This is really bad, I have no idea what's going on

[Mrvile]

As most of you probably know, I've been having video problems as of late. You can read my whole story in my thread LOLWTFBBQ. Well, I decided to do a reformat in case it was a software problem, and well, it got worse. Here is exactly what I did, in this order:

Formatted partition C: (100GB), installed a clean installation of XP Pro. Everything went very smoothly.

Booted to XP for the first time, display was crystal clear with no problems at all. The first thing I did was install the motherboard chipset drivers, latest ones straight from nVidia's website. Installs perfectly.

Then I install the latest video drivers, 71.89, straight from nVidia's website. Everything is good.

Install the rest of my drivers, Logitech mouseware, Soundblaster drivers, D-Link wireless internet card adapter. But I noticed that everything was so big, so I went to change the resolution of my monitor from 800x600 to 1024x768 or whatever.

As soon as I change it, this is what happens. The picture makes it look a lot worse than it really is for some reason, there really are no green dots on the desktop itself but the start menu is completely f0x0red. And so are the system tray icons, just like in the pic.

I panic, go to change the resolution back, but the crap stays around. I try every different resolution, with all kinds of refresh rates, still crap. I change my AGP to 4x, turn off AGP Fastwrites, but to no avail.

In my earlier thread, many people suggested it was my video card overheating. I was convinced that wasn't the case, however, since RTHDRIBL only took my card temperature up to about 70 degrees. But now things are different, I barely even installed Windows and this crap is showing up.

So I open my computer case up, and place my hand above the video card, where there are no fans. The thing is quite warm to the touch. I also noticed that my airflow is somewhat limited in this area. So I quickly drop in a 120mm fan to blow air across this area and towards the exhaust, boot up, but still, crap everywhere.

I'm sitting here in the middle of the godamn night trying to figure out what's going on, and many questions come a-popping into my head. Could the video card core be cool but the rest of the card be frying and I don't notice? Could it be my monitor? Could it have something to do with my ram?

And in case my video card is dying...I had replaced the hs/f on the video card to an NV5, and I don't remember if there was a "VOID" sticker on it. If I change the hs/f back, could I still RMA it if need be?

I'm panicking, someone please help!

CLIFFS:
-Reformat computer.
-Install all necessary drivers (mobo chipset, video, mouse, sound, internet)
-Change resolution from 8x6 to 10x7 and the *pic* happens.
-Try all kinds of different resolutions and refresh rates but crap still there.
-Try lowering to AGP 4x, turning off fastwrites, still borked.
-Opened up case, felt the top of video card (the part with no heatsink or fan) and is warm to touch. I place a 120mm fan over it to blow air over it. Dunno if it lowered the temps but the display is still bad.
-^Questions^

 

[imported_Pressure]

I'd trying putting the hs/f back on and starting the RMA process. Just lie to them if they ask. If they check and it does void it then I dunno what you'd have to do. I'm still waiting on my video card from Sapphire (I had the same problems as you).

 

[impemonk]

g'luck trying to RMA.

 

[Mrvile]

Originally posted by: impemonk
g'luck trying to RMA.

Why do you say that?

Anyway I emailed BFG and told them about my problem (being very discreet about anything that would void the warranty) and they told me that they think it's a power supply problem. I have a 460w power supply, which is definately enough to run a 6800GT plus a lot of other things. I even tried running the video card on its own line (originally I had it with both my CD drives) but it didn't help. Next thing I'm gonna try is to switch my 6800GT out with the old 440MX I have in my HP. Why me??

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Pressure
I'd trying putting the hs/f back on and starting the RMA process. Just lie to them if they ask. If they check and it does void it then I dunno what you'd have to do. I'm still waiting on my video card from Sapphire (I had the same problems as you).

You must be a proud man. Advising someone to lie and commit fraud?

Very nice.

:roll:

 

[nRollo]

Mr. Vile:
You've voided your warranty in two ways. You OCd, and you replaced the HSF.

Now you have two choices.

