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GA-K8NNXP Problems running high graphics games on std. system

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Groova

Registered
Joined
Apr 19, 2004
Location
South Africa
I have the following system setup as standard (no tweaks to the system, no overclocks of any sort - system is out of the box):

Gigabyte GA-K8NNXP mboard
AMD Athlon 54 3200+ CPU (with standard heatsink and fan)
MSI GeForce FX 5900XT GPU
2 x 512Mb (DDR333) RAM Sticks
1 x 40Gig Seagate 7200RPM 8Mb Cache System Hard Disk
COMPAQ 19" 9500 Monitor
Cheap no-name case with 300Watt PSU (no extra fans in case)
Microsoft Optical Desktop Elite Wireless Keyboard and mouse
OS is Microsoft Windows XP Home
DirectX 9b

My system runs fine and fast, however when I try and run games like Vietcong, X2 and others they work fine for a while and then suddenly they either exit without any indication, or they have a memory crash (this happened in Far Cry demo).

I have tried the Ati Radeon 9600XT and the GeForce FX 5200 and the problem re-occours. The GeForce FX 5200 is almost the most stable of the lot.

My friend is playing the same games on a lower specced AMD Athlon chip with a GeForce FX 5200 without any problems.

I have just invested heavily in this system (all parts new) and I have sent back and exchanged various video cards as they were supposed to be the cause of the problem. I cannot find any refrence to the Gigabyte board as the problem. I was told that their is an issue between the board and the Ati Radeon 9600XT card - hence the fact that I know have the MSI GeForce FX 5900 XT card.

Does anyone have any idea what is causing my woes? Is my PSU too weak, is it overheating? Do you think my board is faulty? Please any advise will be appreciated.
 
Whats are your temps like ?

you can use MBM or speedfan to find those

and with speed fan it will show your rail's. and thats my next Question. what are your rails like

im thinking the 300watt power supply just inst cutting the mustard

Welcome To The Forum !
 
dead_man311,

thanks for the feedback. I know these video cards (the larger ones that have their own power connection like my GeForce FX 5900) require a 350Watt power supply. So you may be right there.

What are the temps[B/] and rails you queried me about in your response? I am not sure what you mean.

Groova
 
dead_man311,

OK I think you mean Temperatures. Not sure what you mean by rails however.

I have just doenloaded the latest ForceWare drivers which I hope will give me access to the video card temperature data (in the new nVidia Display Manager).

I have checked my PC CPU temperature (in the BIOS) and it is always well below the risk level (although this is a few seconds after the machine has rebooted). As noted, my machine does not reboot anymore, this was an identified problem between the PC and the motherboard and the ATI Radeon 9600Xt. Something to do with the NForce3 chipset and the system requiring an nVidia graphics card.

My only problem now is the system aborting in the middle of games. I will try and get my hands on a 350Watt PSU and see if that makes a difference.

Anymore comments Dead Man?

Groova
 
I'm interested to hear your temps too since I have a Gigabyte GA 7NNXP running a Barton 3200, 1.5 gigs ram. My temps which I think are high start around 52, then climb to 59 with the side off. If I put the side on- I get over 60. Since I'm new at this, I didn't leave the side on to see how hot it would get. I have the alarm set to go off at 60.

If you loaded the gigabyte tool from the CD, it may have a program called Gigabyte Easy Tune 4- which loads at start up as a small box with 2 tools on it. Once you run easy tune, you'll see an "S" and an "R" on the left side- click on those. The "R" will give you the CPU temps.

What BIOS version are you running? While booting hit the Pause Break key- it will stop the screen to show you the BIOS version- on the top of the page- will say something like V11. I see at Gigabyte the BIOS is up to 12 for your board. With my board they are on 17, but 17 crashes my board so I kicked it down to 16- now it's running better. When I 1st got my board I used the @BioS to update- & after having problems Gigabyte pretty much told me it was junk & not to use it- to update manually on the site with a floppy. Here's the link for your board @ Gigabyte.

I know where your coming from with returning vid cards. My board had to have a 4x/8x card. I bought a BFG GeForce FX 5500 OC 256MB DDR Card - and kept crashing with it. After going to Nvidia for drivers- this one wasn't on the list- so I went back to Best Buy & got the BFG GeForce FX 5900XT OC 128MB DDR Card, and according to my puter shop, the numbers they got from 3dMark were awesome.

Crashing playing games- If you go to system in control panel, hit the advanced tab- then under startup & recovery hit the settings button. Once there be sure automatically restart is unchecked. This will give you a blue screen with an error giving you something to go on.

