BFG 6800 GS Artifacts after water cooling

[MaxRott]

Ok this is a noodle scratcher, and I apologize for the long winded post.

The base setup is
AMD 2800+ Barton
Abit Nf7-S V2.0
2X 1GB OCZ PC3200 Platinum LL
BFG 6800 GS
SB Audigy 2 Gamer

I have had this setup running stable for the past few months, everything on air. The processor oced to 2250 MHz and the 6800 fully unlocked and oced to 400 /1075.

I got greedy and bought a TT Tide Water VGA watercooler... wanted to squeeze more out of the vid card. So last night I ripped off the stock heatsink and put the waterblock on and dropped some heatsinks on the RAM. I should also note that I switched out the PSU (was a raidmax 450W) and replaced it with an Antec TruePower 550W. All happy I booted the machine up and on the windows splash screen I started seen multicolored horizontal lines flickering. The temp of the GPU was in the 30s C... I quickly powered down, checked everything but the problem persists.

Troubleshooting.
1. Replaced stock heatsink & fan, same problem upon boot.
2. Tested the card in a different rig, normal operation. Ran 3dmark05 on stock settings and overclocking the 6800 and everything is fine.
3. Tested my 9700 Pro in the main rig, everything works fine.
4. Installed latest chipset drivers and updated bios, 6800 problem persists.
5. Uninstalled 6800 drivers, no artifacts, resinstalled a few versions of forceware and the glitches come back.
6. thought maybe it had something to do with the new PSU so I ran the GPU power from the other supply (running on a computer next to it) same problem.

At this point I am thinking it may be a software problem?? I am going to start with a fresh install of XP and see where that gets me, otherwise the only thing I can think of is to swap the PSU back out and test again... .has anyone else had an issue like this? any help is very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Max

 

[MaxRott]

I should also add that the graphics problem is not just on the windows boot screen but on the desktop as well, it also seems to get worse the longer it operates.....

 

[chevro1et]

Wow, that is a noodle scratcher... let me ponder this one for a bit...

 

[Drinkyoghurt]

my guess goes to the psu..put the 450w in and see what happens

 

[Evilsizer]

if your using as5 on the card then maybe you got some on the contacts of the ram/gpu. also LOOK at he gpu it self, im starting to think though the gpu is cracked somewhere causeing this problem.
edit
try the psu but i dought its that causeing the problem. did you also make sure to give the card its own powercable with nothing else attached on this new psu?

 

[chevro1et]

It is just so odd that the main card works properly in a different rig, but artifacts in the main rig. And, that an older vid card runs fine in the main rig as well.

just to clarify, does the 6800gs run proper in the second rig with the stock cooler re-mounted? Maybe something to do with the waterblock???

EDIT: did you use driver cleaner pro to remove all the remnants of the ATI drivers before installing the 6800gs?

 

[MaxRott]

I am using as5, I cleaned everything very well before I installed.... however there is always room for improvment with my clumsy hands.

Currently I have the stock cooler remounted and it works correctly in my backup machine, however still glitches in the main machine.

I don't think the GPU is cracked, however I will take a closer look tonight.

I also did not use driver cleaner to remove everything... however the 9700 Pro used windows drivers to run, not catalyst. I am bringing home a drive with a clean install of XP to test tonight, that should rule software out.

Do you think the PSU could undervolt the mainboard? would that cause something like this?

 

[MaxRott]

Also, forgot to mention that the card is on it's own dedicated 4 pin connector straight from the PSU.

 

[Evilsizer]

the card is fine then if it works perfectly in another machine. it could possbly be a bad slot on the other machine. the only thing i can suggest now to do is use a can of air to clean out the apg/pci-e slot. yea use driver cleaner is a must even if they are driver provided by microsoft.

 

[MaxRott]

Thanks for the advise, there is one difference between the two machines the main rig is AGP 8X the backup is AGP 4X, but again the 4X card works fine the the main rig....

Allo this makes me very happy I am in the process of building a dual core machine

Thanks for the help, I will let you know how I make out.

 

[MaxRott]

ok got it. Turns out it was the PSU, I switched it back and now I am up and running. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[chevro1et]

Good deal. Glad that you got it sorted.

 

[alohapc]

i have one too

This is to Maxrott,
How are you certain that there is always flow thru your Tide Water??

This is what scares me. I got the thing installed on a 9800 Pro not my 6800XT cuz I don't trust it. The flow indicator by Thermaltake sells for $20 at our CompUSA but wow adds $20 more bucks to total costs.

Can I make my own and splice into input hose going to the gpu.
Also I already installed the thing on a Celeron 1.7 478pin cpu. Umm, never do this, temps just kept going higher. This doesn't work!

Thanx