GTX Titan Z - can't install Nvidia drivers

[fresk255]

Hello everyone.
Quite recently I bought my second-hand Titan Z. It was sold as "untested". Full of excitement, once I had it in my hands, I plugged it into my freshly built rig (see my specs for details).
It worked! ...sort of.

I had issues with installing Windows 10, but I finally did it. However, I was unable to install any Nvidia drivers (the newest ones, old ones, 340, 370, 390, you name it - the result was still the same: endless bootloop). It's worth to mention that my friend was trying to run the Titan as well (on Win10 and Win7), but with no success with installing the newest drivers.

I decided to seek aid from the Linux realm. Antergos failed to even start installing. Fortunately, Ubuntu 18.04 was there for me - the installation went smooth as silk. And that resolution, mmm... Nouveau drivers know how to please your eyes just from the start. I've tried to run some games to put some load on the GPU - "maybe I won't need those picky, sordid Nvidia drivers at all?", I thought. A bit of Witcher 1 (yes, the first one ) and Civilization 5 (this one scored ~40-75 FPS, depending on how much of the map I wanted to see with max graphics) shown me, that my Titan Z isn't broken, at least not completely. But does it really work?
I tried to install Ansys Discovery Live (free version of it till July, folks) and I failed. I guess I would need Nvidia drivers anyway so I gave it a shot - and I faced the problem with starting Ubuntu. I've purged and installed different versions of Nvidia drivers from various sources countless times, with no effect.

Then I turned my gaze upon Windows 7 64-bit. In order to install it I had to find my old PS/2 keyboard, but ok, I could handle that. Installation went without issues and soon after I was able to see the same problem - system won't start with any Nvidia drivers. I've even found some alternative ones (Xtreme G or something like that), but they were no different. Before the installation system has detected VGA controller, after installing Nvidia (clean, with or without GFE, no difference), the OS has seen one GTX TITAN Z working properly and one GTX TITAN Z with error 43(?), i.e. "pls reboot so I can work, I will, I promise", after the restart I couldn't see anything except darkness, BSOD, VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE (nvlddmkm.sys), random purple dots, etc. Ah, GPU-Z could see one core specs (but with no CUDA, PsyX and others), but the other was blank if I remember correctly. There's no sticker on my GPU, so I'm basing on the subvendor name provided by GPU-Z: it's ASUS. Memory was detected as Hynix's.

So I tried to flash the VBIOS of my Titan Z. I've downloaded the newest nvflash (5.449), and yes, I was smart enough to know that there are three places to put the .rom on, and the first one is for the PLX. The flashing went fine (according to the program that I used in Safe mode), I could even see the difference in for example the vendor name (changed from ASUS to NVIDIA). I have also tested the VBIOS found in the TechPowerUp VGA BIOS Collection. But I still wasn't able to install Nvidia drivers. So I flashed my card (GPU1 and GPU2 with DIFFERENT .rom files) using the older version of nvflash (as described here). The changes got bigger - now Win7 and GPU-Z don't see the GPU at all, the older nvflash after using --list shows the PLX and two D150-80 (? I don't remember exactly, but it's a code like this) units (but simultaneously recognizes that there are GK110b normal cards), the newer nvflash --list shows two Titan Zs like nothing happened, BUT I'm not able anymore to alter the VBIOS with this version - it gets stuck at the beginning of the process: nvflash64 -i1 -6 bios1.rom (the indicator (I mean this in cmd window -> _ ) blinks). Funny thing is Nouveau drivers work untroubledly despite the mess I've done (could've done?) with the GPU.

In conclusion, I have three questions:
- Does anyone of you guys have VBIOS for a Titan Z (preferably the one from the post I linked above) and is willing to share it with me?
- Is the "nvflash 5.163 for DOS" any option for me? I can't find any info about the list of supported GPUs by this version.
- What should I do with this case? Further flashing is my last idea, and I feel I'm loosing this battle.

Cheers

EDIT: Attaching the dmesg file from Ubuntu startup on Nouveau drivers.

 

[qubit]

Sorry buddy, but I think you got sold a bad card. It's either got a physical hardware fault on it preventing the NVIDIA driver from working, or the BIOS was flashed previously causing the problem and quite likely too. One way or another that seller knew it didn't work. I hope you didn't pay a lot of money for it?

I don't know where you can get an official BIOS for it, either.

Tagging @eidairaman1 in case he can think of any way to fix it.

Moral of the story is to never buy something supposedly untested unless it's sold very cheaply and you don't especially care if it works or not, eg for spare parts.

That card was extremely expensive in its day and you've got a nice collector's card there, even if it doesn't work properly. I have various dual GPU cards in my collection such as the GTX 590 and 7950 GX2.

 

[fresk255]

I knew it was a gamble - it could not work at all, the more in awe I was seeing something happens on the screen.
The question is - is it repairable? It doesn't seem to be damaged beyond measure as I was able to do some gaming. I paid less than 200 euros for it - a lot for a brick, not that much for a somewhat working Titan Z, I hope.
I've contacted Asus in Poland so far, but they were unhelpful with their "we're not giving you anything, because that's our policy and you're nobody, b**ch"-like answer.
The card itself looks really nice indeed. Nevertheless I'm still hoping to get from it a bit more than the looks alone.

