Attention! All 8800 owners: Please read this..

[trinanjan]

Hello folks,
It looks like my fairly new 8800GTS 320MB is dying (XFX PV-T80G-GHF9, Stock speeds) is dying. Although I generally don?t see any rendering errors, the card keeps crashing with a BSOD / error in ?NVLDDMKM.SYS?. The other day, I was playing CRYSIS (1.21) at 1280 X1024, high when I got a freeze followed by a BSOD (error in ?NVLDDMKM.SYS?). A similar crash recurred 4 times in the next few hours. Frustrated, I decided to do some stress testing. I cranked up the settings in CRYSIS to ?very high? and maxed out AA & AF. I also disabled all filtering optimizations in the NVIDIA 175.12 CPL. After raising the fan speeds to max, (using NTUNE) I fired up the CRYSIS benchmark GPU.DAT.
I sat back and watched as my dual slot monster started rendering the most beautiful slideshow at 0.5 FPS. Someway into the benchmark, the following happened:
1. The monitor lost its signal.
2. There were 3-4 odd short beeps from the system speaker.
3. Then, Vista rebooted and threw up ?System recovered from a serious error...?
Next, I ventured to run 3DMark Vantage @ Extreme + max AA + max AF at 1280 X1024.
The same events as in the previous sequence occurred.
Temperatures are okay... checked with Everest
PSU is a new Corsair 620HX with oodles of power for my system.
I do not OC at all. All I look for in my systems is 100% stability at stock. My motherboard is the ubiquitous Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 REV 3.3 with bios F12.
I use a Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4D kit.
Memory is okay with 11 odd passes of Memtest86+ 2.01.
I use the following memory timings:
DDR Over-volt = +0.2 (2.0V) Strangely enough, I get tons of MEMTEST errors with +0.3V (2.1V). I never get a single error with +0.2. Please note that the advertised voltage for this RAM is 2.1V (+0.3) and NOT +0.2!
4-4-4-12, Refresh to ACT Delay = 42. High Speed DRAM DLL = OPTION2 (OPTION 1 is not very stable with either +0.2/+0.3)
I also get the strange blank black frame flicker in Canyon Flight (3DMark06 demo run)
Video here http://www.youtube.com/v/Iz8TxiJTnio
I have heard that this a common issue with a lot of NVIDIA 8-series systems.
In addition to the above, the following issue with my Vista install is yet to be resolved.
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33920059
As you can understand, I am in a soup with this system. I built it out of rock-solid components and what I have is a ?liquid? experience... pun intended.
What do I do?
Get the 8800GT?
Or a 3870X2 ... oops! (Too costly ... My PSU doesn?t have a 4-pin PCI-E connector, only 2 standard 3 pin ones)
SOS...

 

[OmegaShadow]

if your gonna buy a new card, then go for the evga 8800gs .

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814130333


Price:$139.99
Mail-In Rebate : $30.00
Price after rebate(s):$104.99

 

[LordGestle]

My guess is that it's your memory. I was unable to see the black flicker via your movie (blocked via proxy) as that might point to something else, but from history if you have allot of reboots caused pointing to video drivers, and it's a fresh install or latest drivers, it's most likely memory being on the flaky side.
A few things that were left out of your original post:
1) What type of processor. You already mentioned you did not overclock
On the memory I would run each stick individually at the 2.1 volts specified by the vendor. See if both error out at that spec. I would also reset the of the memory setting to auto or spd outside of the 4-4-4-12.
I have owned a 8800GTS (640MB), 3870, 8800GT and have not seen this issue in vista or XP. But as mentioned, I have seen similar issues in the past with video and system memory.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: trinanjan
I also get the strange blank black frame flicker in Canyon Flight (3DMark06 demo run)
Video here http://www.youtube.com/v/Iz8TxiJTnio

Your video has no flicker, or blank black frame. Roll your video driver back, after turning off Windoze Updates, and you won't have those types of problems.

