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EVGA GTX 660 SC 2GB Driver Issue Needs Help (Win 8.1)

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OK. First off, I hope I'm in the right area for this since it's my first post. Apologies if it's not.

I purchased an EVGA GTX 660 off of ebay (non working) and just received it this morning at 8am. I have spent 11 hours researching and trying different remedies in hopes of figure out whats wrong with this card. I have performed multiple repairs to dozens of cards in the past but this on has me stumped. It loads everything, it will boot into windows without safe mode and I can do anything as long as it is not graphically intense. I tried to install every driver from 344.48 to 350.12 (Latest). No go. When the graphics driver is installing the screen goes black and the computer restarts. It does this in 3 separate computers. I've Installed each driver in safe mode which puts my computer into an infinite boot loop where it restarts then the graphics driver is being loaded. This is where it gets weird for me... There are no stickers on the pcb board to help with identifying the card. However there are stickers on the heatsink casing. One of the stickers has the bios version of the card and by looking that version up it says it's the GTX 660 SC 2GB card (as i figured when I bought it). However in GPU-Z it says there is 3GB of ram on the card, not 2GB. Here is where it gets weirder... Using nvflash, I flashed the bios made for the 3GB card (bad idea), the card posted and went into windows but the screen was full of artifacts and lines and drivers still didn't load. I then (trying to see through the lines) flashed the original bios back to it which restored it back to the way I received it. I then tried to flash multiple newer versions of the bios but the drivers still wouldn't load/install. I then downloaded the only other bios I could find which had a slower core clock of 993 instead of 1046. After flashing that bios I noticed my PC running and loading much faster than with the other bios. Still no drivers will load/install. I've installed a GTX 570, GTX460, and a GTX 770. They all worked with the drivers. I checked power supply, hard drive, motherboard, cpu, ram, and dvd drive to make sure there was no conflicts. I've narrowed it down to the card but cant figure out whats causing it. I cant return it since I bought it for parts. I am hardware savvy -- kind of. I can solder and reflow so if its a chip, ic, capacitor, transister, or something along those lines i can replace it without a problem. I just need help narrowing this down.

Thank you ahead of time. I have attached two photos of the GPU-Z info. One is with the slower bios, the other is the original bios (The SC). All bios downloaded from this site.

Here is my PC setup:

MB: Gigabyte AM3+ GA-78LMT-USB3
CPU: AMD FX-4300 3.8Ghz (Quad Core)
RAM: Various Brands of 8GB 1333Mhz (Timing & Speeds are the same)
PSU: Kentek 750w (with 2x 27a, 12v rails)
Sound: Creative Audigy2 ZS (PCI)
HHD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB
Optical: Lite-on DVD-RW DL w/ Lightscribe
GPU: EVGA GTX660 SC ?2GB? (GPU-Z says 3GB)
GTX660SC.gif

GTX660.gif
 

OneMoar

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bios needs to match the vendor id of the card or the driver won't initialize there is checksum code in the nvidia driver
check EVGA'S website for the proper bios else you may need to open a support ticket
you will need the exact model number on the card
its also entirely possible and Like that the card is simply fried
they have a limp-mode if the Vbios/Driver detects a critical problem with the graphics core
AFAIK the 660 was only available in 2GB flavors
 
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I'll try that.

EVGA does have a 3GB card though. It's in their Signature 2 series.

I'll post back soon when I try the bios I get from EVGA
 

Mussels

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Just as a random suggestion it could actually be a hardware failure - i had to oven bake a 6870 1GB a few days ago because of a similar issue, where it worked perfectly fine until the drivers loaded and the machine would freeze.
 
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The oven cure is amazing and simple but I've tried a reflow on it already and it didn't change anything.
 
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After a Device Id look up, all I can find is this:
Chip Number: 0x354e145
Chip Description: 0xa1


no further information is available on the limited info given.
Ordinarily it will give a description of GPU model or device to which it is associated.
edit, found this after further searching, although it is useless as it doesn't give a specific model.
Chip Number: GTX660
Chip Description: GeForce GTX 660

Can you post a picture of the cards PCB?
 
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I'll try that.

EVGA does have a 3GB card though. It's in their Signature 2 series.

I'll post back soon when I try the bios I get from EVGA
There is a BIOS in our VGA BIOS download section for the EVGA SC 3Gb.
It may be worth trying that.
 

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@OneMoar The 660 was available in 3GB as well. In fact, with the memory "partitioning" (much like the 970 issue), it operated much more effectively in managing memory in 3GB mode. In fact, I just recently sold a Signature 2 varian 3GB here on TPU.
 
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I have tried all the bios versions on this website, the 3GB bios file caused artifacts and distorted lines all over the screen
 
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One of the stickers has the bios version of the card and by looking that version up it says it's the GTX 660 SC 2GB card (as i figured when I bought it). However in GPU-Z it says there is 3GB of ram on the card, not 2GB.
GPU-Z readings are not always correct, the easiest method is to physically check the board and count how many memory chips are located on it. You may have to remove the fan and shroud.
There was a BIOS update to allow UEFI on W8 that may cause issues in an earlier system.
 
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Video Card(s) EVGA GTX660 SC ?2GB?
Storage Seagate Barracuda 1TB
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Case Dell Deminsion 4600
Audio Device(s) Creative Audigy 2 ZS (Dell OEM PCI)
Power Supply Kentek 750w w/2 12v rails, 27a per rail
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There are 8 memory chips. 4 on the back, 4 under the fan.
 
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Joined
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Oroville, CA
System Name Frankendell
Processor AMD FX-4300 3.8Ghz (Quad Core)
Motherboard Gigabyte AM3+ GA-78LMT-USB3
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Memory Various Brands 8GB PC3-10600
Video Card(s) EVGA GTX660 SC ?2GB?
Storage Seagate Barracuda 1TB
Display(s) Element ELEFW408 40"
Case Dell Deminsion 4600
Audio Device(s) Creative Audigy 2 ZS (Dell OEM PCI)
Power Supply Kentek 750w w/2 12v rails, 27a per rail
Mouse Logitech M325 (wireless)
Keyboard Dell SK-8115 (Wired USB)
Software Windows 8.1
Benchmark Scores N/A (Until graphics card is fixed)
Ok. I flashed the bios the evga's bios. Still not working. Ive tried multiple operating systems as well. Xp, Vista, 7, 8.1, and Linux mint 17.1... All os' crash after drivers are installed, wether they are from nvidia, evga, windows update, or the repositories in linux. so im guessing this card is done for.
 
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