Viconius

Intro:

Hello! I'm new to the forum here and I am posting because I have tried everything, thrown good money after bad, wasted more than a month and drove newegg Customer support (and myself) insane -- and I'm still having massive problems with my rig. Things have gotten worse, not better, since I've begun attempting to fix it. I will FOREVER honor anybody who can actually help me put this problem to rest, and send a donation to this site to boot. If I cannot get help here, my last resort -- I'm breaking this rig with a claw hammer and starting from scratch... something I can ill afford as I bought this rig about a year ago.

First my Specs:

Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PDC24G6400LLK -

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Microsoft Windows XP Professional With SP2C for System Builders

LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write Black SATA Model

MASSCOOL BLD12025S1M 120mm Blue LED Case Fan
(LIKE SIX OF THESE! I ALSO HAVE AN EXTRA VENT FAN ON THE BACK BOTTOM JUST TO KEEP HEAT AWAY FROM THE VIDEO CARD. I Don't think cooling is an issue, at all anymore -- I've run tests to log system temp and it has crashed with temps of 65 degrees with load, 50 baseline.)


GENERIC 18" 2-Head Red SATA (SERIAL ATA 150) Cable Model SERIAL ATA 18

NZXT Zero Black/Silver Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail

Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB 10000 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive - OEM

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 Kentsfield 2.66GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6700

EVGA 768-P2-N881-AR GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

ASUS P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard


THE PROBLEM:

My power supply died the first really hot day of this year. Swapped it out, and the computer has been having these display crashes commonly every 5 to 15 minutes (I'm praying it doesn't happen as I type this and alternately cutting and pasting into notepad so I don't have to retype) but sometimes it can go almost 2 hours without a crash. The display crashes are fewer or more far apart it seems when I keep it on a low resolution (800x600) and can happen FAST when I run it on high resolution or push the rig on a graphic intensive game (can't get more than 4 minutes into "The Witcher") I had crashes like these before the power supply died, but it was normally after hours of play, and not all the time -- and they didn't seem exactly the same (the old crashes locked up the system, the screen would stay a single solid color, and the sound would hang until I restarted -- they happened infrequently but often enough to bother me. I thought it might be something with my settings then, but since the power supply died and I replaced it with a new one, I'm thinking maybe some element of my hardware is dead.

The current crashes I call "display crashes" because I can tell often-times that the computer is still running whatever it is doing, but I just can't see it. The sound works and for example I can hear flash games responding to my input although the screen is locked this one solid color. The color is not always the same, and usually one of the main colors presently on display (ie, crashes on the desktop are blue or white, the primary colors of my wallpaper)
Sometimes I think, I'm not sure, that what is running unseen breaks down shortly after the display crash, but I can't be sure.

I've tried everything. Updated drivers, updated bios for when I swapped the motherboard for an identical one because I thought that was the problem, I bought a new graphics card: (XFX GX260NADFF GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported) -- and when I swapped that out it was DOA, RMA'ed it and the replacement was DOA as well... could I have that much bad luck or is it somehow associated? I even upgraded the cooling on my 8800 ultra with a duorb fan "Thermaltake CL-G0102 VGA Cooler" -- the crashes happen more often than ever. This is all the info I can think to post for now, if you need additional info, let me know. I'm lost, and my offline associates are stumped as well.
PLEASE HELP AND I WILL BE ETERNALLY GRATEFUL!

-Vic

Indoril Nerevar

Hi Vic, and welcome to TSF.

A similar inexplicable problem brought me to TSF 3 years ago, so I know exactly how you feel. We'll do our very best to help you sort this one out.

My first two thoughts while reading your post were "power supply" and "video card". I'm now thinking it's possibly a combination of the two. Please download Everest (link in my signature), and install it on your system. Use it to check what voltages your power supply is putting out (we need the +3.3V, +5V, +12V levels). You can find these by clicking Computer -> Sensor in Everest. If you have any troubles with Everest, try SensorsView (also in my sig). You can cross-check the results with the "Computer Health" section in the system BIOS. Post the voltages here for us to check.

I suspect your video card is faulty. You started down the path to check that, by getting the GTX260, but since those cards were DOA, you never actually found out a result. Do you have another computer with a PCI-Express video card? Or perhaps a friend who would be willing to let you borrow his/her card for testing? We need to see what happens when you swap the card out.

