[GeekIcon]

Hello

My shiny new card (cross-posting from the other thread):

Card Name: 9600GT
Manufacturer: XFX
Video RAM: 512mb
Bus Type: PCI-E
Card Cooling: Stock (fan is always at 100% though)
Voltage: Stock
Stock: 650 Mhz Core, 900 Mhz Ram, 1625 Mhz Shader
Overclock: none

Other System Specs:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9
CPU:AMD Athlon64 3000+ (Venice s939)
RAM: x2 1GB DDR400 KingMax sticks
PSU: Thermaltake (SilentX Purepower) 480w

Other stuff:
x1 60GB HDD Drive (IDE)
x1 LG DVD/RW+ Drive
x1 Audigy 2 Value

Cooling: Zalman 9700 Alu/Cu, x3 120mm fans, x1 80mm fan, x1 40mm fan (on the NB heatsink).


Okay, so I recently bought the above video card around two days ago. I used to previously run on a 6600GT from A-Open, so it was a significant step-up.

I installed the card properly, and used the provided cable to plug the card to the power supply. Booted up, and so far everything was smooth. I then installed the new drivers provided in the CD, rebooted again. No problems. I then installed Rivatuner v2.08 so I could turn the fan all the way up to 100%.
I started up STALKER: SHOC and turned all the settings up, played for a couple of hours and was happy.

But of course, the smoothness was short-lived. I decided to play FEAR again in all it's glory, and during the game, everything ran smooth. But then, all of a sudden, my screen (I'm using a relatively OLD 17" CRT monitor) goes black... as if the computer has switched off. Except, my PC is still running. After about 2-3 minutes of waiting, the computer restarts again.
So I figured it may be a driver problem. I updated to the current Forceware drivers, but again after about 5mins of playing FEAR, I get the black screen again.
So I figured it must be FEAR itself. I reinstalled the game and got the latest patches, yet again the same thing happens.
"Maybe my card is getting too hot", I say. So I decide to remove my side panel. Again, no dice.

I then decided to under-clock the card a little bit using Rivatuner. I got the stock memory from 900mhz to 825mhz, and the Core from 650mhz down to 630mhz. Started FEAR up again and it worked, but not for long.
While I could play for a longer period, I still got the black screen, only it happened after around 30-45mins instead of 10-20mins later.

I thought that maybe my card is a dud or has some problems with it, but to make absolutely sure before I exchanged it, I decided to test it in other games. I ran STALKER for nearly 4-5 hours without any problems before I quit. I also ran Supreme Commander for nearly 6 hours and had no problems whatsoever. Settings on both games were as high as my system allowed.

So why is it only happening when I play FEAR? Will it happen when I play other games as well? The black screen thingy so far has only happened while playing FEAR, but I've only tested the 3 games mentioned because those are the only games I really have at the moment lol (I also have Company of Heroes and Orange Box but they aren't installed).

I know it's not a cooling problem, because when I ran the games, the card never got above 48C at load. I also rechecked again to make sure it was seated properly and sure enough, it was.

Here is a screenshot of current settings for the card, if it helps:





So any advice or suggestions on what I should do now? I still have the invoice, so I can return to the store and exchange the card, or perhaps go for the 8800GT? I'll have to fork out an extra AED 140'ish for that, so I'd prefer if it were my last option.

I greatly appreciate it, thank you.

[CGR]

Its becoming more common with newer cards to have a game not work properly. I would go to the games forums and see if anyone else with 9 series cards is having a similar problem.

From what you have said, you have tried everything I would try to get it to work.

What res are you playing in? Have you tried lowering the res?

[GeekIcon]

Originally Posted by CGR

Its becoming more common with newer cards to have a game not work properly. I would go to the games forums and see if anyone else with 9 series cards is having a similar problem.

From what you have said, you have tried everything I would try to get it to work.

What res are you playing in? Have you tried lowering the res?

Hey CGR, thanks for the reply.

Apparently it's not FEAR that's causing the problem. My PC again got the black screen and crashed a few minutes ago while playing SupComm. This happened after around 1 hour of gaming.

As for resolutions, my monitor only supports 1280x1024 max, so all games are also played on that res. I play FEAR at 1024x768 however.

I did try lowering the resolution, but again... same problem.

Perhaps I have a bad card then? I'll go back to the store tomorrow and either exchange it for another XFX or buy another brand. They only had two choices... XFX and MSI.

Any other suggestions? Thank you.

[CGR]

I would run 3dmark06 in a loop and see if it crashed from that before you return it.

[GeekIcon]

3DMark06 is 580MB to download!

