8800GT shutting off randomly?

[Gerr]

I have a factory overclocked (700/920/1675) 8800GT that just shuts itself down every once in a while. I keep an eye on it's heat, but it's never high as it came with a Zalman cooler. It didn't do it in Vista and mainly only does it while running Shadowbane. It's like the card just shuts off and I have to do a cold reset to get it back up. It's very annoying.

I tried resetting the memory and shaders back to 8800GT specs, no luck. Reduced the core to 650, no luck. Reduced the core to the 600, which is the 8800GT stock, so far so good. I don't get artifacts or any heat issues, it just shuts itself off.

Any ideas?

 

[archcommus]

What temps are you getting at load?

What do you mean by "shutting off" exactly? You say you get no artifacts, so are you saying your display just goes completely black? If it's fixed immediately by a reboot and you're sure it's not a heat issue then it must be a very strange software problem. If it's not always fixed immediately after rebooting and instead only after some time has passed I would think the card might be bad.

Give us some more details and we'll try to see what's going on.

 

[Gerr]

I monitor the temps up until the point it shuts off, never gets above 65*C with the Zalman on it. And yes, it's like the card just shuts off, my screen goes blank(black) and my monitor shows loss of signal, but I know the system is still working as I can hear the game through the speakers. A warm boot doesn't fix it, need to do a cold boot to get it back.

 

[error8]

Tell us what components you have, including the PSU.

 

[Gerr]

CPU = Intel Q6600 oc'ed to 3.2Ghz.
Memory = 4GB OCZ DDR2-1066
Mobo = Asus P5K-E
PSU = Antec Earthwatts 500W
Case = Antec 900
LCD = Gateway FHD2400
Optical = Samsung 20x DVD-RW w/LS

With only the one videocard, my 500W PSU should be more than powerful enough.

 

[error8]

Yes, the PSU should be enough. Can you try your card into another system?

 

[Gerr]

Ended up selling the card on Craigslist, bought an 8800GTS 512MB to replace it.

 

[archcommus]

You sold a card that is very possibly defective? What do you expect that guy to think when he receives it and maybe has the same problem?

 

[narreth]

Originally posted by: archcommus
You sold a card that is very possibly defective? What do you expect that guy to think when he receives it and maybe has the same problem?

 

[Gerr]

Buyer beware...but it only ever acted up in Shadowbane, never in any of the other games, so hopefully he won't get the same problem I did.

But I think it was my PSU as I did get a power warning once on it, so bought a Corsair 520HX.

 

[Gerr]

My problem wasn't ever BSOD's. Suddenly, my videocard would just stop and my LCD would go dark and tells me no input from connection. I know my system was still running as I can hear the sounds and could still do things in game like cast spells, which I can hear, but I see no picture. A warm reset wouldn't fix it either, only a cold boot.

I kept a log of my videocard temps thinking that was it, but it wasn't. Kept a log of my CPU and RAM heat, no issues there. Plus the weird thing is it would ONLY ever do this in a game called Shadowbane. I could play any other game for hours, no issues, and that included Crysis. I simply can't explain it.

Only reason I think it might be power related is once I did get a warning message from the videocard drivers saying there wasn't enough power going to my videocard so it would underclock it and thus preformance would suffer. This happened with the Antec Earthwatts 500W connected to the videocard, so not sure what to think of that. Only saw that once, but once was enough to raise an eyebrow.

On the chance it was an issue with the videocard, I sold that card, making sure the new owner didn't play Shadowbane. I bought a new EVGA 8800GTS 512MB to replace the videocard I sold. I then bought a new PSU incase that was the problem, a Corsair 520HX. Hopefully, one of these will fix my issue.

Thoughts?

 

[error8]

Well if it was only in that SINGLE GAME it was probably because of the game itself. In your first post you've said that it does it MAINLY in this game, so we all thought it might do it in other games. Which is it then?

 

[Gerr]

I did originally think it was mainly in SB, but thoughts it also happened in other games. I did some testing last night, couldn't get it to do anything on other games, even fully OC'ed, but did it within 15 min in SB. Weird, I can't explain it. Might SB be making some hardware call that could cause this were other games are not?