Games FREEZING with new 8800 GT

[mitchellvii]

When I run Crysis, UT3, etc with my new 8800 GT, the games are just FREEZING after about 5 minutes of play. I can still hear the sound as if the game is going on but the video is frozen. Sometimes it comes back after about 10 seconds and sometimes it just stays locked.

My FPS are excellent (around 60 FPS / except Crysis, of course) when this happens and the game play is smooth. I am not getting any "artifacts" at all.

When I try to even start Crysis in DX10 mode, it locks up at just the opening splash screen. It will only run in hacked DX9 mode (looks awesome) but then it freezes too.

This happens even when the card is just 650/950 with no OC by me as it came from EVGA.

1. HEAT is not an issue. The card is running cool with 100% fan.
2. My PSU quite likely may be an issue, since it's just 400W (yeah, lame I know), but my 8800 GTS 640 ran just fine OC'd with this PSU and never had these problems (and that card draws more power - I thought).

I am gonna run out and get a new PSU, but what size is best? 500, 600?

Any ideas out there what is causing this lock-up? If the card was overstressed in the game, I would think I would see some stuttering or artifacts before it just froze.

 

[mitchellvii]

One other odd point.

I noticed that when I see cards that are just "NVidia" brand online, they have that funky double-white striped image on the fan housing. I also noticed that my EVGA card has this same striping, but EVGA has just slapped their sticker on top of it.

I thought EVGA built their own cards with nVidia gpu's, but is that wrong? Do they just get the whole card from nVidia and slap their sticker on it?

 

[aadamszc]

1. Could you post the specs of your full system?

2. Did you try to re-seat your videocard?

3. Yeah. 400 seems a little low, in my opinion. I don't think it is low enough that it should cause locking up though.

On that note, a 500W PSU would be enough to handle it probably(as I don't know what your other system specs are), but if you wanted it to run efficiently -- the 600W would be a good choice(because the usage wouldn't go over 80%).

-Adam

Edit: I believe early in the life of the card, *all* of the companies that sell the card just slap their sticker on a one that came from nVidia. AFAIK, a few months later or so...companies start to make their own cards with nVidia's GPU. Usually, the company-made ones are a bit better because of a better cooling solution.

 

[mitchellvii]

Ah one other thing. When I shut the game down after it locks up, I get the message that "My Video Driver has Stopped Working".

Does that give a hint?

 

[aadamszc]

Hmm..I'm not exactly super-experienced in the technical issues, but have you recently installed new drivers? Forgot to uninstall previous ones? Etc?

 

[mitchellvii]

I was just looking at an older thread where the guy had the same problems. Unfortunately, turned out he got a bad card and it had to be replaced. Unfortunately, since I got this direct from EVGA that means RMA'ing the damn thing and another week and a half without a card.

 

[mitchellvii]

Ok, here's another weird thing:

I'm running nVidia Control Panel v 1.5.30.27.

If I try to click on "Tune System" the computer freezes and must be reboot. If I try to "Launch NVMonitor", NVMonitor messages me that it is not working. Had none of these issues when running 8800 GTS 640.

 

[vaker5]

RMA it not worth the trouble.

 

[mitchellvii]

Ok, let me just say that EVGA is officially the greatest company on the planet.

I just got off the phone with their tech support. I explained my symptoms and he agreed that I had a bad card. I was then looking at the slow RMA process (ugh!)

But then he explained this program to me where they take your credit card number and ship you a brand new card immediately with a free return shipping label included. Then, once you receive your new card, you just ship the broken one back on their dime! Cool. They don't charge your credit card unless they don't receive your old card back with 14 days.

What a great plan! So I can just use this one (still kinda works) until the new one arrives.

Excellent!

 

[aBg_rOnGak]

Try installing driver cleaning apps, clean your current driver, then install the latest nVidia official/final release driver, or modded ones (Omega etc)

 

[mitchellvii]

ABG,

Did all that. I dont think its a software issue, I think the card is just fubared and EVGA agreed.

 

[tylerzambori]

Edit: I believe early in the life of the card, *all* of the companies that sell the card just slap their sticker on a one that came from nVidia. AFAIK, a few months later or so...companies start to make their own cards with nVidia's GPU. Usually, the company-made ones are a bit better because of a better cooling solution.

So If I buy one of these in 5 to 6 weeks, can I maybe expect that EVGA will be selling
their own by that time? This is what my plan is.

 

[Ouwens]

Did the new card solve your problems?
I have the same issues with a Sparkle 8800 GT card :-(

 

[mitchellvii]

Make sure your MB has the LATEST BIOS.

 

[SnowHarp]

Hi mitchellvii,

I just bought an XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog Version GPU and Crysis is crashing exactly as you described earlier. I just rebuilt (upgraded) my whole PC and so have more of a headache figuring out what the problem is (CPU, MB, RAM or GPU). Other games like Company of Heroes and Stalker run without issue on the card and there are no other problems outside Crysis. Crysis runs great until for about five mins and then the screen fills with squiggles and halts the whole PC. I cannot even reboot with CTRL+ALT+DEL. Does this sound like the problem you had ? Have you found the solution yet ?

My system : ASUS Maximus, Q6600 CPU, XFX geForce 8800GT, 2GB RAM Crucial.

Thanks,

 

[Anth12]

Yeah Im having the same problem with a 8800 GTX, I ve tried everything but it looks like I am going to have to RMA it again. Too bad BFG doesnt offer something like that. I think they sent me a refurbished card when I RMA'd It the first time so maybe thats why I have the same issue again with it. Let Me know if the new card fixed it, so I know if its worth it to RMA it again as It runs me a cost of about $70 to send it back.