 

[Tatty_Two]

How can a "used" graphics card be "untested"??? Did that not raise alarm bells with you at all.

 

[fresk255]

I don't see how is this getting anybody any closer to solving the issue, but here's the story:
The guy claimed the Titan wasn't used by him, and he doesn't have a proper PSU to check it (or rather "them" as he was selling three such GPUs, and to be precise: I've seen only one other offer from him).
Of course it did, I heard lots of bells, but that was the risk I was willing to take for a 1/4 of the price of a used Titan Z in working condition. Moreover, I don't think it's going to be that hard to sell a kind of working Titan Z for parts for half of the money I paid, in case I can't survive another day without those 100 Euros. I hope my answer satisfies you.
Now, does all that in your opinion mean I shouldn't try to fix it like the guys in the linked thread?

 

[Tatty_Two]

I don't see how is this getting anybody any closer to solving the issue, but here's the story:
The guy claimed the Titan wasn't used by him, and he doesn't have a proper PSU to check it (or rather "them" as he was selling three such GPUs, and to be precise: I've seen only one other offer from him).
Of course it did, I heard lots of bells, but that was the risk I was willing to take for a 1/4 of the price of a used Titan Z in working condition. Moreover, I don't think it's going to be that hard to sell a kind of working Titan Z for parts for half of the money I paid, in case I can't survive another day without those 100 Euros. I hope my answer satisfies you.
Now, does all that in your opinion mean I shouldn't try to fix it like the guys in the linked thread?

You have probably checked our VGA Bios collection and seen there are only 4 in there, 3 NVidia Reference Bioses and one from MSI, I have just checked the "unverified" dumps and there is only an EVGA Bios with what appears higher clocks, no Asus at all, the EVGA Unverified can be found here........

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/182436/182436

And check here, down the page some......................................
http://www.overclock.net/forum/69-n...gtx-titan-z-owners-club-35.html#post_24112163

 

[eidairaman1]

Here's my signature for help, get accustomed to how the vgabios collection works.

Take pictures of the card and its white stickers, if you have to even give a die shot and ram shot to verify you werent buying a fake card (happens a lot i noticed)

 

[R-T-B]

Error 43 is sometimes thrown by a badly modded bios (power limit set oddly) in recent nvidia drivers. Did not do that in older ones.

You may try older drivers (like around Titan Z era) and see if they magically work. If so, I can likely help you recover your card, I would dump card 1’s bios and flash it to card 2.

Moreover, I don't think it's going to be that hard to sell a kind of working Titan Z for parts for half of the money I paid, in case I can't survive another day without those 100 Euros. I hope my answer satisfies you.

It won’t be. This is most likely a bios issue and if you were in the states, I would give you about 60 bucks for this card in it’s present state... so not far off.

 

[fresk255]

Pictures are posted here: imgur

I've already tried to install older drivers, but as I wrote in the first post - with no effect. Haven't tried to switch vbioses between the GPU's cores, I didn't want to brick it totally, but I'll try that at some point I guess. As for the hardware prices, I've noticed that in US they are generally lower than in EU

 

[HUSKIE]

Error code 43 is really pain in the ass to fix.

I tried to fix 10 Nvidia GPU with error 43 I only success one it was gtx 760. Once my customer had that kind of problem, I suggest to hang it on the wall or sell it on auction site.

 

[eidairaman1]

What happened to reading this!?

Take pictures of the card and its white stickers

Pictures are posted here: imgur

I've already tried to install older drivers, but as I wrote in the first post - with no effect. Haven't tried to switch vbioses between the GPU's cores, I didn't want to brick it totally, but I'll try that at some point I guess. As for the hardware prices, I've noticed that in US they are generally lower than in EU

 

[qubit]

What happened to reading this!?

+1. Pointless asking for help if you're not going to cooperate with those trying to help you. I see that quite a lot on this forum, unfortunately.

 

[fresk255]

Right.
Photos showing the GPU from the outside have been added. There aren't any white stickers on the outside (the bright rectangular one present in the last pic says only "warranty void if removed"), so it was hard to take a picture of them - that is why I disassembled the whole thing (for the first time in my life, yaay) and took the pictures linked above, which were so warmly received.

 

[Solaris17]

Did you send a command to wipe the chip first before writing the new bios?

 

[RCoon]

You don't have Virtu MVP installed do you? And if it's a modified BIOS I don't think anyting post 385.xx will work with it.

Also I know it's ridiculous but... the card is firmly in the PCI-E slot right? My brother had an error 43 and he hadn't pushed the damn thing in all the way...

 

[fresk255]

Did you send a command to wipe the chip first before writing the new bios?

Uhm, I'm not sure. What command would that be? I remember using nvflash with various options, but I'd have to look into my notes to tell you which they were exactly.

You don't have Virtu MVP installed do you? And if it's a modified BIOS I don't think anyting post 385.xx will work with it.
Also I know it's ridiculous but... the card is firmly in the PCI-E slot right? My brother had an error 43 and he hadn't pushed the damn thing in all the way...

I don't think I have, never heard of this app.
It definitely is. It works on Ubuntu, and different GPUs placed in the same way (meaning the force applied to put it in the slot, distinctive click sound) work fine.