Nvidia Graphics Kernel driver crashing all the time

[Defiant306]

Hello

I purchased a Inno3D GTX 780 iChill HerculeZ X3 Ultra DHS Edition 3GB from OCUK at the start of the year and since then I've had a lot of Nvidia Graphics Kernal driver crashes with it. Up to this point I have put up with it as it was fewer with some of the games that I played at the start, but I completed a number of system upgrades of late and refreshed my Windows 8 install expecting that it was possible due to the OS.

It happens with 3D games, it wasn't to bad but happened in Hearthstone (Yeah it's 3D is not exactly taxing ), Civ 5, D3 and a few other games that I played through this year. But of late with the purchase of new games and resuming of MMO's have had no end of issues even lasting only 5 minutes in the likes of Endless Legend. MMO's like Star Trek and WoW will hang for 5-10 seconds while the Kernal fails and then recovers. Even Diablo 3 does it.

But the likes of Endless Legend and Heartstone fail and just continue fall over and over trying to recover to the point I give up playing. I have tried stock clocks on the CPU and I have no issues with non accelerated applications. I have also noticed that Flash, Firefox and Twitch is also another accelerated application that fails on a regular basis when I try to us them with a game on the other screen.

I have also tried full screen, windowed mode, window maxed with no real difference. The Inno3D GTX 780 isnt very taxed and I've ran the Inno overclocking application (Doesn't fully work btw) to monitor it as well as HW Monitor and they all show the card is cool and not taxed. I'm at a loss and I don't have spare hardware to swap out part to test each component of the PC, I believe (Rightfully?) that the card may be at fault, but I'm not 100%. Also I have tried about 10 different versions of the GeForce drivers as well with no change :/

So I'm looking for advise and help.

 

[Defiant306]

I went from a Asus D2X Xonar card to the SB Z card and I still had consistant issues with some games like HS, CIV 5 (Civ 5 can crash outright and artifact on the screen badly until the game hangs or becomes unreadable) and Firefox has not been any worse or better with Twitch, Flash and such are as bad as well.

All being said the OS doesn't crash, BS or reboot and stock speeds on the CPU and GPU give no difference to the issue. I have done some CPU burn in at stock and 4.3Ghz and all is stable with the memory as well.

I'm wondering if the card is flawed as these are handpicked chips as they are designed to be able to clock very high if you try. Not that I've tried due to the fact that Inno tweaking tool doesn't work well and they don't even host the tool on their website.

My previous Rig i7 930 (stock) with its motherboard from Jan to Aug also saw these card issues.

The only components that have been consistent have been the memory, PSU and GPU. PSU is rock solid and the memory on testing has given me no issues.

Anyone know of any checking programmes for NVidia cards?

 

[Defiant306]

So you think its the Corsair 16Gb of system memory?

The GPU is designed as a higher output possible card for the core speed but I never use the tool to clock it higher so its sitting in NVidia's recommended range for core speeds.

 

[Defiant306]

I have the same card and the same problem interesting enough :/ if I knock of 50mhz of memory and core it helps keep thinking its my psu hmmm

Have you been overclocking it or running it at stock speeds with Nvidia own variable self speed stepping?

 

[Defiant306]

Under clocked the GPU and Memory 50Mhz each and so far Ive been playing Endless Legend without any crashes.

I used MSI's Afterburner program to do it.

I've now set the memory as I post this back to normal, the core is running at 1124Mhz instead of its peak 1174Mhz.

I'm beginning to think the bios setting for this card are to high for the chip when they set it after hand picking these. Not sure I can be bothered about pursuing a RMA for this.

If its rock for a while I might start edging the core limit up until I can find the peak, anyone know of a way to rewrite the Bios limits?

 

[Defiant306]

Does anyone know what you need to do for a RMA that's less than a year old with OCUK?

 

[Defiant306]

Well after what has been a harrowing year with my life I have finally plucked up the courage to deal with this issue. With the latest 2 sets of Geforce drivers my underclock of 100MHz on the GPU and Memory is no longer stopping the Kernel crashing and without the unclock playing a game just crashes the whole PC.

So tired of it all, fingers crossed I can get it all sorted.