Gainward 7900GS 512Mb - problems

[Katzhuu]

Hi,

I am having problems with my setup (at the end of the post).

Here the description of the problem:

After running certain programs (Fear multiplayer, 3DMark03 the onces found so far. Halo and 3DMark05 seem to run without problems) and exiting from them my screen starts to blink black every time I do anything there (open start menu, move windows etc.) On 3DMark03 the problem seems to show itself on the second test (Battle of Proxycon). Computer has frozen in it and last time I ran it it wouldn't show any data about it, no FPS counting, no timer, no framecounter.

When the 3DMark03 manages to finish correctly I tend to get scores of 16500 and on 3DMark05 I just got 7500. Judging from the scores my system seems to work pretty much the way it is supposed to

I'm running FW 91.47 on the GPU and 0711 bios on my mother board.

I believe the problem lies within GPU drivers or MoBo.

Have you got any idea what to do here?

I've already reinstalled the machine couple of times.

CPU Intel E6300
GPU Asus Nvidia 7900GS
MoBo Asus P5B Deluxe WiFi/AP
MEM Corsair Twin2X 2x512MB DD
Case Antec P180
2*HDD Seagate Barracuda 330GB
DVD Samsung sh-s182d
PSU Neo HE 500W

 

[almerac]

whats your PSU? have you tried a different driver version? just to make sure its not a bug that hasn't been caught yet, otherwise if its your video card i hope you still have a warrenty.

 

[Katzhuu]

whats your PSU?...

PSU Neo HE 500W

Shouldn't be a PSU problem.

have you tried a different driver version? just to make sure its not a bug that hasn't been caught yet...

The 8x.xx drivers won't even install on 7900GS. Just loaded the most recent version 93.xx (not at home at the moment, don't remember the exact version) which did nothing else but improved my 3Dmark scores a bit (~1%), but the same problem remains.

...otherwise if its your video card i hope you still have a warrenty.

Sigh, could it be a problem with the nvidia chipset drivers on MoBo? I've already tried updating pretty much everything else.

Oh well, If I need to return this card, I think I'll switch for X1950 Pro.

 

[almerac]

i doubt its the chip set, but if very well could be. do you have another computer, or another video card (known working) that you can swap parts with to narrow it down? if so do that. and check some simple things like your monitor is plugged in correctly, the card is properly seated, and such. something simple like that often is the problem

(one time i was messing with this thunder bird that my friend thought he had broke. after 3 days of blood and tears i found out that the PSU switch on the back of the case was off. and that was all that was wrong)

 

[Katzhuu]

...do you have another computer, or another video card (known working) that you can swap parts with to narrow it down? if so do that....

Other computer and other videocard YES, but neither one with PCI-E connectors. So they won't help.

Aguess I'll try to re-seat the card and see if that helps, although I kind of doubt it.

Here is a pic of what happens after the card goes nuts after 3Dmark03:

Also last time I tried to run the 3DMark03 and ran into normal problems I'm having I got the 'System has recovered form serious error'-message and it redirected me into this Microsoft page:

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/response.aspx?SGD=1c70dac2-ad94-46ed-a9d0-4b8e4533f317&SID=11

So it really looks like it is a driver issue. And I'm running the lates driver (FW released 2nd Nov) and I also tried several older FW versions without success. It really looks like I'll need to return this card and then I'll probably try to get X1950Pro instead.

 

[13thmonkey]

that looks like a memory issue to me, what temps are you running at.

Rivatuner should be able to track temps as you go along, everest will be able to give you temps of various system components.

 

[darkstar782]

Yes, try de-clocking the card and the problems will go away.

If you are overclocking, you have gone too far, if not, the card is not stable at the speed it is sold at and needs to be RMAed

 

[Katzhuu]

...
If you are overclocking, you have gone too far, if not, the card is not stable at the speed it is sold at and needs to be RMAed

Card is running stock.

Looks like I need to go the RMA way

I'm gonna try to get an X1950 Pro instead. It's cheaper and has gotten better reviews and seems to use only marginally more power. Heating shuoldn't be a problem on my Antec P180 anyways unless I decide to go something wild like 7950GX2 (really outta my budget).

Thanks for the help.

 

[almerac]

this is probably your best bet, RMA it, you likely just got a defective card, if after all that its still giving your problems.

 

[Katzhuu]

that looks like a memory issue to me, what temps are you running at...

Missed youir response there earlier. Well, if it is memory issue, it's still unacceptable since I am running the card at stock setting. Nvidia control panel has never shown temps over 47C, so I really doubt it was a temp problem.

Oh well, I'm taking the card back to the shop today and hopefully I'll get my money back so I can switch to X1950 Pro.

Thanks for the help though!