HELp ! M17XR3 Gpu problem nvkflt.sys

Ok so i had a bsod yesterday. And then continuously, before my games and such were working fine.
Card and motherboard + Lcd replaced 4 months ago.

So clean installed windows 8.1 and after installing correct drivers from dell with no success, (still bsod's) i installed nvidia drivers and again no sucess.
Tried going into the Bios to switch to PEG display, but when i do screen is tripled vertically and flickers like there's no tomorrow its almost unreadable to do the switch again in Bios.

I have no BSOD's when i uninstall drivers. But when drivers installed Bsod's even on desktop.

So now I'm starting to think my GPU is DEAD, which doesn't make any sense right ??? since REPLACED 4 TIMES !!!!!
I can game perfectly fine full 1080p ultra settings on payday 2 ,dota 2, far cry 3 etc .... just for a period of 3 to 20 minutes. And i don't think it's overheating. I mean my computer has been hotter in the past with no issue whatsoever.
I opened the computer Cleaned it but it was clean since it was done a month ago, and unplugged and replugged gpu .....

Now my warranty has expired. And i don't know what to do. I have been struggling for 2 days.

Please help, this is my first time posting in a forum for help which means i'm desperate.

 

What video card do you have ? Have you considered changing to a card that does not cause that much heat ? Anytime the GPU has been replaced... Have you or the DELL tech replaced the thermal compound?

 

If it's bluescreening when you install drivers, your GPU is failing. If you are out of warranty, I believe it is up to Dell/Alienware if they will allow you to extend the warranty. And having the video card replaced 4 times should have started the process of a replacement unit.

 

It sure sounds like the GPU is bad . The constant BSOD's have become a real problem for a lot of NV users since the release after 314.22. They have overvolted and damaged older cards. I have had two 580m's die on me with my R3 and this R4 that dell replaced it with (time to ask them ) failed a few weeks ago - lockup and black screen. Since dell replaced it and I'm using the latest WHQL (331.65 which is also getting panned over in the NV forums) it is currently working just fine for me.

Try 314.22, if it works fine then IMO the card IS probably damaged but this driver does not push the card too much. Dozens of people reporting exactly the same BSOD problems and NV are ignoring it completely and have been for about 4 months now. Guilty? I think so!

Don't know which card you have but the 580m seem to be the most affected.

Of course something else may be causing the cards to fail on you but just by weight of numbers you have to look hard at what NV are doing in their driver to improve performance.

See: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/721878-nvidia-320-18-driver-warning.html

And if you have some time check out the latest NV driver forum: https://forums.geforce.com/default/...y-driver-feedback-thread-released-10-28-13-/1 nearly 1000 problem posts in three weeks

Edit: Dell also released a new NV driver a couple of weeks ago. It is only listed under the new 17 although many AW models are listed. Unfortunately the R3 is not so it may fail with a 'hardware not found' error Driver Details | Dell UK

 

have you made sure windows is up to date? Just a thought.

 

Thx all for your replies. Yes I have the 580m dell is coming in Monday after a long plea bargain over the phone to replace the motherboard and gfx. I didn't know that the divers would raise voltage on the card which is fairly odd and inconceivable coming from nvidia. Very disappointed. I did reinstall windows several times, 8 and 7 etc my bsod appears all the time now.

I kinda wish dell wouldn't fix my computer and just give me a new unit . I think I have suffered enough with this system causing me trouble since day 1 . Any suggestions on how to push things in this direction ?

 

Yeah, that voltage hike is just disgusting to have gone on for so long. It started with the 3xx series and only started to burn cards after 314.22.

I believe it's to do with the newer cards 'boost' feature which should not do anything on 5x cards and earlier but they never bothered to fix it when it started. They seemed to think that because it's only brief it should not be a problem. Then the 320 hit drawing on that power and blasting cards out of the sky.

NV refused point blank to accept any responsibility. I even had their mod say 'we see no evidence that the driver is damaging cards'! You gotta be kidding me, I lost it and called him a bunch of names. The forum is still filling up with 5x card owners waiting for a fix from NV. If NV were working on it then something would be said, as it is a lot of these people are never going to get a good new working driver when their hardware has been damaged. /rant_off.

See the link in my post for some advice on getting a replacement , PM me any specific questions and I'll see if I can help - what country are you in? Makes quite a difference...

 

Well that is indeed crazy, now I get my 4x replacement.
I live in the UK.
Thank you for all this by the way you are of huge help . I know I'll be installing only the 269 driver from dell and never upgrading.

 

You're very welcome, glad I could help . A replacement is certainly possible for you, and dell don't do this just to keep customers happy, I think it's more of 'cutting their losses' on the cost of engineers.

I had to ask; 'Don't you think a replacement is in order?' 10 minutes (and a quick reference up the chain) later agreed . If anything goes bad after this just express your frustration (nicely) at all the down time this is causing you and ask for consideration to get a replacement.

The last two drivers from NV do not overvolt at all so should be safe to use. I have been using 331.65 extensively without issue but if the games you play run just fine then a small (10%) overclock will more than make up for performance improvements of later drivers. OC'ing the GPU is quite safe as usually what happens if the card cannot cope is artifacts appearing and you just slow it down a little and continue. It's the extra voltage that damages

Good luck.

 

Ok great I'll try this. I'll keep you informed on how it goes. I'll have more info once the guy changes my hardware tomorrow. I'm still gonna go for the replacement unit.
Cya tomorrow
And thanks again

 

Please do update

Once you have gone down the repair path your only hope for a replacement is if another hardware failure occurs. You certainly sound like you should have got one last time but with PC sales dropping through the floor they may have to try some cheaper option if they can get away with it - just business

 

Do you have any proof of this overvoltage on the cards? I'd like to know how much voltage is given to these cards. Does it cause them to run hotter? Can you overclock them more... Etc Etc.

 

Only proof is my eyes and that of 3 other people I asked to check it out. One guy did post logs clearly showing the extra voltage but mine have long gone.

The actual voltage spike was 0.92v when the stated max for the card is 0.87v. When people were trying to overvolt the 580m during it's early days (via a vBIOS), some died on 0.92v and the vBIOS came with a very big 'at your own risk'! Never tried it. I only saw it spike for around 20 seconds at game start but others said it happened occasionally during gaming, with one card getting stuck at the higher voltage permanently.

I have happily overclocked the 580m/675m without any voltage increase by me. I have noticed that each one I got was less happy about overclocking than it's predecessor. 750 first one, 740 second one, 720 third one and only 700 with this one. Each time I go too far speckles appear. Temps have also been getting lower, from low 70's on the first to mid 60's on this one (but could be just the lower clock?). Each driver also seems to have an effect on reducing the temps but YMMV. Others have said they run hotter on the latest drivers but this is desktop people and fan speeds are also getting messed up for those guys

Load up 314.22 with afterburner OSD setup to display voltage and you should see it. This was the last 3xx driver that overvolted but did NOT fry cards and works quite well even for those that cannot run any of the later drivers (damaged IMO).