GeForce 6800 and random freezes

[oldfartjc]

ahh, that's the ultimate fix that we're all hoping we don't have to do :p I appreciate you still posting on these forums, though. I think most people would just abandon them after switching chipsets. Did you end up getting your money back for the MSI board? or did you just buy an additional one?
No Dismal, I didn't get my money back on the MSI board. I had used for almost 3 months, of which over 2 months of it was screwing around with this problem. I called Newegg and they would have taken it back in the first 30 days but not after almost 3 months. I will probably sell it to my son cheap and rebuild his system in the near future. I always look at different forums that I have posted on to see if I can help anyone else with any problems, or if any fixes have come down from nVidia for this problem. Being a computer tech. for almost 41 years, it's in my blood. Presently I help take care of a large call center with over 4000 workstations and servers. I get a lot of questions for advice on what to buy or build and even help some of the people build or troubleshoot their own computers. But, when I get home I want to play my games and use my computers, not troubleshoot them like I've had to do for this problem. I do that all day at work, but I do enjoy overclocking and getting the best performance and stability I can, but not wasting so much time as this problem has taken. That's why I just went out and spent $114 on the ASUS A8V Deluxe so that I could play my D3D games again. :)

[skeeb23]

Hello everyone. I have been reading all about this random stuttering/freezing with Battlefield 2. This is the only game I play with these issues, though I havent tried my HL2 yet. Ok, I have the following specs:

AMD Athlon64 3200+ Venice
Gigabyte 8KNS Ultra-939 (Nforce3) 5.10 Drivers
BFG 6800OC 128MB - Det 77.77 Drivers
Kingston Value Ram DDR 400 1GB (512X2) Dual Channel
Soundblaster Audigy 2ZS (NOT Beta drivers, but newest ones)
Windows XP Home w/SP2

Ok, I upgraded from a 2500+ barton on a Via 600 board. The game ran smooth on that system but was pretty slow due to slower chip/board.

I upgraded to the Nforce3/AMD 3200 and bingo... I got stuttering/lag/crap!!

SO I read, and I read, and I read and got frustrated that their were no solutions what so ever. That is till tonight :) I found this nice website review of Battlefield 2--- >http://www.firingsquad.com/guides/battlefield_2_optimization_guide/

USE THIS REVIEW!!!
I read this and then adjusted with these settings.
I am set to High Quality image settings in the nvidia driver utility.
I do NOT have FW turned off.

Here are my ingame settings:
Terrain - High
Effects - High
Geometry - High
Texture - Med
Light - Med
Dynamic Shadow - Low
Dynamic Light - Low
I play the game without AA and I have Texture Filtering set to HIGH.
I also use my view distance at 100%

Let me tell you :) The game runs silky smooth now, sure I get occasional "jitters" when loading but if I had 2GB ram, I probably wouldnt.
Also I do have the Sound set to Hardware and High. But I also used to OpenAL.dll fix for the game as well.
All I can say is, dont think that there is no solution for you. I dont think that BFG and Nforce3 are incompatible. I think that different systems might just be more "touchy" with settings. Trust me, I have spent hours on research only to find that the newer 77.77 drivers DO WORK and that you HAVE to set image quality to HIGH on your Nvidia control panel with these drivers. Just read the optimization guide. Ok, sorry for the long post. My hope is to help someone else with this. Oh, and this was after a fresh install of Windows but I dont think that made the difference as I had these issues before too.

[Eliminator]

youre thinking of the stuttering caused by not having enough memory.... with 2gb and 256agp aperture (512 if you have a 128mb card) you can play bf2 on all settings high.... this is different than the stuttering we have.... for us its just random.... no matter what d3d game no matter how much ram it always happens....

[Azadaleou]

After 81 pages I'm starting to doubt Nvidia even cares about this problem. Might as well give up waiting and jump on the via bandwagon.

[oldfartjc]

After 81 pages I'm starting to doubt Nvidia even cares about this problem. Might as well give up waiting and jump on the via bandwagon.
I switched a couple of weeks ago and everything works great now, :) even with the newest nVidia drivers. I only wish I had ordered the ASUS A8V Deluxe to start with.

[zer0]

VIA board owner here... zero freeze & stutters :D

[thecrazykevy]

VIA board owner here... zero freeze & stutters :D
Don't rub it in. :(

[joshua7]

I switched a couple of weeks ago and everything works great now, :) even with the newest nVidia drivers. I only wish I had ordered the ASUS A8V Deluxe to start with.

Same here. :)

[uOpt]

I actually have 2 VIA boards by now and I am froogeling for the third.

All this could have been NVidia's business if it wasn't for this stutter and the fact that they won't allow the Linuxers to do a decent job on SATA and GbE.

[CarsonOfVenus]

I have a Soltek small form factor case/board so I don't have the luxury of just swapping in a new board. This whole thing just stinks, unless of course nVidia decides they want to fix their drivers. Hardware problem my a__, it's the drivers - or at least a hardware problem they can work around in the drivers.

[joshua7]

Thought I post it here:

when I had the DFI nf3 board my biggest problem was throttling. However I also had this stuttering, but interestingly, in 2 OpenGL games only. Riddick and Doom3. In Riddick I'd say I had the classical thing: the screen froze for a few seconds and the sound looped, but after a few seconds the game continued normally. After a few minutes the whole thing started all over again. In Doom3 it was a bit different. There, the screen froze+ sound loop, but when it was over the screen went black and the sound returned. :confused: I could 'jump' and hear the effects. I had these problems for a short period of time and they disappeared quite quickly. I don't think I did something for it.
Anyway, the Abit works great, no problems with it whatsoever. :thumbsup:

[omzig]

Well i to have now fixed my systems Stuttering/Pausing issue by using the only PROVEN fix for this problem sofar and that was to replace my NF3 Epox 8KDA with a Via K8T800 Asus K8v(gonna wait to go 939/x2 when r520 hits later this year)which went in yestaday with a freash install of XP and the 77.77 driver set(couldnt use these on my nf3 system due to ****ty 2d speeds and crazy stuttering)and 10/12 hours of gaming sinice and not one stutter/puase or lock up.......

like everyone else who's done this i only wish i had done it months ago instead of waitting and waitting in vain for NV to get off there lazy asses and fix the problem,
there total lack of support/action or even acknowledgement of this problem leave me thinking it will never be fixed and this has left a very sour taste in my mouth for NV and there products so as a sign of protest no nv products be they GFX or MB will ever grace any system i build ever again for myself or others (as a self empolyed PC tech i build about 20/30 systems a year) as oldfartjc has so rightly said the last thing i want to do after working with other ppl's systems allday long is to come home a try to trouble shoot my own...

So a very big thank you to all the ppl who have partaken in this thread and others like it across the web for your ideas advise...Also a BIG thank you to VIA/asus for putting an end to my stuttering and saving me many more hours of testing/forum reading and waitting for a fix all of which i can now put towards my other hobbies of gaming & music and last but not least a big FU to Nv for your total lack of action and support for your community

If your still waitting for a fix i can now add my voice to the many others here that have said save yourself the headache/wait and dump the NF3/NV get a VIA based board and get your gaming system back...

Cheers
Omzig

[HOT1]

I switched a couple of weeks ago and everything works great now, :) even with the newest nVidia drivers. I only wish I had ordered the ASUS A8V Deluxe to start with.
BF2 was freezing on me with the A8V but have fixed the problem the cpu needed .02 more volts :D .Been playing BF2 for 6 hours now :angel:

[spirited1]

I'm getting an A8V next week. I thought I got round this problem by underclocking slightly, until one week later when the problem came up again (though admittedly not as often as it used to).

I'll never buy nForce again, and at this point in time, my love affair with Nvidia is going through a rocky stage. I might dump the old girl altogether when it comes to upgrade my 6800U UC (UnderClocked). She's been high maintenance of late and I'm tired of her nagging :thumbdwn:

[Deeko]

Well I've finally managed to get myself some spare cash together and Im all for buying the Asus K8VSE board so I can play my games properly and o/c the card, Im no longer interested in a fix and its not going to happen. All Im interested to know will my memory work with this board? Ive heard its picky about Ram, Ive currently got a 1GB stick and a 512mb stick of Corsair Value Select Ram, if anyone is using this kind of Ram with that board could you please reply, cheers :)

[BurnX]

Read through this forum and tried most of the fixes & I'm ready to make the switch to Via. Seen some positive posts for the ASUS A8V, but anyone have recommendations for best socket 754 Via board? Anyone try the DFI K8T800Pro-ALF?