I've found that most game problems (hubby games) are due to not having the game patched. Do you have the most current patches?

When you uninstalled the other cards- did you make sure you took out all files associated with it? Hubby has a Radeon 9600 & had problems with the drivers from the CD. We had to do a complete uninstall- edit registry and all files from Windows associated with the card- then install only the catalyst driver. I beat my head against the wall with this card.

Just looked your card up- see it is 8x. My board has a switch next to the vid card- default setting is off. I had to put it on auto on. I can't tell if yours has this feature.

 
GA-K8NNXP Problems - I think I have the problem licked

dead_man311,

I think I have found the problem. Although my GA-K8NNXP board has a 5.1 Realteck integrated surround sound built in - I recentley baught a 4.1 (my dumb mistake there) Create Labs Audidgy cheapo low end sound system for my PC.

I have noted while working on the case (adding components etc) that even though the main power to the pc was unplugged - I was still getting small shocks and actual spikes of electricity when I worked. I then realised this must be because the independantly powered Creative speakers were plugged into the PC (they have their own power connection).

Quite by chance I decided to unplug them last night and instead plug in my small sterio speakers again. Well the games have stopped exiting in mid play - so this was somehow causing the problem - I guess it was messing with the graphics card voltages as the sound output and the graphics card are quite close.

Go figure - I will test more this weekend and respond if I find it completley solved or not.

Thanks for your advice.

Keep well,

Groova
 
dead_man311 / Blondie,

hahahahaha, how often have I made this mistake with PC's to date - shouted its fixed when it is not. Problem is still there and still unresolved.

Problem has no set timing and sometimes my PC is fine for longer than others - seems to be something like temperature or power as the games definatley work - all of them. When I run the games at high frames they run fine - no gliches.

My PC later exits the game. Every two hours or so the entire PC reboots itself. This I have noticed latley.

I will send temps and rails tomorrow.

Thanks fot feedback guys.

Groova
 
dead_man311 / Blondie / PCluva,

I have upgraded my power supply to 400Watt - problem is still there. However, some points....

1) When I use Motherboard Monitor 5 (with an interval of 1 sencond) I note that my (-12 0) voltage rail fluctuates continuosly between about + 1.5 to - 4 or so. All other rails seem stable. This is the case across my last three power supplies (two of those in different cases). I now have a high quality AOpen case. I stay in a flat with dubious power supply to the whole flat unit - it often trips out).

When I run these tests at work the work machines do not show this fluctuation in the (-12 00) voltage rail.

2) I found a setting yesterday in Gigabytes advanced BIOS for Thermal Throttling. It was set at 50%. My CPU idels at about 32oC and when playing say Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 it rises to about 48oC. Could this be related? My BIOS CPU warning is set at 60oC.

My problem symtoms once again: PC plays 3D games fine. But intermittent exiting of games, occasional reboot and core memory dumps (blue scree) occour at what can only be called random intervals. All other functions besides playing 3D type games seems fine. All new games do this. When problems occour all hardware is luke warm to touch (i.e. not very hot).

I am going to place a small APC UPS between my PC power supply and the mains connection. I want to see if it will clean up my power supply from the wall to my PC's PSU.

Comment freely..

Regards,

Groova
 
Problems fixed for good this time - Feedback

Guys,

fixed the problem. In the Gigabyte GA-K8NNXP advanced BIOS screen (press Ctrl + F1) it has a Thermal Throttling option which defaults to a low 50% (I think this was the default value).

I upped this to throttle the CPU when my Temp reaches 60% or higher. Now my games etc are all working. My PC temp is actually very stable and stays between 33 - 50 degrees no matter what games I am playing.

I will try and attach an image of the setting I changed.

Man this caused me endless head scratching, video card returns, crashed or faulty games from sudden mid game exits and the purchase of one or two items I did not need. It was fixed inside 30 seconds by making the BIOS value change.

The Thermal Throttling feature is completley undocumentedand it is defaulted to a setting way too low for a powerful motherboard like this made for high end game playing. Further I found varying descriptions on various websites as to what this function ACTUALLY does/is for. I find this strange from a big motherboard maker like Gigabye and also from hardware websites that are clearly run by proffessionals. Strange - never the less - the Gigabyte GA-K8NNXP is a GREAT motherboard. I would not change it for anything.

Thanks to all for the advice and comments - any feedback is always appreciated when one is in dispair.

Hope this helps someone else! Keep rocking!!

Groova
 

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