darklife41
09-11-05, 01:30 AM
I tried to post this to the BFG thread, but it was closed. I've read everything I can find on this forum and others but can't solve the freezing/BSOD problems with the BFG 6800U OC. What's worse, is that its also cost me a hard drive and 2 motherboards to date. So here's my experience:
I had 2 X BFG 6800U OC set up in a Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI with a RAID 0 on 2 Seagate 120 SATAs. When running benchmarks at stock settings, the computer would freeze. Would have to hit reset. Upon rebooting, my RAID array would be contaminated. If I powered down, the RAID array would reset. I reformatted like 5 times before the chipset in the MB died. So I figured it was a MB problem and got that RMA'ed with no problems. Then I set this same configuration up in a DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR. Same situation, kept freezing. When rebooting my RAID array was corrupt. Eventually the DFI died (wouldn't power at all anymore) and so did one of my hard drives. So I RMA'ed the DFI and replaced the hard drives with the setup in my signature. I also thought heat could be a problem (although I have 5 case fans in my Lian Li PC65 and never saw my temps go past 55C), so I installed an Exos 2 system and paid dearly for the correct water blocks for GPUs, CPU, and MB chipset.
When I got the Gigabyte back, my colors were shot. Apparently one of the BFG cards had a bad GPU. (Initial boot screen had pink letters mixed with the white.) Because I put water cooling on the card, my warranty is being denied. We're currently trying to see if it can be fixed, at my expense. So I'm down to 1 video card. I put the single card in the Gigabyte and it runs fine.
Then I get my DFI back and setup the same exact system in the DFI. The system freezes randomly and gives BSOD's, never with the same error twice. Its not drivers as this system was formatted every time I had to start over. I uninstall the (78.01) nvidia drivers, take out the BFG and put in an ABIT X600 and no more problems. Again, because I've put water cooling on these cards, they won't be covered under warranty. These cards were never OC'ed (except what BFG does at the factory) and never got hot. In fact, they ran much cooler with the Exos than they ever did with the stock air and crappy heat sink that BFG uses (replaced with Arctic Silver 5).
I'm now convinced that the BFG video cards were the source of all my problems from the beginning. I tried every driver available from Nvidia as they put them out, but nothing solved the issue. I have around 100 hrs of use on the first card and 300 hours on the second, and I'm going to eat a $1800AUD investment because I used water cooling? Well I'm not so sure that BFG doesn't deserve a little criticism.
Now I can buy 2 BFG 7800U OC with water cooling already installed and get the life time warranty, for the same price that I paid for the 6800s. However, I'm not made of $ and not sure I trust them again to honor their warranty anyway.
I own/operate Ultramax Custom Computers. This is one of my own systems, which I intended to display at LAN parties that we sponsor, and use every day. I've been building systems for 14 years. I deal with suppliers every day, and BFG is the first company to deny a warranty claim (I don't submit bogus claims). My supplier has been great and is looking into fixing the card on his own. I'm sure part of this is to keep our business, but not sure I feel comfortable recommending BFG to my customers based on this experience.
If anyone has ever found a solution to the freezing and BSOD's with the 6800s, I'd sure like to know about it. As for BFG, depending upon how they resolve this situation will dictate whether I buy from them again, let alone pass their products on to my customers. :-)
I had 2 X BFG 6800U OC set up in a Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI with a RAID 0 on 2 Seagate 120 SATAs. When running benchmarks at stock settings, the computer would freeze. Would have to hit reset. Upon rebooting, my RAID array would be contaminated. If I powered down, the RAID array would reset. I reformatted like 5 times before the chipset in the MB died. So I figured it was a MB problem and got that RMA'ed with no problems. Then I set this same configuration up in a DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR. Same situation, kept freezing. When rebooting my RAID array was corrupt. Eventually the DFI died (wouldn't power at all anymore) and so did one of my hard drives. So I RMA'ed the DFI and replaced the hard drives with the setup in my signature. I also thought heat could be a problem (although I have 5 case fans in my Lian Li PC65 and never saw my temps go past 55C), so I installed an Exos 2 system and paid dearly for the correct water blocks for GPUs, CPU, and MB chipset.
When I got the Gigabyte back, my colors were shot. Apparently one of the BFG cards had a bad GPU. (Initial boot screen had pink letters mixed with the white.) Because I put water cooling on the card, my warranty is being denied. We're currently trying to see if it can be fixed, at my expense. So I'm down to 1 video card. I put the single card in the Gigabyte and it runs fine.
Then I get my DFI back and setup the same exact system in the DFI. The system freezes randomly and gives BSOD's, never with the same error twice. Its not drivers as this system was formatted every time I had to start over. I uninstall the (78.01) nvidia drivers, take out the BFG and put in an ABIT X600 and no more problems. Again, because I've put water cooling on these cards, they won't be covered under warranty. These cards were never OC'ed (except what BFG does at the factory) and never got hot. In fact, they ran much cooler with the Exos than they ever did with the stock air and crappy heat sink that BFG uses (replaced with Arctic Silver 5).
I'm now convinced that the BFG video cards were the source of all my problems from the beginning. I tried every driver available from Nvidia as they put them out, but nothing solved the issue. I have around 100 hrs of use on the first card and 300 hours on the second, and I'm going to eat a $1800AUD investment because I used water cooling? Well I'm not so sure that BFG doesn't deserve a little criticism.
Now I can buy 2 BFG 7800U OC with water cooling already installed and get the life time warranty, for the same price that I paid for the 6800s. However, I'm not made of $ and not sure I trust them again to honor their warranty anyway.
I own/operate Ultramax Custom Computers. This is one of my own systems, which I intended to display at LAN parties that we sponsor, and use every day. I've been building systems for 14 years. I deal with suppliers every day, and BFG is the first company to deny a warranty claim (I don't submit bogus claims). My supplier has been great and is looking into fixing the card on his own. I'm sure part of this is to keep our business, but not sure I feel comfortable recommending BFG to my customers based on this experience.
If anyone has ever found a solution to the freezing and BSOD's with the 6800s, I'd sure like to know about it. As for BFG, depending upon how they resolve this situation will dictate whether I buy from them again, let alone pass their products on to my customers. :-)