BFG 6800GT Freezing Problem

[blkdragon]

I feel your pain. I've had basically the exact same problem with my BFG 6800gt oc. Half-Life 2 and WoW will freezes for 10s/sound loop and then the game will go back to normal. I really thought is was the card but I can run Doom 3 for hours none stop with zero problems. To fix the freeze/stutter, I've run the gauntlet. I've set PCI latency to 64; I've set 0 prerender frames; I've set 2d/3d to the same clock speeds; I've upped the AGP speed; I've upped voltaged. Basically, I've tried every fix I could find on the web.

After messing with all the above stuff, I thought maybe I didn't have enough power (350 Antec) but it wouldn't make sense that I could play Doom 3 flawlessly, surf the internet, burn dvds etc. Then I noticed that my card was idling at 68c, which is suppose to be in the proper operating range, but I figured maybe during load it was hitting 80c-90c causing the card to shutdown and cool. So, I picked up another case fan and kept the sidedoor off. By doing this, I got the card down to 57c idle.

I popped in Half-life 2 and played 2hrs straight with zero freezes. Around hour 3 I did get one 10s freeze so I crtl/esc and checked the temp. The card was right around 80c. I know that this is suppose to be within operating temperature but I suspect that the freezes/stuttters are heat problems. I'm gonna see if I can get my card even lower (low 50s/high 40s). I'm willing to bet this will solve my problem. Good Luck.

edit: And the new official 7*.** drivers raise the GPU temp by around 10c. Go back to teh 66.s

 

[Luthien]

yeah, I was thinking heat of the video card but since the highest I have seen it go is 81C but usually sits at 78C and idle im at a constant 65 -66C. I just dont know since 120C is top temp. As for ram it gets hot but i can still hold my fingers on it same with the video card without being burned or having to pull away.

All I want is a stable FAST gaming system which I thought I had.

I have tried more things since. Beta drivers 76.41 but they didnt make a difference either. Maybe I should install Doom3 and see what happens. If that runs perfectly then I can only assume its a driver/software issue.

Going to install WOW on a second machine for reference that has a different video card and see how it goes if it works fine then I will install the 6800GT on that system although a huge overkill for it and if the freezing problems return will demand an RMA on it.

 

[imported_bum]

Disable AGP fastwrite. By your explanations this shouldn't be a factor, but it should be off anyway. It often causes games like the ones you mentioned to freeze or chug, but at a very extreme level (at least for me).

 

[disantlor]

holy crap! i thought it was just my video card. I have an MSI k8n and a BFG 6800gt. i have EXACTLY the problem described by blkdragon. Doom3 was fine, once i started playing half life 2 i noticed random pauses for 5-10 seconds then looping sound then back to normal until next stutter. I thought for the longest time it was just half life 2 but then i started playing WoW and same thing. I underclocked my card to normal 6800gt speeds (since its OC out of the box) and it seems to be better but it still freezes slightly on occaision and i get bluescreens over an nvidia dll somewhat frequently. Perhaps the card is overheating like someone suggested. At least i know its not just me. I tried formatted my computer but that didnt help it so i think its something hardware related, or perhaps with this combination of card and motherboard. Well sorry i dont have anything new to offer, i was just glad to find this thread.

 

[Luthien]

Update: Bum your suggestion solved the abnormal freezing I was getting in all my games. I still get freezing once in a while but it's back to the normal freezing I have had all along. So thank you for your post. I should have posted this before but I wanted to make sure it was actually the fix for me and not just my imagination.

So, everyone try Diablling AGP fastwrite.

 

[jgr526]

I have a PNY6800gt, which is a reference board. I bought it about a month ago.

Even though my card is very cool (50-57 C on idle), it will freeze even if I overclock its core only 2-3 mhz. If I overclock the memory it does not give any trouble.

Most other PNY cards overclock up to 424mhz with no trouble.

I get no artifacts or crashes. Its not overheated or anything. It will just freeze for 5-10 seconds at random times.

I have a feeling it is a driver issue. I have an Epox 9nda3J, which is an nforce 3 ultra.

I'm going to try the fast writes thing and see if that improves anything.

Do me a favor. Underclock the core on your card to at most 300 Mhz and try it that way. Then with the same core clock (300mhz) overclock your memory as high as 1.12 Ghz. I bet if it didn't freeze on the first test with a lower core clock, it won't freeze with a high memory clock, either.

Let me know if that fixes your freezing. If it did, you can be sure its not your other hardware causing it, but instead the nvidia nforce/forceware drivers

 

[Luthien]

My video card require special program to overclock it that I never got working when I messed with it 4 months ago. It was a pain in the arse. I can tell you that I have tried many driver versions and the "normal" freezing I have always had has never dissapeared. But, it is tolerable since it doesnt happen nearly as often as what I was getting out of the blue after upgrading to the new WOW patch. It was so bad that I was freezing for a few seconds every 15 seconds. Now I freeze for a few seconds every 5-10 minutes, which has always been the case with the games I currently play.

I just changed my motherboard out last night and put in 2gig ram all new sticks. Same motherboard but a brand new one and the normal freezing didnt go away but my system does respond a little bit faster. Nothing like going from 512 - 1000 ram but it does open things faster to the point that I can tell, so I am happy about that.

Going to start keeping an eye on my cpu temp over the next few days. My graphics card temp is still very stable too never saw it over 82C in over a week of watching it.

 

[TheDVous1]

Here's an update on my situation. I just got back my BFG Ultra 6800 today from BFG. I just ran it through some UT2004. Not a single issue. They definitely did something to the card. They removed the fan sticker so that tells me they did some work on it.

 

[blkdragon]

Update: I fixed my 10s freezing problem. I bought an Abit KV8 pro mobo. I spent hours trying to fix this problem and the whole time it came down to my nf3 chipset and my 6800gt not being compatible. Way to go Nvidia

 

[imported_Tyler Durden]

i had the same problem. Its not the drivers.. its windows registry. the drivers form ur last card serent properly uninstalled.. you will have to reinstall widows.

 

[djm68]

Originally posted by: Tyler Durden
i had the same problem. Its not the drivers.. its windows registry. the drivers form ur last card serent properly uninstalled.. you will have to reinstall widows.

Tyler makes a good and a bad point: he is correct that simply uninstalling and re-installing the nvidia drivers does not fix the problem for many people, myself included. However, it is not neccessary to reinstall windows -- simply d/l Drivercleaner and use it to clean out the bad settings in the registry.

I had upgraded to the 71.89 drivers, but experienced all sorts of problems, so I down graded to the stable 66.93 drivers I had been using, but problems persisted. So, I used Drivercleaner, reinstalled the 66.93 drivers and all is good now!

Cheers,
DJM

 

[JBT]

I didn't read the whole thread but did anyone say try disabling Fast writes??? that is a VERY common problem with the 6800 GT + U cards. I would give that a try first I bet it will help out alot.