 

[trinanjan]

Originally posted by: LordGestle
My guess is that it's your memory. I was unable to see the black flicker via your movie (blocked via proxy) as that might point to something else, but from history if you have allot of reboots caused pointing to video drivers, and it's a fresh install or latest drivers, it's most likely memory being on the flaky side.
A few things that were left out of your original post:
1) What type of processor. You already mentioned you did not overclock
On the memory I would run each stick individually at the 2.1 volts specified by the vendor. See if both error out at that spec. I would also reset the of the memory setting to auto or spd outside of the 4-4-4-12.
I have owned a 8800GTS (640MB), 3870, 8800GT and have not seen this issue in vista or XP. But as mentioned, I have seen similar issues in the past with video and system memory.

Strangely, 2.1V though the correct volt as per spec produces errors, 2.0V never does...!

 

[trinanjan]

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: trinanjan
I also get the strange blank black frame flicker in Canyon Flight (3DMark06 demo run)
Video here http://www.youtube.com/v/Iz8TxiJTnio

Your video has no flicker, or blank black frame. Roll your video driver back, after turning off Windoze Updates, and you won't have those types of problems.

Didn't you see one blank frame when you play that!

 

[LordGestle]

If your memory fails at spec then you either have bad dimms or a compatibility issue. Try changing your latency to 5-5-5-12 (@1.8V or 2.0V)and see if the problem improves. Either case I would run each individual stick at 2.1 to see if they are both throwing errors (pointing to compatibility issue) or just one (RMA).

 

[JBT]

Originally posted by: trinanjan

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: trinanjan
I also get the strange blank black frame flicker in Canyon Flight (3DMark06 demo run)
Video here http://www.youtube.com/v/Iz8TxiJTnio

Your video has no flicker, or blank black frame. Roll your video driver back, after turning off Windoze Updates, and you won't have those types of problems.

Didn't you see one blank frame when you play that!

uhh yes it does. I saw it plain as day. Not sure what myocardia is looking at.

 

[Cutthroat]

I've been dealing with this problem ever since I've had my 8800GTX, it wasn't very frequent at first and only happened with a couple of games where I would get the "display driver stopped responding" error. Later found out it comes and goes with various driver rev's, but it's always there, although the frequency of the error is worse with some drivers.

Recently the problems got really bad, games that ran soothly began to crash, I starting crashing while playing video or using firefox, and I started getting the screen flicker you mentioned. I know this error is usually attributed to overclocking, especially video card and RAM. So I underclocked everything, CPU & RAM back to stock, GPU way underclocked to 400/600, and I still get the exact same errors. This really pissed me off, I thought my card was toast and we are still a couple months away from new cards.

I had originally flashed the BIOS of the card to custom clocks and fan settings, so I decided to try to flash it to the most recent version and I got the same errors. So in a desperate attempt to salvage the card I flashed the BIOS again to a default version 60.80.08.00.38, I went back to 174.74 nv drivers, and I turned off "Transaction booster" in my BIOS (basically adjusts performance level). I'm not sure what did it, but I haven't seen any flickering in about 2 days, and I managed to play a couple hours of games with no problem.

Odd side effect, although having the "transaction booster" option set to enabled level 0 gives better bench scores, F@H actually runs faster with it set to relaxed level 0.

 

[Keysplayr]

Do you have, or know somebody who has another system you can try your video card in? If it behaves the same, RMA your card.
If it functions fine, then I would lean toward your system memory as others have said here. Your power supply seems more than sufficient. How are your case temps? Good Airflow?

P.S. For someone that does not overclock at all, you sure know a lot about voltages and RAM timings.

 

[trinanjan]

Originally posted by: Cutthroat
I've been dealing with this problem ever since I've had my 8800GTX, it wasn't very frequent at first and only happened with a couple of games where I would get the "display driver stopped responding" error. Later found out it comes and goes with various driver rev's, but it's always there, although the frequency of the error is worse with some drivers.

Recently the problems got really bad, games that ran soothly began to crash, I starting crashing while playing video or using firefox, and I started getting the screen flicker you mentioned. I know this error is usually attributed to overclocking, especially video card and RAM. So I underclocked everything, CPU & RAM back to stock, GPU way underclocked to 400/600, and I still get the exact same errors. This really pissed me off, I thought my card was toast and we are still a couple months away from new cards.

