Help unlocking 6800LE

I purchased a Leadtek 6800LE from another member here. He had it flashed with a modified 6800NU bios so the voltage was bumped a little. For him it unlocked to 16/6 and ran 420/900+ and kicked butt in 3dmark. For me, it's artifacting when unlocked, even at stock speeds. I have been chatting with this user for a long time here, even before we had this deal, so I completely trust that it worked well for him. He also shipped 1st to allow me to test the unlock. So worst case, I send it back and no harm done.

That being said, I REALLY want to make this work fully unlocked... especially since I know it is capable. So far I've tried disabling AGP fast write and spread spectrum, still no luck. Next I have to try it with AGP voltage bumped up to 1.6 (my mobo won't let me do that, so I have to try it via software). What else should I be trying? System as seen in my sig except with this new card.

Hmmm...Have you checked to see how hot it is getting. Did the person run it off of stock cooling? Did he bump the voltage on the card? It could be that it was watercooled or had aftermarket cooler. There is also the possibility of maybe a driver issue or power suply that is not delivering enough juice. Mind elaborating on those? I know its alot, but helps us. I have one myself and had no luck unlocking

The previous owner kept the stock cooling (which is quite capable: a fairly large copper HS on front and back). So that's not it. Temps are fine, in the low 40s.

I have the Antec SmartpowerII 500W PSU, it should be fine. MBM5 doesn't support my motherboard but using Everest it seems to always be above 11.9v on the 12v rail. Usually 11.97 but sometimes it dips a little lower. I know that software measurements are not reliable but that's all I can do, and this is a good PSU so I figure that's not the problem.

I don't know about a driver issue... I used driver cleaner pro before installing this card, and then reloaded the newest official drivers (which is the same driver I had running before so there should be no problems).

Could there be a slight problem since I'm using an NF3 based chipset? I've heard that caused problems for some people with the Geforce 6 series.

What did he do to the BIOS? Is it unlocked Via BIOS, or are you using RivaTuner? Did he adjust the memory timings, or anything else?

If it were me I would save the current BIOS, flash the original BIOS, try a soft unlock Via rivatuner and see what happens. Then tweak the original BIOS for the unlock and core/mem speeds. No real need to use another BIOS all together .. you should be able to do it all by tweaking the original BIOS.. that way you know the memory etc. is the same .. particuarly the timings.

If you start from scratch you will knwo for sure if it is capable of a full unlock on your system, also it will get the voltages back to normal since right now OC's is not what your looking for, your trying to unsure it is stable at 16/6.

I have flashed it back to stock voltage and started from there. I still get the exact same result when I unlock using rivatuner (even at stock speeds). So I'm not sure what the problem is.

What I need is some spare time (I never have any) and then I'd be able to work on it more. I want to try and unlock each thing one at a time to see where the problem is. I will be happy if I can just get 12/6 and 400+/900+ (the price was right, even for just that)

What it sounds like, is that the pipes are broken. If you can run it stock with no artifacts then the card is fine. Maybe i missunderstood you, but you said it only artifacts when you unlock the pipes.....sounds to me like the pipes are not good. You can try unlocking one set of them and see if you get artifacts. Then close those off and open the other set. This will let you see if one set is bad. Aslo if this card has been run at high speeds, or if it was oced with bad pipes, it could be on its last let. Just my 2 cents though

I would agree that the pipes are broken, except for the fact that the previous owner had the card working well fully unlocked. There's a chance that there might have been very minor artifacts that he may have missed, but the stuff I'm getting is very obvious.

Well.....does it artifact in windows? Or just in 3dmark? I know when i unlocked mine all the way, it had artifacts in 05, but not 03. But when I gamed it would have artifacts in some textures. If there are no artifacts in 03, then I would say the pipes are bad and he never noticed. But from what you are describing, it sounds like bad pipes or over heating. Did it come from a member on here?

It only artifacts on certain parts of 3dmark03. I think it's the part with the turtle. All the rest of it looks perfect. I haven't tried 05 at all.

In games, most things actually look fine. For example, in the Medal of Honor games, or either Call of Duty, only the ocean and a few other things show artifacts. 90% of everything is fine. On my old 6800LE, it would show major artifacts all over, in every sequence on 3dmark.

It came from a member here, who has been very helpful in trying to help me get it working, but is out of ideas.

That is a bad pipe. If you run 05 you will really be able to see it. It usually only shows on a few textures. Granted he may not have noticed, but the pipes are broken. There is not much you can do to fix it.....If you can can at least have one set unlocked then I would not worry about it. Just oc the hell out of it. If nothing unlocks without artifacts, then this card may not be worth it. I have been through 7 of these cards thanks to Evga (2 randomly died, 1 was DOA, next one was referb that only had 4 pipes enabled, the next was the first card i sent back... and so on lol) Basically I thought I had a card unlocked untill i noticed what you are seeing. The pipes are working... but broken enough that they are useless. Sorry