You can be a man and eat the loss of your video card, buy another, and learn the lesson that OCing/modding isn't risk free.

Or you can do what amounts to stealing another card from BFG, who did nothing more to you than supply you with what they said they would at a price you agreed to pay.

I hope you'll pick the first option, the world has enough thieves in it that you don't need to add you name to the list? Be a man Mr. Vile, and pay for your own mistakes and learn from them.

Your situation is exactly why I never OC high end parts- they're too expensive to risk, and I don't want to have to look in the mirror everyday and know I stole money from honest people.

 

[Mrvile]

Hi Rollo:

It takes balls to reply to this post with honesty. And, I have to admit that although I have those balls, I don't have balls enough to accept the concequences of whatever I did to ruin my card.

You must understand where I'm coming from. I'm going into the 11th grade, I'm 15 years old and you obviously know that I can't afford another video card. There is no way my parents are going to spend another 400 dollars on another video card. Basically there is no way I can acqure another card.

I will go ahead and replace the hsf, and attempt to RMA; it is my only option. I admit that I am lying, stealing, and committing fraud. I also admit that I realize that it was my wrongdoing that ruined the card, not anyone elses'. I admit to sole responsibility to the death of my video card. But I will do what probably 90% of the people on this forum will do, RMA it, and tell them that it wasn't my fault.

Rollo, I admire your will and your intentions, and I admire you and the other few AT patrons that don't overclock. After reading over your post, I gave it some thought, and I have to say I did learn something. Something from the post, something from my whole experience building computers. It's not worth it.

Overclocking is something we do, not actually for the performance gain but for the bragging rights. Getting your CPU from 2.2ghz to 2.6ghz is nice, but do you really notice the difference? I sure didn't. My video card ran all my games flawlessly, but I decided to push it anyway. And while it was doing 400/1100 speeds, I didn't notice any difference whatsoever.

And look at it now. I've learned my lesson.

I've made bad decisions in the past. And I agree this is yet another one, and I realize it. However, this is the only thing I can do. I will go ahead and send it back, and I will leave it up to BFG to send me a new one. If they don't, I will have surely learned my lesson the hard way. But if they do, I would have still learned my lesson, and probably won't touch the knobs again.

Rollo, I know what you're going to say. You're going to say that I haven't learned jack, I'm still stealing, lying. And I can't argue. Although you don't agree with that I'm doing, you must put yourself in my shoes for a moment. I apologize, but I also give you my thanks.

Mr. Vile

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Mrvile
Hi Rollo:

It takes balls to reply to this post with honesty. And, I have to admit that although I have those balls, I don't have balls enough to accept the concequences of whatever I did to ruin my card.

You must understand where I'm coming from. I'm going into the 11th grade, I'm 15 years old and you obviously know that I can't afford another video card. There is no way my parents are going to spend another 400 dollars on another video card. Basically there is no way I can acqure another card.

I will go ahead and replace the hsf, and attempt to RMA; it is my only option. I admit that I am lying, stealing, and committing fraud. I also admit that I realize that it was my wrongdoing that ruined the card, not anyone elses'. I admit to sole responsibility to the death of my video card. But I will do what probably 90% of the people on this forum will do, RMA it, and tell them that it wasn't my fault.

Rollo, I admire your will and your intentions, and I admire you and the other few AT patrons that don't overclock. After reading over your post, I gave it some thought, and I have to say I did learn something. Something from the post, something from my whole experience building computers. It's not worth it.

Overclocking is something we do, not actually for the performance gain but for the bragging rights. Getting your CPU from 2.2ghz to 2.6ghz is nice, but do you really notice the difference? I sure didn't. My video card ran all my games flawlessly, but I decided to push it anyway. And while it was doing 400/1100 speeds, I didn't notice any difference whatsoever.

And look at it now. I've learned my lesson.

I've made bad decisions in the past. And I agree this is yet another one, and I realize it. However, this is the only thing I can do. I will go ahead and send it back, and I will leave it up to BFG to send me a new one. If they don't, I will have surely learned my lesson the hard way. But if they do, I would have still learned my lesson, and probably won't touch the knobs again.

