Gfx problems

It might be overheating. How are the temps when gaming?

What kind of psu do you have? The card might not be getting enough power.

Agreed. The video card is definitely buggin' out. Either get a new powersupply, check your temps or unfortunately RMA your card.  

[edited]

Yeap big GFX card problem right there im surprised it even runs!!!!

RMA the card if and when you get the new 7900GT and the same problem occurs then you know its something else.

Well I get a replacement card, and added a new fan to it (as the standard one is noisy anyway), and it's running at 37C idle. But now I get random system lock ups while playing games (the screen freezes and parts of the picture look distorted followed by a BSoD which is also usually distorted). It says the driver "nv4_disp" got stuck in an infinite loop" and that it is probably a problem with the device. How likely is this to be a power supply problem? I really don't want to use trial and error buying new parts since I've already spent quite a bit of money on the system.

Here is my current power supply: http://www.xilence-power.com/ 480W one. I use a 24 to 20 pin connector because my mobo is only 20 pin (not sure if this matters). Please feel free to ask as many questions as you like if it helps to diagnose my problem. Thanks for the help.

What video driver? Uninstall, clean with ccleaner and install latest version. Run chkdsk /f on your drives from CMD box.

Mike.

Here's the details for my PSU from their website:

+3,3V +5V +12V +12V -12V -5V +5VSB
32,0A 31,0A 15,0A 16,0A 0,8A - 2,0A


Having a look at this website: http://www.guru3d.com/article/content/374/4/ suggests that I have some problems

Especially this parts:


What power supplies should I buy? It needs to cope with my mobo, cpu, cpu fan, gfx card, gfx card fan, 3x80mm case fans (I think it's 80, could be bigger), CDRW/DVD drive, 2 hard drives. I'm quite price conscious too, so I'm not looking for anything too fantastic.

You have got the extra PCI-e power lead connected to the card? Your PSU should be OK, but may be faulty. I am running Athlon64 X2 4200 (90W) and FX7800GT which may draw more power than your 7900, with a Hiper 420W with no trouble. I have used power meter on my system, and Max draw is 270W in 3Dmark06. You should definitely uninstall present video driver and use ccleaner to remove all traces, then install a different version to see if OK.

Mike.

I would have thought that your PSU is more than ample (used to have 9800pro/2hd/2dvd + various athlon Xps running off 300W).

Doing a Google on that message brings up a number of responses. I would at least try fully removing the nvidia drivers, maybe in safe mode use a driver cleaner, whatever and reinstall them fresh. If that doesn't sort it maybe try underclocking the card to see if that stops it, if it does it may be a heat/weak component issue and need an exchange.

Well always try the free options first!

Karl

I've tried reformatting after I got the replacement card, and I've tried reinstalling the drivers on their own. I can't send the card back either, because I had to remove some plastic so that my 3 pin zalman fan could fit into the 2 pin socket. It seems unlikely that I would get 2 faulty cards in a row though, but I'll try to reinstall the drivers again though. The problem with trying to diagnose this is that the crashes seems very unpredictable and I'm not sure if that characteristic of any specific problem.

I'll just go through all my system details just in case 've done something wrong:
Conroexfire-esata2 motherboard (20pin power). This has the newest version of bios on it.
Core 2 duo e6300 @1.86GHz. Idles at ~40C with zalman fan on it controlled by zalman fan-mate.
2GB (2x1GB) geil RAM (4-4-4-12) with heatsink on both, I've had this replaced once because another set were faulty. The current ones pass memtest so don't seem to be a problem. These sit in slots 0 and 2
BFG 7900GT 256MB OC with zalman fan on it (37C idle fan-mate on full). Replaced once before, it no longer had the random 'dead pixels', but it locks up randomly during gameplay. This has the power supply's only PCIE connector connected to it and has the newest drivers (94.24 forceware). I've tried reinstalling these.
160GB western digital SATA hard drive. This has freshly installed windows xp on it as well as all my programs. Re-installing windows xp sped up my computer a little bit, but didn't stop the crashing.
80GB maxtor drive, I only use this for putting stuff on when I reformat
3 case fans. 1 connected to the motherboard, 2 that originally were 3 pin but I only had 1 case fan connection on my motherboard so I re-wired them so that the are in paralell, splitting after connecting to a PSU 4 pin connector to a random connector that both the fans go through. The quality of the wiring is questionable, but both fans spin so I assume it's ok.
480W Xilence psu.
+3,3V +5V +12V +12V -12V -5V +5VSB
32,0A 31,0A 15,0A 16,0A 0,8A - 2,0A

PSU connections: 24 pin goes to the 24 to 20 pin connector which goes to the motherboard. The 4 pin thing (2 by 2 pins in a square) is also connected to the motherboard. A 4 pin molex connects to my CDRW/DVD drive. Another 4 pin molex wire connects to the fans's 4 pin molex. The only PCIE cable connects to my graphics card. A SATA power cable connects to both the hard drives.