Advice on GPU failure and replacement :)

Hihi,

I've been a lurker in this forum for a few years now, you guys have helped me solve problems with my computer many times and you didn't even know it! But I've run into one I haven't been able to search and find a solution for, so maybe one of the resident forum trolls can help ^_^

I have what I believe to be an r1 m17x...that means it doesn't have an i chip in it, right? I have 2 nidia gtx 260m in sli gpus that have operated smoothly for years. I try to keep the driver updated, but not all the driver versions register my cards =(. And for the last 6 months I keep getting screen freezes and total system shut downs. Sometimes it says that my video driver has failed and restarted, and then it might go to the blue screen...sometimes just locks up and can't do anything...sometimes just totally blanks. Only way to get out of it is a hard reset. I've searched and searched here, nvidia forums, and anywhere else I can find for a solution, but haven't found anything except a few other ppl who seemed to have my problem with their 200 series cards right out of the box. No solution discovered. But like I said, my cards have worked well for years, only encountered this problem the last 6 months or so.

I recently replaced my left gpu fan cause it was knocking, and cleaned off all the accumulated dust off the heat sink vents and such. First time i've opened the thing up, and they were quite dirty =/ Also only recently found nvidia inspector which is a nifty program that monitors gpu stuffs like temp and usage and such. Wish I'd had it years ago. Have cleaned my drivers out in safe mode too, to try to remove any fragments that might be causing the crashes, but didn't help =(

So the question is: do any of you know of a solution to my lockup/driver crash problem? And if not, what card would you recommend I replace it with? Thinking of dumping the sli, cause many games I play don't use it at all and just getting one really big card. My computer is somewhat old, but I would like to get many more years of gaming out of it. However I'm not a big geek and have no idea where to start looking at compatibility and such.

Thanks for your help over the years, and any help now would be appreciated much also!

Ishani

 

bumping in the hopes that one of the weekend warriors will have some advice

PS, I noticed that my computer specs aren't showing up for some reason, but I can't find a signature thingy in my CP? So here they are:
Alienware m17x | Core2 Quad Q9000 | 2x GTX 260m SLI | 8GB Ram | Windows 7 Home Premium

If you need anything else, just ask and I'll do my best to answer!

 

This might be a long shot but have you tried just re-formatting the hard drive and re-install everything from scratch?

 

Ishani, seems you have done the bulk of good trouble shooting already. M11xDude's idea seems to be your best option at this point. If that doesn't work seems you have hardware failure.

Good luck!

 

If it is a software issue, a clean install may work wonders as M11xDude suggested.

The system shutdowns might also be an indication of overheating, which can also cause the lockups and display driver "stopped responding and recovered" error messages. I'm sure cleaning out the years of dust and lint improved some things, but you may need to repaste your GPU and CPU heat sinks. The factory thermal interface material is good, but it will eventually degrade and need replacement. I would suspect this before hardware failure... but leaving this uncorrected could eventually lead to hardware failure.

 

no...not yet...

That was going to be my next, last attempt to get it to work before just replacing the gpu, but I can't stress enough how much I *hate* having to reload...I always forget to save something and it takes me weeks to get everything back how I like it =/

However, if that doesn't work, any advice on what to replace it with? I'd love to get one of those new fancy cards, but I just don't know if my older system can handle one. Should I just replace it with another 260m? I think it might be hard to find a new one....and i'm not sure I really wanna keep messing with the sli anyways.

edit cause a new post came in while I was typing:
no, I haven't repasted...I did get some arctic silver when I got the fan in the thought i'd repaste, but I have no experience with it at all and I understand screwing up is...well...bad. Also didnt have the thermal pads I guess I need also for the memory modules, so thought i'd see if just the new fan would help.

the odd thing is that it only happens in some circumstances...I can play skyrim all day and it does great, but I turn on the mmo I've played for 3 years (Rappelz) and its guaranteed to crash, sometimes within the first 5 minutes, sometimes takes 3-4 hours.

 

If I were you, I would try repasting the GPU and CPU heat sinks as previously suggested. I would try that before reinstalling the OS. It's a lot less time consuming and likely to produce good results. If you're still running on the factory paste after this many years it is probably dried out an in dire need of attention.

Should the worst case scenario be true, and it is a hardware failure, with the age of the R1, I would recommend spending as little as you can to make it work properly. It's still an awesome computer, but you don't want the repair cost to be disproportionate to what it is worth.

Another thought, if it IS a dying GPU, it's unlikely that both have died simultaneously. If they are not designed to only work as a master/slave arrangement, as some of the funky AMD setups were, you may be able to continue functioning with just one of the 260M GPU modules in the primary MXM slot.

Katalin seems to have been around the block a lot with the R1, so he may have some nuggets of advice for you.

 

ok, i'll have to buy some of those thermal pads then I think...I found a guide somewhere that has pictures and stuff, will have to find that again too xD

Thanks alot for the advice, will update after the pasting, I hope it goes smoothly :S

I agree its an awesome computer, my friends are amazed I do the things I do on it and its a laptop, lol.

 

Ok, I have another question...i've decided to just go ahead and do the reload while I wait for my pads to arrive. I've used boot and nuke before on my hard drives to help clean up corrupted sectors and stuff before when I reload. But my system drive on this comp is a ssd. Since i'm reloading anyways, i'd like to run a wipe on it to help clean it up. Any suggestions on a zeroing/wiping program for ssd's?

 

I use DBAN:
DBAN Download | Darik's Boot And Nuke