GeForce 6800 Ultra freezing!! *resolved*

[firstimeposter]

For those who still have the "infinite loop" and/or BSOD freezes with their 6800GTs, get a 500W PSU. Preferably, one which has a rating of 20A at 12V. 18A will also do. I guarantee the problem will get fixed.

 

[pravuscaine]

The bios I'm running is from american megatrends (v.2.51) asus provides an auto bios updater program, makes things nice and idiot proof

Strange tho, because I'm sure there *where* AGP options there before... they seem to have gone since I installed the new card.

Plus I did read elsewhere some people have those options but they have become greyed out and unchangable since running the same card.

 

[RampantAndroid]

you may have to get the advanced options, which is something like hitting shift+f4 in bios....just start trying key combinations.

 

[X Factor]

Hi folks,
Yep you can add another to the list, and boy am I glad to know I'm not the only one having this problem. BFG 6800 Ultra OC screen freezes and sound loops for 5-30 seconds in HL 2, Painkiller, and even BFV!! I don't think I have it as bad as some that I've read here though. It seems to do it for me only at higher res. like 1600x1200. If I turn down the resolution then it does it much less frequently and for a shorter duration. Some days it doesn't do it at all. Then on bad days I get the crash to blue screen with the nv_ 'whatever' driver not communicating with the device properly error that someone mentioned earlier in this thread. Exact same error word for word. One time, when I knew it was going to crash I think I mashed on some buttons to try and break it's little trance and I got the 'video card isn't getting sufficient power and is going into low performance mode' error. That has only happened once though so I think it may have been a fluke. I'm running a 500 watt PSU that my Bios says is running 12v+.
I'm really not sure how hot is hot but this baby idles around 66C and frequently hits 87C under load. Doom 3 runs superb and it has never looped during this game although I do see artifacts when the card approaches the 85-87C mark. When it cools...no more artifacts.
3D Mark '03 and '05 run fine as does AquaMark. Everything runs fine at 1024x768, and I have never looped at this res.
I took AGP speed off AUTO in the BIOS and set it to 8x. I don't have the option to adjust Fast Writes in my BIOS (at least not that I could find) but I did turn off 'Write Combining' in my settings. I don't know if that is the same thing exactly or not but it sounds like it is. Also POWERSTRIP tells me that my 2D settings are the same as my 3D settings already as far as memory and core clocks are concerned.
Anyway, just wanted to thank all of you here for posting because I can't describe the immense feeling of dread that washed over me the first time it froze. The card runs magnificent most of the time, however every now and then it's aaaaaahhhhhh!!!
Now I'll go test the minor adjustments that I just made (mentioned above) and see what happens. I'll be sure to post when I know and I look forward to future posts on this thread.

 

[RampantAndroid]

X Factor,

I have had 1 minor glitch in HL2, and then one loop that lasted for about 5 seconds in HL2....I used to lock up in BF:V, and D3 and such, but I think that by using a Y-splitter cable and one PSU rail, I have remedied it (this was yesterday, today I got that loop while in Nova Prospekt)

 

[RampantAndroid]

BTW- 66 idle is hot...my 6800U idles at 50 or so....runs around 60-70 under load. try a slot vent?

 

[X Factor]

Thanks RampantA.
Yea, I had a feeling that was prob. too hot. So for now I'm cracking my case. Played BFV last night for about 4 hours straight at 1600x1200 with case cracked... and no loops and temp. checked out at 77C as soon as I was done. So here's hoping...

 

[X Factor]

Oh yea, the Y-splitter thing... isn't that just what they tell you NOT to do in the install manual??:shocked:

 

[RampantAndroid]

N ones ever been clear....orginally, yeah, you werent supposed to...but then nVidia revoked that, and said you can for normal performanced (non-OCed) but using two rails would give you " an immedite performance hike".....I'm doing fine in HL2 right now....so, here is to hoping

 

[Laza]

I've had no problems after I voltage modded my motherboard. The system runs just fine and no hickups/lockups anymore. The only problem is that the NB runs pretty hot and I had to install better cooling. On the other hand, it run pretty hot before too...

So, in my case, it was not a question of PSU, voltages, drivers or BIOSes but simply the AGP drive capability of the motherboard.