I had originally flashed the BIOS of the card to custom clocks and fan settings, so I decided to try to flash it to the most recent version and I got the same errors. So in a desperate attempt to salvage the card I flashed the BIOS again to a default version 60.80.08.00.38, I went back to 174.74 nv drivers, and I turned off "Transaction booster" in my BIOS (basically adjusts performance level). I'm not sure what did it, but I haven't seen any flickering in about 2 days, and I managed to play a couple hours of games with no problem.

Odd side effect, although having the "transaction booster" option set to enabled level 0 gives better bench scores, F@H actually runs faster with it set to relaxed level 0.

Point! I am absolutely certain that it is a compatibility issue between the DS3 and the 8800.
Gigabyte has an option "Robust Graphics Booster" in the bios which has 3 levels: AUTO, FAST & TURBO.. There is no "DISABLED" at all. I leave it to AUTO always with the hope that AUTO = OFF. (I have tried FAST & TURBO too)..

My hunch is that there is a problem with this board that makes the PCI-E bus misbehave when paired with this particular card from XFX.

Hardware is usually "burnt-in" before packaging and is not likely to fail within 6-8 months... And that's especially true as I never O/C at all. ALL I LOVE IS 100% RELIABILITY AT STOCK... can't emphasize that further

It's something that Gigabyte and/or XFX needs to sort out between their products... However, in an age when new hardware comes out every few months, these companies don't care a DAMN about their existing products.. Tech support on offer is given by a bunch OF JOKERS who ASK STUPID QUESTIONS... Man.. I am going crazy!

 

[AmberClad]

Wow, way to post a sensationalist panic thread :roll:. My own 8800GTS 320MB is closing in on its one-year birthday. It's doing just fine, thanks. It's certainly possible you got a lemon card, but it's also quite likely there's something else that's the cause of it (I agree with the rest that drivers and RAM are the major suspects).

Most of these cards are manufactured by a couple of companies and then rebadged into eVGA, XFX, etc. And all of the cards would be using the exact same nVidia-supplied drivers. So let's take the XFX branding out of the equation. Considering how ubiquitous the DS3 and the G80 GTS used to be, if there was a compatibility problem, we would have known about it by now.

I just don't like to see people jump to conclusions.

 

[trinanjan]

Well I got my RAM 100% stable with Memtest86+ & Orthos...

 

[LordGestle]

Memtest and Orthos is not a confirmation of stability, but is a useful tool to begin with. I have a had a few system prime/orthos/memtest stable only to fail within 5 minutes of intensive gaming. Having said that the memory failing at specifications throws a red flag:

You stated that your memory fails at spec (@2.1v 4-4-4-12). Given that you either have a bad sick(s), which can be tested using each installed seperatly at the specifications listed by the vendor and/or the settings are not valid in the bios for memory. If both fail more than likely you have a compatbility issue between the mobo and memory (or bios settings). If only one stick fails, RMA that stick.
You can also relax the timings to see if that improves (5-5-5-12) after you performed the above.

 

[trinanjan]

Hi LordGestle,
Right, these sticks strangely pass 11 odd passes of Memtest86+ @ 2.0V and at 4-4-4-12! Even 5-5-5-18 @ 2.1V gives some 12,000 odd errors in test #5. As soon as I drop back to 2.0V (+0.2 in Gigabyte lingo), memtest is rock solid for hours at a stretch.

I have heard that the black flicker in 3DMark06 Canyon flight is a characteristic of some Geforce 8 cards. Is there a problem with particular batches of these cards on some motherboards?

It seems that these cards are not fully stable and it probably seems that I own one such sample. Who knows... Getting an 8800GT 512 soon... I am praying that it works..

 

[LordGestle]

The main concern is your Memory not running error free at recommended specifications (@2.1Volts). Either your bios settings are not correct, memory not compatible, or you have bad sticks. I guess you don't want to troubleshoot any farther outside of blaming XFX or gigabyte. I have owned EVGA, XFX, Gigabyte, Asus, ATI, Sapphire, MSI, Galaxy, Diamond, Hitech to just name a few. Videocards, per model, are pretty much all the same (if they are based on reference designs which many are), the only major difference is your support and warranty windows.
If I had to take an educated guess I would say the replacement card will not solve your issue, especially with the underlining issue with memtest throwing errors at the recommended memory settings and voltage. If it does your lucky you have XFX as the product has lifetime warranty