NEED HELP - Odd GPU behavior

Hoamaii · July 2014

I'm not sure it's the right forum to ask this question, but that's the one where most ESO people go and I need some help if one of you guys know better than me - my apologies in advance.

Ever since the second to last patch, my GPU behaves awkwardly on other programs like Photoshop, Acrobat Pro, Nifskope, etc. Whenever I launch them, or import a file, my screen flashes to black for a few seconds before returning to normal. Other than that the programs behave normally but the flashing screen is very annoying as I have a lot of work to do on Photoshop these days.

My rig is an Alienware, Win7, 8 cores, 3.40 ghz, 8Go Ram, x64bits, dual screen. My GPU is nVidia GTX 660, 1.5 Ram, pilot updated and GeForce Experience enabled. Never had the slightest problem before with any game or using high resource programs like 3DS max for instance.

Actually the 1st time my screen started flashing to black like that was right after I installed ESO - I have the "ABORT" bug which forces me to play in XP compat mode, and my GPU has always been flashing to black systematically whenever I open the launcher - or launch the game - I blamed it on the XP compat mode.

But it did not affect other programs until recently, until the second to last patch in fact. So I guess there must be a correlation between my odd GPU behavior and ESO's settings. (no addon by the way).

I'm not sure where to look to fix that. The nVidia 660 settings panel does not offer many options or infos unfortunately. If one of you has any hint where I should look or what to do, I'd really appreciate the help.

Many thanks in advance - and sorry for the awkward English, not my native language.

Hoamaii

nerevarine1138 · July 2014

You'll want to ask in the Support forum, but try to keep your questions limited to the game. A patch on ESO can't possibly affect the performance of other programs, so it sounds like your card has a separate issue. As always, the first question will be about your drivers, so make sure they're up to date before you go any further.

Cyberdown · July 2014

sounds like your graphics card driver is crashing, causing the screen to black out as it reloads.

Typically this is a sign of a poorly installed driver (or you have failed to wipe prior drivers when installing a new one, and somewhere along the line of piling on new drivers on top of old drivers something went wrong)

Sometimes it can be a sign of a hardware failure, if I can recall VRAM issues might do this.

I had this issue a few months back for a bit. Turned out Nvidia just released a crap driver update, and the next one fixed it.

Hoamaii · July 2014

Thanks for replying, Cyberdown.

Honestly, I doubt it'd be hardware failure, my GPU behaves perfectly in game, though of course it's always possible. But poorly installed driver, that's possible even though my settings don't allow auto-update, I like to update manually, and I did not change a thing since I installed the game.

I was wondering if GeForce Experience might not be involved too, I remember reading somewhere that it could cause some issues. Never had any pb before either. Do you have it installed too?

nerevarine1138 · July 2014

Hoamaii wrote: »

Thanks for replying, Cyberdown.

Honestly, I doubt it'd be hardware failure, my GPU behaves perfectly in game, though of course it's always possible. But poorly installed driver, that's possible even though my settings don't allow auto-update, I like to update manually, and I did not change a thing since I installed the game.

I was wondering if GeForce Experience might not be involved too, I remember reading somewhere that it could cause some issues. Never had any pb before either. Do you have it installed too?

Well, if the game is performing fine, this isn't an issue with ESO, and that almost always points to a driver issue. Are you using the most current driver?

Cyberdown · July 2014

Hoamaii wrote: »

Thanks for replying, Cyberdown.

Honestly, I doubt it'd be hardware failure, my GPU behaves perfectly in game, though of course it's always possible. But poorly installed driver, that's possible even though my settings don't allow auto-update, I like to update manually, and I did not change a thing since I installed the game.

I was wondering if GeForce Experience might not be involved too, I remember reading somewhere that it could cause some issues. Never had any pb before either. Do you have it installed too?

When you install you graphics driver...do you fully delete and restart then install the new driver? Sometimes when you just keep installing new drivers "stuff" happens and issues can arise.

im lazy, I got a driver wipe program. What I do every time I see a NVidia driver update thing is I download the driver to my desktop, wipe my nividia driver clean, restart, then install it.

Also if you are using a beta driver that could be the issue.

if you want to try the easy fix...just go download and save the newest non beta driver to your desktop or whatever. try a fresh install. if that doesn't work google up how to delete your driver completely, then after rebooting use that same saved driver to reinstall it.

if that doesn't work it could be a faulty driver...to which your only solution is to use a prior driver...

what happened to me, and my driver crashes, is that I couldn't fix it no matter what I did...then about a month later a new driver was released and I haven't had the issue again...even after clean wiping old drivers and doing prior versions ect...

Badh0rse · July 2014

I don't have any gpu problems with the game but it does crash my whole pc at least twice a night ... usually during a boss fight. /sigh I play other games on max settings for hours on end with no problems but ESO makes my pc crash every single day. (not to mention numerous game crashes) I have updated and replaced drivers. Monitored all resources and temps ... there is no apparent reason for it. All six cores in my cpu just suddenly spike and my pc crashes. At this point I can only assume it is ESO.

edit: The other games I play are also far more demanding on resources .... it's not like eso is the most taxing game I play.

Hoamaii · July 2014

Yeah, I'm not blaming ESO at all, I just think there's a conflict somewhere.

I just checked the driver. I'm on 337.88 and apparently there's a 340.52 version now, mostly fixing GameStream issues. I'll try and update it, see if it helps anything - the strange thing is I never had any issue before between this driver and Photoshop...

Hoamaii · July 2014

@Cyberdown:

I'm manually dowloading the latest driver now. The strange thing is nVidia's GeForce Experience panl won't let me download it saying my Internet is down (which it isn't of course). I'm starting to wonder whether I should not uninstall GeForce Experience actually...

Cyberdown · July 2014

Hoamaii wrote: »

@Cyberdown:

I'm manually dowloading the latest driver now. The strange thing is nVidia's GeForce Experience panl won't let me download it saying my Internet is down (which it isn't of course). I'm starting to wonder whether I should not uninstall GeForce Experience actually...

yeah I had issues with that program...I just use it as a notification that a driver is out now...and use it for no other feature...and yes last time I used it I was able to go to the store and back and it was still trying to install the driver...

do a fresh install at a minimum...or just wait until new drivers are out and im sure the issue will go away.

Nestor · July 2014

Hoamaii wrote: »

I was wondering if GeForce Experience might not be involved too, I remember reading somewhere that it could cause some issues. Never had any pb before either. Do you have it installed too?

Geoforce Experience does cause issues with some games. Since it is mostly a mechanism to keep your video card drivers up to do date, it's not that useful to begin with. For one, you should not be chasing the latest driver packages each time they come out, unless you have a game that is having an issue that the driver package addresses.

First thing to try is to roll back the drivers.

Do you have the on CPU GPU enabled? Try disabling that, as this black screen flash can be the PC switching between the on CPU graphics and the video card. Poke around in your power options and Nvidia Control Panel and force the machine to use the video card.

Innocente · July 2014

I just recently had a 660 burn out on me. For a few weeks prior to smoking, it exhibited odd behaviors related to resolution switching and other similar changes. Another symptom was that it seemed to be running hot with a higher fan speed than I would have expected.

After it burned out, I replaced it with a 750 and it is now obvious that something was amiss with the 660 for a while.

Hoamaii · July 2014

Thanks for you patience and help, Cyberdown.

Just did a clean install of the latest driver but still have the same issues with Photoshop. GeForce Experience seems to eat up a lot of resources... What I'm wondering is if I can safely uninstall it without uninstalling the Graphic Card's drivers in the process. It seems like Experience acts as the setting panel for the card now, but all the other features I can do without. I don't use the game settings optimization tool, I did try on Skyrim or Fallout and got terrible results, I much prefer my own manual settings.

I noticed the driver install added a Photoshop plug-in to my nVidia folder too.

Any idea if I can safely get rid of GeForce Experience? If only to check it's not the one messing up with Photoshop or Nifskope?

andre.roques.3b14_ESO · July 2014

Hoamaii wrote: »

GeForce Experience seems to eat up a lot of resources...

Really?

I didn't think this was a resident program; or if it is, that it takes significant resources.

Uninstalling it should have zero effect on the drivers. The drivers are a completely separate software package.

Hoamaii · July 2014

@ andre.roques:

Yeah, it's slow and takes an awful lot of times checking games settings for no purpose for me, I don't use them - and half the time, it's not even responding.

My problem is GeForce Experience actually came with the driver's package for me - perhaps it's simply not supported by my Photoshop or Nifskope versions. I'll take my chances and uninstall it anyway, see if it makes any difference...

