI updater?

I'm currently on the netbook until I can sort the pc out ,  I'll will try the second thing you suggested now
Thanks again 

Regards,
Leo

[Dark Mantis]

You did try pressing the F9 key on the homepage of the main computer BIOS didn't you?

[leo]

I pressed F9 on the first page that comes on for the bios (main blue screen with a list of options)

I tried resetting the CMOS and loading optimal settings,  after reboot it went into desktop ok,  I tried a game , it was ok, I  tried another game ok.  Infact it was ok all last night,  I tried booting up this morning but the problem was back ,  mouse unable to click on anything followed by black screen,  screen back on and then blackscreen    It did this a few times and then the screen came back on and froze up totally
I've been searching to see if anybody has this same problem,  I don't understand why games run ok   (when I manage to get that far loading them)  its only on desktop.   
I've tried both Win7 and Vista now  (32bit)

[Dark Mantis]

It would seem to be only a 2D driver problem maybe. By the sound of things the 3D side works fine in games etc but when you come back to the 2D desktop you have problems.