View Full Version : 6800GT constantly crashes games
I recently built my media center pc with my old Galaxy 6800GT and an Asus K8V-SE with a 3400 athlon64. Any directx game I play will crash randomly and within about 30 mins of playing, the strange thing is that it doesnt always crash when actually playing the game, it will crash when sitting idle in a game menu or when switching between menus. 3dmark03 can run for hours on end to. The system memory has been tested with memtest and is fine, Ive even swapped out the mobo for a brand new ULI chipset and its the same deal. Upgraded DirectX to latest version and reinstalled MCE 2005 twice.Forced fastwrites off and experimented with agp aperture and it still crashes.
I now suspect the card to be faulty and ive posted some screenies of the screen below when it crashes. I dont always see something on the screen but 50% of the time I see what Ive posted below , when this happens I can usually hear sounds looping. amongst other things ive tried is underclocking , set agp to x4 and experimented with dif Bios's, tried numerous drivers, applied artic silver to the core with the artic cooler. I hope someone can say that they have seen the same thing below and put an end to my misery :)
*bump*
Has anyone never seen this kind of crash screen before? Im trying my best to troubleshoot this. Ive had 3dmark06 running at high settings for over 14 hours now looping and it hasnt crashed, although it can crash within 30 mins of it in other times. Games will also crash out normally much sooner anytime between 5-60 mins.
Ive used a program called microscope that tests the cards memory from a boot cd and it passes but the tests screens I see when its testing the cards memory look almost identical to the crash screens Ive posted above. Cant figure it out.
Ive spoke to the company I bought it from and they said if they cant reproduce a crash while running 3dmark in a 24 hour loop then I cant have a replacement. Looks like i may be stuck with this wonky card :thumbdwn:
are you on a fresh install of windows?
Windows MCE has been reinstalled twice and Ive also installed normal XP on another partition and its the same deal.
Lfctony
02-14-06, 10:59 AM
Have you tried removing your Audigy 2 and testing without it? My A2 was giving me trouble and I got rid of it. There's also looping sound you say, which is another point against the sound card, and 3DM can loop for hours but it doesn't use any sound so... Give it a try, you've got nothing to lose.
theslug
02-14-06, 11:22 AM
This sounds similar to the issue I have (only directx programs have issues, but not opengl). Have you tried running RivaTuner or some program to monitor the temperatures? I don't know if it actually is heat-related or not, but I'd be interested in seeing what temps you are getting idle and under load.
The system Im referring to that is crashing is not the one in my sig, the one in my sig is my gamin rig and thats fine, this media center has:
Asus K8U ULI chipset / Athlon64 3400 (also tried Asus K8V and Asus K8N)
1.5 GB Corsair PC3200
Akasa Paxpower 460W
Creative X-fi Extreme music (also tried onboard sound)
Theslug, the temps are really fine, in the 40's idle and doesnt seem to go over 65C in load. Ive used rivatuner to monitor and up to the point of crashing its been at around 65C so temp isnt causing it. Im totally at a loss with this one and it has crashed in 3dmark but its random, it can run for 14 hours on 3dmark or crash within one hour, but like i said, games will always crash within an hour if not much sooner. It also seems to be just directX its crashing on, tonight I will try and play quake 4 for a while and see what happens as thats opengl. If it doesnt crash then I can only think that its the actual cards firmware with the directx hardware support that is somehow causing it or the cards memory, if thats the case I will have a hard time trying to RMA it as they might not be able to reproduce the problem unless they try a few games on it which i doubt they will.
As for doing anything else on it it is absolutely fine, I can encode avi's to mpeg2 all day long and it wont lock up as its completely stable, a total mystery but Im begining to suspect its either software directx or more than likely the directx hardware support on the card is somehow not right. Im starting to think I should get rid and buy a cheap 7800gt/pcie mobo combo.
Dot50Cal
02-15-06, 01:17 PM
Could be the fan, Mine is dying as well. I cant go 5 min in CSS now. My friends was doing it for a few months now. Ours were both EVGA ones. he got a Zalman cooler for it, and it solved his problems. Im debating whether to do the same or sell it and upgrade.
