SigmaOrionis
01-29-05, 07:22 PM
I'm pulling my hair out over this one.
I had 6800GT with a noisy fan that worked perfectly otherwise. After two months of this noise I decided to RMA. I'm starting to regret that decision.
I get the new one and everything is great for about two weeks. Now I'm getting lockups about 15 minutes into games.
Symptoms:
-Screen will turn into a checkerboard mess with looping sound and then I will lose video signal.
-Comp does not reboot. Just sits there till I hit the main PS on the back of my PSU.
-During one of the more bizarre lockups the Video Card actually lost power and the fans and lights went out?
-Did have two lockups at the desktop. Screen turned all white with little green ~ all over with one square at bottom with yellow~
So my friend, who has the same MB and vid card as me, graciously lets me use his card for about a week and it works perfect in my system.
Meanwhile he's using my card in his system without incident, but only for a couple of days because he was working. So I think what the hell? I get my card back from him put it in my comp and it works perfect for 2 days of gaming and then on the third day it repeats the lockups.
So I pull my card out and put it back in and everything is great again for exactly 2 days and on the third day it starts locking up again. I have repeated this test 3 times and the card always works for only two days.
I've been building computers since the first Pentiums and this is the weirdest thing I have ever tried to troubleshoot. There is obviously something happening during the reseating process that is making the card work for a few days.
I have tried just pulling the power lead out and pushing it back in but this does not fix it. It takes a full reseat of the card to get it to work again.
Like I said his card doesnt have this same problem. So I dont really think its any other component in my system.
Theories that I have:
1.) Squeezing the card as I'm removing it makes the heatsink pads come in better contact with the memory chips. Then as time goes on the heatsink starts two sag away from the chips causing them to overheat. This holds a little weight because BF1942 I can play for about 20 minutes from a cold boot but HL2 which is way more intensive will lock up in under a minute. I tried tightening up the retention mechanism a little but it didnt affect it.
2.) The card has a bad trace somewhere on it and the pulling it out flexes the card enough to make the trace make contact again and after a few days of sagging in the AGP slot. The trace doesnt make contact as well and craps out during intense activity. This theory works because the complete loss of power during two of the lockups.
3.) AGP slot on my MB makes good contact for a few days until the weight of the card moves it just enough to make it unstable. I doubt this because like I said my friends video card works perfect in my rig.
Thats all I can come up with. I know some of them are a stretch.
Any Ideas? You are now entering the twilight zone :)
Thanks to all who take the time to reply
I had 6800GT with a noisy fan that worked perfectly otherwise. After two months of this noise I decided to RMA. I'm starting to regret that decision.
I get the new one and everything is great for about two weeks. Now I'm getting lockups about 15 minutes into games.
Symptoms:
-Screen will turn into a checkerboard mess with looping sound and then I will lose video signal.
-Comp does not reboot. Just sits there till I hit the main PS on the back of my PSU.
-During one of the more bizarre lockups the Video Card actually lost power and the fans and lights went out?
-Did have two lockups at the desktop. Screen turned all white with little green ~ all over with one square at bottom with yellow~
So my friend, who has the same MB and vid card as me, graciously lets me use his card for about a week and it works perfect in my system.
Meanwhile he's using my card in his system without incident, but only for a couple of days because he was working. So I think what the hell? I get my card back from him put it in my comp and it works perfect for 2 days of gaming and then on the third day it repeats the lockups.
So I pull my card out and put it back in and everything is great again for exactly 2 days and on the third day it starts locking up again. I have repeated this test 3 times and the card always works for only two days.
I've been building computers since the first Pentiums and this is the weirdest thing I have ever tried to troubleshoot. There is obviously something happening during the reseating process that is making the card work for a few days.
I have tried just pulling the power lead out and pushing it back in but this does not fix it. It takes a full reseat of the card to get it to work again.
Like I said his card doesnt have this same problem. So I dont really think its any other component in my system.
Theories that I have:
1.) Squeezing the card as I'm removing it makes the heatsink pads come in better contact with the memory chips. Then as time goes on the heatsink starts two sag away from the chips causing them to overheat. This holds a little weight because BF1942 I can play for about 20 minutes from a cold boot but HL2 which is way more intensive will lock up in under a minute. I tried tightening up the retention mechanism a little but it didnt affect it.
2.) The card has a bad trace somewhere on it and the pulling it out flexes the card enough to make the trace make contact again and after a few days of sagging in the AGP slot. The trace doesnt make contact as well and craps out during intense activity. This theory works because the complete loss of power during two of the lockups.
3.) AGP slot on my MB makes good contact for a few days until the weight of the card moves it just enough to make it unstable. I doubt this because like I said my friends video card works perfect in my rig.
Thats all I can come up with. I know some of them are a stretch.
Any Ideas? You are now entering the twilight zone :)
Thanks to all who take the time to reply