8800GT freeze!

[os008]

Hi everyone,
I have the specs below in my sig. I know this problem is wide spread, and a lot of people are facing it. I'm just trying to find out if someone has reached an answer.

The problem is simple ... i play a game, after a random amount of time the game freezes, in an interval of 10 seconds or so it unlocks for a second then freezes again, if i ALT+Tab i can end the program and the computer returns to normal.

This happens especially when i try to change resolution or refresh rate. I also tried to underclock everything, still same problem.

Does the 8800GT series have a high failure rate, this doesn't seem like a failure, i would think it's more of a ... bad design, or bad QA (Quality Assurance or something like that).


Anyone got a clue, or heard, how this can be solved please?


Thanks.


note: after i end the game and check how much V-RAM is free, it's something like 200MB, before the game it's always 500MB (from a clean boot).

 

[JustaGeek]

I don't think it is the 8800GT that causes the problem.

It is either your PSU, or the RAM settings, especially the voltage.

Try to set all the timings and voltage manually in BIOS, run your CPU at stock 3.0GHz and see if the problem reoccurs.

Good luck!

BTW, what is 4-3-3-9-12...?

 

[BassBomb]

Its happened to me, really odd. Stock or not

I am hoping new drivers will help

 

[MarcVenice]

I don't think it's the PSU or the ram settings. I have a 8800gts 320mb and I had the same thing happen to me with Frontlines: Fuel of War. it would play at PERFECTLY fine framerates, 50-60 or so, and then BOOM, it froze up. It would stay like that for 5-10 seconds, and then a 'smallish' stutter and it would be back to normal again. It would freeze almost very 30-60 seconds or so ? Not completely the same, but it does have some similarities with the OP.

Anyways, what I did was simple, I installed the latest drivers, and the problem dissapeared. I didn't do any other troubleshooting, the game would also freeze in the menu's btw, but I quit the game, installed new drivers, reboot, problem gone. I got these drivers btw:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2161487&enterthread=y

 

[JustaGeek]

The driver is a good "guess" too...

Especially that we don't even know the OP's Operating System

 

[os008]

It is either your PSU, or the RAM settings, especially the voltage.

Try to set all the timings and voltage manually in BIOS, run your CPU at stock 3.0GHz and see if the problem reoccurs.

BTW, what is 4-3-3-9-12...?

I reset everything to stock, CPU, RAM, VGA, ... etc, didn't help.

I also down clocked the VGA to the lowest possible speeds, same result.

4-3-3-9 is the timing everyone knows, the 12 is an extra one the BIOS sets for me and is reported in CPU-Z at the bottom.

Anyways, what I did was simple, I installed the latest drivers, and the problem dissapeared. I didn't do any other troubleshooting, the game would also freeze in the menu's btw, but I quit the game, installed new drivers, reboot, problem gone.

Will install Vista tomorrow (hoping SP1 will actually make it better), and see if the latest drivers solve it!

Especially that we don't even know the OP's Operating System

Windows XP SP2 currently.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
I don't think it's the PSU or the ram settings. I have a 8800gts 320mb and I had the same thing happen to me with Frontlines: Fuel of War. it would play at PERFECTLY fine framerates, 50-60 or so, and then BOOM, it froze up. It would stay like that for 5-10 seconds, and then a 'smallish' stutter and it would be back to normal again. It would freeze almost very 30-60 seconds or so ? Not completely the same, but it does have some similarities with the OP.

Anyways, what I did was simple, I installed the latest drivers, and the problem dissapeared. I didn't do any other troubleshooting, the game would also freeze in the menu's btw, but I quit the game, installed new drivers, reboot, problem gone. I got these drivers btw:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2161487&enterthread=y

Same thing happened to me in Fuels of War but it got solved by keeping "Foliage" on low. It's not the cards fault in this case, it's the game itself.

As for the op, I really think the PSU is guilty. You keep a Pentium D overclocked to 3.8 ghz and a 8800 GT on a 450 W chepo PSU! Come on man, I wonder why it didn't blow by now.

 

[MarcVenice]

Hmmm, but how do you explain the PSU failure ? The game freezes, but continues playing after alt-tab or something, the PC doesn't reboot or something ? He doesn't get a message either, saying his videocard is being downclocked because of lack of power ? A bit of topic, but getting a decent PSU is never a bad thing, and if it does solve your problem, all the power to a new PSU

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Hmmm, but how do you explain the PSU failure ? The game freezes, but continues playing after alt-tab or something, the PC doesn't reboot or something ? He doesn't get a message either, saying his videocard is being downclocked because of lack of power ? A bit of topic, but getting a decent PSU is never a bad thing, and if it does solve your problem, all the power to a new PSU

Sometimes the PSU can make your PC freeze or BSOD when it can't deal with the load. This happened to me when I've upgraded my pc to a dual core cpu. I'm not exactly sure that his PSU is really the culprit but in his case even if the computer works flawlessly, the power supply should be replaced with a better one at once.

