6600GT PCI-E & Corrupt Textures In 3D Apps! Help!

[HighCalibreHooch]

I've had the NX6600GT VTD128E (MSI Gefore 6 6600GT PCI-E) for about 4-5 months without issue, and I never over-clocked it all. Then suddenly my screen went totally corrupt with weird checkerboard patterns during Counter-Strike, requiring a reboot.

Now My computer runs fine in 2D, but as soon as I start any 3D game the screen gets distorted with flickering checkerboard patterns and jagged lines. Exit the program and my screen turns to close-to-normal. A few artifacts remain but can be ?wiped away? when I move an open window around the desktop.

I re-installed my nforce 4 system drivers, and tried 77.72, 71.89, and MSI?s 77.72 driver, and get the same problems, in all 3D applications. According to driver the card idles at 47-60 C.

I took the card out and noticed that the heatsink was wobbly & loose! If you press down on one end the other end separates from the memory modules! Is that the problem?

My system specs are:

AMD 64 s939 3000+ (default settings)
Gigabyte Nforce 4 Motherboard
1024 MB PC3200 Samsung RAM (2 x 512)
2 Seagates SATA HDDS
2 CD-ROMs
Audigy 2
D-Link 802.11g Wireless
MSI NX6600GT TD128E (PCI Express)
420W PSU

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

-HCH

 

[HighCalibreHooch]

bump & update:

I tried underclocking the core all the way down to 300 MHz in 3D mode (normally it's 300 in 2D, 500 in 3D), and the same thing happens. What gives?

 

[HighCalibreHooch]

bump