gtx 1060 crashes when idling in games?

[poplap]

Hi guys. I have been having an annoying problem with my Zotac AMP edition 6gb gtx 1060. The problem started about 2-3 months ago and it involves me getting constant crashes with the "display driver stopped responding and has recovered" error message. The funny thing is the card/driver crashes only happen when I let my PC idle for a while. In other words, I can play Fallout 4 and The Witness for hours on end without a single crash, provided I am actually inputting commands into the game by moving around, looking around, etc., but when I leave the games idling for 5 minutes (sometimes less), the nvidia driver crashes as soon as I try to resume where I left off. This crashes the games to desktop and any application open in the background that also uses the gpu, like Photoshop, will also crash.

I have tried all suggested solutions on the internet, which have included installing new/different drivers, changing the power management of the card to "prefer maximum performance", turning 'linked state power management settings' to off, etc. Nothing has helped. The issue can't be the power supply, as I get no crashes and errors while I am busy playing, instead they exclusively occur while I am idling in a game. I have a Corsair TX950W psu which I bought in 2011. I have tried different 6-pin cables but all give the same issue.

The card is factory overclocked and runs at a boost clock of 1772 MHz. I have not done any custom over-clocking. I don't have any technical knowledge about power management, but it seems like the card powers down when idle and then crashes when it is required to start performing again... I don't know. Maybe the power to it is being incorrectly throttled.

I was wondering if anyone here has any suggestions, before I contact Wootware for to let me return the card.

 

[Petester]

Ive seen this behavior with older cards. AMD Radeon HD5850 and HD5870's were often doing this. Very unusual to see in a modern card. I've sold a few of those exact cards and had no issues so perhaps it has a problem. I would suggest you try another similar card if possible in you PC with same drivers etc, Just reinstall driver and see the results. If you get no problems it's almost certainly a faulty card. Same problem , you have to look elsewhere for the problem. The best way to resolve this is test another card first .Will go a long way to identifying your problem ?

 

[poplap]

Alright, thanks. I will definitely try using a different card in my PC first before I go through with the schlep of returning the gtx 1060. What if the other card gives the same issue? What do you think would be causing the problem?

 

[SCHUMI4EVER]

When you say you let the game idea and then resume, what do you do? Literally just walk away? Or do you somehow try to suspend the game and also does your monitor go to sleep after 5 minutes?

 

[poplap]

I mean I leave the game hanging. I don't pause or go into the main menu or alt-tab out. In other words I am "in game". It doesn't even have to be left for more than a minute for it to crash. Sometimes it will crash after 30-40 seconds. For example, the game 'The Witness' is a puzzle game, so I will regularly let go of the mouse and keyboard, sit back and stare at the screen, trying to figure out how to solve a puzzle. When I then touch my mouse again, the game freezes for a split second, then crashes to desktop and I get the "Nvidia display driver stopped working but has recovered" error message. Very annoying. It never crashes as long as stuff is happening on screen and the video card is under load rendering the games content, but if I just leave it still, not moving or mouse-looking around, it crashes.

 

[Machine]

I've had this issue with a few cards also, specifically 5870's. Did you try to up the voltage slightly in MSI afterburner, say 10mv or so?
That fixed my issue back then.

 

[poplap]

Hi there. No, I have not tried that yet. I have no experience with overclocking graphics cards so I tried to stay away from fiddling with the settings. Zotac has its own software though, it is called 'Firestorm'. I am using this card in a Windows 10 PC. I will try your suggested fix this evening and post an update with the results.

 

[poplap]

A very late update: The crashing was caused by bitcoin mining malware on my PC. Once I detected and deleted the malware with malwarebytes, the crashing has stopped and the card is working perfectly.