BFG 6800GT Freezing Problem

[Luthien]

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum motherboard. Well, not exremely happy with the mobo either because both the Lan ports went dead in a month. Neither work at all. Had to install a PCI Lan card. Anyhow, lately any game I play I get freezing and this still happens after updating the the newest video card drivers. Half Life 2 freezes every 15 - 30 seconds the same can be said for Painkiller Battle out of Hell and World of Warcraft. All three games the same problem. So, I know it isnt the games. I have defraged a and reinstalled WOW and same problem. I have updated mobo drivers and bios, also updated sound card drivers. Nothing has changed. Tested memory for 13 hours and no errors found. Checked for virii and no virii found. I have watched the video card temperature and have not seen it go over 82C yet. I only get this freezing with games never browsing or burning DVD etc. Only happens it appears when the video card is stressed. Running 3dmark05 it passes but I notice it freezes just like in games droping the framerate to zero and my score is like 3500 which is low by 1000 since I am using an AMD 939 3500. IMO it has to be one of three things. CPU, Video or motherboard. IMO it is the Videocard. What sucks is this will be the second time RMA on it! Guess I have to call and monday and try to get an RMA. What do you all think? Also was thinking of buying a new K8N Neo2 Platinum from newegg but a refurbished one since a lot cheaper. Doing that so my pc wont be down when I RMA the installed mobo and will sell the one I get back on ebay. But, a refurbised one is probably going to be the oldest revision 1.0 and not 2.0. I figure 2.0 has more bugs worked out etc. Arg what to do??? Could save me $60 getting the refurbished one.

 

[Luthien]

Forgot to subscribe to this topic so I can find it when someone replies.

 

[Acanthus]

Just for clarification, this rig did work properly before, and this recently started happening?

It sounds like a driver problem.

 

[McArra]

Try XG 71.84 drivers.

 

[Luthien]

As I said I updated my video card drivers in an effort to fix it and I am using those now. I am unsure of when it started for all my games because I didnt check other games till it started happening with World of Warcraft about 6 days ago. WOW is all I have been playing for the last 4 months. So, it may have only just started in the past week. If so then it is again probably the video card becomming unstable.

 

[Heinrich]

This is really a shot in the dark. There's no telling what is causing your trouble unfortunately. I'd probably suspect the motherboard first since you say that there is already motherboard trouble. Do you have any other parts that you can test with? Where is the video card that you owned prior to the 6800GT?

If you don't have another video card you could always buy the same model at Best Buy and try it to see if it solves your problem. You have 30 days to decide if you want to keep it or not :-]

 

[Acanthus]

Easy fix settings to check:

Make sure AA and AF are disabled
Check your AGP aperture setting in the bios
Make sure that D3D is only rendering a max of 3 frames ahead (im not even sure if this is adjustible for nvidia drivers anymore)

If none of those are it, uninstall your drivers, restart and run safe mode, then run drivercleaner, and install the latest officials from nvidias website, that should rule out a software issue short of corrupted directx.

 

[TheDVous1]

After reading your problem I'm glad that I'm not the only one who's been having the same exact issue lately in the same exact games. I have a BFG 6800 GT running on an MSI K8N Neo Platinum with a Athlon 64 3000+ (754). I managed to snag one of those BFG 6800 Ultras from Outpost.com and I was happy as hell. Clearly the card was refurbished, but as long as it worked I didn't care for that price. The only thing i've been playing lately was City of Heroes. Never had a single problem with it. Ran it with the 66.93 drivers. Then I started playing The Sims 2 again cause of that University expansion pack. Everytime it hit a really graphically intense pt it would freeze hard for a few seconds then resume. I started getting pissed. I then upgraded to the 71.84 drivers. It seemed to help a little but I still occasionally got the freeze. Then I decided ok maybe it's my Power supply. I have a 550W sparkle, so power isn't exactly an issue. I ran that card bare meaning just the card, 1 hd and the basics and I still got the freezing. So then i popped back in my 6800 GT and didn't have a single issue. So I started figuring maybe it's the card itself. After trying basically everything I gave it one last shot. If my cards can handle UT2004 then they're fine. I got real bad freezing with the Ultra and for some reason I got freezing with the 6800 GT as well. I can tell you a few things. There's something definitely up with the drivers. I sent my Ultra back to BFG they ROCK! Their tech support is 1st rate. I sent an email to them on a sunday night and had a response in 2 hrs! They pick up on like the 2nd ring. You can't get better service than that. They're taking back the ultra and I think they're sending me a brand new one. Anyway I got the freezing under control with UT2004 and WoW. Here's what you do. I take it you're probably using XP Pro SP2 right? That's what i'm using. Uninstall ALL the nVidia drivers including the nForce ones. Install the 5.10s and then install the 71.84. You should be ok. I haven't had a problem with any game and the freezing has stopped. Right now I'm using the 6800 GT till my ultra comes back. Hope this helps you.

 

[Acanthus]

You guys appear to be running the same motherboard, have you checked for bios updates? its a long shot but there could be some kind of bug.

 

[Luthien]

TheDevous1: Why did you send back your Ultra if its a driver issue again? Yes, XP pro SP2. I will try your suggestions and get back to you.

Acanthus: Our motherboards are similiar but mine is Neo2. I did say I upgraded my bios in my first post among other things. Now currupted DX that could be an issue. What is the best way to determine that and replace? Oh, and I can never seem to find the newest driver cleaner.

Heinrich: Well, no dont have another $400 card lying around . Nah, don't want to goto BB and do that... I have three other systems but lower end and most of it isnt interchangeable. I can put the 6800GT into one of them and install painkiller and see what happens as a last resort.