 

[os008]

Hehe, you seem to all be attacking my PSU, but you forgot that a lot of people are facing this exact problem, and some on other forums have excellent PSUs but have the same 'exact' problem as me.

And how do you know my PSU is cheapo? lol, it worked for 4 years, with 2 superclocked P4 and PD. I even had a 3850 from ATi before for a month, working at 30% more voltage and 30% more overclock, didn't flinge, was working stable 100% all the time. Was my stupid mistake; shorted it measuring something while being sleepy!

Plus, i finally removed all overclocks, and even 'under' clocked my 8800GT, i think you can't go lower than that in terms of power usage .


Thanks a lot for all the replies by the way, i hope someone finds an answer, because it's weird that so many people are facing this problem with that card .

 

[JustaGeek]

Originally posted by: os008

And how do you know my PSU is cheapo? lol, it worked for 4 years, with 2 superclocked P4 and PD.

It might have been a great PSU all these years, but you do have a problem, and the PSU was just one of the suggestions.

I would strongly recommend at least trying another PSU - a 4 year old unit might just not cut it anymore...

If you want to believe that it is the card, exchange it! I personally have not had any problems with mine, but it doesn't mean yours is not defective...

EDIT: You might also have a problem with the PCIe 2.0 card working on an older motherboard. Check if your PCIe is working on all the 16 lanes with CPU-Z.

 

[Piuc2020]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
I don't think it's the PSU or the ram settings. I have a 8800gts 320mb and I had the same thing happen to me with Frontlines: Fuel of War. it would play at PERFECTLY fine framerates, 50-60 or so, and then BOOM, it froze up. It would stay like that for 5-10 seconds, and then a 'smallish' stutter and it would be back to normal again. It would freeze almost very 30-60 seconds or so ? Not completely the same, but it does have some similarities with the OP.

Anyways, what I did was simple, I installed the latest drivers, and the problem dissapeared. I didn't do any other troubleshooting, the game would also freeze in the menu's btw, but I quit the game, installed new drivers, reboot, problem gone. I got these drivers btw:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2161487&enterthread=y

That was a known issue with Frontlines and 8 series cards... not an general widespread issue with cards and games in general.

 

[Zinthar]

I have an 8800GT and I believe it is causing my system to BSOD. The reason I suspect this is because it started to occur right after the first time I hooked up my 8800gt to two monitors at once (my HDTV and my regular monitor) and played Crysis on it for about 20 mins. The 8800GT had a massive freeze in the middle and it took 5 seconds or so to recover from it, then resumed working properly.

Two mornings later, I woke up to find that my computer was still running, but the monitor was not receiving the image. My rig failed to POST until I removed the motherboard battery for 10 mins and put it back in. After that, I periodically received the BSOD with the computer overclocked and at default, and with 2 different sets of RAM in various slots.

The problem occurred with NVidia drivers 169.25 and beta 169.44 (Vista 32-bit). I decided to switch VGA's and I put my X1900XT back in and loaded the Catalyst 8.3 drivers. So far, no BSOD's or blank screen problems after 24 hours. I suspect that my 8800GT is damaged and called eVGA for an RMA.

Any other likely possibilities? My PSU is high quality and under a year old. It's a Seasonic rated for 650W... with a 65nm C2D and 65nm VGA I'm sure I don't even use half of that under load -- in fact, I believe the 90nm X1900XT that I have instaled now has a slightly greater power draw than the 8800gt SC. My rig is as follows:

M/b: Intel Bad Axe 2 motherboard
CPU: E6600 @ 3.2 Ghz
VGA: evga 8800GT SC
PSU: Seasonic S12 650W
2 HDD's
Vista 32-bit

I won't be able to fully confirm the 8800gt was the problem until I get my new one and install it alongside 169.44 drivers, but what I'm saying is just b/c his PSU is old and seemingly stressed doesn't mean the 8800 isn't at fault... in fact, the freezing that he described is what I first saw happen in Crysis (and then the next day in Oblivion) right before the BSOD's began en masse. My card had never done that in the previous 4 months.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Well I have a system running an 8800gt and it never stutters or stumbles like that. My personal system runs two 8800gts 512's in sli and it never stutters or stumbles. Both of these systems are running 700w+ quality ps's with lots of amps on the 12v rails.

 

[Demoth]

Just picked up a BFG 8800GT OC and having the same issues in WoW. Plays fine for 30 mins or longer then random lock ups for 5-10 seconds with sometimes some red boxes on the screen. Temps never go over 75* and even took the fan up to 60%. OCed to 700/1000 and then took the OC back down, no difference in lock-up and slight difference in temp.

Hopefully this isnt a memory problem because I had to ditch my 7900GT due to bad memory, otherwise I could have held that for another year. Not very happy with Nvidia right now.

 

[Zinthar]

^

Sounds like you may have a bad one -- it shouldn't artifact at stock speeds of course.

I take it you have the latest drivers? And do you have another intensive 3D game to confirm the artifacting (in order to rule out some sort of issue with WoW, even though that game tends to be very stable).

