Stability issues

[HarvesterUT]

Greetings!

I recently put together my new rig, but I don't have my gpu's yet. I ordered them from a different source (2 x eVGA 9800 GTX). In the meantime, I tossed in my old 6800gt card to be a place-holder to allow me to finish up the build. However, I experience some Vista 64 stability issues, and I'm not sure where the problem is coming from. Here's a run-down of my stuff...

E8400 (3.0 wolfdale)
ASUS P5N-D 750i SLI (flashed to current drivers)
2 x 2gb G.Skill DDR2 800
WD 500gb HDD
XIGMATEK 650W psu
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 heatsink
eVGA 6800 GT (drivers 175.16)

running Vista 64 SP1.

Everything in the system 100% stock. I have not adjusted any settings in BIOS or attempted to OC anything. The system booted, and I installed Vista 64 with no problems. I made a partition install for Vista and was able to boot.

Once in Vista, everything seemed fine. Vista recognized my ram, cpu, and gfx card. However, whenever I run a program with any type of graphics (media player visualization, UT3, Age of Conan) the system stutters, and it will usually cause a program error saying and will end whichever program I am running.

Also, on occasion, my monitor will go black and seems to lose any type of video input. However, the system will also reboot itself after a minute or two like this. There was one time it did this, but the system recovered and brought me back to Vista. It had a warning display that basically said, "your display adapter was not working properly, but has recovered itself." Then a minute later it went black, and I had to reboot.

Do you think the problem(s) are video card related? I mean, on my older rig i could run UT3 and Age of Conan fine with my 6800 GT, but with it in the new system it can't seem to even launch the games...

Any help appreciated....

 

[gators1223]

i bet that vista's drivers for th 6800gt are less than optimal and probably not much attention was paid to them, another thing is nvidia chipsets seem to be having issues, see if you have the latest bios for the board

 

[HarvesterUT]

"BIOS Revision 0502"
Date: 04/02/2008

I am running the current BIOS version.

 

[shadowduck]

Well I have another issue with your system. That PSU is going to struggle to keep up with those video cards. That is not your problem now obviously, but it might be in the near future.

I had the exact problem you described and it was heat related. I think gators has it right though. It is most likely due to poor Vista support.

 

[HarvesterUT]

Well I have another issue with your system. That PSU is going to struggle to keep up with those video cards. That is not your problem now obviously, but it might be in the near future.

I had the exact problem you described and it was heat related. I think gators has it right though. It is most likely due to poor Vista support.

From Custom PC UK:

You’ll need two 6-pin PCI-E power connectors for the 9800 GTX, which might make you think it consumes so much energy that it will single-handedly instigate global climate change. In fact, it's quoted as consuming only 6W more power than the 512MB 8800 GTS. Indeed, our test system consumed 319W at peak when fitted with the 9800 GTX, compared to the 322W with a 512MB 8800 GTS installed. Nvidia recommends at least a 450W PSU for a system with a 9800 GTX, and an SLI-certified 650W PSU for two.

I think an SLI cert'd 650W is more than enough for 2 9800 GTXs. I've read many forums and reviews that state power consumption is quite a bit less than "advertising" would have people believe. I've heard of so many people buying 1200W psu's for the "new" gpus, and I think it's total overkill. The fact is that the newest gpus and cpus are continually getting smaller, using less power, and generating less heat. That's why I went with the 45nm cpu and G92 gpu...less heat and less power.

I am hoping the system runs buttery smooth when I get the 9800 GTXs. I am dreading some kind of mobo chipset problem. It was hard as hell getting everything my mini tower....

 

[HarvesterUT]

I got 1 of my 9800 GTXs today and installed it. Installed current drivers. I still have problems running certain things. I can't even run UT3.exe without the game crashing before it even boots. not sure where that problem is coming from. i also can't run certain programs like nVidia nTune. those programs just say "xxx.exe stopped responding and needs to be shut down".

i can, however, run Age of Conan at high settings....

any advice? do you think it's a mobo thing? memory?

 

[shadowduck]

Memtest your memory
Update to the newest drivers
Try a different power supply