Going to try what Devous1 said and get back to you all.

 

[Koyanisquatsi]

are you running your card @ stocks speeds or have you overclocked?

 

[Luthien]

Koyanisquatsi: Nope and if it was it would have been the first thing I stopped doing.

 

[Heinrich]

Um, I had so much trouble with my MSI K8N Neo Platinum that I replaced it with a DFI SLI board.....I have $181 credit (no restocking fee) at Monarch.

 

[Luthien]

Acanthus: Can't find the D3D setting and almost all of my advanced features are locked so can't be changed. You said Check your AGP aperture setting in the bios but didnt say what it should be dude. However that stuff doesnt magically change itself so IMO waste of time. But here are the settings I found:

AGP Aperture Size (MB) 128
AGP 3.0 Speed Auto
AGP 2.0 Speed Auto <--- this was greyed out
AGP Fast Write Auto
System Bios Cacheable Disabled

Where do I disable AA & AF cannot find this setting card settings. Probably in the advanced settings and those cannot be altered anyhow.

Just ran DXdiag and tested D3D and Direct draw and all pass.

Turned off anti virus using Kapersky and still games locking up.

 

[eno]

I have a BFG 6800GT and it started doing that after I installed the latest drivers. I uninstalled and put the last ones back on. THe freezing stopped after that. Also if its overclocked even 10mhz it gets little freezes every other hour or so. I bet 100% its your new drivers.

 

[Luthien]

Eno, my first post says it. Problem began with my last drivers and I updated to try and fix it so it is not my new drivers. It may be the drivers period but not "the new ones."

My last drivers worked then they didnt. So, they worked for months as far as I know with WOW then when WOW started acting up I checked other games and they were freezing up also. So, I installed the newest drivers and problem remained the same.

headache, sigh

 

[Luthien]

I just tried to reboot in safe mode and I cannot. The system always reboots and asks me to choose a restart method because it failed to boot properly message and will only boot in normal.

I was planning on uninstalling the nvidie drivers completely in safe mode and then using the detonator destroyer program and then installing the newest drivers again. Cannot do it now.

When I first got this motherboard (K8N Neo2 Platinum) I could run my OS off the SATA but after flashing the bios to 1.3 I couldnt get it to work off one of the two SATA as the bootable OS drive. I know its weird. Flashing to 1.4 neither SATA drive would boot as the OS drive the system just refused to see them as OS and would say invalid boot driver or partition whatever cant remember now. So, I use my Eide drive as the OS drive these days. Unfortunatly something now isnt working right so I cannot boot in safemode either. Have to say that this MSI mobo at least the revision one that I have really sucks.

How can i best remove my nvidia drivers without using safemode?

 

[Luthien]

My first post asks about buying the refurbished same mobo as I have now from New Egg or get a new one. The only reason I am concerned about a refurbished one is the revision number. I really want a revision 2.0 if I am going to do that.

Really dont feel like reinstalling everything that's why I want the same motherboard so I can just pop it in and boot up.

 

[Luthien]

Okay, updated with what I found to be the problem apparently. Seems like the WOW recent patch someone how messed up my Nvidia drivers and any drivers installed on top of them also are messed up. Thousand posting about problems with WOW after new patch just like mine.

Anyhow I found out searching the internet that Nero INCD is what is preventing my system from booting into safemode. I uninstalled INCD and guess what, safemode then works. thanks nero you donkeyholes. New problem is that when I uninstall INCD all half my system tray icons no longer load. @#!$$#@

Regardless of that I uninstalled all the Nvidia drivers the problem with that is that they are not all for the 6800GT some are for the mobo. After that I ran the detonator program to remove anything else and it only removed two other files then gives an error so dont know if it made any difference at all. Then I boot into windows and installed the newest nvidia drivers again and all my games now work without freezing!

Now I have to try it without safemode since that messes up my system tray icons and also means I wont be uninstalling INCD. If it doesnt work without uninstalling INCD I dont know what to do since I cannot uninstall the nvidia drivers without uninstalling INCD and thus messing up my system tray.

Yes, I have a good ghost backup so that is how I can recover and try again and again.

Any advice?

 

[Luthien]

Okay, just tried uninstalling the nvidia drivers without being in safemode then using the detonator removal software but only removing the nvidia 71... drivers instead of all of them which would again meand the mobo stuff. After a reboot I reinstalled the 71... drivers and all games freeze again. So, my next step is to try to remove all the nvidia drivers regardless of being 71.... and trying again. It is looking like I will have to remove them in safemode after uninstalling INCD but again that means my system tray icons get screwed up and I have no idea how to recover that stuff. this sucks

Edit: Well, looks like it will only fix if done in safemode. I also tried turning off all background stuff and still freezing after trying again to remove in normal windows.

Anyone know how to fix the dissapearing system tray icons issue after uninstalling INCD?

 

[Luthien]

Cant duplicate the feat of stopping the freezing after all the testing I did. Tried exactly what worked the first time and now I still freeze up. So frustrated at this point I could just cry.

 

[CP5670]

I think that motherboard has some sort of video card auto-overclocking enabled by default, which seems to sometimes cause problems. (was about to get that board myself until I heard of this issue)

 

[Acanthus]

Do you have the latest drivers for your chipset installed?

 

[Luthien]

Ive installed that stuff half a dozen times now trying to trouble shoot things. Doubting my sanity at this point. No matter what I do I get freezing. Don't want to spend the money but I am thinking new video card and new mobo and new ram at this point. Sell everything on ebay.

RMA mobo and sell the replacement on ebay.

Start over with new hardward.

Powersupply is a Antec true 550.

 

[Acanthus]

I always try a full format before i RMA, i would reccomend that.