Need some advice with my 4200!

[Codeman05]

Ok just recently I started to have a problem when playing games. The games would "lag" at regular intervals when stressed. Then when I would run 3Dmark the same problem would occur. Once it hit nature things would go downhill, with the game pausing for a splitsecond every 1-2 seconds or so.
Any ideas?? I'm using ramsinks and a cooljag, haven't had a problem till this weekend
Thanks for the help, Codeman

PS: Card is listed in sig (primary rig)

 

[Codeman05]

ok it looks like the HSF is no longer making as good contact
Whats the best way to remove it?? I used Artic Alumna Thermal Epoxy.
Put it in the freezer for awhile???

 

[Overclocker456]

no longer making good contact.. hmm.. I've never seen Arctic Alumna Expoy loose it's hold on anything.. In fact it's a pain in the a$$ to remove.. Did you mix it the right way??

 

[Codeman05]

yep, and I just reapplied the cooljag on the core and still having the same problem....I may try putting the stock cooler back on and seeing if that makes a difference

Or maybe its not even a heat issue....since it just started out of the blue. Any ideas?? It seems like it started when I went back to the 30.82 dets in order to get GT3 to run, but I uninstalled and reinstalled the dets correctly, and even went back to the 40.70s with no change in the problem.
Any other ideas?
PS: I've got a temp probe pretty close to the core and the highest I saw it get on 3dmark was about 39C

 

[Melhisedek]

Tried underclocking tour card ???

 

[Codeman05]

sure did, ran something like 250/420 and still same friggin problem....and thats why I'm not real sure its a heat issue. I did scratch the core slightly when removing the alumina adhesive...but I don't think thats the problem since the same problem is occuring that happened before I removed the cooljag inorder to reapply. I guess I can try reinstalling the factory HSF tonight or tomorrow cause I'm kinda getting desperate here

 

[Codeman05]

Ok new development!
Temps look VERY low on the card...heck even the back of the card dosen't get above 40C like it used to easily. And the probe I put near the core dosen't get above 35C. So I dont think its a thermal issue but I'm pulling my hair out because I can't think of anything else lol. I'm going to try reinstallling drivers once more to see if that has any effect.

 

[h0mersimps0n]

I'll bet you anything its the motherboard. I have a MSI KT3 ULTRA ARU (the first revision made) and ran my 1600+ unlocked at 1829Mhz for two months then soldier of fortune 2 came out and everything was down hill from there...

turns out at 167fsb on my KT3, none of my high quality games would last more than 10 min w/o crashing back into windows. I played with every setting this side of the mississippi from RAM to AGP to EVERYTHING and decided that the northbridge was incapable of handling the bandwidth of a 166fsb...

My problem was more painful than yours, 3dmark and everything ran fine, I had only one or two games (SOF2 and some problems in GTA3).... Windows ran so fast it was wonderful. Unfortunately I had to throw my 2000+ back in the board and am hanging out till nforce2's are released (made for 333fsb) to REALLY beat the hell out of this unlocked 1600+, gonna make it scream..

sorry I couldn't be of more help, try turning down the fsb or agp in bios down to 2x or 1x. See if that helps, I'm betting the fsb change will... stupid MSI

 

[Codeman05]

well my Board has run great and I love it. I dropped back to 133FSB and it still ran like crap. I'm pretty positive its the card, I'm going to try it in another computer this afternoon to be sure.

 

[Overclocker456]

I was thinking, what lagging you get, maybe your core is dying... why do I say that? when I clock my G4 ti 4200 up to 345 core is lags like that but when I put it to 340 it stops.. You said you under clocked it with the same problem.. try re-installing Win XP, if it still don't stop.. RMA time... I hope you don't have a visiontek.. cuz no RMA

 

[Codeman05]

well I don't think I'll be able to RMA it, I did replace the stock GPU HSF and I nolonger have the pins to attach it back. Plus if they looked at the core they'd see a cpl little scratches, but I don't think they'd look that far, but who knows. I really don't want to reinstall xp again, I finally got it tweaked the way I want it lol. So I'm going to try the card in my backup (secondary in sig) and if it still acts fubar I guess I'll have to look for a replacement

 

[Codeman05]

Well, thanks for all the help guys!! I took your advice overclocker 456 and reinstalled windows...its been more then 3 mnths for I was do for a fresh install lol. Looks like that cleared up the problem whew!

 

[Yodums]

Well, thanks for all the help guys!! I took your advice overclocker 456 and reinstalled windows...its been more then 3 mnths for I was do for a fresh install lol. Looks like that cleared up the problem whew!

Although the situation is over with, that sounded like a driver problem within the video drivers or Via 4in1 to be specific. I would run some tests to see if your ram is transferring without errors and your HDD not having bad sectors.

Yodums

 

[Overclocker456]

Well, thanks for all the help guys!! I took your advice overclocker 456 and reinstalled windows...its been more then 3 mnths for I was do for a fresh install lol. Looks like that cleared up the problem whew!

I'm glad I could help

 

[Codeman05]

Although the situation is over with, that sounded like a driver problem within the video drivers or Via 4in1 to be specific. I would run some tests to see if your ram is transferring without errors and your HDD not having bad sectors.

Yodums

How exactly can I test the ram?
I think the problem occured when I was changing Detonator drivers over the weekend. I tried out a few different versions and I think thats were the problem started.