I've seen that before a few times, when my 6800gt overheats....vrey very rare, usually its cause I haven't cleaned out my case for a while. And its solved by dusting hte case, and also taking off the top plate and cleaning out inside the heatsink fins.
But the temps u have look fine.. unless the readings are wrong?
I know amd mobo's don't like to have all their ram slots filled up, and need timings set down and sometimes v's bumped up on cpu and ram... although I would htink those would usually result in blue screens and hangs. not scrambled images.. but might be worth looking into.. I've talked to people that would have really strange system instablilites (some programs work, some programs don't, random wierness) and solvd it by twiddling with the ram timings,and cpu and ram V levels.
Yeah the temps seem to be reliable, Ive even removed the fan and applied artic silver but it doesnt help. Ive also tried different ram timeings 1t/2t cas 2.5 etc and it still bombs out. The card is currently in my friends pc shop being tested now, if it passes his tests and plays the games fine on the test rig I will just have to sell the card on as Ive tried everything in my power to find the fault including yesterday another quality psu. After weeks of massive hassle with it Im ready to ditch it and sell it for money towards a 7800gt with one of those pice socket 754 mobos. Ive seen those for 180+45 here in the U.k. Wonder how much a 6800GT is worth.
Hehe that will be the last 6 series card to grace my home, I also had loads of problems with a previous 6600GT I bought over a year ago but my 7800GT with nforce4 chipset has been by far the best card and best chipset Ive ever owned.
Im still troubleshooting this :( Ive taken the card out and had a close look at it. There is a slim heatsink at the rear that is supposed to cool the MOSFETS, but upon closer inspection there is a very thin gap between the heatsink and the MOSFETS thereby it wont be much help at all if its not touching. I take it they wont be cooled properly and Im thinking could this be causing the crashes with excess heat. Any suggestions on this?
Got exakt same problem here with my Galaxy 6800GT.
The gpu/ram cooling aint the problem, think its the MOSFETS here too, i got the same gap to the heatsink. After removing heatsink noticed 1 yellow mosfet and 2 black, probobly the yellow that is damaged.
My 6800GT is now running fine with 1 pixel unit closed, probobly becouse this gives less stress on the mosfets...
Yeah I think my card is knackered to with overheating and probably damaged Mosfets. I still have a years Warranty left as the company I bought it from said Galaxy have a 2 year warranty on the 6800GT. Thing is I dont want another 6800GT and as far as I know they arent in production anymore, some credit towards a 7800GT would be nice as my other system is pcie and would like to completely move away from Agp now.
Im still troubleshooting this :( Ive taken the card out and had a close look at it. There is a slim heatsink at the rear that is supposed to cool the MOSFETS, but upon closer inspection there is a very thin gap between the heatsink and the MOSFETS thereby it wont be much help at all if its not touching. I take it they wont be cooled properly and Im thinking could this be causing the crashes with excess heat. Any suggestions on this?
I think you hit it on the nail there.
You could try removing the heatsink on the mosfets and aplly some type of thermal paste, I did this on my old 6800GT with generic white thermal paste and it worked fine.
I could make my old 6800GT do excatly what yours did by flashing the BIOS with 1.4v, I don't the think the power stage on my GT could handle it and the card would go nintendo after 5-10 minutes.
I just removed the heatsink there and applied artic silver to the mosfets and made sure the heatsink was now touching them. It now crashes immediately when going into 3d mode, the mosfets must be indeed damaged by the long term excessive heat.
I just removed the heatsink there and applied artic silver to the mosfets and made sure the heatsink was now touching them. It now crashes immediately when going into 3d mode, the mosfets must be indeed damaged by the long term excessive heat.
**** man, you should have not used Artic Silver, it can be conductive. On mosfets you can use the cheaper white/generic heat paste.
I feel kind of bad, should've told you to make sure not to use Artic Silver there.
But you said it only happens going to 3D mode which makes me think the Artic Silver maybe did no harm.
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