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View Full Version : GeForce 6800 and random freezes


donny_paycheck
09-04-04, 09:39 PM
Like the title says, that's what I'm getting.

I have a PNY 6800 Ultra, and my games will freeze momentarily and then unfreeze, sometimes with artifacts, or sometimes just BSOD me altogether. This happens mainly in 3D games, but to a lesser degree, it will happen in 2D mode, usually when starting/stopping an MP3 or scrolling a webpage (I have no idea why this is but it's true).

There is an interesting thread regarding a similar problem on the nV News forums here: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=32759
They say to disable Fast Writes. I did that, but to no avail. I've also tried every ForceWare rendition from the first version to the latest betas. At the moment I'm running 65.73, which are betas, but WHQL certified. I'm not overclocked in either the graphics card or the rest of the system I've tried running my backup card, a Radeon 9700 Pro, in this system for about a week and it exhibits none of the problems that it does with my 6800 ultra, so I know it's this card. When Windows recovers from a crash, and when it BSODs, it always says the problem is with nv_disp. In other words, this IS a graphics subsystem issue. Power is fine. I have a PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 510 Deluxe. 'nuff said. Cooling is fine. The card is stock cooled but I have a 120mm blowhole right over the expansion slots in my case
That's about all I can think of at the moment. When I found the thread at nV News I thought my prayers were answered, but like I said, disabling Fast Writes did nothing. About the only thing left that I can think of trying is a BIOS flash, but PNY's website is no help to me and I'm leery about third-party flashes that might not fix anything or even worse kill the card.

If anybody has anything that might help me, I still have both of my kidneys and I only need one of them. :cool:

buddhafumes
09-04-04, 09:57 PM
Looks like its time to get it replaced.

donny_paycheck
09-04-04, 10:03 PM
Looks like its time to get it replaced.
Eh, yeah, I'm starting to lean that way too.

Just because I can, here is a picture of what happens when it freezes and then un-freezes within Windows. This JUST happened (I just finished rebooting):

http://webpages.charter.net/rylandpage/artifacts.jpg

Click for full res to really see the distortion.

buddhafumes
09-04-04, 11:28 PM
Holy artifacts batman! I would definitely rma it, but I wouldn't have gotten PNY in the first place. Yeah, PNY may be pretty good, but I have 2 burned ti4200's that say otherwise.

donny_paycheck
09-05-04, 12:23 AM
I actually made a point to get it from PNY because I've had such good experiences with them in the past. Not this time though, I guess. I hope they'll let me RMA it. I'd hate to have to front the cash for another one, and if I have to, I'll probably go with an X800 Pro.

donny_paycheck
09-05-04, 06:20 PM
Update: It's not the card.

I tried my 9700 Pro in this machine and the problem persists.

Looks like I've got to start eliminating the possibles. This ought to be fun. :rolleyes:

MrBozack
09-05-04, 07:24 PM
RAM!!1eleventeen

donny_paycheck
09-05-04, 07:33 PM
RAM!!1eleventeen
Ya think? Because I JUST GOT a new set of Corsair XMS LL Pro, the 5-2-2-2 stuff with the nifty lighted heatsinks on it. I have some old XMS3500 I can toss in there though; maybe I'll do that.

hypertek
09-05-04, 08:32 PM
im getting slight freeze/unfreezes with my bfg gt oc, but i think mine is due to heat issues since it only happens on hot un-air conditioned days..

My guess would be to try to reformat... i know its a long procedure (i hate reformating) so maybe if you have a spare hd, you can try it on that first.

donny_paycheck
09-05-04, 10:15 PM
Heh, I just reformatted like last week.

UPDATE 2: I relaxed my RAM timings to 8-4-4-2.5 and it's stable as a rock now. This is without changing out the RAM.

I guess I'll have to RMA this LL Corsair stuff, which sucks, but hey, I want the good RAM I paid for.

So it looks like Mister Bozack up there was right, and I suck at the troubleshooting. :thup: