Geforce 6600 GT disaster

[flummoxed]

Hi,
my MSI Geforce 6600GT (PCIe) has been giving problems recently. I've had this card for 2 years and have played games like Rome:Total War and World of Warcraft without any problems. However, I recently bought Half-Life 2 and while playing it for a few minutes, my screen just went blank and hung. I decided to first upgrade my nvidia driver (to version 8419). Some pple recommended turning AGP fastwrite off, which I did (via Rivatuner). Having done so, I tried to play Half-life 2 again...it worked a bit better, but promptly hung again. After all this had failed, I figured it's probably got something to do with my power supply ... having no time to buy it on a weekday, I was actually intending to get one this weekend. Before I could do so, disaster struck.

After rebooting and restoring my default driver settings via Rivatuner again, I decided to try my other PC games, which I had no problems with in the past. Only to see this:

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=20359&stc=1&d=1158365756
iviewcapture_date_16_09_2006_time_07_51_18.jpg
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=20360&stc=1&d=1158365756
iviewcapture_date_16_09_2006_time_07_51_41.jpg

My graphics are screwed! The weird thing is that 2d graphics (such as desktop, internet) are ok...the gibberish occurs only when I start playing games that use video or 3d graphics. I've not overclocked my graphics card, so it couldn't have fried...although normal temperatures were a bit on the high side originally at 80+ degrees.

I'd appreciate whatever help you kind folks can provide...here're my specs:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+
MSI Geforce 6600GT
1 Gb RAM

Thanks!

[agentkay]

Judging by the screenshots alone I´d say the memory got damaged. If you don´t get such or any artifacts in other games, the chances are quite good that its a software/driver issue. For fixing this problem I would recommend to go back to default settings in Rivatuner and to a driver which you know that didn´t produce visual artifacts, or if everything fails, to re-install Windows as a last resort.

Good luck and welcome to NvNews!

Edit: When I think about it, Daydre@ms thermal/overheating suggestion sounds much more realistic then mine. :p

[Daydre@m]

although normal temperatures were a bit on the high side originally at 80+ degrees.


A BIT :afraid: !!!! The 6600 runs quite cooler than that , the core should be under 40 degrees . I think its a simple heatsink reseating issue. Check out the fan of the card and see if its running ? If yes then check that the heat sink touches the core properly . I am sure it will be alright once the card goes around 40 degrees ..

PS : We had this issue on a friends 9800 pro , the heatsink got out of its place and it started showing artifacts at high temps. Once we reseated the heatsink with a good thermal compound , the card began working perfectly. And oh yeah aren't black artifacts an indication of core ?..... Memory instability causes white snowing .... I think ...

[Aphot]

40? no way, mine idles at like 50-55c.. Load of about 75-80. But i have a bridge chip, which probably adds some heat.

[Daydre@m]

Yes you maybe right , but 80 on idle is quite high if you ask me ( if that is what he means by idle temperature ).

[flummoxed]

thanks folks for your help .. I really hope it's a heat issue as I don't really want half-life 2 to end up costing as much as a new graphics card! While I'm at it, I might as well check my power supply too... I'll keep all of u updated on how it goes.

P.s. Is it just me, or does the Geforce 6600gt seem very problematic. There seems to be a lot of posts of gamers complaining abt it.

[tymon]

Hi there, I've also got the 6600Gt but from inno3d. Idle temp ranges at 36-40 degrees. I had artifact problems a while ago, and emailed inno about it. They sent me a firmware/bios update for my card and since then no looking back. I wanted to ask if you had loaded firmware, because as far as I know you cannot check the temperature on a 6600gt if it is not flashed. Next as the guys said check the heatsink seating on your card. Disable any overclocking you have. Might not be ram as I have had the ram problem with previous cards and all their speckles were green. Oh well.

[sharangad]

I wanted to ask if you had loaded firmware, because as far as I know you cannot check the temperature on a 6600gt if it is not flashed.

Some of them can and some of them can't, It really depends on what options the manufacturer decided to enable in the BIOS. For instance I had an AGP XFX 6600 GT which had temperature monitoring and a Gigabyte 6600 GT which didn't.

[Daydre@m]

You cannot check the temperatures through nvidia drivers but yes you can do that via 3rd party softwares like Everest Home / Corporate Edition ( I think the thermal diode is included in all cards because its in reference design ). The newer BIOS just enable you to check the temps in nvidia drivers.

[flummoxed]

Hi folks.

well, I removed my case to see what's the problem with the Geforce 6600GT and realised that the fan on the chip wasn't working anymore! So, I bought a Zalman VF900-CU cooler, fixed it on (and voided my warranty in the process..but it's two years old, so the warranty's probably expired anyway), and as a result my core idle temperature has been reduced by half to 40 degrees.

Alas..my 3d games still have terrible black artifacts and lots of zig zag lines. There's nothing wrong with my power supply, as it's an Antec 430W and the 12v pin has a max of 24A (or thereabouts..def over 20A). I fear Half-life 2 has fried my graphics card for good.

Sigh. Is there any other remedy? If not, I guess I'll have to get a new card...how's the 7600gt?

[chigger_ns]

Iwould say that your fan not working has given you a new opertunity to upreade .:p

[agentkay]

Sorry to hear that. Thats the only downside of a "quiet" card. I was always glad to be able to hear my card at least somewhat so I didn´t run into such a problem of a .25ct part killing a $250+ card.

Back on topic, the 7600GT is an excellent card and a nice upgrade from your old one. The 7900GS is even better, more pipelines, and it comes with a 256-bit memory bus, for $199.