Viconius

THANK YOU FOR HEARING ME OUT THERE! I will follow your instructions (though I am not the MOST savvy sort) and hit back with the voltage information later tonight. I have ordered TWO similar but different video cards rush shipping so I will be able to test THEM early next week. I'll send back the ones I don't need for refund... I just can't imagine getting two faulty cards in a row... how often does that HAPPEN!?

I will get the info requested and hit back soon! A combination between the two I would never normally guess, and never actually untangle myself. Thing is, this is a NEW 750 W power supply!!! If *THAT* is faulty too -- my faith in newegg is shaken BADLY.

Talk soon, thank you SOOOO much for replying. I hope I can get help here!!!

Indoril Nerevar

I doubt it'd be newegg's fault. You may have just had a run of bad luck. It's happened to me plenty of times. But don't worry - bad luck doesn't last forever.

5NIPER_WOLF

Go here: www.techpowerup.com/atitool/downloads.php to download ATITool and scan for artifacts, if you find some then your card is probably faulty, and if you do find some, test again with the other video cards.

Also, are you sure the 6-pin and/or 8-pin power connectors running to your GPU are firmly in-place?.

Indoril Nerevar

If the ATITool finds artifacts, your card is definitely faulty. However, if it doesn't find artifacts, it doesn't guarantee that the card is okay. Try the ATITool while you wait for your new cards to arrive, but swapping the card out will give us a definite answer.

Viconius

My Voltages:

CPU CORE : 1.20V
+2.5V 3.23 V
+5V 5.00 V
+12V 11.84V
+5V standby 4.95 V
Vbat battery 3.23 V

Regarding Everest -- In 11 minutes of running the test, I got no errors -- but of course the reason I could only run it so long is because the display crashed. I will edit the "record" time for the test below, but how long should the test run before I can be sure there are no artifacts?

Max time w/o errors: 11 mins.

Been trying to post a bunch, but keeps crashing mid-message, will try to keep my messages short. Grandeloquently saying thanks at the end of my post is KILLING ME (fourth attempt) so please take for granted I'm EXTREMELY glad y'all are out there and willing to help.

ATIT has had an interesting side effect, It's showing me the temperature of my GPU on the bottom right bar of the desktop. it's presently 84 degrees and climbing...

I am not sure that it is rising like that (86) because I am running the artifact test which puts it under some kind of load or it just runs hotter and hotter once it's turned on. After the next crash I'll let y'all know. it's now leveled off at 87 degrees.. but that's entirely too hot, no?

I thought the cooling of the graphics card was something I could rule out, the last crash was at 89 degrees. It's burning up. Plus, I've been trying to run the artifact test and one time I ran it for almost 8 minutes, but it said at the bottom "no errors for 2 minutes" -- so perhaps there are artifacts? How can I be sure?

Indoril Nerevar

Hi Vic,

Your voltages look fine. I'd ask to see the voltages under load (while playing a game), but from the sounds of it you wouldn't be able to get them before the system crashed.

84 - 87 degrees is rather high. A couple of my video cards get up to about that, but it's not something one likes to see. I definitely think your video card is faulty, so the next step is to see what happens when you replace the card. If the crashes stop, then we can check the power supply voltages under load to see if the power supply is fine.

Viconius

Sir yes Sir. I am going to watch the temp monitor and see if the crashes happen under lesser temps. I'd like to think it could be as simple as swapping the card, but I'm amazed I would be sent a faulty card right after RMA'ing a faulty card. How can one ever be sure their hardware is good even out of the box if such things are so common?

barring updates, (I may post lower temp level crashes) I'll let you know whats up after I swap the cards. No way I could recieve four defective cards, right? right?! :D

Indoril Nerevar

I can't really comment as to what happened. I can tell you some possibilities, but it's all hypothetical.

One possibility is that they sent back the same card without doing anything (very bad, and unlikely). Another is that they made a few "fixes", but didn't actually fix what was causing the problem, before sending it back. Another is that they had a bad batch come off the assembly line, and you got two different cards from that one batch. Any number of things could have happened.

If the new card(s) you get are also DOA or faulty, then we need to start considering other things - like maybe the power supply is faulty and is damaging the cards as soon as you try to run them. But we won't start thinking about those things until we have some results from the new cards.

dai

with the 260 or the ultra i would be running this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...nc.-_-17139009

Viconius

so a 750 is insufficient, you think? Or could I get by with it?

Indoril Nerevar

You could probably get by with it, but I agree with dai that it's not advisable, especially if you end up running a GTX260. Running a system on a power supply that's too small for it will end up causing you more problems down the track. The Corsairs are good units, but the 850W would be more suited to your system.