6800 problems

[playafly187]

asides from XPTB, i have the worst luck in the universe. my new xfx 6800 video card arrived today. i install it (replacing my old ti4200) and im off to the races.

then, i notice we have a problem. in farcry, the game just randomly freezes up for 5-10 seconds at a time. i thought maybe this was a driver issue for i tried another set of nvidia drivers. both these drivers and the latest drivers result in the same freezing.

next, i ran 3dmark 2k1. again, freezing.

same thing for need for speed underground 2, although farcry does it the worst of the bunch.

i downloaded rivatuner to check temps and whatnot. rivatuner reports an idle temp of 68c and a load temp of 83c.

at this point i thought that maybe the card was overheating, so i clocked the core down from 325 mhz all the way to 300 mhz. still getting the same problem in farcry, and still reaching 83c gpu temp.

i am about to remove the side panel and place a fan next to the card, to see if heat is the issue.

any other suggestions?

[jester]

This might be a long shot, if you have win xp go into the Services MMC which is in: control panel/admin tools, find "nvidia display driver service" and stop and disable it.

I had a couple problems till I stoped that service with win 2003, I would randomly loose video(like as if the monitor shutoff powersaver feature shutoff my monitor but was actually freezin) and no one could remote desktop into my pc.

Like I said, its a long shot but only thing I can think of. :cry:

[undergroundtech]

I'm not sure what patch your running on FarCry, but going to v.1.3 may help with the freezing in the game.

As far as your 6800 running hot, you could pop off your heatsink and make sure your GPU is making good contact with the heatsink (apply AS5 while your there).
However, that could void your warranty should you need to return it, so you maybe better to RMA it and get it replaced.

[fstroupe]

May not be that big of a deal...I did a quick search and found this thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=1446183

[KryoNexus]

personally, I'd RMA it. still though, i'm going to tell you to be a man and mod it ;-)

[playafly187]

as mentioned above, i removed the side panel and placed a case fan beside the card. while hooking up the fan, i repositioned the card and double checked the power connection on it.

load temps dropped about 5 degrees or so. also, no freezing.

so this morning, i removed the case fan and replaced the side panel. i just finished playing about 30 minutes of farcry, with no problems at all. this leads me to believe that maybe the card wasnt seated properly or perhaps the power connector wasnt making good contact.

either way, im going to keep an eye on it and do some more extensive gaming before ill say for sure if im going to keep it or RMA it.

thanks guys for the suggestions, and wish me luck! hehe

[Beemer]

So how are the temps now???

[silenze]

Need a VGA cooling setup like mine! :lol:

I need to set that up with the 120mm fan... :twisted:

[G2]

load temp of 83c minus 5 degrees = 78 degress celcius 8) tell me i'm right :mrgreen:

[playafly187]

well, i guess i spoke too soon. i did some rearranging in the comp room today. turn the system on, and sure enough, more problems.

i dunno if its overheating or what. some ppl think its pretty warm, others seem to think its normal. either way, the product should not be malfunctioning straight out of the box. also, received this nice message while running through 3dmark 2001

http://www.ocia.net/playafly187/bsoderror.jpg

so yeah, its packaged up and on its way back to newegg for a replacement. anybody have info on their RMA times? will i be waiting forever for the new card?

[undergroundtech]

The 3DFX cards where the worlds worst about displaying that error.

I've heard that Newegg is pretty good with there RMA's, I would think they should have your money refunded or the card replaced fairly quickly.

Are you going to exchange it for another or get something else?

[playafly187]

i just put in an RMA to replace the card. knowing my luck, the new one will be defective too. lol

[siq]

I've had to rma a couple things from newegg. they're pretty good on time. longest i've had to wait i think was two weeks from time of rma to arrival at my house.

[playafly187]

dropped the package off at the post office today. the guy said it might take longer, with it being christmas season and all...

[playafly187]

well i must admit that i am very impressed with newegg (who isnt?!). i mailed off my 6800 for RMA on the 10th and according to my fedex tracking number, I should have the replacement tomorrow. thats 1 week flat! newegg rocks!

[T-shirt]

That's the way it should work.
You already paid them for a working product, if it's bad you should receive a replacement ASAP

[playafly187]

So my card comes back today from RMA. Installed it, and still, pretty high temps. At one point, it got up to 95C ! that is over 200 F.

Anyway, I ran the card through some benchmarks and games, and sure enough, it locked up like before.

At this point, im pretty pissed, as ive already tried damn near everything I can think of to fix it... everything except the OBVIOUS! I clocked my CPU back down to stock (was at 2250 mhz, now 2000 mhz) and sure enough, that was the problem. The new video card didnt like that high of a system overclock.

So basically, I sent the original card back and there was nothing wrong with it. Just my luck.

I havent had time to toy around with the CPU overclock to see what the card will accept. But in gaming and benchmarks, everything is running flawless now! woohoo!

[XPTB]

don't you have a PCI/AGP lock on that board? Shouldn't that keep it from making the vid card overclock?

[silenze]

problems with ram.....

[Neo_Bui]

Just install NV silencer 5 rev.2 [smilie=XXbuzzsaw.gif]

[playafly187]

hrm, thought i had updated this thread. guess not.

http://www.ocia.net/articles/6800/6800.shtml

:mrgreen: