Aurora ALX R1, GTX 970 issues installing Nvidia drivers

Question

Hi

I have an Aurora ALX R1 (has Intel i980) so I think it's R1, 850W PS. Mechanical vents on the top open and close. That one.

I put a PNY GTX 970 4Gb 1664 Cudo Cores card in it (single card) to play Eldon Ring and other games requiring DX 12_0, 12_1 but I am having tons of problems getting the nvidia driver (512.15) to install correctly. It seemed to work once, using GE Force Experience which cleared up severe lagging, but after trying to fix some crashes now the nvidia driver doesnt seem to fully install anymore. GE Force Experience keeps thinking it needs updating despite showing 512.15 and Windows device manager is throwing an error on the card, saying it needs driver update.

DXDIAG shows its at 12_0, 12_1

I've tried nearly everything - install drivers from GEForce Experience, install from Nvidia site, clean install, express install, Windows add/remove remove all drivers and update manually, custom install just drivers, update from Windows Device Manager, registry clean, reboot after reboot after reboot after each change. Windows itself is fully updated, no optional updates. Nothing clears up the Windows Device manager error, and GEForce Experience still thinks it needs to update.

I am suspecting the 970 has incompatibility issue in some way with the computer, but it does boot up and it's putting video out, etc. It has two (2) 6-pin power connectors, both are plugged in. 850W power supply.

If I ignore all the errors and try to run Eldon Ring anyway, I get crashes and severe lagging. When I first installed the card and updated drivers, I got an error on driver update and Eldon Ring was super laggy, but then GEForce Experience seemed to complete the drive update successfully and the lag went away so it does seem to have worked once. I am not thinking i dreamed it haha but no it seems to update and fix lag. Once.

Any ideas?

Next to try are older video drivers, and a clean install of Windows, but I am hoping someone here can shed some light on what is going on.

Thanks

speedstep · Answer

@AAOwner

Latest Drivers are not supported on GTX 970 its too old and has issues.

https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/177774/en-us

The other issue is that ALL GTX970 cards are defective and cannot use 4 gigs of ram because of the design flaw. GTX 970 uses only 3.5GB of its 4GB of VRAM, resulting in performance drops or stuttering in games that pass over that threshold.

Legacy Support for Tesla architecture GPUs.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/unix/legacy-gpu/

Kepler is now legacy as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKtEH_7lGJg

Tesla1856 · Answer

That video-card should work in that machine. I'm still using this Aurora-R1 with GTX-1070.

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-General-Read-Only/Recommended-NVIDIA-graphics-cards-for-Alienware-Aurora-R1-2009/m-p/5590870/highlight/true#M92465

But you have to use an older (more appropriate) driver:

https://www.dell.com/community/XPS-Desktops/XPS-8930-a-stable-NVIDIA-graphics-driver-version/m-p/8160308/highlight/true#M69676

That is two GTX-1070's ... one in an Aurora-R1, the other in a Aurora-R6. Both running recent (if not latest) Windows-10 Pro (64 bit).

Use one of those "display driver cleaners" then clean-install v457.51-DCH or v456.71-DCH .

A newer driver-package like v511.79 DCH (WHQL & DX-12) from nvidia.com, it what you use for a newer card like a RTX-3080.

Tesla1856 · Answer

@AAOwner wrote:

It has two (2) 6-pin power connectors, both are plugged in. 850W power supply.

Remember to use one 6-pinner from both cables. That should engage both 12v rails.

You said 660ti-SLI . Both of those should be removed. Only 970 installed.

Yes, Intel i7-980 and x58 chipset is Aurora-R1 ALX (because of louvers and more)

AAOwner · Answer

Thanks.

I tried the older drivers suggested here, but the same issue remains. Windows Device Manager shows an error and the system crashes on game launch of games that worked on the previous 660ti SLI config.

Randomly, once after a reboot a driver update seemed to work and the Device Manager error was gone, the secondary monitor (on HDMI) came to life, and everything looked great. Then it crashed again, and on reboot the errors returned.

