webfryes

Hi. I've been dealing with this problem for a while now, and tried many solutions-- none of which have worked. Let me sum the problem up for you: when I play any computer game (World of Warcraft, Counter Strike: Source, Warcraft III, Titan Quest) My computer decides to freeze up completely, and the screen turns a mosaic of wonderful 16-bit colors (at least it looks like its 16-bit). Sometimes I can play a game for at least 10 minutes before it does this, sometimes if I'm lucky an hour or two.

I have tried many solutions including shutting down all background programs, messing with the screen resolution, turning graphics quality all the way down, playing the games in windowed mode, also installing a new video card driver. I have tried reinstalling the driver several times, thinking that maybe it is a bad driver but this hasn't helped, in fact since I installed the updated driver it seems to be happening more. I know it's not a heat problem because my case has 3 cooling fans in it, one of them which blows directly at the Graphics card and keeps it nice and cool.

Some games it happens more than others, it really likes to happen in counter strike source and titan quest, it happens less often in world of world of warcraft and warcraft 3. Also, it always happens in the blink of an eye, one minute I'm playing and the next the screen freezes up, turns many colors, and I have to restart the computer by forceably shutting it off. I can't alt tab out of it or anything, the computer locks up entirely.

What leads me to believe it's the video card is that it seems to be having trouble rendering the graphics. I'm not a hardware expert but after observing this behavior (for at least a year or more) the best terminology I could think of to describe it is the video card is "freaking out". The video card is an Nvidia Geforce 6800 GT. I know it's not a problem with the card being "not good enough" to run the games because it used to run all of these games with no problem whatsoever. This problem has been so elusive for me to solve I'm not even sure where to start anymore, but my first guess is that it's the video card. One of my friends suggested that I might need a new BIOS, however I have no idea.

Any help would be SINCERELY appreciated

-Micah

jarod

Try uninstalling the new video card driver and install the original driver (in the CD) that came together with the card

emosun

Welcome to tsf. Thats a good suggestion to try the original drivers for the card and also update the bios for the motherboard.

Also could you please post all of the specs for the pc? Including the power supply make and model. Also download speenfan from my sig and post back with temperature stats and voltages.

webfryes

Unfortunately I no longer have the driver CD that came with the card so I can't reinstall it that way, its a shame I know :(.

I don't know where to get a new BIOS for the motherboard, could you help me with this? The motherboard is an "Abit AV-8".

The power supply is an Enermax ATX 12v Ver. 1.3
MODEL: EG465P-VE

Here are the specs for the PC:
System: Microsoft Windows XP
Home Edition
Version 2002
Service Pack 2

Video card: Nvidia Geforce "BFG" 6800 GT "Overclocked"

RAM: 1GB DDR

Motherboard: Abit-AV8

I hope I got all the system specs you need, if not just post back and I can get anything else.

Here is the info from Speedfan:

CPU: 2400 RPM
NB: 0 RPM
SYS: 0 RPM
AUX 1: 0 RPM
AUX 2: 0 RPM

Local: 45C
Remote: 66C
HD0: 25C
CPU: 15C
SYS: 28C
PWM: 37C
CORE: 34C
CORE: 75C
AMBIENT: 44C

Thanks again for the help, look forward to hearing back.

webfryes

Little update on the CPU Temp.

Local: 47C
Remote: 69C
HD0: 29C
CPU: 18C
SYS: 28C
PWM: 40C
Core: 37C
Core:78C
Ambient: 46C

Edit: I found a website to download a new BIOS for the motherboard: http://extended64.com/blogs/wiak/arc...06/23/872.aspx

Does this look like it would work? I just don't want to have any booting problems by installing the wrong BIOS

webfryes

Also I want to add that after looking at the "Configure" screen, that "Core" that's at a sweltering 76C is listed as Nvidia Video Card.

Edit: its now up to 86C

emosun

Wow 86c is 186f. Thats pretty hot. Is the fan on the card spinning? Is there a large amount of dust in the case or is the room temperature really high?

webfryes

Yes 86 is very hot, I jumped to a conclusion by thinking the numbers of fans would mean it would be cool. The room temperature is very moderate, not high at all. The fan on the card is spinning. I also opened up the case and sprayed the card off with some of that computer duster stuff. Lots of dust came out of the fan and the card, however the temperature is still balancing out at about 85C.

webfryes

I just made an interesting observation. Using the "Charts" tab on SpeedFan I observed temperature changes after running Titan Quest for about 30 seconds, and after just 30 seconds of running the game the temperature shot from 86C to 97C so this is definitely a heat problem. How do you think I can cool the card down better?

emosun

Ok here is where you can get the bios from if you have the socket 939 amd

http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/downl...YPE=Socket+939

If that doesn't cool it down then you'll hafta figure out a way to cool it down better because its too hot , especially if its not gaming and just sitting. Also please post the voltages in speedfan.

emosun

You could try to under clock it with riva tuner. I guessing it has regular ddr ram and since its overclocked its probably just a heat monster.

webfryes

Ok voltages are as follows:

HTV 1.25V
CPU CORE: 1.41V
DDRVDD: 2.74V
3.3V: 3.33V
5v: 5.14V
NBVDD: 1.56V
AGP: 1.59V
DDRVTT: 1.40V
5VSB: 5.19V
3VDUAL: 3.30V
SBVDD: 2.58V

Edit: Also, I downloaded and installed Riva Tuner. How can I use it to underlock my graphics card?

emosun

click on this button here



There will be a little pull out menu , click on the button with the video card and also the picture of the magnifying glass.



This will open the hardware monitor (to view temps) and the overclocking tool. Only underclock don't overclock your card any higher then it is already. Hopefully this will lower the heat on the card but it will also loose power , but should stop crashing.

webfryes

I'm confused as to how I should underclock it, I clicked on the picture of the video card and I see three tabs: AGP, Fan, and NVStrap Driver. Which one of these do I use to underclock?

emosun

Theres no tab that says over clock? Thats odd because there should be.

webfryes

If I click on the one under "Driver Settings" I get an overclock tab. Is that what you meant because before I was clicking on the one under "Target adapter"?

emosun

it should look like this

webfryes

Ok I found that tab. Right now the Core Clock and the Memory Clock are both at the minimum. What should I do?

webfryes

Ok I tried clicking the box that says "Enable Driver Level Hardware Overclocking" it brought up a prompt telling me to restart my computer, so I did. When my computer rebooted the screen locked up just like it would when I play games. I rebooted several times and it kept doing this, so I went into safe mode and uninstalled RivaTuner, then reinstalled it and that seemed to fix the problem. I am afraid to try that again because I think the same thing will happen.

emosun

Other than to add more fans or lower the room temperature , I can't think of any other way to cool down the card short of buying a new one.