[Sex_packets]

Man I got this problem too.

In CS: Source or Warcraft III the game will lock up for 5-10 seconds then go back to where it was.

I have 6800GT and a Chaintech VNF3-250, an Nforce 3 board.

Alas i got no more money to buy a VIA board, i'm just gonna have to wait it out for a fix..

[Eliminator]

well seeing as more people are jumping on the VIA bandwagon i think im gona hop in as well.... there wont be any fix... dont get your hopes up folks they dont care....

[Dismal]

I was fine with waiting for a fix. I understand that **** happens. But the fact that nvidia is not even going to acknowledge the problem just pisses me off. I'm about ready to buy a VIA board and switch over to ATI on my next video card buy.

[joshua7]

Read through this forum and tried most of the fixes & I'm ready to make the switch to Via. Seen some positive posts for the ASUS A8V, but anyone have recommendations for best socket 754 Via board? Anyone try the DFI K8T800Pro-ALF?

I was in your shoes a month ago. Wanted to replace te DFI with a s754 Via board. I browsed the net and came to this Abit board. It is great, everything works great now! I wouldn' recommend the DFI Via board. It is not widespread at all, could find almost nothing about it. As far as i know it does not have an agp/pci lock, for example. I'd choose Abit or Asus.

[joshua7]

Man I got this problem too.

In CS: Source or Warcraft III the game will lock up for 5-10 seconds then go back to where it was.

I have 6800GT and a Chaintech VNF3-250, an Nforce 3 board.

Alas i got no more money to buy a VIA board, i'm just gonna have to wait it out for a fix..

Why? You buy a new board and sell your current one. The deficit will be minimal.

[lukk]

Hi!
I'm new here. I've just signed up. I'm writing from Poland with the same problem :/ freezes..it drives me crazy. I think I've tried everything :( disabling, turning off options, drivers, different SP.

Nothing worked. I don't know how but I THINK i got rid off freezes (I THINK because i thought the same several times - and THEY always come back :mad: )..i even overclocked my card to 380/850
Windows XP SP2
Nforce 5.10 (nvidia.com)
Forceware 78.01 (nvidia.com)
THE SAME clocks (2d/lowpower3d/3d)
ALWAYS Performerance 3D

i don' know is it worked in 100%..i will check it more "deeply" in next few hours

AND NOW I'VE GOT A QUESTION!! :D
Is there any similar problem with NF4 + 6800GT on PCIE??? because even if it worked, i'm thinking about changing into PCIE..

my comp.
A64 Venice 3000+(1800MHz) @ 2700MHz (1,5V)
2GB ram (4x512MB)
GF6800 Leadtek Winfast (16p, 6v) overclocked @ 380/850
Epox 9NDA3J nForce 3 ULTRA s.939

[joshua7]

For your question: no, there is no such problem with PCI-E cards.
BTW I'm from Hungary. We are quite close to each other. :)

[lukk]

For your question: no, there is no such problem with PCI-E cards.
BTW I'm from Hungary. We are quite close to each other. :)

There is even a "sentence" in Polish..it goes something like "Pole and Hungarian - two brothers" (i don't know how exactly to translate it..but i hope i kept the meaning :D )

According to my problem.

Since yesterday i didn't have ANY freeze :eek: i've finished Project Snowblind. Today's morning i've started playing Bloodrayne 2..no freezes for over 1H...i hope it will stay that way :p

[joshua7]

There is even a "sentence" in Polish..it goes something like "Pole and Hungarian - two brothers" (i don't know how exactly to translate it..but i hope i kept the meaning :D )

According to my problem.

Since yesterday i didn't have ANY freeze :eek: i've finished Project Snowblind. Today's morning i've started playing Bloodrayne 2..no freezes for over 1H...i hope it will stay that way :p

:D

What happens if you oc?