6600GT, white blocks in the sky, color depth and refresh resets

[randalee]

NVidia 6600GT series AGP card. In an Intel 865 motherboard.

I have been bugged the last few months with my windows color depth resetting itself to 16-bit and 60hz refresh every time I reboot. I just got used to adjusting depth back up to 32, and refresh to 85hz every time it comes up now. However, it still drives me nuts!

Now I am playin a few games, mostly source-engine stuff -- Counterstrike, Day of Defeat.. I have been having a HECK of a time getting things to run well. Thought I had solved my sound stuttering/crashing problem by disabling hyperthreading.

Anyhow, now I am getting 1/2"- 2" squares in the sky when any portion of sky is visible. I imagine this is artifacting. Is this card pooched? It's a stock 6600GT with stock cooler, etc. I've never tried overclocking (don't even know HOW)... Any ideas?

 

[dedejean]

is the stock heatsink color silver? i got mine RMAed last year because the first release had faulty heatsink/fan. the second one, which has silver heatsink is the better one. Just some info you might consider... check the temps, what temp at max load?

 

[betasub]

pooched?

 

[randalee]

Originally posted by: dedejean
is the stock heatsink color silver? i got mine RMAed last year because the first release had faulty heatsink/fan. the second one, which has silver heatsink is the better one. Just some info you might consider... check the temps, what temp at max load?

Hmmm... It's an eVGA card -- with a black-colored aluminum heatsink. It has a big Doom sticker on it.

I don't know how to check temperatures on the card. I assume that's in the NVidia Control panel, but I don't see where. All I can see is 3D settings, display settings and video & television settings.

 

[Rockinacoustic]

'Temperature setting' should be an option under the tab Geforce 6600gt in the Nv control panel on your computer. It is between 'Additional info' and 'Refresh rate overrides'

 

[randalee]

I can tell you this -- I can touch the main heatsink and although it's fairly warm, I'm not worried. However, if I touch the tiny heatsink covering the AGP/PCI-express converter chip, I have to pull my finger away. IT is HOT HOT HOT.

 

[randalee]

Okay, I put an OLD NVIDIA TNT2 card in a PCI slot. Same drivers, etc. PC keeps the refresh rate and color depth set when I reboot now.

I can even fire up Counterstrike Source without artifacts. However, 640x480 at 10fps sucks.

 

[Rockinacoustic]

Originally posted by: randalee
I can tell you this -- I can touch the main heatsink and although it's fairly warm, I'm not worried. However, if I touch the tiny heatsink covering the AGP/PCI-express converter chip, I have to pull my finger away. IT is HOT HOT HOT.

I think the heatsink you are reffering to covers the memory modules. If that is hotter than the gpu heatsink then your memory is most likely overheating. Unfortunatley, the agp version of the 6600gt has a horrible cooling configuration and not many aftermarket coolers are compatible with it.

First off, are you sure your fan is runnng? If so, what you can do is download coolbits, which is a registry tool that will enable a clock settings tab in the nv control panel. Downclock your memory anywhere from 50-200 mhz and see if you notice the card becomeing cooler. A good program to monitor the temp of your video card without any extra features since you dont overclock is NVtemplogger. Just google both programs and see what you can do.

 

[ojingoh]

i had major issues with my 6800gt after a few months because of the heatsink and fan (old aluminum one) -- they get completely covered in dust. i just ended up peeling off the heatsink on mine and blowing all the stuck dust off, it was a LOT of dust.

pre cleaning: 90c
post cleaning: 55c

 

[randalee]

Okay it's a NO-GO on having temperature available to me. Looks like my 6600GT is one of those that has temp monitoring disabled in the card BIOS/firmware. I found some instructions for fixing that, but I'm too lazy. I don't have a floppy drive, and trying to make a boot CD to do that gives me nightmares -- I never have good luck with boot CDs.

Anyhow, I did a Driver Cleaner routine, and went a downloaded a FRESH copy of the 91.31 WHQL drivers. My desktop situation is fixed -- no more problems with refresh and color depth getting reset at reboot.

I am now nailing down better at what the white boxes issue is. It only is happening at 1600x1200. I turn things down to 1280x960, and no more white boxes. I can only get it to happen in CS or DoD -- Source engine games. I ran FEAR, even cranking everything to max. at 1600x1200, and can get no white squares to appear anywhere.

Perhaps it's a Source thing. I'm going to see if I can get some screenshots and send to Valve, or post on the forum.

 

[randalee]

Here we go -- LARGE PICS WARNING!

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