6800gt - the worst buy i've ever done

[se 7 en]

had already heard of problems regarding that leathal combination, but the extends of the problems where beyond my imaginations..
and what combination is that?
nVIDIA 6800GT + nFORCE 3 (ultra)
i've NEVER -E V E R- seen a single pc component with soo much probles as my 6800gt. MSI that is.
i wanna through it out of the window. I damn myself for not choosing that x800xt.

and what's the problem?
i won't even mention the fact that it doesn't overclock. (it freezes beyond 368/1000).
i really don't mind that (not that much)
the thing that drives me crazy is that after a month (everything was ok for a month), system freezes sometimes for NO particular reason. Even in Windows.
Out of the blue there is no signal on my monitor, and sometimes after 5-6 seconds a blue screen
appears informing me trouble with nvdisp driver, sth about non-stopping loop.
Most times my system won't even boot in the first time. it just freezes.
when i reboot everything is ok.

i tried everything.
changed nFORCE drivers from 5.10 to 6.14b
changed ForceWares, from 66.93s to 71.20s
disabled fastwrites, lowered pci latency..
at first i thought it may be insufficient power supply, but i really think my psu is quite good.
its hec 475w (20a max at 12 v) (http://www.bit-tech.net/review/342)

reinstalling nFORCE drivers or reformating seemed to solve problems but NOOOO
after a while the problems are back.
i reapeat, everything at stock, both g.card and cpu.

anyway, thanx for listening.
any advice would be welcome.

my rig :
a64 3500+ (NewCastle) (11*201=2211)
2*512 kingston dual ddr (3-3-3)
msi k8n neo2 platinum
msi 6800gt
sb live 5.1
160 gb wd caviar sata
20 gb wd caviar ata100
dvd pioneer 16x
cd-rw lg
hec PowerOP 475w

 

[impemonk]

I believe its the MSI video card, and not NVIDIA in general. The MSI brand line of cards, from what I've read and seen, have problems with their heatsink insufficiently cooling the memory and GPU. The HSF never touches the mem chips, hence, you could never OC as high as you wanted. So, even if I could be wrong, you shouldn't say the 6800GT was your worst buy. Anyways, have you tried to RMA the thing?

 

[se 7 en]

i don't live in the us and "rma-ing" is not as simple for me as for u guys.
until something is PROVED faulty, there is pretty much nothing i can do.

msi's heatsink looks pretty solid though.
it's cooper and seems well attached to memory.
never went above 64-65 anyway (at load)

 

[apoppin]

um . . . what other advice can we give you if the card is defective?

RMA it or put up with it . . . . where do you live?

you did say you did a clean format . . . . and the problem returns without o/c'ing anything.

Did you have another card in your system? i'd try another (even an older one - preferably nVidia) just to see that there is not another problem with your OTHER components.

What is odd is that everything works well after a format or new driver install and then deteriorates.


Are ALL your OTHER drivers up-to-date? Especially your MB's (including BIOS)?
(?)

edited

 

[slash196]

With all the bad stuff I've read about MSI, I wouldn't buy one of their products. I agree that it's probably an MSI problem rather than an nVidia problem.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: slash196
With all the bad stuff I've read about MSI, I wouldn't buy one of their products. I agree that it's probably an MSI problem rather than an nVidia problem.

that's WHY i sugested you stick an old nVidia card in your system to see if it is the MSI's GT or your system's fault.

THEN rma it when you have "proof"

 

[CHfan4ever]

You nearly got the same system as me, and i think your problem is with MSI.I already got problem once with MSI with their nvidia 5900xt.Now i got a xfx and no problem at all.None.

I got a Neo from MSI.I got no issues with the Motherboard with compatibility with anything.My HD work fine, etc.

I do think tho that MSI make crappy card.

Brand i dont trust : MSI,SAPPHIRE,ASUS,Powercolor

Brand i do trust : Leadtek,XFX,BFG, ATI( for their own brand card )

 

[otispunkmeyer]

i spotted the problem

its 3 letters long

M

S

I

these guys suck total monkey wang.

and i wouldnt be peeved over the overclock, u payed for a GT and you got a GT

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
i spotted the problem

its 3 letters long

M

S

I

these guys suck total monkey wang.

and i wouldnt be peeved over the overclock, u payed for a GT and you got a GT

MSI

 

[CaiNaM]

i'd make sure there are no other peripherals on the same 12v line and that the power supply is solid, especially since low overclocks and also be attributed to poor power. i had a similar issue and replacing the ps solved it for me. also, reading a review of a ps will not tell you if that's the issue or not, and they can still be going "bad" even if they appear to be working. mine even read good on voltages when monitoring via a multimeter, but it still turned out to be the problem.

gt (400/1100) and nf3 (msi neo2 plat) have been working just fine for me ever since.

 

[Spamdini]

i have a MSI mobo, same one infact and i havent had any problems whatsoever with it.

my friend has the exact same system except that his x800xt is from sapphire and HE has not a single problem with it, so....dont base ur decisions about companies on the 5 problem cases you hear in the forums. remember noone posts anything unless something is wrong.

 

[darkswordsman17]

From what I've read, the MSI 6800GT is one of the better cards. Its not as good as Gainward or BFG, but better than most.

I'm surprised someone said they trust XFX over ASUS and Sapphire, as I've heard of a ton of problems with XFX cards.

The heatsink not cooling the memory was on the 6600GTs, not 6800s.

While I wouldn't buy one of their motherboards (well I might one of their newer highly reviewed ones, but only if its gotten great reviews and there are several positive remarks about it from the people on ATOT), I would consider one of their graphics cards (3 year warranty, lots of software, etc.).

