NVIDIA Geforce 660 ti No Signal problem when gaming

[Sketch]

I've scoured google and random forums for a fix to my "No Signal" problem. Other people have had similar problems, but I've had no luck with suggested fixes. So when I play a hand full of games (i.e BF3, Warframe, Borderlands 2, etc.) anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes in, my monitor will go black and say "No Signal". Maybe 10 seconds later the game will come back up and the frame rate will be butchered from 60+ to around 15fps. More recently though, the games will just crash. It's been driving me crazy. Has anyone had this problem and more importantly, has anyone fixed it?

Things I've Done:
-Reseated my RAM
-Updated my drivers (even though during the update halfway I lose monitor signal for a few minutes... but it eventually comes back and actually finishes the updates)
-Made sure my monitor cables are plugged in properly
-Played around with my graphic settings in the NVIDIA control panel to see if I could get proper results.

I may just have a faulty graphics card, but if this is fixable it would really save me the cash and trouble.

[[☥] - CJ -]

that sounds like a display driver crash problem, ive had it happen now n then but not very often with my 660 Ti.

what PSU do you have?

[Sketch]

Toughpower 850W

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153043

[_I_]

thermaltake makes some bad power supplies

test with a better one
a quality 550-600w psu should power the system just fine

try hwmonitor, look at the 12v
then play a game for 1-2min
alt tab back to hwmonitor, look at the 12v min
if its under 11.5v, the psu is most likely too weak

[[☥] - CJ -]

Well.. According to Newegg its good for about 120,000 hours and it seems as though that PSU was originally released in 06 or 07 so perhaps it may be time to look for a new recent Powersupply.

I may be wrong, but it is just a thought.

How long have you had the PSU for?

[Sketch]

I've only had the power supply for a few months since this is a fairly new machine. I'll test the psu, but is it also possible I just have a faulty graphics card? I tend to get these no signal crashes in most games that support NVIDIA ironically enough.

[[☥] - CJ -]

If it was faulty one would think youd be having more problems then what you are..

Is the GPU overclocked at all? bad or unstable overclocks in addition to a bad PSU can cause such problems as well.

But it just sounds to me that the driver is crashing is all.. ive noticed that nvidia has changed some things around in the recent drivers for it to give a black or no signal screen.
-

You could try doing a clean install of the latest drivers using Driver Fusion, if youve ever heard of Driver Sweeper, Fusion is the program that replaced it.

Also, when installing new drivers under Custom Installation ONLY select the options that you require such as PhysX.

[rotNdude]

What OS are you running? What do you see in event viewer for any indication of errors? It may be the dreaded TDR error for the video card.

[[☥] - CJ -]

Just so you know, it is the graphics driver crashing when you lose signal, happend to me earlier today.

If you have evga precision or msi afterburner run it and it'll fix the driver/low fps issue as it brings the GPUs clocks back to where theyre supposed to be at.

[Rubik748]

Ever since I bought a gtx 690, I've had the black screen after boot at random times, games or not. Screensaver lagging when showing time or text. Geforce forum said to roll back the driver or update it to a newer one.

But the screensaver issue still exists and sometimes when booting into 7 it will go blank or no signal for a few seconds.

[Sketch]

@ - CJ -
I haven't tampered with overclocking my GPU at all. I'm pretty sure it's at the factory preset; but honestly I don't know if they overclock them before they are purchased. (I'd imagine not, but I could be wrong).
I'm going to give Driver Fusion a shot and come back with my results. And you've had successful results with MSI Afterburner?

@rotNdude
I haven't heard of the TDR error

@rubik
I don't know how to roleback my graphics card's update; sorry I only have a surface understanding of this stuff, I'm not the most computer savy person :/

[[☥] - CJ -]

i use evga precision to bring the clocks back to normal, i use it more then afterburner. but being as they are pretty much the same thing either one should raise the clocks back up for you when the driver crashes.

ive used it multiple times to fix the low fps issue when the driver crashes so it should work for you as well. it wont fix the screen blanking out but when you are able to see again and you have low FPS it will fix that.
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before you use Fusion, uninstall PhysX 1st then uninstall the GPU drivers, boot into safe mode then use Fusion on nVidia Display Drivers and nVidia PhysX, reboot after its cleaned then install the latest drivers. goto custom installation and only select what you need, nothing more.

[Sketch]

Where can I go to uninstall PhysX? I don't see it in the programs list.
And more recently the games have not been able to recover from the crash and I tend to just get a black screen with "no signal" followed by the game freezing or crashing itself? Have you had it that bad and if so, have you been able to fix it? Sorry if I'm being redundant.

[[☥] - CJ -]

if its not under programs then you may not have it installed even though you should.

And no, for me the screen loses signal for a few seconds then will show up, FPS will be low so i run Precision to fix it. havent had any game crashes because of it that i can remember.

[Sketch]

I just clean installed my GPU drivers and I'm testing games out now. I'll see if the problem still occurs.
By installing Physx, can that increase or decrease the possibilty of my problem occuring?

[[☥] - CJ -]

Well its really supposed to be installed, even if you dont have any PhysX games.. but i suppose it could pose a problem if it wasnt installed.