GeForce 6800 and random freezes

Noxis · 07-22-04, 04:55 PM

I did have a problem with random freezing mainly noticed in FarCry (very card stressful) and when attempting to bench in '03

Yes I know there have been several threads but no one has posted a concrete solution. This worked for me and ALOT of other people in the OCUK forum.

First of all I thought heat, then I thought power related. However after lots of testing and forum posts it turns out it was Fast Writes being enabled causing it. I cant take credit but it definitly fixed the problem.

Interestingly disabling it in bios did not disable it in windows and I had to disable it using RivaTuner.

Also instersetingly for people not experiancing this, disabling Fast Writes appears to allow higher overclocks for people using all types of 6800s.

This appears to be a problem specifically on the nforce3 150/250/Pro/non-pro chipset ironically (as far as we know).

The problem has been posted by people in various places but its never been categorically fixed to my knowledge anyway (I did lots of googling believe me!). So I felt it best to post as a FYI for people.

Updated on 3/20/2005 by MikeC:

I put together a new system back in January, which consists of an AMD Athlon 64 4000+, MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum Motherboard (nForce 3 Ultra), and two 512MB sticks of Corsair DDR400 dual-channel memory.

Most of my gaming of late has been in single-player mode, but this weekend I had the urge to fire up my favorite multi-player game - Enemy Territory. Unfortunately, I have spent most of that time investigating an annoying system "freeze" that occurs while playing on PunkBuster enabled servers. The system even "freezes" for a split second when PunkBuster is enabled during ET's player profile creation process.

I didn't experience this problem during a preview of the GeForce 6800 Ultra on a similar system last April. I have tested the GeForce 6800 Ultra and Radeon X800 XT PE in the new system and the problem occurs with both graphics cards. There are a number of items left to troubleshoot, but so far the only way I have been able to avoid the problem is to play on servers that do not require Punkbuster.

The main reason I am mentioning this is because of the growing number of reports of random lockups and freezes with GeForce 6 Series graphics cards. If you are experiencing similar problems during on-line gameplay, be sure to check out "Punkbuster, ATI and Nvidia: Freezing in your online FPS favorites?" over at Neoseeker. Then head over and contribute in this massive thread at HardwareForum.

System Specs:

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ Processor
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum Motherboard (nForce 3 Ultra)
Corsair TWINX1024-3200LLPRO - (2) 512MB DIMMs - 1GB Total
Antec 550W TruePower Power Supply
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra
ATI Radeon X800 XT PE
Creative Sound Blaster Driver v1. 84. 55
NVIDIA nForce Unified Driver v5.10 (Ethernet v4.42, GART v4.36, SMBus v4.04, NVIDIA IDE v4.46)
NVIDIA ForceWare Graphics Driver v71.84
ATI CATALYST Graphics Driver v5.3
Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 & DirectX 9.0c

Vagrant Zero · 07-22-04, 05:11 PM

For me, it only freezes when OCed...and even then it's about a minute into a level...happens once per level. I find it to be acceptable, and that's just Far Cry and 2003. Everything else works like a charm. Small price to pay for a 430/1150 OC.

Noxis · 07-22-04, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vagrant Zero

For me, it only freezes when OCed...and even then it's about a minute into a level...happens once per level. I find it to be acceptable, and that's just Far Cry and 2003. Everything else works like a charm. Small price to pay for a 430/1150 OC.

Seriously try disabling FW it may solve that problem for you, also people are reporting that setting the 2D and 3D overclocks the same can solve freezing issues when OCed to higher speeds.

cam9786 · 07-22-04, 05:32 PM

Strange, when I go into the AGP part of Rivatuner, it's all grayed out? ANy helpe here, I want in on this!

EDIT: Nevermind, you MUST disable it from the bios on non intel based motherboard systems. As for my OC, I got a bit higher, thanks man!

Odral · 07-22-04, 06:05 PM

I was still having problems with Far Cry, can't wait to go home and try this thanks!

cam9786 · 07-22-04, 06:13 PM

Man, it worked great the first time after disabling the FW, then i restarted and it froze again, and FW's were off. I dunno, I really want this solved man.

cam9786 · 07-22-04, 06:30 PM

Nevermind, I Fixed it. Never have your 2d and 3d clocks the exact same. It froze mine up and got all weird. I am just gonna use default clocks of 400/1100 with FW turned off. Best way to go.

