Tjingsted

GTX 200 series heatbug fix
Might not work on cards without voltage adjustabilities
please RMA if possible
Feel free to correct my english in a PM
I'm not responsible for anything damage you do to anything (just for you sue-happy americans )

Introduction
I just bought this GTX 260 and the first thing I did was run 20mins ATItool stress.
It passed even at high clocks with 100 fan.
Later on I modded the card.
Even later on i found instabilities in games and wanted to sort it out so here you are.

Symptons
Crash to solid colour. - While gaming or benching the screens will suddently become one solid colour. (mine goes black + random colour)
Crash with weird flashy boxes - While gaming or benching the screens will display weird flashy boxes.
Furmark nearly instantly crashes with high AA - using the highest res + aa will crash when in furmark.
Instant BSOD's - You know what i mean.

Software needed
First get this tools:
Furmark
EVGA Voltage tuner
Patch for EVGA voltage tuner (optinal, recommended)
GPU-z
A OC tool for your gpu, EVGA Precision

How to
1. Set your voltage to 1100mV using GVT (Gpu Voltage Tuner, EVGA)

2. Open GPU-z and focus on the VDDC temperatures (slaves). (make sure update when in background is checked!)

3. Run a benchmark run in furmark in a window which still allowes you to see the temps (if dual or tri screen just use native and place GPU-z on another screen)

4. If no problems happened proceed
4a. If the VDDC's heat up fast and you computer crashes lower you voltage even further and try again.
4b. If you get snow or streched textures and other artifact's. Lower your clocks. (evga precision) and try again

5. Now you should lower the vGPU one notch from 1100mV (1088mV)

6. Run furmark benchmark run at your native res with 2x AA.

7. If no problems happened proceed
7a. (look at 4a)
7b. (look at 4b)

8. Now lower your vGPU another notch down. (<1088mV)

9. Run furmark benchmark with 4x AA

10. If no problems happened proceed
10a. (look at 4a)
10b. (look at 4b)

11. Now lower your vGPU again.

12. Run a furmark stresstest run with 8x AA.

10. After 200-1000sec of benchmark without artifacts lower volts again and run the stresstest at full x16 AA and Post-processing.

Continue running stress test and lower voltage until you meet artifacts or crashes.

When you do this you should stay at the last stable vGPU and run a stresstest with burning, full aa and post processing for about 1hour. If this succeds you're now completly stable.

When you've found what you consider stable please use the apply on startup in GVT
but DO NOT apply on startup before you're sure it's stable! (if you do boot into fail safe to remove)

Overclock after this
When you wan't to overclock just do as for CPU's. raise clocks. check stability raise volts if needed. but when you begin to see the weird crashes or artifacts when running furmark you know what to do

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Tjingsted

Feel free to comment, thank or improve my spelling etc.
This worked for both me and my buddy's gtx 260.

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Ramzinho

good guide, although i'm not a GPU voltage fan but some people will do it... that's really nice

eh and +rep for you man.

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We Are Gr33n Machine

grunion

Nice and all, but if your card doesn't run at stock voltage then it should be rma'd.
I've had 4 260's and all of them ran on stock voltage heavily overclocked with no issues.

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Megahalems > TR Ultra Extreme
How do I uninstall Video Card drivers?
How do I see my in game temps?

Tjingsted

Well this lowers the GPU voltage so no real risk. and thanks

Yes i know. But we people are very used void warrenties. And i simply took it as stable when i ran ATItool.
I'm rather sure there are other people have these problem and first realising it before they voided their warrenty.

Lucky you, this is a very big problem try googling "gtx 260 overheating"

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grunion

I had 1 260 that ran hot, RMA'd it and the replacement was fine.

Not much can void the warranty, physical damage is about it.

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Megahalems > TR Ultra Extreme
How do I uninstall Video Card drivers?
How do I see my in game temps?

Tjingsted

Removing stickers will.
Replacing TIM and thermal pads on rams.
and physical damage when opening to apply tim...

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grunion

No
No
And of course physical damage will void the warranty, but what is there to damage if you're careful?

The big three all allow TIM replacement, sticker removal.
As long as there is no physical damage to the card, burns, water damage, chips, cracks, the card can be rma'd.

Now by sticker, if you mean the barcode on the pcb, then yes the warranty is voided.

If you have no warranty, yes use your method.
But if you have a warranty, rma the card.

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Megahalems > TR Ultra Extreme
How do I uninstall Video Card drivers?
How do I see my in game temps?

Tjingsted

I agree although lazy people can do this too.

But removing stickers on the gpu WILL void the warranty (the brand ones on the gpu.) I didn't get my rma thru...

I'm also 99% sure that only evga and xfx allowes you to open the card. The rest of the companies will take this as a void.

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wire

This allowed me to overclock. Before I couldn't touch the clocks w/o my gpu hitting a certain temperature and giving me that colored screen. I thought it was not enough voltage, but apparently less is better. Thanks REP+

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