Instability issues since installing 980Ti SLI

[Wag]

Went from 3 OG 6GB Titan SLI setup to 2 980Ti SLIs. Had no issues with the OG Titans for the 2+ years I owned them. I had the first 980Ti for a week by itself, everything seemed OK, then when I added the 2nd, all the problems began, hard locks galore, and even system power downs even @ stock speed.

I removed the new card and even with the original 980Ti in my machine my machine would turn off by itself (just turn off abruptly), now not even just in gaming but once it happened on the desktop.

Thinking it might be my Antec HCP-1200 PS, I contacted them and they said they'd replace it for free, so they shipped me the newer HCP-1300 PS which I installed this weekend. Got everything all set up (both cards). Played Witcher 3 for an hour or so @ stock speeds, hard lock. Played Mordor for about 20mins, CTD.

It seems my system is unstable. I'm not sure what it is. It doesn't appear to be the PS. Maybe it's a 980Ti? I didn't have this problem any of the OG Titans but I sold them so I don't have any other GPUs available to test. I find it difficult to imagine I've developed problems in my motherboard between removing the OG Titans and installing the 980Tis.

I'm running an i3770k@4.4GHz, which has been stable for a few years. Next thing I guess will be to run that at stock.

Any other ideas?

 

[LTC8K6]

Latest driver?

 

[Wag]

Latest driver?

I'm running the latest hotfix, 353.49, with no Nvidia experience, 3D drivers, no Nvidia HD sound drivers, nada. Just the basics.

Well, I haven't had a power down yet with both cards installed but I've only gamed for about 2hrs total @ stock speeds so far. I'll do some more gaming tomorrow.

With the HCP-1200 I ran Haven and Valley constantly with no issues. I'll try and pick up 3DMark and see how that goes. One of my 980Tis has a rather loud coil whine when stressed. There could be something going on there.

Edit- Ran Valley all last night- woke up to a Windows desktop so it looks like my PC restarted. Definitely something is up.

 

[Ketchup]

Have you tried each card individually? When trying them individually, have you tried different slots?

 

[Wag]

I stopped o/c my CPU (i3770k@4.4GHz) and my setup had rather varying results. The first time I ran Valley within 5mins my PC shutdown. Then I ran Valley again and it ran fine all day, no problems , and I mean like 6hrs+. So go figure. Next I will game a bit without my CPU overclocked and see how it goes.

As far as my motherboard goes the problem is it is a Z77 based one which has 4 PCI-E slots, (2 x16, 2 x8), so to run 1 PCI-E card I think you have to run in only the first slot. I will double check that though- you might be able to run in the 3rd.

 

[Ketchup]

I stopped o/c my CPU (i3770k@4.4GHz) and my setup had rather varying results. The first time I ran Valley within 5mins my PC shutdown. Then I ran Valley again and it ran fine all day, no problems , and I mean like 6hrs+. So go figure. Next I will game a bit without my CPU overclocked and see how it goes.

As far as my motherboard goes the problem is it is a Z77 based one which has 4 PCI-E slots, (2 x16, 2 x8), so to run 1 PCI-E card I think you have to run in only the first slot. I will double check that though- you might be able to run in the 3rd.

Might be. I know I can set mine to speeds up to 16x, but I think that was new to this chipset.

 

[Wag]

Played a bit with SLI on stock CPU speed. PSU shutdown. Removed the newer of the 2 cards, all seems fine.

Yeah, definitely works fine in slot 3 by itself- that's where my tests was. I played for about 2hrs tonight. I will switch to the newer card by itself and see what happens.

 

[Ketchup]

Progress at least. A pain though for sure.

 

[Wag]

Now I'm really clueless. Played with the newer card in slot 3 for about 40mins and it seems OK. I have to play some more with it. Could be my motherboard. Not good.

Odd that I had 3 OG Titans working fine for all those years, I get 2 980Tis and everything falls apart. Well, I certainly don't have the money to upgrade now- not much point. I have medical expenses and planned to wait on Skylake.

 

[Ketchup]

Dust out the slot. Don't give up!

 

[Wag]

If it continues to work fine in slot 3 I'll try putting the other card in an 8x slot. If that doesn't work I'll put them both in 8x slots. Running them at 8x won't make much difference.

If that doesn't work I have 2 options- RMA both 980Ti's, or get a cheap Sandybridge SLI motherboard (probably a refurbished one).

 

[Wag]

I couldn't get a card working in PCI-E slot 4 for some reason but I played Witcher 3 smoothly for almost 2hrs with a card in PCI-E slot 2 (x8) and slot 3 (x16). So hopefully all is good now.

I will run Valley for a bit and if that's OK I'll bring my CPU back to 4.4GHz and see how that goes.

It looks like my motherboard is shot. Worse comes to worse I can pick up a refurbished ASUS P8Z77-V PRO for $80. I am going to upgrade to Skylake anyways in a few months so I don't want to invest too much money into this.

 

[Ketchup]

Interesting to me because I had issues on my Z68 board with my video card in the top slot. Move it to second and things went back to normal. Doesn't matter much now since I don't have a video card in it. But interesting that we both seem to have issues with that.

 

[Wag]

Now my motherboard is stuck in the "Gigabyte bios loop". When I shut it down it automatically turns back on again. I have to hold the button down to turn it off. lol

 

[Ketchup]

What model Gigabyte is it?

 

[Wag]

G1.Sniper 3

1 mos out of warranty too or I would have sent it back. Oh well. As long it keeps working. I have medical bills now so I won't be upgrading again too soon.

Skylake will be next sometime later.