EngenZerO · 07-22-04, 06:34 PM

I am using a MSi K8N Neo (250GB) and a BFG 6800 Ultra OC (450/1.2) with fastwrites on. I have no problems what so ever with FarCry or 3DMark03. I dunno...

Noxis · 07-23-04, 03:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EngenZerO

I am using a MSi K8N Neo (250GB) and a BFG 6800 Ultra OC (450/1.2) with fastwrites on. I have no problems what so ever with FarCry or 3DMark03. I dunno...

Not everyone is having problems but I posted it because I saw some people were and I definitly was. Glad its helped.

Noxis · 07-25-04, 05:03 AM

Can this be made sticky? So many people asking the same thing.....

YOGIx213 · 07-25-04, 06:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cam9786

Nevermind, I Fixed it. Never have your 2d and 3d clocks the exact same. It froze mine up and got all weird. I am just gonna use default clocks of 400/1100 with FW turned off. Best way to go.

That's funny... I had the exact same problem and what worked for me was to have both 2D and 3D clocks the same. After that, my game freeze problems dissappeared. I guess if you're having problems, just try having the 2D and 3D same then try them different. These cards seem to have a life of their own.

cam9786 · 07-25-04, 10:12 AM

hah, yeah they do. Well, I DID get higher OC's after FW's were turned off, like alot higher. Before I was getting at the highest like 409/1.08. Now I can get it to 420/1150!. Fastwrites blow, I hate them. They cause too many freeing problems.

07-22-04, 04:55 PM	#1
Noxis Registered User Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 84	GeForce 6800 and random freezes I did have a problem with random freezing mainly noticed in FarCry (very card stressful) and when attempting to bench in '03 Yes I know there have been several threads but no one has posted a concrete solution. This worked for me and ALOT of other people in the OCUK forum. First of all I thought heat, then I thought power related. However after lots of testing and forum posts it turns out it was Fast Writes being enabled causing it. I cant take credit but it definitly fixed the problem. Interestingly disabling it in bios did not disable it in windows and I had to disable it using RivaTuner. Also instersetingly for people not experiancing this, disabling Fast Writes appears to allow higher overclocks for people using all types of 6800s. This appears to be a problem specifically on the nforce3 150/250/Pro/non-pro chipset ironically (as far as we know). The problem has been posted by people in various places but its never been categorically fixed to my knowledge anyway (I did lots of googling believe me!). So I felt it best to post as a FYI for people. Updated on 3/20/2005 by MikeC: I put together a new system back in January, which consists of an AMD Athlon 64 4000+, MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum Motherboard (nForce 3 Ultra), and two 512MB sticks of Corsair DDR400 dual-channel memory. Most of my gaming of late has been in single-player mode, but this weekend I had the urge to fire up my favorite multi-player game - Enemy Territory. Unfortunately, I have spent most of that time investigating an annoying system "freeze" that occurs while playing on PunkBuster enabled servers. The system even "freezes" for a split second when PunkBuster is enabled during ET's player profile creation process. I didn't experience this problem during a preview of the GeForce 6800 Ultra on a similar system last April. I have tested the GeForce 6800 Ultra and Radeon X800 XT PE in the new system and the problem occurs with both graphics cards. There are a number of items left to troubleshoot, but so far the only way I have been able to avoid the problem is to play on servers that do not require Punkbuster. The main reason I am mentioning this is because of the growing number of reports of random lockups and freezes with GeForce 6 Series graphics cards. If you are experiencing similar problems during on-line gameplay, be sure to check out "Punkbuster, ATI and Nvidia: Freezing in your online FPS favorites?" over at Neoseeker. Then head over and contribute in this massive thread at HardwareForum. System Specs: AMD Athlon 64 4000+ Processor MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum Motherboard (nForce 3 Ultra) Corsair TWINX1024-3200LLPRO - (2) 512MB DIMMs - 1GB Total Antec 550W TruePower Power Supply Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra ATI Radeon X800 XT PE Creative Sound Blaster Driver v1. 84. 55 NVIDIA nForce Unified Driver v5.10 (Ethernet v4.42, GART v4.36, SMBus v4.04, NVIDIA IDE v4.46) NVIDIA ForceWare Graphics Driver v71.84 ATI CATALYST Graphics Driver v5.3 Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 & DirectX 9.0c Last edited by Noxis; 07-25-04 at 12:27 PM.