Rollo, I know what you're going to say. You're going to say that I haven't learned jack, I'm still stealing, lying. And I can't argue. Although you don't agree with that I'm doing, you must put yourself in my shoes for a moment. I apologize, but I also give you my thanks.

Mr. Vile

I'll say this:
1. Having no other way to get a card isn't a good reason to steal. I'm an adult and I buy bigger toys. For example, the 90hp motor on my fishing boat cost $6000.. If I put a different out of spec prop on it and burn up the engine, would it be ok for me to put the old prop back on and return it to Mercury for another motor? Because I can't afford another?
2. $400 is very little money, and you can buy a 6800GT for $300 now anyway. You could work at McDonalds for a few weeks and earn that easily, especially as it's summer?
3. Do you want to start out life a thief?
4. How would you feel if you knew people were stealing from your Dad like you are planning to steal from BFG? Presuming he provides a service that can be stolen?

You sound pretty upset about this, and I'm glad you are, it shows you have some character and you at least knwo right from wrong.

I'm very glad you posted this here because maybe it will stop some other guys from putting themself in your position for the trivial gains you get from OCing.

15 is pretty young to start stealing- what will it be when you get older? Insurance fraud? Cheating on taxes?

I can't say I've never done anythign wrong, but I can say I regret all of it, years later, and probably will my whole life.

Avoid the wrong turns you can avoid, you'll have enough bad decisions over the course of your life that you won't need to compound them with petty theft like this. Good luck dude.

 

[katwomansz]

Rollo, Thanks for posting the lesson that many would attempt to elucidate but never as eloquently as you.

I've found honesty is always the best policy! What goes around comes around.
I can only repeat trite proverbs but its the best way to live your life.

 

[The Green Bean]

Originally posted by: Rollo

2. $400 is very little money

Why don't you go ask that to the other side of the world??

 

[James3shin]

But we're not on the other side of the world are we? Don't give that, "people in 3rd world nations are starving, while we buy $400 g. cards" excuse. Unfortunately, its just how the world is.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: hatim

Originally posted by: Rollo

2. $400 is very little money

Why don't you go ask that to the other side of the world??

How much money $400 is in 3rd world countries has nothing to do with feeling good about yourself by assuming responsibility for your actions and learning from your mistakes. (or feeling guilty for years about your theft and wishing you would have worked the couple weeks for the card)

 

[rise]

i feel for him but looking at his rig it wouldn't seem ~$400 is too much to muster. either that or just get a lesser card until he can afford one of the high end ones.

as katwomanz said, honesty is the best policy. i was more than forthright with the manufacturer when i had a problem with a card and yet they still replaced it for me. cost me $18 in shipping.

edit- circumatances were a bit different but i didn't expect a replacement, i just wanted them to fix it.

 

[Saga]

Back when 3200+'s were $300 I thought I was smart and overvolted it to overclock. Ended up frying the proc in an old shuttle mobo and called AMD. Was completely honest about how I used an aftermarket heatsink and thermal paste (voids warranty) and how I overvolted it (definitely voids warranty) and they still let me RMA it for a new one because it wasn't computing correctly regardless of the overclock and it wasn't an issue which would ever be caused by the core overheating.

These businesses are very reasonable. They understand there are always people who will modify their products and void the warranty, but the cold hard reality is regardless of if you have voided the warranty, if the product is not performing properly and it is not something which could result from your modifications they will usually comply.

Call them, be honest, and find out. In all actuality you don't need to give your name or contact number so if things go bad YOU can make the morale decision on if you are going to lie to get a replacement, but why not simply find out if you even need to go that far?