 

[X Factor]

Well, this might have just done it! I adjusted the video setting in BIOS from AUTO to 8x and turned off "write combining" in my video settings in windows and I havn't had a loop yet. Am playing everything at 1600x1200 now (where I couldn't before), played several hours of BFV... no problem. Yesterday I played Painkiller for over an hour at high res. ... no problem. And the true test came today, HL 2 for 4 hours straight with everything maxed out at High resolution and ********* SMOOTH AS BUTTAH!!
You guys are the greatest! I would have never figured this out on my own. I know this might not work for everyone but I would certainly give it a try because it seemed to have worked for me.

Happy fragging!

 

[chaonatic]

Well, I'm back. Thought that I fixed my problem by evening up the 2D/3D voltages, but I was wrong. I have a 530W Fortron PSU and the rails are stable as h3ll. I tried using the card in my other rig that's running the Zalman 400W PSU, but the same thing happens. I get the infinite loop, ro crash to blue screen courtesy of my NV Display driver.

There is an obvious problem here, whether nVidia or your respective card manufacturers want to admit it. Rest assured, they are aware of it. No one can acknowledge it for fear of the reprocutions of such a fault. There would have to be recalls, replacements, or worse (in their eyes) lawsuits.

However, that is just what I'm proposing here, a lawsuit, or more precisely a class action suit. I'm not at all sure of how to organize such a thing, but the mere threat of such a suit may just be enough for nVidia (or various card manufacturers) to take notice and fix our problem. What would happen if we were to scour the net for all the forums, where people are having this exact problem, and bring them all together to stage a protest against nVidia? Something would most definately get resolved, right? Strength in numbers. Then there would be no way for nVidia and company to sheepishly say that they have no idea about "such a problem". H3ll, even the Senate or House has been known to investigate gross negligence issues such as these from time to time.

I don't know, it's just my idea as I am now at my whits end. I feel I do not deserve these hardships after I payed this much money an obviously defective product. What do you all think?

530W Fortron PSU
AMD64 FX-51
PNY 6800 Ultra (lifetime warrenty, already did 1 RMA on it)

*Edited* to bolden teh pertinant info, as I think this is very important!

 

[RampantAndroid]

Yes, I do agree with you, but no one wants to acknowledge it....there is also a snaffu with the deinterlacing proc on the video card, and they supposedly fixed that, but I've read otherwise. It isnt just people with lockups. Its almost as if this card is "Doomed" (nice pun, you'll see why in a sec) since it was the card designed to work with such a demonic game as Doom 3 (you have to be possed to come up with that crap)

Yeah, I have a PNY, I hate it, I wanna kill it. PNY says it is my power supply. Yeah, I replaced it with one the tech guy told me to get. Still doesnt work. POS.

 

[billyjak]

When I bought y Leadtech 6800 GT. I aso bought a inline power conditioner cord for keeping the voltage stable and allowing a clean signal, and t does work. It also helps to get the Best Power Supply out there as many people skimfp on one of the most important parts of the compter. I have a 450w PC Power and Cooling power supply which as built in line conditioning.
Chances are a fluctuting current under load will diminish your stability without line conditioning.

Good Luck

 

[AssyrianKing]

nice 2 see my thread expanding, prolly the most in depth talk on this subject is this thread.

Anyways.....those still having the problem if you havent yet tried modifying your Cards Bios to have the same 2D/3D frequencies and then reflashing, try it, im sure it WILL fix your issues. and 3rd party proggies that do this 2d/3d clock for you e.g coolbits/rivatuner are not the same as flashing the card its UNSTABLE that way. you need to flash! use OmniExtremeEditFX to modify and nvflash to flash!

-bye

 

[AssyrianKing]

wow nvidia you guys did well ..... almost 10000 views in this thread alone work that out with the ratio of people who visit this forum and how many 6800 cards you have sold....sounds like 70% have issues. but like they always say "Not an nVidia bug"

 

[chaonatic]

AssyrianKing YHPM

 

[frankfan]

It's fixed!

After several days of pulling boards in and out of my machine, connecting/disconnecting USB devices, reformats, drivers, etc., I finally have my system totally stable in 3D games (and 3DMark05).

I have an ASUS V9999Deluxe Geforce 6800 Ultra that has been nothing but problems.
3DMark05 would barely run through a single pass before the system crashed and Doom3 would do those mysterous pauses/freezes...but no longer.

The BIOS hack works! I downloaded the afore mentioned NvFlash and OmniExtremeEditFX and changed both 2D and 3D clocks to be the same (425MHz) then reflashed my video card.

I ran 3DMark05 Pro for 47 passes overnight (8ish hours straight) and completed with a bench of 4986.

I have Fast Writes off in the system BIOS and my AGP set to 4x8x. Setting the clock speeds equal via Coolbits or RIVATuner does not work! The BIOS hack is the only way to go.

I am SO HAPPY now.

I'll run some further tests and see if I can crash it.

Well, I just ran another 10 hours of straight tests with 3DMark05 Pro and I had NO crashes.
The BIOS Hack does work. I'm putting together a little guide to step-by-step the process of "fixing" the BIOS on the video card.

 

[RampantAndroid]

OK, you've got me interested b/c I still do have some odd occurences every now and then. However, I'm lost with the BIOS stuff...I can't figure out the nvflash utility (funny, I always liked dos) I don't know where to start. This is totally different from editing your mobo's bios....they make that easy. Where can i find a new BIOS for my PNY 6800U??

Thanks guys!

10k views, but how many really had problems. Yes, the card is bad (IE the "on broard" video processor...they still don't have it enabled!)

 

[AssyrianKing]

ok i dont remember where i got the program to flash and the program to edit the bios but i have them and i have nowhere to upload them 2 so if you want them pm me ill send them to you its only round 500kb all up for both programs.

-also ill repost this: it's better if you extract,modify,flash your bios thats currently on your card instead of downloading a custom or different branded 6800 cards bios. that way you know you have the correct voltage and other settings that you dont need to touch when editing. Also i couldnt use another bios anyway it kept saying something bout it not being correct and a error when trying to flash, even with the force flash parameters. Theres a readme with the flash utility that has all the commands so you know how to flash the bios. Its all very simple really.

 

[frankfan]

Here's my little guide for how to backup, HACK, and reflash your NVIDIA 6800 video card BIOS.

First thing you need is a floppy bootdisk.
Download the driver-free one from bootdisk.com
http://download.sudhian.com/fa...oads/Misc/drdflash.exe
Run the program and follow the directions.

Download NVFlash 5.08
http://www.mvktech.net/index.p...einfo&filecatid=53
Extract the files to your new boot floppy.

Download OmniExtremeEdit FX v1.5
http://www.mvktech.net/index.p...info&filecatid=127
Extract these files to your desktop (or some folder you'd like to use).

Reboot your computer from the new boot floppy.
At the A: prompt:
nvflash -b backup.rom
[this backs up the video card's BIOS to backup.rom on the floppy]

When this finishes...Remove the floppy and reboot back into Windows.

Run the OmniExtremeEditFX program
(Put the floppy back into the drive)
Click File...Open BIOS
Open backup.rom from the A drive
In the 2D Core box change it to match whatever is in the 3D Core box.(usually 400 or 425)
Click File...Save BIOS
=============================
Save the file as newbios.rom
=============================
DO NOT USE BACKUP.ROM AS THE FILENAME
You need backup.rom should the reflash fail!

Reboot your system using the floppy.
At the A: prompt:
nvflash -5 -6 newbios.rom

You are done!
Remove the floppy and reboot into Windows.

Run 3DMark05 or your favorite 3D game and see how it works.

Post your results!

 

[chaonatic]

Thanks Frankfan, gonna try it when I get home!

 

[chaonatic]

Well it's a no-go for me. Flashing the bios didn't solve my problem, I am still having lockups in CS: Source (maybe more now than I did previously). Think I'm gonna try reinstalling Rivatuner and mess around with that for a while and see if I can fix things before reverting to my old bios.

Thanks for the tut anyway frankfan, it was worth a shot.

(anyone else wanna sue too?)

 

[dfloyd]

Tag

 

[frankfan]

Man, Sorry to hear it didn't work for you. If you ever figure it out let us know what you found.

While I'm sitting at work, my home system has been chuggin' away on a 99-pass (the most it can be looped) COMPLETE test (18 hours total) on 3DMark05. After 11 hours it's STILL going. I'll see how it went when I get home from work.

If it's fine there'll be no more testing for me...except the Guild Wars Beta Weekend starting Friday!!!

Update: All 99 passes (18+ hours)... 4936 3D Marks!