 

[MarcVenice]

I think this is an issue with the memory, I remember reading about the memory not taking kindly to being overclocked to 2000mhz. This was when the 8800gt's got released in nov/dec 2007 though. Some 8800gt's would go bad after being overclocked, something to do with the memory bus or something ? Not sure, but back then people were advised NOT to overclock the ram past 1900-1950mhz.

 

[Zinthar]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
I think this is an issue with the memory, I remember reading about the memory not taking kindly to being overclocked to 2000mhz. This was when the 8800gt's got released in nov/dec 2007 though. Some 8800gt's would go bad after being overclocked, something to do with the memory bus or something ? Not sure, but back then people were advised NOT to overclock the ram past 1900-1950mhz.

Mine gave out and I normally left the card at its default clocks (which was an evga 8800GT SC, so it was slightly OCed to start with). My Rivatuner OC was ~ 738/1760/1940 stable in ATI Tool and Crysis. I also changed the fan auto settings so the fan would ramp up much faster under heavy loads.

I'm considering replacing with an 8800GTS G92 since, subjectively, I haven't heard of as many problems with them.

 

[MAHMA]

This is an old topic But this error is driving me nuts... I just bought a new computer and It freezes up during Playing Guild Wars.. Then It recovers but the Graphics are all messed up.. Minimizing and re maximizing solves this...

When I pumped Company of Heroes settings to Max, I got some shadows on the screen...Only during Cutscenes.. Gameplay is GREAT

Ill try to attach Screen shots...

CoH Shadow glitch http://img148.imageshack.us/my...mage=relic00001sb7.jpg
GW Glitch (Altho This one was the worst with no image at all) http://img440.imageshack.us/my...e=gwafterthepsuck8.jpg
PC Specs:
Intel Quad Core 2.4GHz
1 GB RAM (1 Stick bus 800)
MoBo Gigabyte P35
PSU HEC 500Watts

 

[os008]

I had the same problem as you can tell from my posts, but i solved it a month or so ago ...

I went to this web-site and got the Palit Bios, and for some reason, it fixed it, try it out ...

Link to download page for bios

Post your results please.

 

[MAHMA]

Hmm.. So Thats an update for the Graphics Card BIOS?

Is it safe??
Any restrictions on using it??

 

[os008]

I tested nearly all the Bios' on that web-site for the 8800GT, non caused me trouble. So i would say ... yes, it's safe.

No restrictions of course, just flash it and restart.

No, it's not an 'update' for the card, it's just 'another' Bios to try. Which happens to eliminate any problems with 'my' card.

 

[MAHMA]

Hmm.. Isnt there some sort of Official Nvidia BIOS ??? or at least one released by Chaintech (My Card's Manufacturere) ??

Yes, Im a Graphics Card Newbie

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: os008
I tested nearly all the Bios' on that web-site for the 8800GT, non caused me trouble. So i would say ... yes, it's safe.

No restrictions of course, just flash it and restart.

No, it's not an 'update' for the card, it's just 'another' Bios to try. Which happens to eliminate any problems with 'my' card.

Your "update all the bioses you can find" method is the worst thing I've ever heard. One of those might not support your card at all and ruin it forever. I'm quite amazed that you were lucky to get away with it.


MAHMA, your card might be doing that because of a lot of reasons like : overheating, factory overclock gone bad and maybe even the PSU could be the blame.
You could test it into another system to make sure that nothing else is the culprit, if it still does it, rma it.

 

[os008]

Well, nobody is so lucky, that means i was doing the right thing, simply because they're ALL stock speed Bios' made for 8800GT cards.

And despite a lot of them not made for reference cards they work, EVEN if one stops the card from working, i could blind flash it. The only way i could ruin the card is if the Bios was actually made for another 'core'.

Again, no-one is that lucky, and besides it's my card, and i do whatever i want with it, or am i wrong? I did NOT, and will NOT, ever recommend such a thing to anyone.

Anyway, as i've said before, the symptoms he's having are the same as mine, i tried everything, from lowering the voltage, increasing it, lowering the clock to lowest possible in RivaTuner, using modded drivers, cooling the card to 50c at max load possible by directing the A/C at it for 15 minutes before even starting any test, changing the timing of the RAM, man, i can't remember what else i tried, EVERYTHING. The only thing that worked for me was that Bios, how do you explain that?

If you're so smart as to criticize anyone just like that, and negate his work, then please explain to me how did i get it to work? (the reason for sarcasm is because you returned to the old explanations despite me telling everyone that non of that was the cause of the problem)

Of course before even trying the Bios i assume you tried everything error8 just told you, that's just logic. If that Bios doesn't work, then RMA it.

In the end, i have to say this ... when i received the email telling me that someone replied to my thread, i said to myself 'don't bother, you solved the problem already', but then my conciousness nagged me and told me ... 'what if someone is in the same trouble as you, RMAing won't work in most cases' (yes, some i know tried that), so, i just followed what my religion tells me ... 'love for others what you love for yourself', guess you have the same saying in your language.


EDIT: to explain the last paragraph, the part about the language ... I'm from Egypt.