07-22-04, 05:11 PM	#2
Vagrant Zero I'm a Back Door Man Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 1,750	Re: Random freezing in FarCry otehr games and 3Dmark03 on 6800's (Solution!) + bigger OCs For me, it only freezes when OCed...and even then it's about a minute into a level...happens once per level. I find it to be acceptable, and that's just Far Cry and 2003. Everything else works like a charm. Small price to pay for a 430/1150 OC.

07-22-04, 05:32 PM	#4
cam9786 Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Right Behind You... Posts: 368	Re: Random freezing in FarCry otehr games and 3Dmark03 on 6800's (Solution!) + bigger Strange, when I go into the AGP part of Rivatuner, it's all grayed out? ANy helpe here, I want in on this! EDIT: Nevermind, you MUST disable it from the bios on non intel based motherboard systems. As for my OC, I got a bit higher, thanks man! __________________ [B][SIZE=1]System Specs: Custom Built All Grey Case with air-intake slides at the side. 4 Drive Bays [B]AMD Athlon XP 3200+ "Barton" Core @ 2.22GHz, 400MHz Front Side Bus[/B] [B]BFG GeForce 6800GT OC @ 400/1.10 GHz[/B] 40GB Maxtor Hard Drive 7200RPM 17'' Flat-Screen Silver Monitor -KDS Visual Sensations [B]ASUS A7N8X Motherboard nForce2 Ultra Chipset 400FSB Dual Channel[/B] [B]Crucial 1024 MB PC3200 DDR 400 RAM[/B] nForce2 Audio Controller Labtec Desktop Speakers & Subwoofer ASUS CD-RW 52x24x52 Burner Large AMD Athlon XP Fan Large Air Case Fan Antec True430 430 Watt Power Supply - 20A on 12V line[/SIZE][/B] [B]3dMark03 -[/B] [URL=http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=2811011]http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=2811011[/URL] [I][B]Kamel on Kids and Doom 3 -[/B] [/I] [I]i don't know about you guys, but i'd like to teach my kid that if a demon breaks into our house, you should shoot the bastard... multiple times, until he decinegrates (just to make sure).[/I] I am 73% addicted to Counterstrike. [url=http://seanism.com/addiction/cs.php]What about you?[/url] Last edited by cam9786; 07-22-04 at 05:47 PM.

07-22-04, 06:05 PM	#5
Odral True Gamer Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Colorado Springs, CO Posts: 354	Re: Random freezing in FarCry otehr games and 3Dmark03 on 6800's (Solution!) + bigger OCs I was still having problems with Far Cry, can't wait to go home and try this thanks!

07-22-04, 06:13 PM	#6
cam9786 Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Right Behind You... Posts: 368	Re: Random freezing in FarCry otehr games and 3Dmark03 on 6800's (Solution!) + bigger OCs Man, it worked great the first time after disabling the FW, then i restarted and it froze again, and FW's were off. I dunno, I really want this solved man. __________________ [B][SIZE=1]System Specs: Custom Built All Grey Case with air-intake slides at the side. 4 Drive Bays [B]AMD Athlon XP 3200+ "Barton" Core @ 2.22GHz, 400MHz Front Side Bus[/B] [B]BFG GeForce 6800GT OC @ 400/1.10 GHz[/B] 40GB Maxtor Hard Drive 7200RPM 17'' Flat-Screen Silver Monitor -KDS Visual Sensations [B]ASUS A7N8X Motherboard nForce2 Ultra Chipset 400FSB Dual Channel[/B] [B]Crucial 1024 MB PC3200 DDR 400 RAM[/B] nForce2 Audio Controller Labtec Desktop Speakers & Subwoofer ASUS CD-RW 52x24x52 Burner Large AMD Athlon XP Fan Large Air Case Fan Antec True430 430 Watt Power Supply - 20A on 12V line[/SIZE][/B] [B]3dMark03 -[/B] [URL=http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=2811011]http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=2811011[/URL] [I][B]Kamel on Kids and Doom 3 -[/B] [/I] [I]i don't know about you guys, but i'd like to teach my kid that if a demon breaks into our house, you should shoot the bastard... multiple times, until he decinegrates (just to make sure).[/I] I am 73% addicted to Counterstrike. [url=http://seanism.com/addiction/cs.php]What about you?[/url]

