GTX 760 SLI causes driver failures and occasional crash

I recently installed a second Gigabyte Windforce GTX 760 into my system (i5-4670K @ 4.2 GHz, 2x4 GB RAM, 650W 80+ Gold PSU). I ran the 3DMark Fire Strike demo with no issues, and the system functioned normally several hours. At that point, I elected to try out Nvidia's Surround Mode, and temporarily turned on the feature. This caused a freeze that required a forced reboot to resolve.

Upon restarting my machine, I disabled Surround Mode, and everything seemed to be working fine. However, attempting to run the 3DMark benchmark resulted in it crashing after about 30 seconds. I also began seeing the "Display driver has stopped working and recovered" error from GeForce Experience, both in and out of game. Disabling SLI (not removing the card) seems to resolve these issues for the most part. The most sever error I have seen is an immediate "video_TDR_failure" BSOD after enabling SLI at one point, and another one seen at a later time upon restarting the computer. The display driver errors persist if SLI is disabled, but the card still installed, though only when switching to a browser window from a game, and only occasionally at that.

I have attempted updating the drivers, both with GeForce Experience and with a manual download. I currently have the second card installed, but with the power cables detached. What are possible solutions to this issue?

user407076

Posted 2015-01-09T16:43:21.277

Reputation:

If you solve the problem. You should post an answer not update the question with the resolution. – Ramhound – 2015-01-09T22:51:52.560

To indicate that your question has been resolved, you can answer your own question and accept it as the best answer by clicking on the "check" symbol below the voting controls. You do not need to edit the title of your question to indicate that it is resolved. See also: Is it OK to add [Solved] to the title of a question?

– bwDraco – 2015-01-09T22:53:07.657

Answers

Since there is nothing that actually reports what the issue is, the only thing you can do is to fully reinstall your drivers. You only stated that you had updated Geforce Experience, but the Geforce Experience isn't the driver, but the software to notify and install new drivers and change driver settings. Start with uninstalling both Geforce Experience and the nvidia driver so you are back from scratch, and then install it again.

Johan Bjäreholt

Posted 2015-01-09T16:43:21.277

Reputation: 168

I never said anything about windows? I meant a full re-installation of the driver and gefore experience instead of just updating it. EDIT: and since it worked before messing around with the settings, something must have gone wrong – Johan Bjäreholt – 2015-01-09T17:22:10.390

You're right, the first sentence could easily be misread. Hope the edit clarifies. – Johan Bjäreholt – 2015-01-09T17:37:40.027

It wasn't GeForce Experience that I updated. What I meant was that I had attempted to update the drivers using the interface within GeForce Experience, as well as manually downloading them from Nvidia's website. I haven't tried a full uninstall yet, however. Would uninstalling the drivers while running SLI have any adverse effects? – None – 2015-01-09T19:32:22.270

Depends, but it could. Since it worked before you changed your settings that should be the problem. Updating does not revert your driver settings to default, which is why i recommend trying it. Some software keeps settings even after they are uninstalled however because it takes up so little space, so it's possible that it won't make a difference. I would give it a try though since it a easy fix if it works. – Johan Bjäreholt – 2015-01-09T22:02:49.283

I just finished some extended troubleshooting. The newer 760 appears to be the source of the problems, and I'll be returning it. – None – 2015-01-09T22:45:48.317

After finding some time to do some extended troubleshooting, I determined that the problem lay with the newer 760, which is clearly faulty. The screen was always covered in artifacts, and the machine failed to POST more often than not.

user407076

Posted 2015-01-09T16:43:21.277

Reputation: