6800 Ultra dead? Please, help...

Slava · Jan 15, 2005

Thanks in advance to everyone who will take the time to help me out here. My apologies for the long post but I have a major problem and I thought I would give as much info as I can.

PROBLEM:
Almost every game I try to run (RTS, RPG or FPS, 3D or 2D; DX7, 8 or 9) either fails to load or crashes to desktop or locks up or reboots the PC. Titles include Medieval Total War, Fallout Tactics, Diablo II, Doom 3, Far Cry, GTA VC and others. Sometimes I can play for hours without problems, other times I encounter problems instantly. Sometimes, when a game fails to load at first, it loads after several attempts but later it either crashes or locks up when I try to reload.

Other symptoms also include periodical screen corruptions (sometimes partial - like when game GUI buttons and sliders get corrupted, sometimes complete – like when the whole screen becomes messed up). I also periodically get sound anomalies. It seems that I began experiencing these problems after upgrading to WinXP SP-2, but I am not sure about this...

I have taken the following troubleshooting steps (to name a few):

- tried various BIOS, video driver and sound properties tweaks (individually and in combinations), including loading BIOS defaults;
- ran VGA card at stock/default settings, tweaked the driver with Riva Tuner;
- performed driver uninstall/reinstall;
- uninstalled/reinstalled some of the games;
- changed hardware acceleration back and forth;
- moved Sound Blaster to a different PCI slot;
- ran DXdiag tests – all show all items in the green and all drivers are WHQL certified;
- checked for hardware conflicts – none; and the Device Manager reports all devices as "working properly";
- disconnected/reconnected my multiple fans;
- replaced CPU HS/Fan with a better one cuz with the old one the CPU ran a bit too hot (it went up to ~ 60-62 C under load);
- disabled all background applications and non-essential services;
- checked for spywares/viruses with all the latest tools and def files;

and . . . I am out of ideas. The above problems persist. Reading about gaming under XP SP-2 yielded little useful info.

At the same time 3D benchmarks (AquaMark3 = 61,265, 3DMark05 = 5,204) and nVIDIA Demos (Dawn Ultra, Nalu, etc.) work fine even if looping for hours @ 1600x1200. Also, Sandra 2004 SP2b performance tune-up wizard reports no problems and its burn-in/stress test wizard runs fine, reports no hardware weaknesses or any other problems . . .

Probably the only thing I have not tried yet is reverting to 61.77 or 61.82 Forceware drivers. But I have not really seen any complaints about 66.93 drivers anywhere so I doubt that the problem is with this driver release.

I am also thinking that my RAM may be slow, but while it may be a performance bottleneck it would not cause those symptoms, would it?

Any ideas are appreciated.

MY MACHINE

OS and Drivers: Windows XP Professional, SP-2, fresh install, DX9c, nVIDIA Forceware 66.93
CPU: P-4C (Northwood) 3.0 GHz @ stock on Abit IS7 motherboard, hyper-threading - Enabled
RAM: 1 Gb of PC-2700 DDR, dual channel Enabled, Timings 2.5.2.2
PSU: Antec 550W, "TRUE550"
 CASE: A-Open server case (full tower)
COOLING:
1. Gigabyte 3D Cooler-Ultra GT all-copper CPU HS + Fan @ 4600 RPM;
2. 1 x 80 mm Antec intake fan @ 2700 RPM (front-mounted at the bottom of the case);
3. 2 x 80 mm intake fans blowing over the hard drives (rear-mounted at the top of the case);
4. 2 x 60 mm Vantec exhaust fans at 2400 RPM each, rear-mounted opposite the CPU ;
5. 1 x 80 mm PCI slot exhaust blower at 2200 RPM (mounted under the Video card);
6. nVIDIA native GeForce 6800U HS/Fan
7. The case also has plenty of perforations on the right side. Case is clean, no dust.
TEMPS: Idle CPU temp ~ 34-35 C, System ambient is ~ 31-32 C; Loaded CPU (100% load) temp is ~ 49.5-52 C holding steady in that range during a 1-hour system burn-in test, System ambient under load is ~ 43-44 C.
VGA: eVGA GeForce 6800 Ultra w/256Mb of RAM @ 437 MHz Clock and 1.12 GHz RAM (but I tried it at stock - no luck)
Hard Drives: Dual 120 Gb IDE Seagate Barracudas at 7200 RPM (no RAID)
Sound: SBLive! Gamer 5.1; Altec Lansing 5.1 Speakers; On-board sound – Disabled
CD/DVD: Toshiba DVD SD-M1502; Yamaha CDRW CRW3200E
Peripherals:MS Multimedia Keyboard (PS2), MS IntelliMouse Optical (PS2), ViewSonic G220b 21" Monitor.

"The creative powers of English morphology are pathetic compared to what we find in other languages." (Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct)

rumcooler · Jan 16, 2005

Do your 2d and 3d speeds match? I think they should be at 425

Slava · Jan 16, 2005

Thanks for your reply, rumcooler. Do you mean 2D/3D clock speeds? If so, are you sure that they should be the same and OCed to 425? Riva Tuner does not recommend overclocking both 2D and 3D because it puts the card under permanent stress and unnecessarily so. Regardless, the problems I described happen even when the 6800 ultra runs at driver default settings (i.e. no overclocking at all).

"The creative powers of English morphology are pathetic compared to what we find in other languages." (Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct)

markgun · Jan 16, 2005

Try disabling fastwrites and change the AGP voltage to 1.6V. Also, I'd relax the memory timings (for the sake of testing).

rumcooler · Jan 16, 2005

yes 2d and 3d speeds should be the same i am not sure what it is 400 or 425 something like that. make sure they are the same it won't hurt your card, just make sure they are both at the same speed. Whatever stock speed should be.

RX8 · Jan 16, 2005

I would say revert back to SP1 you should have a restore point also restore your computer to when you had the early VC drivers, try the games if they work without sp2 then sp2 is the problem. try it out!

DeathClock · Jan 16, 2005

Indeed RX8, I also think the problem is a messed up SP2. Because if it would be the card itseld, the sound shouldn't be messed up at the same time. Your Memory could be the next thing to worry about if SP1 doesn't solve the problems.

<A HREF="http://worldwar3d.com/afmod" target="_new">Half-Life2:Armed Forces</A>

RX8 · Jan 16, 2005

I Concur with DeathClock, i dont think its a CPU grfix card problem or motherboard or PSU. I do think this is a Software or RAM issue but more likely a software problem.

Your problems are miner compared to others i have seen you should be ok if its software (driver problems conflicts e,t,c).

Slava · Jan 16, 2005

Thanks to all for the input.

A question to markgun: Why do you think that changing AGP voltage from default to 1.6 will make a difference on a 6800 Ultra? I actually tried your voltage suggestion though cuz I am desperate here heh. It did not resolve the problem of Medieval Total war failing to load, for example, but it did reduce my AquaMark3 score by about 1,500 ...

Also, I was going through eVGA user manual for my card looking for something and I bumped into the troubleshooting section. LOL! They describe my exact problem and suggest that there is something wrong with DirectX files initialization. Basically, the recommendation is to reinstall DirectX. Downloading DX9c redistributable now. I will post later whenther this resolves the problem or not.

"The creative powers of English morphology are pathetic compared to what we find in other languages." (Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct)

Slava · Jan 16, 2005

Piece’o Sh1t DX9c refuses to reinstall. Says all files are installed and ready for use . . . I really have no desire to format C:\ and start from scratch. Dammit. There is like 100 apps and 170 gigs of stuff to reinstall if I do that. Oh, well.

Time to call for fire support from the big guns

) Ape, any ideas?

"The creative powers of English morphology are pathetic compared to what we find in other languages." (Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct)

TheGreatGrapeApe · Jan 17, 2005

Well I still think it's FastWrites like markgun mentioned. By different BIOS(s) did you also udate your MoBo BIOS?

As for DX, you can't just add/remove it or overwrite it, but you don't have to format to uninstall and re-install, you use a DX removal program, I just tried DX Eradicator again, and it removed DX9.0c and allowed me to re-install, so despite it's mention of just 9.0b, it works on C also.

<A HREF="http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/DirectX_Eradicator/1034065557/1" target="_new">http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/DirectX_Eradicator/1034065557/1</A>

I doubt it's DX but alot of people have had trouble since updating to SP2 so who knows, it could be anything.

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp (or internet account) ! - RED GREEN GA to SK :evil:

Slava · Jan 17, 2005

Thanks much.

"The creative powers of English morphology are pathetic compared to what we find in other languages." (Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct)

RX8 · Jan 17, 2005

Dont you know how to use windows XP mate restore ur computer to before XPSP2

Slava · Jan 17, 2005

That's the thing... I never had any use for Windows Restore. The service has always been disabled on all of my XP machines

( Well, it finally caught up with me.

Oh, and Ape, just as a matter of feedback: in my particular case disabling Fast Writes did not resolve my problems but it reduced my Aquamark3 score by 1000 points.

I will try "eradicating" and reinstalling DX9c now. Post results later.

"The creative powers of English morphology are pathetic compared to what we find in other languages." (Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct)

sweatlaserxp · Jan 17, 2005

I like System Restore; it's a simple and quick solution if you get into some sort of driver issues. I've used it several times and I think it's a good feature (M$ created a nice band-aid for itself...)

<A HREF="http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/landing/landingIndex.jsp?id=dumb01&mature=accept" target="_new">DumbLand</A>

TheGreatGrapeApe · Jan 17, 2005

Ok, I know it sometimes has a negative impact (sometimes positive) but it can be a root cause of instability, and since you didn't address it in the other replies it's usually the first place to start even nV and ATI recommend it being turned off when stability issues occur.

Anywhoo, hope the re-instertion of the DX virus, errr... DirectX helps solve the problem.

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp (or internet account) ! - RED GREEN GA to SK :evil:

Slava · Jan 21, 2005

Okay. Here's an update. Maybe it will be useful for some.

I ended up not reinstalling DirectX. I have done some extensive Googling and discovered that I am not the only one experiencing these issues with GeForce 6800 Ultra. Apparently, rumcooler (see above) was right: After setting both GPU clocks (2D and 3D) to the same value (425 MHz) as well as setting memory clocks for both modes to the same value (1.24 GHz) I no longer experience any of the original problems, except with Medieval Total War failing to load at any resolution higher than 800x600 (this, however, is a game problem and is addressed in its troubleshooting section). The good news is that I have no more lockups or screen corruptions.

Interestingly, before I set both GPU clocks to the same value thus resolving the problem, I emailed eVGA support with the same description of the problem as I posted here and they said: "the video card seems to be non-functioning or having problems. You can go to our RMA site online here at this link:

<A HREF="http://www.evga.com/RMA/default.asp" target="_new">http://www.evga.com/RMA/default.asp</A>"

Now, I wonder whether the card really has a problem and should be replaced. I also wonder why eVGA tech support did not recommend that I set 2D/3D clocks to the same value. Hmm..., well maybe it is because overclocking is not enabled in the driver by default.

Any comments?
Thanks.

EDIT:

I just sent this to eVGA support. Let's see what they have to say.

Please refer to my original message to eVGA tech support for details.

Since you, guys, suggested that I RMA my card, I have Googled my screen corruption/lock-ups problem described in detail in my previous message to you and found that many people seem to be having the same issues. They explain that it is because the 2D and Performance 3D clocks are not set in the driver to the same value by default. Therefore, whenever the card goes from a 2D game loading screen into a 3D game play screen a lockup or a reboot occurs, often accompanied by sound anomalies, such as looping.

Having enabled Coolbits in the registry I unlocked the driver's overclocking options and manually set the 2D clock to the same value as 3D performance default of 400 MGz. This has resolved the problem. There are no more lock-ups, reboots or screen corruption.

My specific question to you, guys: When I load Forceware 66.93 defaults I have problems. When I manually override clock speed defaults the problem goes away. Now, is my card defective and I should RMA it or is it a driver problem which will be fixed in the next release? Thanks a million.

"The creative powers of English morphology are pathetic compared to what we find in other languages." (Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct)

Edited by Slava on 01/21/05 12:19 PM.

TheGreatGrapeApe · Jan 21, 2005

Don't know what else to say, but maybe you can RMA it and get one of the new ones with fixed HW video acceleration

, oh no that's only PCIe, dang!

At least they seem willing to help you with the RMA offer which is better than some support services.

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp (or internet account) ! - RED GREEN GA to SK :evil:

sobelizard · Jan 21, 2005

Just for sh!tz and giggles, you should apply the coolbits tweak and see what the optimal speeds are detected.

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Slava · Jan 21, 2005

The final word on this. eVGA replied with a new suggestion to update the card's BIOS (I wonder why they did not say anything earlier). An updated BIOS for eVGA GeForce 6800 Ultra is available here:

<A HREF="http://www.evga.com/community/bios6800/6800u.asp" target="_new">http://www.evga.com/community/bios6800/6800u.asp</A>

For those who may need to get it, make sure you have your card's serial number handy since you need to enter it to download the file.

"The creative powers of English morphology are pathetic compared to what we find in other languages." (Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct)

6800 Ultra dead? Please, help...

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