 

[mitchellvii]

Hey guys,

In my experience (as well as others I have read online), Crysis has some sort of "memclock" bug that causes BSOD's and artifacting with 8800 Series Cards.

My recommendation is to use RivaTuner and create a profile where your memclock is only 1800 (900 X 2) and use that just for Crysis. I believe this will solve your crashing problems.

P.S. To offset the performance loss due to the lower memclock setting, I have found that I can increase my core speed more than usual when the memclock is lowered.

Hope that helps.

 

[mitchellvii]

Also, make sure your set up fan/temp control in RivaTuner so your fan spins up faster at certain temps. Mind is set to spin at 80% whenever the GPU gets above 60 C and 100% above 70 C. As a result, I usually stay around 60 or so when gaming heavily.

If your card gets above 80 C while playing Crysis, it will most likely BSOD on you.

 

[ailgatrat]

Yep, sounds like heat problems to me. I had a 6600gt that started with those messages and eventually the one of the memory chips got fried. My core temps were ok, but it turned out the memory chips were overheating...

The x1650pro I replaced it with now has heatsinks on the memory chips...just in case.

 

[folius]

Its not a heat issue. Most people, myself included, monitor thier temps and know if thats it. I have an eVGA 8800gt stock 600/900 which runs at 71c full load with the stock fan @60% speed. I get the freezing in HL2 and CoD4. I can play games like CoD, TF2, and UT2k4 without it freezing ever. But for some reason HL2 (ep1,ep2 also) freeze on me and CoD4 multiplayer freezes on me.

It happens only when I have my dynamic shadows on. HL2 ep1 i notice artifacting when i turn on my flashlight in very dark areas. It wont do it anyother times. CoD4, it freezes after a game has ended and is showing the scores with the black and white background of the map.

I just got the card about a week ago, no OC, no bios flashing, no nothing. This is irritating me to say the least. I dont want to RMA the card and wait 2 weeks for one to return to me and be without my new comp for that long.

I've found several "solutions" people have tried on other sites, and said they work.

1. Rivatuner background monitoring conflicts with gaming codes and causes crashing.

I dont think this is true, but I have yet to try it (since im at work), but you never know.

2. Not uninstalling previous drivers before updating.

I am guilty of this. It is going to be the first thing I try when I get home tonight.

3. BIOS not up to date.

I have the new Asus P5K32-E 680i mobo, with the newest BIOS. I dont think this is my problem.

4. PSU insufficient.

I have a Thermaltake 700w toughpower PSU. This I know can run a dual PCI-E cards without problems, so me running 1 wouldnt be the cause.

5. Card overheating.

Ok, people say this causes it, but i dont see why for me. 71c during load is way below the 90c recommended "worry" point.

6. Bad Card.

Most common reason, I dont see how so many of these cards can be bad from the factory. If this is true, nVidia should find the solution out and fast. Come out with a v2 card and do a replacement deal for anyone that wants it.



Its sad that everyone who reviewed this card never had any problems with it, and now the majority of people i see who got them are having some kind of issue with it. If you dont, your a lucky one.

 

[mitchellvii]

folius,

You forgot to mention the #1 reason, having the memclock to high for Crysis. I have found personally that the highest stable memclock on the 8800 GT from Crysis is 900.

 

[folius]

Well i was doing the generalized problems with the card. Not really game specific problems. Its not nvidia's fault that Crysis has a memclock cap of 900mhz. Thats not an issue with the card, rather the game. People can have a perfect working card and still have issues with crysis. I personally dont have crysis, so i dont have that issue.

 

[mitchellvii]

folius,

"Its not nvidia's fault that Crysis has a memclock cap of 900mhz."

I'm not saying Crysis def does have that issue, but the empiracle evidence would lead one to believe that may be a signficant issue.

 

[vip3569]

I read on some evga forums where the same problems occur. When the memory clock is above 900, the card will lock up. Core temperature is fine, but the actually memory modules arent being cooled properly. Here is a product that has helped alot of people with their memory overclocking etc.
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=179797

 

[Guest]

I have found an answer that worked for me. I was experiencing random freezing with more GPU intense programs, particularly rendering HD video files. What solved my problem was updating the bios on my video card. I tried new drivers, underclocking, overclocking, increasing fan speed, monitoring card, system, and cpu temps, nothing, but the bios updated worked, perfectly without a single problem.

Check it out, read up on it, it might work for you.

I had a XFX 8800 GTS 640mb video card with this bios information:

GPU Device Id: 0x10DE 0x0193
Version: 60.80.13.00.80
GeForce 8800 GTS VGA BIOS
Copyright (C) 1996-2006 NVIDIA Corp.
G80 Board - p356h01
Performance Level 0
Core Clk: 513.00 MHz
Mem Clk: 792.00 MHz
Shader Clk: 1188.00 MHz
Voltage: 1.30 V
Fan Speed: 100%

I conservatively updated to this bios version
GPU Device Id: 0x10DE 0x0193
Version: 60.80.13.00.82
GeForce 8800 GTS VGA BIOS
Copyright (C) 1996-2006 NVIDIA Corp.
G80 Board - p356h01
Performance Level 0
Core Clk: 550.00 MHz
Mem Clk: 900.00 MHz
Shader Clk: 1500.00 MHz
Voltage: 1.30 V
Fan Speed: 100%

Since the update the card has worked flawlessly under all stress. Bios downloads and flash utilities are available at http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios. Please be careful when flashing you could break your video card. For me, the risk was having to buy another card because of the freezing issue!

Good luck.

I hope this helps, I read a lot of posts with no answers. I am happy to share what worked for me.