GF3 Ti500 locks up in 3dmark2001 tests and games

[Grumar]

What would cause a 64mb GF3 Ti500 to lock up during 3DMark2001's high resolution tests. I've run each test separately and determined that the card freaks out (locks up and goes black, sometimes weird colors are displayed) when the high res car chase, dragothic and lobby tests start. Each of the other tests run smooth and produce some good FPS. The card originally came from a Compaq Presario. I'm using Nvidia 61.77 drivers, DirectX 9.0c, WinXP SP2. I've tried this card on three other computers with the same software setup...similar hardware configurations(2.8P4, 512 DDR pc2700). The freeze up occurs on each machine. The only game I've tried was MidnightClub2. It crashed as I started actually playing, not in the menus...

I hope I don't have to trash the card!! Thanks for your time!

 

[Crashman]

Are you sure the fan is working?

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<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Grumar]

Crashman- Thanks for the reply. One of the first things I did when I saw the problem was to check to see if the fan was spinning...and it was. Should the fan spin at higher rev's to match the strain on the GPU?
Do you think it's worth taking the fan off and applying a different compound, like artic silver, etc...?
Thanks again!

 

[cleeve]

Sounds like a heat or power supply issue.

If you have a decent name-brand (Antec, etc) power supply of at least 350w, that should be OK...

IN that case, get yourself a cheap aftermarket cooler and attach it to the Geforce3 with thermal paste instead of that miserable tthermal tape, and see how she goes.

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9700 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 332/345)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>3200+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 400 FSB)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>5,354</b>

 

[Grumar]

The power supplies on the systems I have are all less than 350w, so that could be the cause. Just not enough juice to satisfy everything...Thanks!

 

[addiarmadar]

Could be that the fan is not spinning fast enough. have you notices any snowing or artifacts in other graphic games. Can you touch the HSF without bruning your fingers? Could unplug the fan and have a good case fan blowing on the HSF of the card to see if it is stable.

Also get MBM5 and monitor for voltage rails and make sure it does not deviate +-5%.

<i><font color=red>Only an overclocker can make a computer into a convectional oven.</i></font color=red>

 

[pauldh]

You could try underclocking the core and memory. If it's fine clocked way down, it is a heat issue. Then raise the memory back up a little at a time and run some tests. If mem gets back to normal, do the same for the core until problems come back. Anyway, a new heatsink/fan or resetiing yours with good thermal paste may help cool things down. Or you could get one of those bracket fans that internally blows on the video card.


ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 1GB Corsair XMS 4000 Pro Series, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[Grumar]

Thanks for the advise guys, I'm headed to the airport in a couple hrs so I'll have to look into it further when I get back...prob shouldn't have asked about the issue until I got back. But, I do have some hope that I won't have to trash the card.
Thanks again all and I'll post back when I've had a chance to mess with it this weekend.