I don't know what's going on with my system, but I'm at a lost as to what the problem is. Ok lets start at the beginning.  System was put together around June.  Recently with Borderlands 2 I was noticing a hiccup or two with everything set to full including Physx, usually only in Multiplayer.  So my friend says you should just go ahead and update your drivers.  I had been using Nvidia 301 drivers, because they were stable had no problems with them.  Supposedly though the 306 were supposed to have optimizations for BL2.

So ok I break down, and get them.  This seems to be where a majority of my problems began.  So I do the usual routine for driver installation.  Uninstall, reboot into safe mode, run driver sweeper, reboot again in windows, install drivers (still using the Clean Install option under Custom).  The installation takes an usual amount of time, and then it gets worse.  After the install finally finishes everything is sluggish, long pauses of up to 10 to 35 secs for everything, and sometimes longer.  Tried to clean install again and problem was still there.  Redownloaded 301 drivers, problem vanishes.

So I'm like screw that.  Fast forward to two days before WoW:MoP gets released.  I try the 306 drivers again, same problem.  Instead of reinstalling 301 again, I reinstall 306 again.  Ok this time nothing, problem gone.  Can't explain it.  Ok MoP gets released first couple days I was playing on the system no problem at all.  BL2 ran fine, TL2 ran fine, MoP ran fine, etc etc.  I get up to level 40ish on my new monk.

Bam, monitor starts flickering on and off to desktop.  Nvidia driver failed and recovered but the system is unresponsive. I can see the ballon with that in it everytime it flicks back to desktop.  But the system is frozen.  No mouse, no keyboard commands.  So I hold the power button.  Count to 30 cut it back on.  I launch WoW again to find out if it is the game causing it or something else.  It happens again after only about 10 or so minutes in game. Except it's no longer doing the black screen to desktop flicker.  The monitor just goes straight into power save mode and cuts off.  So after reboot I pull up the Event Log.  A blue screen error caused by Nvlddmkm.sys so I google it.  Nothing about it causing BSOD with 690 GTX's.  A few post on various forums about it causing problems in 200 series Nvidia's.  So I launch steam and start running random games I have installed.  BL2 fine, TL2 fine, Aion fine, GW2 fine, basically everything but WoW. Mind you I run everything max settings at 2500x1600 with stuff like Skyrim using Very high res texture packs. 

Had alot of work things to do so that was about 24 hours ago.  Today I try 3D Furmark to really push the cards to see if it's the cards or infact Nvidia's drivers.  4 minutes into test.  Problem pops again.  So I reboot, try checking the games that had work fine before.   All of them now have the same problem except Skyrim.  It has been running for more then an hour now with no problems.  I'm completely drawing a blank.   Trying to avoid going back to 301, but I just can't explain it. I've checked temps, they are fine as the cards are water cooled.  It's not hard drive fragmentation as the system is using SSD's for all storage.  All other drivers even down to motherboard bios are up to date.

Intel I7 3930K (Not OC'd, still debating on if I'm going to or not, might wait till tempetures outside drop more)

Asus P9X79 Deluxe motherboard

4 x Patriot Viper Xtreme DDR3-1600 4GB

2 x EVGA 690 GTX's in SLI (Left at Default, not really a fan of OC video cards)

Win 7 Pro 64 bit

Silverstone ST1500 1500w

Intel 520 240GB x 3 (Raid 0)

Intel 520 480GB

Creative SB Recon 3D Fatality Pro

Intel RS2BL040 Raid Controller

After the memtest (I left it run for 6 passes, even though 3 seems to be the general recommended amount).  I uninstalled the 306 drivers, and reinstalled the 301.  The problem is gone.

Originally posted by Roin

Intel I7 3930K (Not OC'd, still debating on if I'm going to or not, might wait till tempetures outside drop more)

Asus P9X79 Deluxe motherboard

4 x Patriot Viper Xtreme DDR3-1600 4GB

2 x EVGA 690 GTX's in SLI (Left at Default, not really a fan of OC video cards)

Win 7 Pro 64 bit

Silverstone ST1500 1500w

Intel 520 240GB x 3 (Raid 0)

Intel 520 480GB

Creative SB Recon 3D Fatality Pro

Intel RS2BL040 Raid Controller

 

After the memtest (I left it run for 6 passes, even though 3 seems to be the general recommended amount).  I uninstalled the 306 drivers, and reinstalled the 301.  The problem is gone.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxyhfiCO_XQ

Looks like a video card hardware problem.

Pull one of the 690's and see if it stays - if it goes away, or if it returns, swap cards and try again. See if it happens with the other card.

If it happens with both cards, or doesn't occur with either card, could be a problem with the motherboard, or driver-specific problem (see below)

If it happens with one card and not the other - then probably that card.

It's very possible that it's a problem with specific titles (WoW or BL2) and Quad-SLI support (since that is what dual 690's show up as). SLI in general is fairly finicky. You can try just disabling SLI and seeing what happens.

Originally posted by Roin

Intel I7 3930K (Not OC'd, still debating on if I'm going to or not, might wait till tempetures outside drop more)

Asus P9X79 Deluxe motherboard

4 x Patriot Viper Xtreme DDR3-1600 4GB

2 x EVGA 690 GTX's in SLI (Left at Default, not really a fan of OC video cards)

Win 7 Pro 64 bit

Silverstone ST1500 1500w

Intel 520 240GB x 3 (Raid 0)

Intel 520 480GB

Creative SB Recon 3D Fatality Pro

Intel RS2BL040 Raid Controller

 

After the memtest (I left it run for 6 passes, even though 3 seems to be the general recommended amount).  I uninstalled the 306 drivers, and reinstalled the 301.  The problem is gone.

 

Wow nice system =)

Try disabling SLI. With that rig you wont even notice a difference o.O. I will bet its a problem with the 690's SLI

Do you still have the warranty for your system? 

Yanked the cards (pain in the ass I tell you.  Had to also remove the water cooling assembly as well.) Tried them in my other system.  It does seem to be a problem between my EVGA 690's and the 306 drivers.  The other system is an I7 as well but not Sandy-Bridge E.  Though still an Asus motherboard and the PSU's are different (1000 watt Corsair and a 1500 watt Silvertstone in other)  This system isn't over clocked either, and also uses DDR3 running at 1600mhz.  The only other difference is Win 7 Pro 64bit in the system I took them out and Win 7 Home 64bit in the system I tried them in.  The Nvidia's I already had in there also don't have a problem with 306 drivers. (It's what I had been using for WoW since it ran with no problems.)

But yeah with the 301's they have no problem at all.  Hell even the 3D Furmark test that died out before while using the 306's.   Ran perfectly fine under the 301's for the 15 minute benchmark.  Card temps peaked at about 71 degrees. So yeah going to be sticking with 301 for now.  I'll try out the next release of drivers when they go live (don't mess with beta drivers).  When Nvidia get their forums back up and running, I'll have to see what they say about it.  I've still been unable to find even a single post with a person having anything even remotely similiar to this with 690's.

Yanked the cards plural?  The idea was to test one card at a time, and see if you have the problems with each card individually or if it's isolated to one card.

It could also be a problem with Quad SLI drivers, as that's a very narrow niche and not where Nvidia focuses their driver efforts.