gtx 580+ gtx 280 physx , very rare -2d only- display driver crashes

[er557]

Specs: core i7 965, 12gb ddr3, seasonic x-750 gold psu, gtx 580 + gtx 280 physx, sb x-fi pro, vista x64 sp2, directx june 2010. Everything stock clocks, incl. cards- nothing OC! vga drivers: 263.09 ,then 265.90 quadro modded inf.
The gtx 280 was the main card until the 580 came.
vga bios: gtx 580 70.10.12.00.01 gtx 280 62.00.0E.00.01

All benchmarks and the few games I got installed all run fine, no issues at all, vga full load temp -85c.
The issue is that about once a week(!) I get display driver stopped responding and recovered error, after short freeze, only in 2d apps like full screen flash games(I disabled flash hw acceleration because of that), or watching a video in media player classic home cinema(not using HW decoding).
After such crashes there are artifacts on the screen and reboot does not fix! only shutdown then turn on!
this happened a few times in both vga drivers I mentioned. Not using driver sweeper as I didn't see the need to.
Tried unplugging pc power(info from google) but not the psu pci-e power plugs yet. This didn't resolve this rare issue.
So do I have a software problem like drivers, or do I need to take out the gtx 280 maybe? maybe some vga bios update or more up to date vga driver will fix this?
BTW, this issue cannot be reproduced again, nor did it ever happen with the gtx 280 alone in the system. All seems fine until these rare 2d crashes(never in 3d) occur. What do you think?

 

[slyfox2151]

i highly reccomend removing the GTX280. there is no need for it at all.


maybe that will fix your problem ^^

 

[BarbaricSoul]

i highly reccomend removing the GTX280. there is no need for it at all.


maybe that will fix your problem ^^

I agree. The 580 s such a powerful card, it has no problem handling any games graphics and physX (if the game support it). Beside, there are very few games the support physX.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

I agree. The 580 s such a powerful card, it has no problem handling any games graphics and physX (if the game support it). Beside, there are very few games the support physX.

^^THIS. sell that GTX280 for some cash . Thatll be double win. no driver crashes and you get money

 

[er557]

Well, I googled some more and it seems there are a few courses of action;

The 580 might be tanked ,in need of RMA, though many users had other issues so it is more likely a software(vga bios/driver) issue.

The PSU is struggling with the two cards- remove the 280. Re-seat the pci-e power cables.
Will leave that for last resort.WIll focus on software for now.

An updated vga bios, specifically from EVGA, exists, even two revisions at that,
to try and patch some bugs and stability issues. Fan unlocker 1.0 and 1.1
(I dont care for the fan part).

Update to latest beta NVidia driver with modded inf and hope for the best.

Although I will be using a thumb drive, not risking flashing from windows,
also I'll need to wait maybe a month to see if the issue comes back/hopefully not/ as it is very rare.

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

Even if the 580 is broke, get rid of the 280. You do not need it for a physx card. The GTX4xx and up are powerful enough on their own to run the video + physx.

 

[er557]

I could do that, though I saw some benchies making metro and mafia II much smoother average fps with a dedicated, even on 4XX and 5XX

 

[er557]

Update:
I continued to get a TDR crash from time to time in 2d, so modded vga bios to increase 2d clocks and voltage, also bumped in mainboard bios the pcie voltage and clock a bit, as some say it can help. Now will continue to check the stability, or remove the gtx 280 as a last resort.