I will try a boot to a fresh Windows install, and a few other driver versions.

Heres what I dont get though. Before I purchased the GTX 970, I checked supportability in drivers, knowing that I needed to get Directx 12_0, 12_1 that came with relatively newer Nvidia drivers.

When I use the Nvidia driver search here: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/drivers/

or here: https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

and put in GEforce 900 Series, GTX 970, Win10-64bit, All or GRD, the search results come up with 512.15 . https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/results/187304/ and https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/187304/en-us

When I check the driver's Supported Products, it includes the GeForce GTX 970. Why does it explicitly state the newest driver supports the GTX 970 if it doesn't ?

Tesla1856 · Answer

@AAOwner wrote:

1. I tried the older drivers suggested here, but the same issue remains.

2. I will try a boot to a fresh Windows install, and a few other driver versions.

3. I needed to get Directx 12_0, 12_1 that came with relatively newer Nvidia drivers.

4. Why does it explicitly state the newest driver supports the GTX 970 if it doesn't ?

1. Might have to go back even further/older since that is a 9-series card, not a 10-series like mine. Like another year older (but still within Windows-10 release window).

2. Yes, good idea. And your C-drive should be a SSD. Keep Windows-10 (64 bit) install very lean. Device-Manager should be clean/free-of-errors. If you want to install AW-CC near the end, it must be v2.8.11.0 .

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-Desktops/Aurora-R7-M-2-NVMe-bootable-options/m-p/6073081/highlight/true#M3401

3. I do not think that is how it works. DX-12 support is more about the OS . So, since Windows-10 supports DX-12, as long as your video-card is similar vintage, you are good.

4. They always say that. That is why both of us kinda posted the same thing in regards to the drivers. I've been in your situation MANY TIMES over they years. The version of Windows and the video-cards are different, but it's the same situation really.

Have to ever seen this Nvidia-970 card actually work in some machine?

Good Luck.

speedstep · Answer

@AAOwner  'Device Manager shows an error ' GPU failure is totally different problem and cant be fixed with driver. 'This device cannot start. Try upgrading the device drivers for this device. (Code 10)' Cause Typically, the device's hardware key contains a 'FailReasonString' value, and the value string is displays an error message defined by the hardware manufacturer. If the hardware key does not contain a 'FailReasonString' value the message above is displayed.

Tesla1856 · Answer

@speedstep wrote:   'Device Manager shows an error ' GPU failure is totally different problem and cant be fixed with driver.     @AAOwner , Agreed. But I got the impression it was intermittent. - Check those PCIe-power-cables like I posted. In fact, re-seat all power cables. - Re-Seat card. - Try in (other) bottom slot. This is x58-chipset. While the top-one is preferred, I'm not sure there is a difference.

AAOwner · Answer

Thanks for all the suggestions, very much appreciated to have some help.

I tried all the suggestions here

- using both power cables (wasnt before) and checked connections to ensure they are tight

- only one card in...the 970

- uninstalled and reinstalled drivers using clean install, ccleaner, only installed the drivers themselves

- removed device from device manager and reinstalled, updated driver, everything

- verified cables are functional and plugged in securely

- installed drivers starting with 353.62 (failed due to OS level), and did many intermediate drivers up to 471.something - absolutely no change in symptom (Device Manager shows error code 43)

- moved card to different slot, reseated firmly

- checked GPU version with GPUZ, it shows GTX 970

Although it seems to have worked previously, no error message in Device Manager, it only stays that way for a short time and then the error returns.

I have an LG monitor hooked up to the card's HDMI slot, it boots fine using the LG monitor and Windows starts up etc and can browse and do stuff, but it crashes when put under load like when startting a game.

I didnt do a fresh Windows install yet, will try that next.

Thanks again, just updating that I tried most of the suggestions including many uninstalls and reinstalls of various driver versions, but nothing has made any difference.

-

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Aurora ALX R1, GTX 970 issues installing Nvidia drivers

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