Geforce 2 Ultra Burned :(

[maxcom99]

Hi All,
After running at 150FSB for 3 days straight, then 140FSB for 4 more, the Hercules GeForce 2 Ultra has... passed away. But maybe not? It keeps causing "instability" problems under WinXP and then reboots the computer after about 15 seconds. The card was NOT overclocked before the FSB on the MB (P4S333 & 1.6A) was jacked up to 150. I have tried to UNDERclock the card while the computer is running with stock settings. No Luck. Anyone have an RMA email at hercules or any hints?

Thanks to all.
-max

 

[MilkPowderR]

<< Hi All,
After running at 150FSB for 3 days straight, then 140FSB for 4 more, the Hercules GeForce 2 Ultra has... passed away. But maybe not? It keeps causing "instability" problems under WinXP and then reboots the computer after about 15 seconds. The card was NOT overclocked before the FSB on the MB (P4S333 & 1.6A) was jacked up to 150. I have tried to UNDERclock the card while the computer is running with stock settings. No Luck. Anyone have an RMA email at hercules or any hints?
>>


It may not be the video card.
What other symptoms are u getting. Does it only do that on the XP operating system? or other OS's as well? Have you tried to run the video card in other machines? If not, try that. It can be the software issue but I maybe wrong. Try some gaming too if you can get the video card to work in other setup(in other machine or reformat and install OS).

 

[maxcom99]

Hi,
Thanks for your response. The card does the same thing on the 3 other machines as well. It has been acting up since the day I got it and looks like it finally died. While the XP "loading" screen is up, there is corruption of the data like, random "ghost" images and dots and lines everywhere. That only happens sometimes. But when it loads, it sits for a bit then the mouse pointer gets these "corrupted"images around it and then the system reboots.

Or it shows the mouse trails if I get as far as moving the mouse and the trails are like a drawing program where it draws lines over everything. I can't get as far as trying to load a game. I have dried dropping the refresh rate to 60 and to 16K colors, no luck.

Thanks again -max

 

[BeauJangles]

Sounds defective to me. RMA it?

 

[Jerboy]

<< Sounds defective to me. RMA it? >>




He said it died after cranking up FSB to 150. It's his own fault. Go ahead and overclock. To their own. Ofcourse if it breaks, you pay for it.

Overclockers get bad raps, because people takes fraudulent actions when something goes wrong or even sell overclocked computer giving overclocked speed as the regular speed. If he responds "no" when questioned about overclocking, he has just made a false statement. Obtaining RMA through false statement is a fraud.

 

[pillage2001]

I'll take the card from you if you don't mind. Might be able to fix this.

 

[Duvie]

hey jerboy, At 150fsb he was only running a pci bus at 37.5mhz...At 140 it was 35mhz...The asus board locks in a 1/4 pci divider after 133. therefore that is small potatos interms of out of spec pci. If that toasted that card then it was a POS....

Now if he was jacking the speeds of the core and memroy or boosting the voltage way up on it with too much heat then yes...But just ocing the p4 should not have stressed it enough to kill it and unlikely in such a short period...


I have ran all my vid cards on oc'd systems that have been running 35-37mhz pci speeds and never have toasted a card...

 

[Jerboy]

<< hey jerboy, At 150fsb he was only running a pci bus at 37.5mhz...At 140 it was 35mhz...The asus board locks in a 1/4 pci divider after 133. >>





<< therefore that is small potatos interms of out of spec pci. If that toasted that card then it was a POS.... >>



Is 37.5MHz still within acceptable clock frequency according to published PCI specification? It might be a POS, but he did exceed the specs and he should accept the fact that manufacture's warranty is void now.

It isn't unusual for silicon diode rated at 600V to work fine at 700V without much leakage current. If it does good for you. If it goes fubar, too bad. You take the risk




<<
I have ran all my vid cards on oc'd systems that have been running 35-37mhz pci speeds and never have toasted a card... >>



Well it's good you got it running high. It's fine as long as you don't start taking faults on other people when something goes wrong while operating beyond spec.

 

[maxcom99]

Too bad I paid $500 for it at BestBuy.com exactly 14 months ago Oh well, time to buy a new card... anyone know of a good one for around 200? Or less?

--max

 

[Wuzup101]

Radeon 8500 ($150)

Geforce3 Ti200 ($150)

Geforce4 Ti4200 (if you can wait for it) ($200 msrp: projected lower though maybe $170)

 

[maxcom99]

Are those three all better or at least same performing as my late Ultra?

 

[pillage2001]

All of those cards are definitely better than your late Ultra.

 

[Assimilator1]

Jerboy

I would say it is highly unlikely that the 150FSB is the cause of failure for the graphics card ,as Duvie pointed out the bus is (why did you guys mention PCI for the grx card??) only slightly out of spec ,75MHz AGP instead of 66MHz ,that's only 12.5% over standard.
Look at this line from maxcomm99's 2nd post

It has been acting up since the day I got it and looks like it finally died.

I would say that is the reason for its failure ,the 150 FSB was just coincedence

 

[maxcom99]

Thanks Assimilator1,
Which card under $200 would overclock the best? Im willing to add the aftermarket cooling. Figure I need to upgrade anyways.
-max

 

[maxcom99]

Oh, BTW. The card says "For limited viewing only" on the board, what does that mean?
-max

 

[Wuzup101]

Well as of right now Gainward sells a really nice GF3 TI200 that they market as their TI450 (though it's really a juced up 200). This is probably one of the best overclocking cards and already has decent cooling. You probably won't have a problem reaching TI500 specs w/ this card. I think they run about 150 for the 64mb version and 175 for the 128 version at newegg.com.

The Radeon 8500 will usually do atleast 290/290 out of the box asuming its retail and you have decent case temps. I have seen them higher though, some people seem to get 300/300 (600/600 DDR) right out of the box and a little more with extra cooling. I believe there may be ways to add extra current to the cards also...though I'm not sure. I personally am verry happy w/ 290/290 on my card.

Anyway those may be your 2 best bets for overclocking....the TI4200 that I mentioned above will likely be selling under 200 and will probably overclock to TI4400 specs...(maybe higher)...as we've come to expect decent overclocks from nVidia. I'm sure Gainward will have some nice models out. But to my knowledge they wont be out for a little bit (maybe a month).

 

[maxcom99]

From what Ive read, there is no advantage to get the 128mb DDR. Is that true? Is it worth the extra $20 right now?

 

[ARMINTECH57]

I hade the same problem with my herc gts pro but i didn't overclock my card , i overclocked my cpu (xp1700) but used to get error that fefoce card is responsible.i changed the voltage on my motherboard and it fixed it. you might try it!

 

[maxcom99]

I have tried running everything at stock settings (1.5). Didnt help

 

[Assimilator1]

128Mb is a waste on a GF3 ,save ya money

Btw I don't know how well it fares price wise but the Hercules GF3 Ti200 has RAM fitted which IS rated to 500MHz! ,that's Ti500 specs!.
Very tempted myself to get that