07-22-04, 06:30 PM	#7
cam9786 Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Right Behind You... Posts: 368	Re: Random freezing in FarCry otehr games and 3Dmark03 on 6800's (Solution!) + bigger OCs Nevermind, I Fixed it. Never have your 2d and 3d clocks the exact same. It froze mine up and got all weird. I am just gonna use default clocks of 400/1100 with FW turned off. Best way to go. __________________ [B][SIZE=1]System Specs: Custom Built All Grey Case with air-intake slides at the side. 4 Drive Bays [B]AMD Athlon XP 3200+ "Barton" Core @ 2.22GHz, 400MHz Front Side Bus[/B] [B]BFG GeForce 6800GT OC @ 400/1.10 GHz[/B] 40GB Maxtor Hard Drive 7200RPM 17'' Flat-Screen Silver Monitor -KDS Visual Sensations [B]ASUS A7N8X Motherboard nForce2 Ultra Chipset 400FSB Dual Channel[/B] [B]Crucial 1024 MB PC3200 DDR 400 RAM[/B] nForce2 Audio Controller Labtec Desktop Speakers & Subwoofer ASUS CD-RW 52x24x52 Burner Large AMD Athlon XP Fan Large Air Case Fan Antec True430 430 Watt Power Supply - 20A on 12V line[/SIZE][/B] [B]3dMark03 -[/B] [URL=http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=2811011]http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=2811011[/URL] [I][B]Kamel on Kids and Doom 3 -[/B] [/I] [I]i don't know about you guys, but i'd like to teach my kid that if a demon breaks into our house, you should shoot the bastard... multiple times, until he decinegrates (just to make sure).[/I] I am 73% addicted to Counterstrike. [url=http://seanism.com/addiction/cs.php]What about you?[/url]

07-22-04, 06:34 PM	#8
EngenZerO j3d1 Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 166	Re: Random freezing in FarCry otehr games and 3Dmark03 on 6800's (Solution!) + bigger OCs I am using a MSi K8N Neo (250GB) and a BFG 6800 Ultra OC (450/1.2) with fastwrites on. I have no problems what so ever with FarCry or 3DMark03. I dunno... __________________ [he_who_dares_wins]-[sas]

07-25-04, 05:03 AM	#10
Noxis Registered User Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 84	Re: Random freezing in FarCry otehr games and 3Dmark03 on 6800's (Solution!) + bigger OCs Can this be made sticky? So many people asking the same thing.....

07-25-04, 10:12 AM	#12
cam9786 Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Right Behind You... Posts: 368	Re: Random freezing in FarCry otehr games and 3Dmark03 on 6800's (Solution!) + bigger OCs hah, yeah they do. Well, I DID get higher OC's after FW's were turned off, like alot higher. Before I was getting at the highest like 409/1.08. Now I can get it to 420/1150!. Fastwrites blow, I hate them. They cause too many freeing problems. __________________ [B][SIZE=1]System Specs: Custom Built All Grey Case with air-intake slides at the side. 4 Drive Bays [B]AMD Athlon XP 3200+ "Barton" Core @ 2.22GHz, 400MHz Front Side Bus[/B] [B]BFG GeForce 6800GT OC @ 400/1.10 GHz[/B] 40GB Maxtor Hard Drive 7200RPM 17'' Flat-Screen Silver Monitor -KDS Visual Sensations [B]ASUS A7N8X Motherboard nForce2 Ultra Chipset 400FSB Dual Channel[/B] [B]Crucial 1024 MB PC3200 DDR 400 RAM[/B] nForce2 Audio Controller Labtec Desktop Speakers & Subwoofer ASUS CD-RW 52x24x52 Burner Large AMD Athlon XP Fan Large Air Case Fan Antec True430 430 Watt Power Supply - 20A on 12V line[/SIZE][/B] [B]3dMark03 -[/B] [URL=http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=2811011]http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=2811011[/URL] [I][B]Kamel on Kids and Doom 3 -[/B] [/I] [I]i don't know about you guys, but i'd like to teach my kid that if a demon breaks into our house, you should shoot the bastard... multiple times, until he decinegrates (just to make sure).[/I] I am 73% addicted to Counterstrike. [url=http://seanism.com/addiction/cs.php]What about you?[/url]