 

[blckgrffn]

Exactly. All odds are that your OC'ing didn't break it. If you have another computer to try it, I would go that route first. Me, I OC my VGA cards but only EVER using the OEM heatsink and never removing it for any reason. I spend hours if not days dialing in the OC to make that it isn't overstressing the part and I have never broken anything yet. If someday down the road it broke, I would probably RMA it, honestly. That said, physically changing the card is an excellent way to really screw it up, and on top of that is very obvious. I have "eaten" to geforce 4's and a geforce 3 around christmas time, just trying to change heatsinks, not for oc'ing but because they had bad fans, and I just threw them in the trash as they artifacted all over. Explain what happened to the BFG people, if they don't want it sell it as is on the forums, and pick up a 6800 for less than $200. Maybe you will only really "lose" $150 or so this way, and as Rollo pointed out, this shouldn't be too hard being 15, whether you have to save allowance or work for a few weeks.

LOL, had I been you and borked my voodoo2 back in the day, I would have been much more fearful of my fathers wrath than any tech saying that I couldn't send in the card

Edit: For anyone scrutinizing the clocks on my 6600, know that it came clocked at 450/500 and this was just minimal oc trying to gain a few FPS in doom3. I got about 6 fps for my efforts from 42 to 48, which is actually worth it

 

[VIAN]

If you do not accept the concequences, then you shall be shamed.

You should've thought ahead of what might happen if you do this. Don't you ever think of the consequences?

OCing isn't worth the trouble or the cost, to me anyway, that's why I gave it up. F-it, I just want to have a working system. I hate maintenance.

Overclocking, I feel, is a bit misrepresented today. The truth is, people who overclock, enjoy what they do. They don't do it for performance, more for bragging rights and the fun and competition of it.

You could always buy a cheaper card. Go with a 6600GT for less than 150 dollars, you'll still be able to play games, just not with extreme eye candy. There are people out there they wouldn't even let go of their 4200's until BF2 came along. And you know that card is a POS... presently.

I'll tell you an OC that I did. I volt modded a 9700 Pro and I knew the consquences and was prepared to get another card if I failed cause let's face it, volt modding is more dangerous than OCing. But anyway, I did raise the clockspeed from 325MHz to 405MHz and the RAM from 310 to about 340. And what kind of real world performance did I get. Just a bit smoother gameplay. Like going from a 9800 Pro to a 6600GT, which isn't that great. Not for all the time, risk and money put into it.

 

[Hadsus]

I wonder how many of those who call this stealing burn copyrighted DVDs, DL MP3s, install software they get from work, etc. I don't condone what he's going to do but I can smell the hypocrisy.

 

[blckgrffn]

Yes, I have to say that I really enjoy OC'ing more than the performance it brings to be honest. When I had the opportunity to sell my DFI S754 system that was running 2.6 ghz w/mushkin blue ram at 2-3-2-10 217 mhz 3.1V (Took way to long to get all that dialed in, beta bios's and 3.4V on the memory, active mem cooling, memtest loops, on and on...) and get my present setup, I jumped on it. I just wanted to play with the vaunted Venice cores and the new NF4 chipset. My Ballistix is in the mail

I am sure that you will do the right thing

 

[VIAN]

I wonder how many of those who call this stealing burn copyrighted DVDs, DL MP3s, install software they get from work, etc. I don't condone what he's going to do but I can smell the hypocrisy.

I don't do any of those either. But I do think that the Movie and Music industry really are stupid with the prices and what people want. The industries did scare me, they seem to attack random people and the fines they charge, sht, just a day of bad luck and you gone. Even if your traffic isn't high, there's no telling who they will make an example of next. Some guy that downloaded one movie or two within a year. Well, I don't condone what they are doing, and they scared me as a potential customer as well. I nolonger buy movies nor dl them and I nolonger buy music nor do I dl music. Everything feels like a scam. I watch the movie once in theaters, if I want to watch it again, I'll rent it, but nothing more. If I were to get music it would be legally through napster for 15 bucks a month, but even that doesn't seem worth it to me. I like radio. I like not knowing what's gonna be on next and it's great if I like it. In NY:K-Rock right now has my attention since they moved to their new amazing format. Hot97 and Power105 are just too racist for my likes. It's just so obvious. And their music sucks. New rap is just really crappy. Same crap they keep rapping about, it's boring. Just remember the days of old in the mid 90's when rap hit it's peak.