Innocente · July 2014

GeForce Experience is the first thing I uninstall, if it is on there to begin with.

That being said, the best way to install if you are having problems is to do a "Custom Install'. Then, select 'Clean Install' and check only the stuff you want. Do not leave GF Experience checked; uncheck it.

m2super_ESO · July 2014

The black screen is your driver/GPU recovering from a crash. Next time look down by the clock to see if there is a balloon with information about a driver crash/recovery. What version of the Nvidia drivers are you running? It could be a conflict with the driver you have installed or it could be your card is on its last legs. You could also check event viewer to see if something is listed at around the time of the next black screen event.

Nestor · July 2014

Hoamaii wrote: »

GeForce Experience seems to eat up a lot of resources... What I'm wondering is if I can safely uninstall it without uninstalling the Graphic Card's drivers in the process. It seems like Experience acts as the setting panel for the card now, but all the other features I can do without. I don't use the game settings optimization tool, I did try on Skyrim or Fallout and got terrible results, I much prefer my own manual settings.

As you have surmised, the Experience program does things you don't need to have done. And, it gets in the way of what you want to do anyway. A number of games do not like post processing of the video, so there is that to consider. For the record, Skyrim, Oblivion, and Both Fallout games are this way.

The drivers are loaded with Windows before this program ever launches, even if you have it set to load with Windows.

Just remember, Control Panels are not drivers, never will be.

Hoamaii · July 2014

@ all:

Thanks a LOT for your help

.

I uninstalled GeForce Experience and from what I see, my GPU and all games still behave ok (quick check: logged in, ran around a couple of minutes and quit; ESO, Skyrim, F3) though I had to redefine all my settings of course.

But my flashing screen pb with Photoshop, Nifskope and Acrobat pro was still there, and damn annoying when I need to work on Photoshop a LOT these days. I also feared that this constant flashing was not too good for the hardware itself.

From what I read on help forums (nVidia, Adobe, etc.), it could be that latest nVidia drivers are not supported by CS5 or 6. Seems to be an OpenGL pb. And sure enough if I disable it in PS preferences, the flashing stops. Now I just have to find where to disable it in Acrobat Pro and Nifskope if I can.

Why this started in the same time as an ESO update is obviously pure coincidence - it's probably just that GeForce Experience auto-updated my nVidia driver in the same time - or something in the update modified the OpenGL process.

I must admit I'm describing things that are beyond my knowledge here, I roughly know what OpenGL does but have no idea where to locate it on my PC or how to fix it or if it's even fixable...

Hoamaii · July 2014

@ m2super: yeah I know flashing to black can be a sign that my GPU is giving up (Skyrim fried up my previous PC's GPU that way), that's why it worried me but I couldn't figure out why this was not happening with games or modelling 3D, and was happening with programs that demand far less resources.

I HOPE it is a driver conflict or settings pb rather than the hardware calling for my attention...

Innocente · July 2014

One thing you can do is try an older version of the drivers. They are available on the site.

If you downloaded to install originally, you can just reinstall the older ones you were using before.

Once again, be sure to do a Custom + Clean Install.

andre.roques.3b14_ESO · July 2014

OpenGL, from my base understanding, are a set of library functions used for rendering graphics OR a commonly accepted/used API specifically for rendering graphics. If the specific application is making unsupported library calls, due to the calls being associated with newer yet to be supported or even older possibly deprecated calls, that would explain the driver crash. In most cases it looks like you'd have to disable GPU rendering for those applications unless there is a away to strict what OpenGL calls can be made (to supported revisions)

Mitharus · July 2014

Hoamaii wrote: »

Why this started in the same time as an ESO update is obviously pure coincidence - it's probably just that GeForce Experience auto-updated my nVidia driver in the same time - or something in the update modified the OpenGL process.

nVidia drivers come with their own OpenGL release optimized for the cards. Much better, and with GL extension support for the cards.

-M

Hoamaii · July 2014

Well, seems like I spoke too soon. I just relaunched PS and it still flashes to black even with OpenGL disabled... Sigh.

Again, many MANY thanks for your guidance, guys, I guess I better stop using this forum for some issue that is obviously not related with the game at all. Sorry about that.

Cheers to all!..

Hoamaii