I can't really think what might be causing the problems, but if there was anything I would question it would be the power supply. 20A on the 12V sounds low to me, and the brand isn't one I recognize.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
i'd make sure there are no other peripherals on the same 12v line and that the power supply is solid

Yep. If you are having problems with any GT such as what you describe, I would disconnect everything not necessary from the PSU, your second HD, your extra optical drive, ...basically anyhting that you don't absolutely need to boot the system. Then hook your 6800GT directly to the PSU on it's own dedicated line, and see if the problem persists. I had had an extension cable (possibly faulty) inbetween the PSU and my GT, and it exhibited similar problems. After removing that and running the card on a dedicated line directly from the PSU, I have not had a single problem since and the card has been running O/Ced to 400/1100 for months.

I don't have any experience with MSI cards, so I can't attest to that. However, if your system still gives you problems after you try what I suggested you should have enough "proof" to RMA the card.

Sorry to hear about your problems and good luck.

 

[nealh]

make sure you have at leat bios 1.3

next turn off fast writes and try increasing vcore to 1.6....

I gree with the power connectors make sure nothing else is connected to the lines you are using to power the videocard

 

[remagavon]

I have an MSI 6800 Ultra and it's a piece of sh!t. 2nd DVI is defective (screen flickers when some sort of graphic is loaded from a website), my fan detached itself slightly and grinded against the top of the heatsink (took off the cover to remedy this), and it fvcks up royally with fast writes on.

In march when the next-gen ATi cards come out in AGP form, I'm going to trade it in for one. To hell with these problems with a card that I paid over $550 for!

 

[boatillo]

Originally posted by: remagavon
I have an MSI 6800 Ultra and it's a piece of sh!t. 2nd DVI is defective (screen flickers when some sort of graphic is loaded from a website), my fan detached itself slightly and grinded against the top of the heatsink (took off the cover to remedy this), and it fvcks up royally with fast writes on.

In march when the next-gen ATi cards come out in AGP form, I'm going to trade it in for one. To hell with these problems with a card that I paid over $550 for!

^^ Trade it in to me


To original poster, its your PSU!!!!! 20amps on the 12v will barely suit a crippled athlonxp system, I'm surprised that running a 3500 NC AND 6800 AND all that other stuff you can get INTO windows! Recommend 26A MINIMUM, 30A+ perferred.

 

[Todd33]

Originally posted by: boatillo
^^ Trade it in to me


To original poster, its your PSU!!!!! 20amps on the 12v will barely suit a crippled athlonxp system, I'm surprised that running a 3500 NC AND 6800 AND all that other stuff you can get INTO windows! Recommend 26A MINIMUM, 30A+ perferred.

Too bad 90% of the 450W PSUs match your criteria. Most are between 18A-22A @+12V. I doubt you could sell a video card with such strict requirement for the PSU.

 

[Insomniak]

Been with Nvidia since the Riva TNT, haven't had a problem yet. Matter of fact, that's why I prefer them - I've had less problems with the NV cards I've owned than the ATi cards.

Anyway, you may want to try a better PSU - yours has plenty of wattage, but 20A on the 12v rail is the bare minimum, and since you have two optical drives and two hard disks (any case fans?) already riding the 12v, I think it's just getting clobbered. My Enermax is rated 15w below yours, but has 33A on the 12v, and I bought it specifically because of that - with today's high end video cards, a bristling 12v rail is an absolute neccesity.

If you have a power supply with a beefier 12v rail around, try that. That would be my first check.

 

[flyingdagger]

Yeah...i think it is the manufacturer problem...

I personally use the BFG 6800GT at home. It is pre-overclocked, and it works great.

 

[Lord Beeblequix]

Flame me if you want.

MSI is by far my favorite pc component manufacturer. I absolutely love my MSI 865PE Neo2. It's the board which handily won me a cool $1000. It overclocks quite easily and has been very dependable. I've owned 3 MSI video cards and never had a single problem. My Geforce 4 ti4600 still works wonderfully. I'm even building another MSI based system tomorrow. As far as cooling, well, my gf3,gf4ti4200 and gf4ti4600 all ran quite acceptably. I don't debate that you may have ended up with *A* bad card but you could just as easily got a bad one from any other manufacturer. But you admitted that you overcloced it, so you may have damaged it in the process thereby voiding your warranty.

You may try lowering your AGP acceleration to 4x (8x doesn't really do much for it anyway). I actually did that on my Soyo + Radeon 9800pro based system that was behaving like yours. It worked for a few weeks until the Saphire 9800pro gave up the ghost. I know that's not encouraging.

I doubt that changing your PCI latency is useful and I'd leave it at the default (I think 32ms). You may try reseating your DIMMs and any addin cards (agp/pci). To me it does lean toward a bad power supply, bad video card or perhaps just some funky unseating of your components. If you have a spare PS or can borrow one from someone you might eliminate that as a possibility, and the same with the AGP card. You may also measure the voltage coming out of the PS. The voltages should all be within .5 volts of the +12,-12,+5 and -5 rails.

best o' luck chappy.

 

[OrangeParktech]

I own an MSI 9800Pro flashed to XT. Best card ive owned. I also own the Neo2 Platinum, as do the majority of the 939 overclockers around. The owner of the store i manage has the MSI 6800GT with the red board, hasn't had an issue whatsoever. We've also sold a few of that particular card over the months. I've yet to hear anything but praise. I find it rather odd that this is an "MSI problem"

Perhaps its just plain defective. COuld have been beat up during shipping. Could be a number of things actually. Or, it may not be the card at all