[MmCheeto]

Hello. I have been fighting system crashes for a little wile now and I think I have made a little headway. I started a thread in the Mobo section to see if anyone there could find any fault with the mobo or atleast help me find one. Here is the link to that thread. . I just updated my Nvidia drivers and that made a huge difference but its still crashing just not as often now.

System stats
Mobo = Abit AW8-MAX "settings to default"
CPU = P4 2.8g Smithfield HT "it is unOCed to firgure out what the prob is"
Ram = 4 sticks 512 OCZ Gold "Stock volt atm"
VidCard = BFG Gforce 7800 GT OC "UnOCed"
Sound = onboard
HDD = 2x250gig WD SATA1 on stripe raid
Cooling = Robust water cooling see sig for details.

So far I can tell its not heat caused , PSU , CPU , or Ram. Anyone have a program in mind that can record stats on your machine like a black box? Something that can help trace the cause?. Anyways need more data just let me know. thanks in advance.

[cornbread]

This is probably a stupid question, but do you by any chance play World of Warcraft? Reason I ask is I was thinking of getting the same card. Then I was browsing the WoW forums and seen several post with people complaining about stability problems with their 7800's and WoW's latest patch.

Probably not related to you, but just curious.

[Sentential]

What are your temps like, both on the card and CPU.

[deception``]

Have you noticed any changes in your voltage rails since you installed the 7800GT? I say this because video cards can often place some stress on the system. Personally, I had to adjust my pots a tad when I moved from a 3000+ Venice @ 2.8 GHZ to an Opteron 146 @ 3.0 GHZ.

deception``

[Blackmage]

Defrag, Driver clean, tryed any of these?

[bapski]

i know you've checked, but dont think you mentioned any details about
PSU brand, make? its most usually is the culprit.

also i have the same vc. but had no problems ever since i installed it.

[diehrd]

I would bump up the ram voltage a tad..and CPU vcore..do 1 at a time see if it makes any change..

[DeepScience]

Originally Posted by bapski

i know you've checked, but dont think you mentioned any details about
PSU brand, make? its most usually is the culprit..

It's in his sig.

[MmCheeto]

OK I found the problem. Drum roll pleas "blrrrrlrllrlrlrlrlrlrllrlrlr" CoolBits ( A program used to overclock some Nvidia cards by adding a file to the reg). After updating Nvidia drivers quite some time agoe I havent played any games up till recent. This issue only pops up when you try to use games with complex shaders or worse HDR. I tride Dling a new version of coolbits but the same result happend. I re downloaded vid driver and same thing. Something about CoolBits and Nvidia 8.85 or 8.84 drivers and 7800gt dont like one another.

[MmCheeto]

Originally Posted by cornbread

This is probably a stupid question, but do you by any chance play World of Warcraft? Reason I ask is I was thinking of getting the same card. Then I was browsing the WoW forums and seen several post with people complaining about stability problems with their 7800's and WoW's latest patch.

Probably not related to you, but just curious.

Yes I did play WOW with this card a while back but it was with older drivers. Everything worked fine no issues. I have not played sence the latest patch though. I did however notice that Nvidia put some ectra HDR and shader updates in the last few patches witch had a direct influence on HL2 Lost coast (witch uses HDR)

[SNieX]

reformt.. reinstall all... take the nvidia drivers -- get from Nvidia.com... install

try out - stress test the whole system.. CPUburn IN, and get 3dmark 05... run them seperatly...
then after that....

install rival tuner.. overclock the card... then see what happens

[DeepScience]

So are you saying that removing coolbits removes the problem for you?

[MmCheeto]

Yea. I did a reformat , Reload windows and all drivers. Installed Nvidia Drivers 81.85. Did a few benchmarks and everything smooth. Loaded Coolbits and it started again. System crash apon game load or in midgame depending on what you run. Unistalled Nvidia drivers + regclean and reload. All is smooth once more. Just to be sure I did this same thing on another WC system that was running in top shape before I tride anything. I Reformat and install windows to have a clean controle. Loaded all drivers and ran benchmarks and tests.

Second system Stats
Gigabyte GA-8Ik1100
P4 3.0 Pres HT 478
Gforce 6800 Ultra OC (By BFG)
512 x 4 paired Corsair = 2gig DDR
Single WD 80gig HD
Same water cooling stats as in my sig.

System ran cool and stable. I loaded Coolbits and same reaction. So I do know its not limited to the 7800GT. Might be a freak thing but 2 systems with 2 different cards with same drivers and coolbits makes the same reaction. I also did a search or 2 and wow there is alot of issues with the new drivers atm so I wasnt shocked.