6800 GS AGP Difficulties

[Gibson12345]

My new 6800 GS AGP would crash my PC after five seconds of playing a game, so tech support told me to flash my BIOS to the newest version and reinstall Windows. I did both of these things, and the card still crashed after approximately five seconds in any game--and anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour in Windows. Then I disabled both fast writes and sideband addressing. This was my first real victory: now a game runs for about five minutes before the entire screen fills up with a really ugly red/orange/white pattern, thus forcing a reboot.

My motherboard is an Albatron PX845 PEV Pro (Intel 845 PE chipset--single channel DDR P4 Northwood). I'm running the "latest" BIOS and the "latest" motherboard drivers, both of which are from 2003. I tried an unofficial patch that was supposed to fix my previous error, the dreaded infinite loop, but it actually crashed my PC 10 seconds after Windows booted up (consistently). And I don't believe the issue is hardware-related, as I actually sent back my first 6800 GS under the assumption that it was defective, but this one behaves identically.

Because nVidia hasn't actually released any drivers that officially support my video card, I'm running the latest beta drivers.

Any brilliant ideas? Anyone? Please?

 

[Bucksnort]

Sounds like your power supply is not powerful enough, what size is it?

 

[Bull Dog]

Originally posted by: Bucksnort
Sounds like your power supply is not powerful enough, what size is it?

Sounds like a PSU issue too.

 

[Killrose]

did you have any third party overclocking driver tools installed with your previous card and maybe forgot to remove them? And did you use Driver Cleaner cab cleaner and video driver cleaner utilities to remove the old drivers?

 

[Gibson12345]

My PSU is a 550 watt Antec TruePower (overkill, I know, but it was like $20 more than the 430, so I went for it).

As for the drivers, my old card was an ATI, so I just uninstalled them. I have been using Driver Cleaner (the cab cleaner as well) in between installs of nVidia drivers, though, just to be sure that no bad files get carried over in between installations.

 

[AzNPinkTuv]

sounds like a heat issue more to me... dunno why but it sounds like ur memory or something is throttling... could just be my opionion/perception

 

[fliguy84]

Overheating maybe? Try running games while having rivatuner's hardware monitoring running in the backgroud. Quit the game before it crashes of course. Need to now the max core temperature.

Also, did you try the beta 83.90? I heard it's great

 

[Gibson12345]

Originally posted by: fliguy84
Overheating maybe? Try running games while having rivatuner's hardware monitoring running in the backgroud. Quit the game before it crashes of course. Need to now the max core temperature.

Also, did you try the beta 83.90? I heard it's great

Under full load it's getting up to 89 C, which seems, indeed, quite high. The card idles at 62 C, just like the old one did, though, so I'm really confused as to whether this is a general problem with the BFG cooling system and/or their factory overclock.

 

[TigerClaw27]

Hows the overall air flow in your case? Maybe try running with the case open and a large fan blowing air in?

 

[kmmatney]

Well, when I bought a 6600GT for my old ASUS AGP motherboard, the video card simply refused to be stable. Like you, I RMA'd and the new video card had the same issues, and then even tried a different brand of 6600GT. I tried everything, including reformatting my hard drive, trying different BIOSes, BIOS Settings, drivers, etc....SOmetimes using a different driver would make things work a little better, but it was never "right".

When I tested the video card in another (newer) motherboard it ran fine. For some reason my ASUS Socket A board )original NForce chipset) and the 6600GT didn't work together. I ended up having to swap my nice ASUS board with my son's cheap Biostar AGP board. Things worked perfectly after that.

 

[moonboy403]

time to rma your card

 

[daveybrat]

Here's 2 possible solutions for you:

1) Check your motherboard thoroughly. I've had numerous Albatron 845P motherboards with blown capacitors in my shop over the last couple years. Inspect all the capacitors on the board and see if any of them look slightly raised or puffed looking on top. (they should all be completely flat if they are good)

If step 1 is ok, move to step 2:

2) Nvidia 82.12 Beta Driver

This is Nvidia's beta driver that among many other things, adds this:

Adds support for GeForce 6800 GS AGP.

Hope any of this helps!
Good luck

 

[orangat]

Doesn't sound like a psu problem but a heat issue. And although the core may be cool enough, the memory chips may be overheated.

 

[hans030390]

It sounds like your card is screwed. RMA it and get a new one and see if it helps. Either that or its a heat issue.

 

[daveybrat]

as I actually sent back my first 6800 GS under the assumption that it was defective, but this one behaves identically.

For those of you telling him to simply RMA the card, have you actually read his whole post?

It sounds like a system problem to me, unless he is extremely unlucky and got 2 bad cards with the same exact symptoms?

 

[NoStateofMind]

Originally posted by: daveybrat

as I actually sent back my first 6800 GS under the assumption that it was defective, but this one behaves identically.

For those of you telling him to simply RMA the card, have you actually read his whole post?

It sounds like a system problem to me, unless he is extremely unlucky and got 2 bad cards with the same exact symptoms?

True, but don't forget those temps he posted. They are high, and may be just part of the problem.

 

[NoStateofMind]

1st thing I would do is try to eliminate the heat issue, as another posted, take off the side and have a fan blowing on it. See if that helps.

 

[robcy]

It could be the 89C (192F) at full load, hell even the 62c (144F) at idle seems high. I do not have a 6800 with which to compare. But I would suggest you look at the ventilation, and see if your fans are running okay.

 

[Gibson12345]

I'm running a Lian Li case with two intake and one exhaust fan in addition to my power supply. Typical case temperatures are 100F for me, and all fans are running at full speed, so I have a very hard time believing I have inadequate airflow.

The capacitors look reasonable, I guess (nothing out of the ordinary, anyway), and I've tried the 82.12s and am currently running the 83.90s.

Many, many people on Newegg complain about their cards having high temperatures, but mine seem about the highest, which just doesn't seem right given my airflow.

One more thing I've noticed that *might* shed some light upon the situation: the system tends to crash on cold startups. It'll load Windows, freeze, and then my monitor will go black with an orange power light, indicating that it's on but not getting any input. The subsequent reboot tends to go fine.

 

[orangat]

The cold boot crashes are not good. There is probably a system problem, maybe the psu or m/b.

 

[Gibson12345]

Originally posted by: orangat
The cold boot crashes are not good. There is probably a system problem, maybe the psu or m/b.

I just have a very hard time believing it's any sort of physical problem with the motherboard or PSU, given that they've functioned perfectly since late 2002. It would be quite the coincidence if one of them malfunctioned just as I installed a new video card.

My system is 110% stable with the other two other video cards that I have on hand, a 4200 and a 9600XT.