Another thing to add to it that turned me off about buying anything is the scams and the changing technology. How can I expect to "collect them all" when the technology is ever changing. They have the regular movie, the director's cut, unrated, special edition, adults only version, kids version, version for the farm animals. And after that is done, they release and another edition like super-bit. What... am I supposed to keep on collecting the same stuff and paying for the same movie, get out of here. I don't think I should blame them though for this specifically since there are retards that buy into this. Apollo 13 just released this year with it's 10 year edition. It topped DVD sales. An old movie that is a new collector's edition topped new dvd sales. Come on people. You already had the freakin movie. They got you right in the palm of their hands with all their marketing. "Own it now on DVD" It sticks! Don't be fooled into forever buying the same movie.

Another reason is the quality of the materials. How exactly is this supposed to last a life-time when the dual-layer dvd isn't properly glued together. Not that it was gonna last a lifetime with everchanging technology anyway, but this makes it worse. I've bought DVDs that where the hole is, the two layers were a bit seperated. Plus they only last a lifetime when put in a dark dry place. Once you start touching it and exposing it to heat and moisture, you can kiss the lifetime goodbye and hello 10-15 years. Which between now and then, you might have already bought 5 different versions of the movie.

It's a crazy scam and it's retarded. Sorry for the rant.

 

[impemonk]

aren't we all hypocrites? I mean, since we're looking at "stealing" from a moral perspective how about the resources like trees, water, power (electricity, gas, oil, fish, etc) we steal from mother earth each and every day? I am no tree-hugging freak but lecturing and boring on about "I hope-you-learn-your-lesson-and-take-the-right-path-in-life" is a flaw because in reality we steal all the time. Don't give me balls about "WELL I PAY FOR MY SH!T" because no, you don't. The money you earn is blood money. We are all born into this world thieves no doubt about that.

Do whatever you wish Mr. Vile and good luck.

 

[BillyBobJoel71]

wow, i oc'ed a6800 and killed it but it was 8 days after i got it so i returned it to circuit city. a week later my replacemetn card was killed because my psu died. then after that 6800 nu cards woudn't work in my system, so i eventualyl got a 6800gt. i admit i screwed up and shouldn't have gotten a free replacement on the first one but i took advantage of my 2 week warranty from circuit city. i was a noob back then and didn't know a thing, but now i do not dare touch that clock frequency tab in the display properties. i don't want to kill this card, it cost me 400 bucks.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: impemonk
aren't we all hypocrites? I mean, since we're looking at "stealing" from a moral perspective how about the resources like trees, water, power (electricity, gas, oil, fish, etc) we steal from mother earth each and every day? I am no tree-hugging freak

Sniff.....sob....you are right......
Considering the rape of Mother Earth by large, profit driven corporations, our only recourse is to steal video cards!

:roll:

 

[MrYahtzee]

"How can I expect to "collect them all" when the technology is ever changing. They have the regular movie, the director's cut, unrated, special edition, adults only version, kids version, version for the farm animals"

:laugh:

 

[stag3]

just buy a cheaper video card. you don't need all that power to do homework, which @ 15 years old, is what you should be doing instead of playing games on a pc. go outside, get some excercise, the internet has destroyed the fun of being a kid

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: hatim

Originally posted by: Rollo

2. $400 is very little money

Why don't you go ask that to the other side of the world??

If 400.00 is a lot of money to you, then you have no business spending it on a video card if it means you will have to eat Ramen noodles for 3 months. 400.00 is not a lot of money to an adult that is gainfully employed and living, not a rich, but comfortable life.

400.00 to a 15 year old is like "all the money in the world". And chances are, at 15 years old, he can't legally hold a full time job yet. (Depends on what state he's in.) So allowance might be all he has. He should take the loss for the card he destroyed and save up to buy another one. He wont die because he can't play games this summer. As far as I know, nobody has died or become ill because of gaming withdrawral. Unfortunately, and this is most frustrating, you can't make a child's mind think rationally. That comes later in life with age.