I'll have to leave it throughout the night, then.... I'll update when I've *hopefully* got it.

Thanks CGR!

[GeekIcon]

I have an update, and it doesn't look too good.

I opted out of the 3DMark06 test, my connection dropped on me twice last night so I gave up downloading it.

I did a little more searching and apparently this seems to be a widespread problem and a lot of people are complaining of the same thing with their 9600GT cards. I just read this forum here.

It has a lot of replies, and some people have come to the conclusion that it's because of the BIOS version (there's a problem with the older ones).

Someone flashed his BIOS, but he had a card from BFG and he used that BIOS version to flash it. My question is, since I have an XFX card, would it be safe to flash it as well to the new version? Should I just play it safe and exchange the card or just get an 8800GT?

It seems nVidia or any of the manufacturer's aren't recognizing this problem as well, as there hasn't been a driver update to fix this issue either. I just don't get it.

Does the 8800 require more power than the 9600? My bought the above PSU back in 2005, so it's quite old. I'm just about passing the requirements for the 9600, I think.

Any more advice would be welcomed, thank you. Maybe you guys can think of something the dudes in the other forum(s) can't.

[aznsound]

this seems to be a known problem with no known solution... on google, nvidia and black screen error gets you a lot of hits from different forums asking questions... there are all kinds of suggestions but there is no definitive answer... just because of large amount of people having the problem, i would assume that it is a software/driver issue...

my friend had the 7800GT and it had the same symptoms as your error... he replaced it with the 9600GT and was still getting the exact same thing... but here's the kicker... i just built a brand new system last week and while waiting on my video card, i borrowed his old 7800GT... clean install Windows and everything, and when i started playing games, i get the exact same error... black screen like the computer had shut off, but the sound is looping and after a few minutes the computer will restart... so it's not just isolated to the 9600GT...

i originally wanted the 8800GT but because of the problem, i was a little weary of going with Nvidia... i eventually ended up with the 8800GTS 512mb and i'm glad to say that it doesn't have the problem... so even though there's no definitive fix right now for the driver problem, it's safe to assume that it will be ok if you decide to go with the 8800GT...

[CGR]

If XFX has a newer firmware version then you could try to flash it, but if you are not successful you could damage the card.

It may be better to return the 9600GT and pickup an 8800GT from XFX.

[GeekIcon]

Hmm. Yeah, I don't think I want to take that risk of ruining the card even more, forever.

I'll fork out the extra 150 for the 8800GT then tomorrow, I'm guessing my PSU can handle it as well.

Thanks again guy, appreciate it.

[CGR]

Originally Posted by GeekIcon

Hmm. Yeah, I don't think I want to take that risk of ruining the card even more, forever.

I'll fork out the extra 150 for the 8800GT then tomorrow, I'm guessing my PSU can handle it as well.

Thanks again guy, appreciate it.

Extra $150? How much did you pay for your 9600gt?

XFX 8800GT.. $199AR....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150253

[GeekIcon]

Originally Posted by CGR

Extra $150? How much did you pay for your 9600gt?

XFX 8800GT.. $199AR....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150253

I live in the U.A.E., so things like this over here is slightly more expensive.

1,000dhs ($272) for an XFX 8800GT. I paid 850dhs ($231) for the 9600GT. It varies from shop to shop, of course, but it's all within the same price range. I might be able to shave off a couple of Dirhams though, so I'll look around.

[||Console||]

I had a 9600gt for a few days I had no problem playing Crysis , bioshock , Css , Fear , and a few others .

When is the last time you Updated your Bios on your Mb ?
have you checked your 12v rail with a DMM?

[GeekIcon]

Originally Posted by ||Console||

I had a 9600gt for a few days I had no problem playing Crysis , bioshock , Css , Fear , and a few others .

When is the last time you Updated your Bios on your Mb ?
have you checked your 12v rail with a DMM?

I had recently re-formatted and reinstalled XP a couple of weeks ago, and I updated every single driver that I could, including my BIOS. So everything is up-to-date.

By DMM do you mean one of those multi-meter thingies? No, I don't have one. All I know from my rails is what SpeedFan is telling me (the picture in my first post). I know it might not be accurate.


It doesn't matter though, because this morning I went and exchanged my card for an 8800GT from XFX. The dude was nice to me too, I had forgot to pack the installation CD back in for the 9600, but he said I can drop it off on Saturday, and even shaved off a few Dirhams for the new card.

So, yay! So far everything is smooth. I haven't done any extensive gaming yet, but I will once I get the latest drivers for this thing.

Once again, thanks guys for all your help.